COMMUNICATION-TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO: Court Ruling Hailed for Upholding Fairness

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Peter Richards

PORT OF SPAIN, Oct 5 2000 (IPS) - A ruling by the Trinidad and Tobago High Court that the Prime Minister acted “unconstitutionally” in denying a cellular telephone licence to a local media conglomerate has been seen here as a blow to the government that could also slowdown the timetable for liberalising the telecommunication industry.

“In our view, the decision underscores the right of everyone to expect fairness and an absence of bias in their dealings with the state,” said Craig Reynald, chief executive officer of Caribbean Communications Network (CCN) which had taken the Basdeo Panday administration to court.

The comments came in the wake of a ruling last week by Judge Sebastien Ventour.

In a 56-page judgement, Judge Ventour described the Prime Minister’s decision to omit CCN from consideration for a cellular telephone licence as “deliberate and unjustified”.

In addition, he also ordered that the Prime Minister be prohibited from further participation in any decision and/or deliberations relating to or in any way connected with the CCN’s application.

The Judge also found that the Prime Minister’s actions had denied the local media conglomerate its constitutional right to protection of the law, equality before the law and to equality of treatment from a public authority in the exercise of its functions.

The government quickly applied for a stay of execution of last week’s decision pending the hearing and determination of its appeal, a date for which has not yet been set.

Government plans to end the monopoly in the industry within the next two years is being carried out in phases starting with the lucrative cellular sector.

The Judge’s ruling comes at a time when the state-owned monopoly telephone company, Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) has been reporting increased demands for cellular telephone services. Britain’s telecommunications giant, Cable and Wireless holds a 49 percent share interest in TSTT.

The local telephone company said last weekend that it was adding 500 new customers daily to its cellular service because of many innovations including cheaper rates and the decision not to bill customers for calls received.

Mobile Services general manager, Michael Barrow, seconded from Caribbean Cellular, the Barbados-based operation run by Cable and Wireless, described the growth as “probably the most significant” by any cellular company in the Caribbean with the exception of Jamaica.

The company’s gross operating revenues from cellular operations amounted to 20 million dollars for the financial year ending March 31, 2000, up nearly 10 percent.

CCN which operates one of the three television stations here as well as a satellite-based subscriber television service, and publishes three newspapers had filed the Constitutional motion in May, alleging among other things, discrimination by the Prime Minister in dismissing its application for a cellular telephone licence.

The media conglomerate said that an independent evaluation of its proposals by Finland-based international communications consultant corporation, Omnitel, had concluded that “CCN had complied fully with all the requirements” stated in the request for proposals by the state.

CCN said the Prime Minister by not short-listing its cellular license application, discriminated against the company which he has declared to be his “enemy.”

A Licence Committee on Telecommunications set up by the then Minister of Telecommunications Dr. Rupert Griffith had earlier recommended that CCN be granted a licence.

The company’s place on the short list of three was reported to have gone instead to Open Telecom, a company in which Lindsay Gillette, a senior Government Minister and Panday’s “trouble shooter” has a major interest.

The other two short listed companies are joint ventures involving local, North American and European based telecommunications companies.

But the High Court dismissed the argument that Panday had shown a preference for selecting Open Telecom because of the inclusion of Gillette in the cabinet.

” I do not expect that he will even be so involved while being a Minister of Government,” the Judge said.

Judge Ventour said that Panday had made “no pretence nor did he attempt to conceal his dislike for the applicant in his public speeches.”

“At times the language he used in describing the applicant was impassioned, if not inflammatory. Such prejudice or pre-disposition could easily have affected his decision to look with disfavour on the applicant and therefore exclude the applicant from further consideration by cabinet or by the Prime Minister himself for the award of a cellular licence,” the Judge said.

CCN’s chairman Ken Gordon is now awaiting judgement in a libel suit, not related to the cellular application, that he brought against the Prime Minister this year. The court’s verdict is expected this month.

In arguments supporting its appeal against last weeks ruling, the state contends that the Judge was wrong in law in holding that the public utterances of the Prime Minister amounted to bias.

The state is also arguing that Judge Ventour was wrong having regard to the evidence before him that the public utterances of the Prime Minister disclosed any hostility against CCN.

“The trial judge erred in law in holding that the compliance of CCN with the requirements of the Request for Proposals is necessary in determining whether CCN’s rights guaranteed by the Constitution have been violated,” the state will also argue through its appeal.