The Independent (Belize)

Meb Cutlack, editorial director of the Independent. The Australian has previously written for the Reporter and contributed to the Amandala.

Karla Vernon, general editor. The media veteran has worked for the former Radio Belize, Channel 5, The Reporter and The San Pedro Sun. Her husband Trevor will serve as business manager; he heads the Independent's publishing company, Independent Publishing, and National Printers, the printing home of the Independent.

Before it printed a single page, the Independent was criticized by The Belize Times, paper for the ruling People's United Party. The Times claims the Independent, based on the record of Cutlack and Vernon, will be pro-UDP, but welcomed them nonetheless. Vernon claims that pressure from political parties undermined the Independent's success.

Channel 5, in reporting the story on November 7, poked fun at Cutlack's aggressive writing style, but praised its former news editor Vernon as a balance to Cutlack.