EACH of the weekly government press conferences on Zoom that were aired by local radio station KKMP cost $500 while each rerun cost $300.
A recent Open Government Act request by KUAM produced hundreds of pages of documents indicating payments made by the Department of Finance to the radio station for the past two years or since the onset of the Covid-19 global pandemic.
The radio station, officially known as Blue Continent Communications, has also billed the CNMI for Covid-19 public service announcements and outreach efforts.
An invoice on April 3, 2020 showed a total of $10,624 billed to the Governor’s Covid-19 Task Force for a 10- to 15-minute Covid-19 outreach by the governor, a five-minute Covid-19 public service announcement, a two-minute Covid-19 public service announcement, and Covid-19 daily bulletin information.
Toward the latter part of December 2021, CNMI Homeland Security and Emergency Management was billed $37,015 by KKMP for additional Covid-19 messages.
These are just a fraction of the total expenditures incurred by the CNMI government in airing messages to the public through the radio station.
Asked for comment, radio owner and broadcaster Gary Sword, who also serves on the Governor’s Council of Economic Advisers and chairs the Universal Garbage Collection Task Force, on Friday said, “We’re a business. We have a business license. We pay our taxes, just like everybody else. We have a rate sheet. You’re free to look at it to show that we’re not overcharging the government. In fact, we’re charging less than what we would have charged to people who don’t have a longstanding commitment to our services.”
He added, “We’re a business. We do sales. We put out things. I didn’t know that I had to report to the press that this is a paid news conference. In fact, this was supposed to be just me, just KKMP, but I decided it’s good to open it up to everybody else so that everybody can have the same information.”
Addressing other media outlets, Sword said, “You’re free to ask questions. We’ve never said ‘no questions’ or anything like that. It’s an open forum. I think that this is as open and as transparent as it can get by having all of the media partners, but if you feel you shouldn’t be here because you’re not getting paid, that’s fine.”
The press conferences on KKMP included reporters from Guam and Saipan, and have hosted local and federal government officials.
“The government does not have a radio station — we’re broadcasting this live island-wide,” said Sword, noting that the information is also being disseminated by the radio station throughout the week.
Variety learned that Zoom plans can cost up to $240 annually.
Gov. Ralph DLG Torres, for his part, said, “What’s wrong with having this press conference and making sure that our community knows about the situation that is going on with the government?”
He noted that during Super Typhoon Yutu, KKMP was still up and running, helping to keep the CNMI community informed.
The governor said he had reached out to other radio stations and asked if they could host weekly briefings.
“They were not able to accommodate what we’re doing, on a weekly basis,” he added.
“This is definitely a great way for our government to push out information. [As for the Office of the Governor’s] media team…they’ve done a phenomenal job in going out into the community and showcasing what we do…and other activities within, not just the government, but other activities, whether it’s on Rota or Tinian.
“We have different avenues on how to showcase what we do as an administration…. Is it important to have six people on the media [team of the governor’s office]? Absolutely. This is our own local talent. They come [from] different backgrounds and it’s a time for them to showcase what they know not just on social media, but actual work that we do here in the government. That also comes with press releases and other media issues,” the governor said.
