Guyanese Government Ban Vybz Kartel music from local radio

In one of the strangest moves of recent, the Guyana Government through the country's state owned National communications Network (NCN) has banned the music of Vybz Kartel completely from its airwaves.  Kartel's songs are not allowed to be played onthe radio stations of NCN which are the only radio stations in Guyana. Producers and Presenters of independent and privately produced shows turned up at the NCN studios today to see a notice plastered against the studio wall, informing them that with immediate effect music of Vybz Kartel must not be played on the air. The notice asks all producers and presenters to take note. When the nightly Capitol News contacted NCN's Music Co-ordinator Isaiah Chapelle, and asked him what prompted the station to make the decision to ban all of Kartel's music he said "because the artiste has songs that are lewd and some presenters have not been paying attention to his lyrics." But when questioned about those songs by Kartel that may have no lewd lyrics, Chapelle stumbled and repeated the earlier statement. Further questioned about whether NCN will now take a position to completely ban the songs of all those artistes who may have lewd lyrics in their songs, Chapelle directed all enquires to the NCN Production Manager Martin Goolsaraan saying that Goolsaraan may be in a better position to explain the Kartel ban. Several calls to Goolsaraan went unanswered; Chappelle was more interested in finding out who informed the media about the ban and who posted the photo of the notice on the internet. But local deejays believe that the ban on the Vybz Kartel music from the national airwaves may have more to do with pay back and retaliation than anything else. Kartel was booked for and reportedly received an advanced payment of US$50,000 for the recent Jamzone Summerbreak event in Guyana. He was a no show, leaving his fellow Jamaican artiste Mavado to be the lone headline act at the show. The GuyanaGovernment and the state owned National Communications Network were both major sponsors of the Jamzone Summerbreak event and when the promoters were first informed of Kartel pulling out of the show, Senior Guyana government officials lobbied Jamaican government officials to see if they would have been able to persuade Kartel to have a change of heart. The Jamaican singer was on the aircraft seated during boarding when he decided that he would no longer be coming to Guyana. He got up, called on his crew and just walked off the plane. It was the third time that he had pulled out of a Guyana show. He claimed that he feared being kidnapped or killed in Guyana. But the decision today by NCN to completely ban the man's music from the airwaves has left many deejays and even some local music producers shocked saying that NCN could be setting a new precedent if it decides to ban the music of every artiste who produces a song with lewd lyrics or every artiste who is booked and paid to come to Guyana and doesn't show. One local producer said with Guyana having no copyright legislation in place, any artiste could decide to pull outof a Guyana show because it would have no impact on their album sales. Boot leg albums are readily available in Guyana for international artistes for as little as $US1. In the past, NCN has pulled particular songs from the airwaves. This is the first time that the entire collection of an artiste has been banned.

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