April 25, 2007
Mr. Evan X Hyde
Chairman
Kremandala
Dear Mr. Chairman,
Last night on your Kremandala Show, your panelist Bill Lindo stated categorically that it was the law firm of Barrow & Williams, of which I’m a partner, that had drafted the controversial Government of Belize guarantee to the Belize Bank in respect of the Universal Health Services Company’s debt.
At the UDP press conference on Monday of this week, I had publicly stated in answer to Channel 7’s Jules Vasquez that the Barrow & Williams law firm had not drafted that guarantee. Mr. Lindo is declaring that the opposite was true, was thus accusing me of, among other things, hypocrisy and lying. Indeed, he expressly disparaged my “pontificating” in questioning the guarantee, while all along it was my firm that had drafted it.
It is my view that Bill Lindo’s flagrantly false assertion that Barrow & Williams drafted the guarantee, has seriously defamed me both by what was said and what was implied. I will, as a result, be taking peremptory legal action against Mr. Lindo.
I am writing you, however, because your show and your radio and your television station, were the vehicles by which Bill Lindo perpetrated his defamation. As the publisher of the libel, Krem Radio and Krem TV bear the same legal responsibility as Bill Lindo.
I note, though, that you did express disbelief at what Bill Lindo was alleging. And you appeared to have had no idea beforehand of what he was going to say.
In the circumstances, I propose to take no legal action against Kremandala, but must insist that you ensure that Bill Lindo’s defamatory remarks are not repeated on Krem Radio or Krem TV.
Sincerely,
(Signed) Dean O. Barrow