Op­po­si­tion MP Pa­tri­cia Mc In­tosh has spo­ken out against the bud­getary re­duc­tion for the Par­lia­ment Chan­nel and the Of­fice of the Leader of the Op­po­si­tion for 2013. Speak­ing in yes­ter­day's post-tea ses­sion of the bud­get de­bate in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, Mc In­tosh said the Op­po­si­tion's bud­get was cut by $.5 mil­lion. She said it was an at­tempt to muz­zle the Op­po­si­tion.

She said the al­lo­ca­tion for the Par­lia­ment Chan­nel had been cut by $700,000. She said the chan­nel pro­vid­ed cov­er­age to the en­tire na­tion on the busi­ness of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. "The man in the street could view and hear how our coun­try is be­ing gov­erned," she added.

She said that was be­ing done while "they are try­ing to buy the Mir­ror and the News­day news­pa­pers and at the same time buy­ing out more prime time on tele­vi­sion chan­nels." Mc In­tosh said the UNC-dom­i­nat­ed PP Gov­ern­ment was "hell­bent on re­duc­ing the op­por­tu­ni­ties for the Op­po­si­tion or any dis­sent­ing par­ties to broad­cast their views to the pub­lic."