Former CEO of Channel 5, Stewart Krohn, left office last Monday, June 16, and following right behind him was the station’s lead journalist, Janelle Chanona.
Krohn and other shareholders sold off 100% of the company to Belize Telemedia Limited (BTL), and PUP favourite Amalia Mai immediately took charge of the newsroom at Channel 5.
Inside sources tell Amandala that even though Krohn, Chanona’s former boss, indicated that the new owners and managers would have no influence on the station’s work and credibility, Chanona and Mai ran into conflict within the first week of the BTL take-over.
We understand that late last week, the new news director, Mai, took issue with a sentence of fact in Chanona’s story over the law suit Government had filed against the Belize Bank. That statement read, “Former PM Said Musa and former CEO in Ministry of Foreign Affairs Amalia Mai have been joined as interested parties to the application, but neither Musa, Mai nor their legal representatives were in court today.”
That happened last Thursday, and even though Chanona refused to remove the line from her story, someone removed the sentence before the content was broadcast on air.
We understand that there was also a difference between Mai and Chanona over the story Channel 5 ran last week regarding FIU investigations into First Caribbean International Bank.
We note that when Krohn spoke with Amandala on his departure, he told our newspaper:
“The biggest mistake BTL could ever make is to try to influence the news output of this station, because a station is only as strong as its credibility in the public.
“I realize that this purchase, both by the nature of the purchaser, and by the background of the CEO [Mai] – if that was going to be your next question – the public has very strong feelings about BTL and Michael Ashcroft, the public has very strong feelings about Amalia Mai – I would ask the public, as someone who no longer works for the company, to have an open mind. See what the television station puts out there. If you like to watch it, watch it. If you don’t like to watch it, don’t watch it. It won’t survive if it doesn’t serve the public.”
Krohn, still a consultant with Channel 5, declined comment when we contacted him this evening, saying it would not be fair for him to say anything.
Chanona commented briefly to us on her departure from Channel 5, saying, “I have resigned because I feel that to continue my employment with Great Belize Productions will compromise my journalistic integrity and violate the rules of fair play, objectivity and balanced reporting. I intend to pursue freelance reporting, consultancy and teaching opportunities.”
Ms. Chanona started contributing articles to Amandala this week.
Chanona said that she began working at Channel 5 in 1999. She left in 2000 to pursue her Master’s in investigative journalism at Nottingham Trent University, in Nottingham,England, and she did a short stint at BTL’s PR department.
(Attempts to reach Mai Thursday were futile. We were told she was unavailable.)