ON Thursday, August 19, the DAILY NATION ran a story headlined: LYNCH PUT OUT. The story stated that former Minister of Tourism Noel Lynch had been barred from participating in the Best And Mason show at the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). In a newscast on Thursday night, however, and also yesterday morning on Voice Of Barbados, Mr Lynch denied that he was “put out”.“The issue of me being ejected and put out, is totally untrue,” he said.However, Stephen Leslie, assistant director of sports at the University of the West Indies, who was the second guest on the programme, told the SATURDAY SUN last night that both he and co-host Carlisle Best were in the studio when they were joined by Noel Lynch who sat next to him.He said prior to Lynch joining them he had been told that he would not be allowed on the show, but was in the studio. He was then asked to leave by the producer.“Lynch sat beside me and he was called out of the room by the producer,” Leslie said.In light of Mr Lynch’s public denial and his interpretation of what it is to be “put out”, the SATURDAY SUN, today brings verbatim what Mr Lynch told Associate Managing Editor Tim Slinger on Wednesday night on the CBC compound, shortly after the incident took place. I was invited since last week to do the programme Best And Mason to essentially talk about cricket, the development of Barbadian and West Indian cricket by extension, issues marketing and the branding and where West Indies cricket is going, and any observations that I had, regarding why West Indies had reached the state it had reached and if I could offer any recommendations and suggestions about how we could improve the state of both local cricket and by extension, regional cricket.I have been on this programme before. As a matter of fact, incidentally the last time I’ve been on this programme was in 2007, about a couple of months after the Cricket World Cup was held here and I was on with Chris Sinckler. Defending positionAt the time I was Minister of Tourism and clearly I was defending the position about how we had done as a country, in terms of receipts from Cricket World Cup, in terms of arrivals, spending, etc. and Chris was on. Clearly he was in an alternative position on how he felt about the World Cup. But the point is, clearly the Barbados Labour Party was in office – Chris was aspiring to political office and he was on the programme with me. Now Andrew Mason invited me to come on this programme. I’ve been on even before the actual programme in 2007. But tonight, I came on, went through the process – gave my name at the gate, went through the guard process, went upstairs in the studio and actually sat in the studio, and I was told by the person who was actually working, the operator, that he was informed that I could not be on the programme.Not approvedSubsequent to that, Mark Seale, who is the Head of Sports, came as management and said he was advised that I could not actually participate in the programme tonight and therefore I left the studio. And here we are. They said my participation was never approved by the management of CBC, for me to be actually be on the programme.As Andrew is saying, he never at any stage during the 15 years that he’s been the moderator of the programme been asked to submit to anyone an actual list, or get any permission from management to bring guests on the show.It was certainly news to him that I couldn’t participate.For one thing, I think it is sad where we are going.CBC has three or four radio stations, that’s the only television station – I agree that I’m an active politician. But even if you wanted to prohibit politicians from being on CBC, I’m not here actively talking about politics, we are talking about cricket development, which I think is a fundamental part of our cultural and economic development and social development as well.Private citizenI think if you are going to go down that road, in which you are prohibiting people coming as a private citizen – even as a politician – I don’t hold political office at this time, so I’m a private citizen. So to prohibit me from coming on the show, totally sends the wrong message to Barbadians about the Government-owned station. Where are we going with this? More seriousWhat I find to be more serious about the entire thing is that at the end of the day, it reflects badly on the administration and the Government’s administration. It reflects badly on the Acting Prime Minister, who as far as I know, has responsibility for broadcasting – I think it falls under his portfolio. Remember, I was his political opponent in the last elections or he was mine, however you want to put it, I beat him in 2003 and he beat me in 2008. So to tell someone that they can’t come, reflects badly on him. I wonder what type of action these people are taking? I just don’t get it.
