State monopoly on television must end says Arthur

Bridgetown.

Leader of the Opposition and canadidate for St Peter Owen Arthur, has pledged to end the monopoly of television if the Barbados Labour Party is elected to office in the general elections on February 21.

Speaking to the media after accepting the nomination to once again contest the elections for the consituency for St Peter, Arthur said Barbados has to be brought in line with the rest of the world in relation to the right of its citizens to have access to free and open media.

"We are pledging to give Barbadians a real multi-choice. It is wrong for a society to be afflicted by a situation where night by a state monopoly is being used as a agency for a party. Barbados is the only country left in the Caribbean and one of he few in the world including communist countries, where there is a state monopoly on television and that has to stop", Arthur said.

He was critical of the island's lone television station the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) suggesting that they had a bias toward the ruling Democratic Labour Party.

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