BTL Labels Media as Essential Services

And there’s another development coming out of BTL tonight. Chairman Markhelm Lizarraga says the company is moving to classify media houses as essential services. That announcement follows last week’s press conference from three major media outlets, where concerns were raised about potential censorship if services were disconnected. But according to Lizarraga, there’s no need for alarm. With this new designation, BTL will now give media houses a courtesy call before any utility is cut for nonpayment, a move he says is meant to protect the flow of information, not restrict it.

 

Markhelm Lizarraga, Chairman, Belize Telemedia Limited

“You know that we have been accused of pulling the plug on some media houses and we did some review. The good thing about our systems is that it can tell you when you are billed, when you are not, when you are disconnected. All of that is there in our billing system and there was a mistake and we wrote a letter of apology to Channel 7 and I think that Cabinet has asked that we share it. It is not the policy of government and it is not the policy of BTL to unplug anybody. And I took that really seriously because I certainly did not ask that Channel 7 be unplugged or any media house. So you will receive a copy of that letter and we are giving the reassurances that we are putting the media as an essential service where we will communicate with you before we cut you. What happens with the billing system is if there is a balance due by a certain day it cuts you automatically. We don’t go down the list to see if you pay, you pay, you pay. We have a billing system that does that and does what is called doing. It cuts you if you don’t pay. But what we are going to do now is for hospitals, police, other essential services, we don’t cut them we will call them and say you have a bill. We are putting on the media houses on that plan where before any disconnection is done for nonpayment we will say please pay your bill before we would just cut you, or the system will cut you. Now we will make sure we just call you and remind you to pay your bill, otherwise you can be disconnected.”