7 News Belize

Last week, we told you about the 5 employees at the Belize Times who were terminated, two of them, after decades of service. So with five gone, only 2 remain - and the announcement today is that the country's longest established paper will no longer be published in print, it will only be available online.
That's the news, but the sensation has been about the veteran staffers who were fired. Our newscast featured them as they vented their frustration because they believe that they were not duly compensated for their years of service. Well today, the PUP Party Leader responded to their comments.
In a press release, Hon. Francis Fonseca says that when he assumed leadership of the party, he commissioned a full review of the financial model that the Belize Times Newspaper was using.
That review came back and it showed that the model and structure of newspaper was, quote, "outdated, wasteful and unsustainable". According to Fonseca, the newspaper was operated at a loss for several years and represented a financial liability.
Fonseca continues by saying that quote, "ten days ago I made the difficult but unavoidable decision to release 5 members of the Belize Times staff and family."
He continues, quote,
"This has been the most difficult decision I have had to make as PUP leader and given the challenges faced over the past few monthsâ€¦" The release ends by saying that he has been advised that all the employees were duly compensated for their services.
The release adds, quote, "The Belize Times Newspaper is available online until further notice." End quote.
Reliable information to 7News is that the business is currently saddled with a huge debt for a printing press that they paid close to a million dollars for a few years ago. Well, that printing press has gone out of operation for some time now, and as a result, the paper has had to seek outside services for its printing.

But, they also accrued a debt of approximately 21,000 that forced the printing company to withhold further services until they paid that debt. As a result, the paper could not print last week Thursday.