7 News Belize

PLUS TV Apologizes to Hon. Saldivar
posted (October 7, 2013)
In April, it made major news when Belmopan Area Representative John Saldivar initiated a lawsuit against PLUS TV - his hometown TV station. The suit was based on remarks made on PLUS TV's morning show, "Rise and Shine" - where co-host Patrick Jason Andrews suggested that Sadivar had misused public funds. Saldivar initiated a law suit - and there were hard words thrown all around in what became a highly politicized issue - especially when it became known that Andrews wanted to challenge Saldivar in the Belmopan Constituency as a PUP Candidate.

But, today the tone and pitch of the dispute calmed down somewhat when the matter went before the Supreme Court. Lawyer for Saldivar Priscilla Banner and Lawyer for PLUS TV tried to agree on a settlement - and after about an hour for discussion in and out for the judge's chambers - PLUS agreed to apologize with no monetary damages paid. We spoke to both sides as they left the courtroom:...

Hon. John Saldivar
"We came to an agreement in court where the two defendants; Plus TV and Mr. Andrews have agreed to do an apology for the words that were uttered by Mr. Andrews on the Rise and Shine Show and we have agreed to accept that apology."

Jules Vasquez
"Will there be any settlement, any money being paid as financial compensation for the IL repute your reputation has received?"

Hon. John Saldivar
"From the outset Jules I had made it clear that this was about my reputation. I am defending my name. It wasn't about the money. I am not interested in getting any money from Plus TV or Mr. Andrews. They will however have to pay my lawyers the cost for bringing this case forward."

Louis Wade, Plus TV
"Let me take this opportunity to thank a group of residents from Belmopan who over the last month have been working diligently to get both sides of the issue together so that we could have an amicable out of court solution."

"Especially with the issue that we have to move forward on Plus TV we want both political parties and smaller political parties to be able to access Plus TV. After a little while it was becoming a little frustrating and so this clears the air for Plus TV to continue to move forward with everybody accessing this same important service and get their information out."

Jules Vasquez
"Has the Minister says or will you all agree to give an unreserved apology?"

Louis Wade, Plus TV
"Yes and let me also say that from the very beginning that would have been forthcoming and we wanted that to be. There were some other stipulations and so on that I think was bag-gaging it down why we had not come to that resolution. The apology specifically was not the issue, but some of the other terminology. But thankfully to the Minister and Patrick and the group of friends who have been working diligently - those other issues were moved aside so that we could deal in the real issue and I am happy to say yes that there is going to be an apology forthcoming within the next day or so."

Reporter
"Is this some level of vindication for you?"

Hon. John Saldivar
"Certainly, I feel vindicated and I want to say too that I am very happy that Louis and Jason agreed to this apology, so that we can still preserve friendships."

Jules Vasquez
"How do you proceed with Plus TV? Will relations now be normalized? - In terms of, obviously you are the representative for Belmopan which is where Plus TV is based. You don't want to have an enemy in the media at your home base."

Hon. John Saldivar
"I hope that this will normalize our relationship once again."

Jules Vasquez
"Do you regret that this occurred?"

Louis Wade, Plus TV
"You know, Plus TV has made a commitment to the nation of Belize that we will deal with every issue that comes across our table. Plus TV has made a commitment that all of its programs are going to obey the law and as far as is possible will ensure that what we say is factual or it is fair comment and that most importantly our hosts and our callers because one of the show is a live call-in talk show - that they have that fair opportunity without fear to be able to share their comments."

Jules Vasquez
"Knowing now what we do about Mr. Andrews' aspirations as a candidate against John Saldivar, do you think that he was operating in the interest of ventilating public knowledge or was he operating to pursue his own political interest at that time?"

Louis Wade, Plus TV
"Mr. Patrick Andrews is here, you can ask him that question."

Andrews was around briefly but disappeared shortly after Wade's interview started.

The apology says that PLUS TV accepts that Andrews' statement was wholly unfounded.

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