Guyana TV reinstates pregnant anchor

The denials were made yesterday by NCN Chief Executive Officer Lennox Cornette, who has agreed to reinstate the pregnant anchor, Natasha Smith, during a meeting the Guyana Press Association (GPA) requested with the NCN administrative staff.

Prior to the meeting, local media operatives and members of Guyana’s Women and Gender Equality Commission picketed the NCN head office in the capital, Georgetown.

GPA President Neil Marks yesterday told Newsday that a copy of the minutes of an August 8 meeting showed the CEO instructing that Smith be replaced as her pregnancy did not suit the new image the NCN was seeking to create, and his decision was communicated to her.

Based on the CEO’s denial that he had asked for Smith to be replaced, Marks said the GPA secured his undertaking to have her returned to the anchor’s chair with immediate effect.

Smith has since communicated to the GPA that the NCN Human Resources Manager issued her with an apology and asked that she return to anchoring the news, which she is ready to do. On the issue with Sports Editor Jocelle Archibald-Hawke being suspended on August 31 for one month without pay over comments she made against a colleague on Facebook, the GPA urged NCN to immediately rescind the suspension on the grounds that the company never reprimanded her over her comments on social media, that there is no social media policy at NCN from which any sanction can be imposed against staff, and that the NCN took disciplinary action on the ground that the apology which was demanded of the Sports Editor by management was not to management’s satisfaction.

In addition, NCN did not engage Archibald- Hawke and the aggrieved employee at the same time to discuss the issue and resolve it..

The CEO argued that action taken against Archibald-Hawke was not only because of the Facebook issue, but about previous management perceived - infractions that were not rooted in NCN’s policies.

In spite NCN’s claims of previous infractions, the GPA noted that about a month ago the State-owned entity approved Archibald- Hawke’s gratuity in full, indicating no issues with her performance on the job.

Maintaining that the suspension was harsh and needed to be rescinded, Marks said that the CEO noted the GPA’s demand, but gave no undertaking to review his decision.

The GPA, Marks said, will pursue all avenues possible to have the suspension against Archibald- Hawke rescinded.

Meanwhile, the GPA is calling on the country’s Prime Minister Moses Nagamootoo, who holds the Information portfolio, to investigate the administration of the State-owned entity.