While there are major regional headlines coming out of the meeting - the incident with Cherisse Halsall is dominating social media discussion.
Channel 7 made posts about it today where 7News director Jules Vasquez called it, quote, "a flagrant and foul muzzling of the free press; it offends every principle of good governance and fair play." End quote.
Well, this evening, the Government Press Office struck back with a 500 word press release accusing Cherisse Halsall of being verbally abusive to security personnel and of entering a no-access zone for the media.
The release says, "Media personnel, both local and regional, were informed that they could not conduct interviews in that area and left without incident. Ms. Halsall was asked to leave and refused again, threatening to cause a scene. Security personnel removed her." End quote.
To this we must add, first that Cherisse was only emboldened to approach that area because a regional journalist was using it to do a standup - and she was only asking for equal treatment.
The Government press release adds, quote, "Channel 7 were and will be allowed the same access as all other media houses, local and regional, with no exceptions." That is untrue since Channel 5 has been allowed inside the conference venue and has the full run of the place. Second the access that the Press Office has in mind is to be confined to a press centre 1000 feet away from the meeting venue - which this media house finds unacceptable.
This evening in San Pedro Jules Vasquez discussed the issues:
Jules Vasquez, Channel 7 News Director
"It is a shame and an embarrassment at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should use their letterhead for such an ugly and pointless piece of communication and one that does not cling to the facts as I know them. The fact is what happened today is because of a lack of equal access and that has not been addressed in the release which makes all types of farcical claims, in my opinion about Ms. Halsall's conduct. Ms. Halsall was doing what she is trained to do, which is to go and get story. The fact is Channel 7 and every Belizean media house, except for Channel 5 was systematically excluded from having frontline access to this event. Ms. Halsall was not there to cause a scene or to grab anyone and do an interview. She was there to do a stand up for our morning show. She was not impinging on anyone's breakfast, she was not encroaching upon any sacred space, she just ask for a few minutes to do a stand up. That Mr. Rudon and the security forces could not have just let this lie and let the woman have her 5 minutes to do her work as a professional."
"The second point I wish to make is that the incestuous relationship between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs CEO and who is the former CEO of Channel 5 and the fact that Channel 5 has pre-eminence, total pre-eminence to the exclusion of all other media houses at this event, is worth noting, that this is a progressive exclusion of the media from doing its job, from creating spaces where the media cannot be."
"I accept that a meeting is happening and its high level. We have had these meetings in Belize before. The media must be allowed to navigate, if not to share the same space as the delegates so that we can do our work to get the information out that is not confine to a press release or some sanitized output. We must do our job."
Channel 7 continues its coverage of the event - and will be bringing you more news from there tomorrow.
