The Supreme Court has ruled against the request by Navette Broadcasting & Entertainment Company Limited (Navette) for a judicial review of the recent license takeover of radio dial 103.5 FM by Paramount Systems earlier this year, approved by the broadcast regulator.
The Utilities Regulation and Competition Authority (URCA), following the call for said review by Navette, concluded in a report released this past summer, that it was “defective and void”.
It claimed that the “appropriate regulatory measure to remedy this matter was to amend the existing licence and the reissuance (sic) of the same (“defective and void”) document to Paramount.
On Thursday, in a lengthy 24-page ruling, Justice Ian Winder concluded that evidence presented by the complainant as well as precedent from several earlier cases, among other things, influenced his decision to not grant the judicial review.
“In all circumstances therefore, I refuse the application of Navette for leave to apply for judicial review and grant the relief sought in the summonses filed by the respondents with cost,” Justice Winder said.
Tribune Radio had initiated legal action earlier this year against URCA for approving the takeover of ZSR Sports Radio 103.5FM, on the grounds that the regulators’ legal interpretation of the grant of the Bahamas government’s individual Broadcast License approval was an unauthorised, illegal and unlawful abuse of power.
Read ruling in full below:
