Unconstitutional and unlawful takeover of Telemedia by GOB

The Barrow administration today made the announcement that it was nationalizing Belize Telemedia and is expected to assume total control in the next day or so of the utility company. We start our newscast with the reaction from Telemedia on this stunning move. In a release late this evening, Telemedia condemned the action of the Government as an outrageous abuse of executive power, which it said, is both unconstitutional and unlawful. According to Telemedia, there is no public purpose to the Government’s actions since the utility company has been providing a high standard of services at competitive prices while it has been paying a whopping twenty-four point five percent in business taxes to the government treasury. Telemedia says that its nationalization is targeted at certain shareholders, who contrary to statements made by Prime Minister, are the Hayward Charitable Belize Trust and the B.T.L. Employees trust. The release further describes the actions by G.O.B. as heavy handed and a draconian attempt to tackle a commercial dispute which arose in relation to the Accommodation Agreement but which as been resolved in Telemedia’s favour and has already been terminated. As to the real value of Telemedia, the company says that in 2008, it held discussions with a major international communications group and the value of Telemedia was put at three hundred million US dollars, the starting point that shareholders will use as the worth of the company.