And while the Prime Minister notes the Lorna Wade case, he deplored the M.O. of the media houses; namely channel 7, the Reporter and the Amandala that brought it to the forefront. The rarely priggish PM had quite a staunch invective against the modern media.
Hon. Said Musa, Prime Minister
“I must tell you very frankly that I don’t know how it stands in Guatemala, but I find the very intrusive way in which the media invades a person’s privacy in Belize by interviewing victims of violence on their hospital bed to be lacking in decency and respect. It never used to happen. There was a time when the hospital would never allow that. But today it seems to be the norm that newspaper men or women, journalists from radio or television, and cameramen are allowed into the hospital room. They are allowed into the intensive care room in some cases to interview seriously injured victims. They can hardly speak. Their faces are a complete mess but yet they are being shown on television. I find that very indecent.”
We do, of course, take the criticism in good stride, noting that everyone who gives an interview does so by consent. In fact many who are in the hospital do so by request, they actually call for us.