Taking Note
MLD
Reggae and Government Propaganda IN LATE OCTOBER, THE GOVERNMENT OF Belize announced it had dropped criminal libel charges against the editor of The Belize Times, published by the opposition...
...Asked if civil servants who run the national radio are free to interview opposition politicians, Foreign Minister Dean Barrow said, "I would imagine they are free...
...In the free-for-all world of Belizean media, neither unsigned articles nor libel suits are uncommon...
...The attempt to bring criminal libel charges-which carry a $500 fine and two years imprisonment-was the government's second...
...Meanwhile the government's move has sparked some tentative alliances to protect independent journalism...
...nor are government efforts to manipulate the media...
...A lot of reggae music and government propaganda...
...O THE OUTSIDER, THE TONE OF BELIZEAN journalism is jarring...
...I don't think [our media policy] helped us...
...I think it's a concerted policy," said PUP Chairman Said Musa in an August interview...
...According to Norris Hall: "The media are not doing their job...
...This is a different kettle of fish," PUP's Said Musa says of the intentional libel statute under which Mai was to be charged...
...Said Musa admits his party's media policy while in government "was certainly not the best" and says they intend to do things differently in their next term, which they hope will follow elections to occur by December 1989...
...One attempt thwarted, Esquivel seized another opportunity...
...Commenting on the appointment of the dismissed commissioner of police to a PUP position, the July 17 Beacon, in effect a party organ, shouted: "One more example of the desperation of the PUP power-mad maniacs...
...But such hyperbole is the norm, especially for the two party newspapers...
...an unsigned dispatch said the government had granted the country's condensed milk concession to a high bidding firm, allegedly "a major contributor of campaign funds" to Esquivel, who was paid "a salary of $1,500 [U.S...
...It's a crime...
...It is not clear why the government entertained such drastic measures...
...There's too much politics and no objective reporting...
...In July, the chief justice denied the ruling party permission to file suit on a 1986 cartoon suggesting the prime minister had been accepting kickbacks from hotel owners...
...Harassing litigation seems to be his method...
...Especially the radio, which is the most important medium in a developing country...
...Hall, who was Belize's Chief Information Officer for six years, states: "The previous government manipulated the media in the same way, yet the UDP electoral manifesto promised respect for freedom of the press...
...Anybody can have a radio in his back pocket in the jungle...
...It's not between the plaintiff and defendant anymore...
...The commissioner was dismissed for allegedly permitting a U.S...
...Now they are more restrictive than the PUP was...
...Under the headline, "MILK SCANDAL...
...750] per month...
...And a new group, the Belize Media Workers Alliance, has held public forums on the issue of press freedom...
...programs...
...Stemming from 1275, the statute was designed to protect the ruling elite from attacks which might arouse popular discontent, Musa explained...
...They will stop at nothing in their lust to return...
...Truthful imputations often prove more inflammatory than false ones, giving rise to the saying for which criminal libel is known: "The greater the truth, the greater the libel...
...Even so, as a rare instance of the successful exercise of public opinion outside political party lines, the retreat is significant...
...And what is he getting...
...Yet with multiple civil libel suits pending against Belize Times and the young Fleet Street-educated editor, Amalia Mai, it seemed the government's move may signal only a hiatus in its efforts to stifle criticism...
...The May 31 edition of Belize Times leveled another accusation against the Administration...
...Either they will close us down or keep us so busy through harassment that we live in constant fear and trepidation of what we say...
...Reggae and Government Propaganda IN LATE OCTOBER, THE GOVERNMENT OF Belize announced it had dropped criminal libel charges against the editor of The Belize Times, published by the opposition People's United Party (PUP...
...Let's face it," said a feminist and political activist, "all the press in Belize is libelous and they always have been...
...Prime Minister Esquivel, who as head of the victorious United Democratic Party (UDP) took office in 1985, announced in early June that he planned to close down the paper...
...But I would think that they would not want to do so, for obvious reasons...
...Some in Britain moved to abolish the law, arguing that it violates the European convention on human rights...
...The UDP campaign against Belize Times does indeed seem paranoid given the government's near monopoly on information and current popularity with the media...
...Norris Hall, a free-lance reporter, says the government is "becoming very paranoid and putting a muzzle on the press...
...But freedom carries responsibility...
...Two weeklies protested the government harassment...
...The country's three remaining weeklies all support Esquivel to some degree...
...Coverage of Esquivel opening a school...
...Asked if the party had learned a lesson, Amalia Mai replied, "I would hope so...
...It's between the state and the newspaper/editor...
...They will violate every notion of decency, every norm of civilized behavior...
...plane supplying the Nicaraguan contras to refuel in Belize-without informing the government...
...The sitting government traditionally enjoys total control of Belize Radio and considerable leverage over the privately owned television stations, whose broadcasting consists almost exclusively of pirated U.S...
...But we learn as we go along...
...What is new are attempts to invoke the antiquated criminal statutes patterned on British common law...
Vol. 21 • September 1987 • No. 5
