At the top of the news, we showed you what Tourism Minister Anthony Mahler had to say about the countdown to the reopening of the country's land borders. Well, the opportunity to talk with Mahler came after a BTB media luncheon at the House of Culture. He wanted to thank the media for working as partners with the tourist industry.

It's no secret that sometimes the media's relationship with politicians can get tense. Well, Minister Mahler said that he doesn't take it personally:

Hon. Anthony Mahler - Minister of Tourism & Diaspora Relations
"The media is our partner, they educate Belizean population on all the issues that we are confronted with and so we believe the media is an important part of our democracy and to spread the word about tourism and diaspora relations and the other agencies that fall under the ministry and so we just wanted to thank the media for their work over the last year or so."

Daniel Ortiz
"Now sir we shared a meal, tell us about the significance of that."

Hon. Anthony Mahler
"Well we broke bread and that's just to say we thank you that you are our partners and that we are going to move into 2022 as partners, so we wanted to sit down and hear what you have to say, how we can improve, how you can improve and how we can improve our relationship together."

Daniel Ortiz
"What are your thoughts on maybe what you've seen in terms of the coverage from the press. We have many persons who complain of the quality, I'd like to hear your view on the coverage."

Hon. Anthony Mahler
"Well I've been dealing with this for the 25 years ago I had a media summit at the Radisson and we sat and spoke about the same things, sensationalizing crime and other issues like that, tragic events but that's a part of the media and we've come to be more accepting of that but I would wish that there would be a minimal number of those type of reporting and more positive reporting but that is only my wish."

Prime Minister John Briceno hosted a similar breakfast event with the press on Monday morning.