Grenada's ruling New National Party (NNP) government of Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Mitchell on Monday night failed in its bid to get one of its executive members to sit on a panel discussions on the upcoming general elections involving some of the leading media persons on the island.
Informed sources told GRENADA TODAY that the party's candidate-elect for St. George North-east, Kennedy Roberts showed up at the television station of the Grenada Broadcasting Network (GBN) to press claims for a seat on the panel.
According to a well-placed source, Roberts felt that the panel was not balanced and suggested that someone from the ruling party ought to be part of the discussions.
He spoke of the ruling party expressing concerns to officials of GBN that one of the panelists, Hamlet Mark was reflecting the views of the main opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC) party.
He said the programme was delayed for several minutes as behind the scene negotiations took place in order to address the concerns of Roberts and NNP.
The weekly "Beyond The Headlines" programme is hosted every Monday night on GBN radio and television stations by veteran journalist, Lew Smith.
The majority shareholding interest in GBN is now controlled by the One Caribbean network involving media entities in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago such as the Express and Nation newspapers.
Barbadian Vic Fernandes is said to be the Chief Executive Officer of the network.
GRENADA TODAY was told that Fernandes was called at his location in Barbados and asked to intervene and to address as a matter of urgency the concerns raised by the NNP, headed by Prime Minister Mitchell.
Monday night's programme brought together Mark (Caribnewsupdate), Rawle Titus (Grenada Advocate newspaper) and Rhondel Joseph (GBN) to look at the campaign strategies being employed by the two leading parties in the build up to the upcoming poll.
The source said that Roberts left the station after being told that the programme was exclusively for journalists.
Two weeks ago, Mark was at the centre of a controversy with government following a decision taken by the Immigration Department to deport a female Jamaican journalist working with his media outfit.
The journalist was on assignment with Mark to cover the NDC and its campaign. The Mitchell government eventually intervened and allowed the journalist to remain on the island until the end of her assignment following worldwide condemnation of the action from organisations including the powerful New York-based Journalists Without Borders.
Meanwhile, the Mitchell government which is a minority shareholders in GBN has reportedly replaced its two directors on the Board of Management, Leslie Pierre and Steve Horsford with Barry Collymore and Kirk Seetahal.
The Barbadian-born Collymore is Press Secretary in the Office of Prime Minister Mitchell while Seetahal is employed with the Ministry of Education. The move is seen as part of the emerging strategy of the NNP to influence developments at GBN in the face of an expected aggressive campaign by NDC to win the forthcoming general elections.
The ruling party is said to be already sending big bucks to buy most of the early morning television space on local stations.
Prime Minister Mitchell who currently enjoys a slender one-seat majority in parliament is facing stiff competition for another term in office from Congress, led by attorney-at-law, Tillman Thomas.
