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GBC does not belong to Peter Caruana or the Government, says Picardo
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The Leader of the Opposition, Fabian Picardo, notes that the GSD government has finally set out its plans for the establishment of a new GBC, more than a year and a half after the same Minister, Mr Holliday, had announced that GBC would be re-branded and re-launched as a 'New' GBC “on a specific date (to be decided) during 2010.”
The GSD Government said that the statutory framework, management, programming, staffing and rebranding aspects would also likely occur during 2010.
The GSD Government has failed to meet both of those self-imposed deadlines.
Mr Picardo said: “I have always made it clear that I consider GBC to be an important resource for Gibraltar. We have always been proud to have our own public TV and Radio broadcaster. It is about time that the government should finally issue a statement to inform the staff and the public of their plans for GBC’s future given the massive delays in the implementation of the launch of the “New GBC”. I myself have been pressing the government for a long time – most recently at the last Budget Session in Parliament - to both publish the King Report into the future of GBC and their detailed plans based on it, yet nothing has happened until now, despite the previous announcements that the re-launch would have happened before the end of 2010! Better late than never – I guess it is the looming election that has focused the GSD government’s mind.”
Picardo continued: “The government gives us a glimpse here and a glimpse there of the content of the expensively commissioned King Report, but the Report in its entirety remains firmly hidden. What is in the King Report that Mr Holliday does not want the public or employees to see?
“Now the Minister meets with the GBC board and staff, sits next to Mr King at the meeting and yet in his press release does not mention the King Report even once, despite the fact that it was commissioned at considerable public expense.
“This begs the following questions: are the future plans for the GBC those that were laid out in the King Report? Has the King Report been binned, despite its elevated cost?
“A GSLP Liberal government is committed to giving the GBC all the support it needs to become a modern and well resourced broadcaster that Gibraltar can be proud of. However I also go further and undertake to publish the King Report in full – a course the government so far has refused to take – for the benefit of the staff of GBC and the public at large. A real commitment to accountability and transparency demands no less!
“More importantly, as I have said previously, I am also committed to the independence of the Board of GBC. GBC is the public broadcaster and should be answerable to the community as a whole; it does not belong to Peter Caruana and should not be solely accountable to him or his Government. We consider that the recommendations of the Government for the future of GBC fail to address a highly important matter which is of concern to a wide range of people; the independence of the Board of GBC. "We have said before and continue to believe that it is time for the method of appointment to the Board to be changed and that a more representative system be introduced to ensure that there is no de facto ability for any Government to control the Corporation’s Board by the manner of appointment of its members. The proposal at present is for the Government to continue to appoint the new proposed Board of Governors and this is unacceptable to the Opposition.
"There have been recent instances, since the GSD came to power, where this matter has manifested itself; in particular the coverage of the referendum over the New Constitution and the coverage of the interventions of the Leader of the Opposition at the UN when Mr Caruana has chosen not to travel to New York. These are not theoretical issues but actually very real issues affecting the journalistic output of the Corporation and therefore the quality of our democracy where GBC represents the only national broadcaster available to people. I therefore want to work with the people at GBC to find a way forward of these issues in a positive and forward looking manner.”
02-09-11
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