Committee to Protect Journalists condemns GOB’s ban on Channel 5

The Committee to Protect Journalists has been in existence for almost thirty years. The organization is one of the largest organizations in the world and publishes the most comprehensive references books on the state of press freedom around the world. The CPJ has been working on the frontline of press freedom and defending the rights of journalists to report the news freely. So it was no surprise that the Senior Americas Program Coordinator became alarmed when he found out that Belize is going down the slippery slope of government censorship.  News Five spoke to Carlos Lauría, from CPJ’s office in New York about the Barrow Ban on Channel Five.

Jose Sanchez

“The situation that Channel Five is facing, is it unusual for the region? And what is your Professional opinion on how it should be treated?”

Carlos Lauría, Senior Americas Program Coordinator, CPJ

Carlos Lauría

“In Latin America, in the past few years, we have seen an increasing number of politically elected leaders of countries and government officials also who are becoming more and more intolerant towards press criticism. And whenever governments and democratically elected leaders are criticized in the media, they are reacting in different ways. Some of them for example like in Venezuela, President Chavez, has faced long confrontation with the private media. The working of the private media there are never allowed to talk to any official in government and are even not allowed to state entities to cover press events. In other countries, officials feel that their reputation have been damaged by approaching the press. Some of them report about government corruption had filed criminal information sheets against journalists. Or have filed criminal information suits against journalists. So what’s going on in Belize right now unfortunately is something that’s occurring in many countries in the region and we found this kind of attitude becoming more and more common. We believe that the government in Belize should be tolerant and should accept criticism and should accept the media to be able to report the news without any kind of interference because that is important in a democracy—even if you don’t agree. Even if you present a different or critical point of view, the government of course, they have the right to express their opinions if they don’t like a report, but they should be able to talk to the news. They should be able to talk to reporters. This embargo is really a decision that is not wise because reporters in Belize report from your station need to comment on an event. They should be able to speak to officials. That is kind of ridiculous. I would like to take the opportunity here to call on the government to end this embargo against the channel.”