The talk show hosts said that 8 lawyers’ opinions were that the comments were “not libelous”
Minister of National Security and Belmopan area representative for the United Democratic Party, Hon. John Saldivar, has filed a lawsuit against Plus TV, after he accused Rise and Shine talk show co-host Patrick Jason Andrews of making libelous comments against him.
The comments in question were made on a show that aired on January 10, 2013. Andrews was discussing the pre-election Christmas pro-poor distribution of goods with that day’s guest, Hon. Patrick Faber.
During the discussion, Minister Faber asked Andrews what were his views on the way the money was distributed in Belmopan. While we were not able to ascertain the exact wording of Andrews’ response, the gist of his comment, we were told, is that the money, reportedly $50,000, was badly wasted.
Co-host of Rise and Shine and co-owner of Plus TV, Louis Wade, Jr., told Amandala that while it was made clear that the comments Andrews made were only Andrews’ opinion and not based on facts, there were no comments made directly against Minister Saldivar.
The talk show hosts told us that they have consulted at least eight different lawyers, who all told them that the comments were not libelous. They said that they see the prospect of a lawsuit as unjust because they are being scrutinized for making opinionated comments on a public program about public matters.
“We are talking about a public figure who is distributing public money, and we are public commentators on national issues and he [Andrews] expressly said ‘in my opinion,’” Wade said. “This is not John Saldivar distributing his own private money. This is public money and this is a public person — John Saldivar. So if we cannot make an opinion on that, then what can we really make an opinion about?” Wade went on to say.
Wade said that Rise and Shine discusses a range of topics, mostly current issues, including government policies and how they’re implemented, issues of corruption and other national matters.
“We’re a media house that is independent; we are not political, so we don’t want any political or otherwise person to dictate to us who should and should not be on our show, much less host a show,” Wade said. “And we believe that this failure to try to manipulate the media house in his constituency is what has brought us to the point of a lawsuit,” he stated.
Andrews said that he believes that Minister Saldivar is trying to control the media.
“I think that the core outcome he was hoping for in this case was to control the media house in his constituency,” he said. “That they will say what he wants them to say, and the minute he is challenged, then he feels like he needs to eliminate. He sees the media house as an opponent to him because we challenged a policy or an action.”
Wade said that this issue is important for all media houses because it “is an issue of freedom of the press; it’s an issue of trying to muzzle the press by controlling who should and should not host a program, and it also is an issue of freedom of speech.”
Wade told us that Minister Saldivar had requested that Andrews be removed from the talk show before this issue surfaced.
“On numerous occasions, for whatever reason, John Saldivar had asked us to remove my co-host from off the show,” Wade said. “He believes that the issues and the views that Patrick expresses are not necessarily in line with how he sees things or wants things to be interpreted.”
We were unable to reach Minister Saldivar, but today, Thursday, he was a guest on Wave Radio and he addressed the matter publicly. He said he is taking Plus TV to court because he values his reputation and he believes that what was said by Andrews assaulted his character and reputation.
“They feel that they were within their rights to say what they did and only a court can decide that,” he said. “If they feel that they had the right to say what they did, then take it to court. I feel that they wronged me, that they falsely accused me of something and they assailed my reputation. And I am going to court to vindicate,” Saldivar went on to say.
The Minister said that whatever money was utilized for the Christmas pro-poor program, food for his constituents, can be accounted for. He also denied any allegations that he had requested the removal of Andrews from the show prior to the statements which prompted the lawsuit.
“Absolutely not, I am not crazy,” he said. “I don’t own Plus TV and cannot demand or request them to do anything… I never demanded, I never begged, and I never requested for Mr. Andrews to be fired. I simply cautioned in a friendly manner, Mr. Louis Wade, that I thought – that in my opinion – the way he [Andrews] was taking the show was going to hurt the image and the credibility of Plus TV,” Saldivar explained.
He further explained that he thought that Andrews was taking a slant on the show that would cause loss of viewership. He said that he gave Wade “free and unsolicited advice” about Andrews’ performance after he was informed by several people that they were concerned about some of the comments Andrews made on the show.