By: Kimberly Ramkhalawan
August 16, 2022
Caribbean Media practitioners came in for high praise for being the voice of sound information and public fact checkers during the COVID 19 pandemic. This was just one of the topics that resonated during the opening ceremony of the 53rd Caribbean Broadcasters Union, Annual General Meeting currently underway in Tobago. Media practitioners from across the Caribbean converged on the island following two years of virtual observances.
In his welcoming remarks as host country of this year’s conference, Tobago House of Assembly, (THA) Leader, Farley Augustine, shared with regional broadcasters that their competition had expanded to those on the social media, and stations across the world aired locally, and said their relevance appeared to be ‘fast changing’. He urged them to view this coming together as an opportunity to revisit the definition of ‘press freedom’, something he says has changed recently, as well as ethics and how information is managed in telling stories, more so the responsibility in telling the ‘Caribbean story’.
He however added that while there were challenges, there were equal enough opportunities. Augustine recalled “once a time when Caribbean voices were muffled, and not as loud as others. When the world only relied on Caribbean reporters to tell a story when something catastrophic occurred in the region”, but through mediums like TikTok, and Twitter, there was a chance to tell the region’s story in the “most authentic manner and to broadcast the length and breadth of this world”.
Augustine urged those gathered to take the next few days to brainstorm, on ways in which the region can advance a Caribbean agenda given the global media constructs present, and create respect for its people, and a world where people truly understand what the Caribbean is about.
Dr. Claire Grant, newly elected CBU president shared in her remarks albeit virtually to those present, that despite the challenges the CBU faced during the pandemic, it has managed to retain a majority of its memberships. She says this year it saw the return of ABS of Antigua and Barbuda, as well as host country, Trinidad and Tobago’s state media entity, TTT, to its fold, with 2022 seeing expressions of interest from six media organisations in the English and Dutch speaking countries wishing to join the CBU.
Some of the benefits of becoming a member include capacity building and having a strong advocate for the sector seeing its professionals for who they are and respect for what they do.
Meanwhile, Dr.Grant says the CBU has continued to champion training in critical areas such as climate change and gender, disaster risk reduction, where partnership with the United Nations Disaster Risk Reduction Office (UNDRR) provided grant funding to support core productions, as well as training with broadcasters aimed at improving coverage of DRR topics, through illustration the links between disaster management and hydrometeorological agencies when covering such events.
In other capacity building news, Dr.Grant shared that select online courses will also be available come this September in the Masters in Media Management programme to personnel belonging to CBU members. In return she says this will expand the “visibility of academic programmes of the University of the West Indies, and the “first two courses to be offered from September include ‘Structure and Operations of media’ taught by Dr.Alpha Obika and ‘Media Business Strategy’, lectured by Dr.Grant herself. She described the offering of these courses as “further proof that its own media institutions partnering collectively can offer the region the best media expertise and content that contributes to the advancement of the Caribbean Society.”
As for this year’s CBU President award, Dr.Sally Ann Wilson of the Commonwealth Broadcasting Alliance, as well as the former CEO of the Public Media Alliance was bestowed the honour. Dr. Wilson, was described as often a lender of support of its member states in the area of training, as well as infrastructure support when disasters struck and rebuilding and recovery was urgently needed.
Its Hall of Fame award and inductee this year went to Suriname’s Frits Pengel, who was responsible for the setting up of its first television station, STVS, and played a critical role in arbitration of programming in the region without exploit. He also served as CBU President in 1976 where he established the infrastructure needed for the Union to communicate throughout the region, sending his engineering team out to ensure the links worked.
Due to his doctor’s advice, Pengel was unable to travel to receive in person. However, upon receiving the award which was shared as a prerecorded segment, he expressed his deep gratitude for the honour and shared the importance of the union for not only being responsible for increasing the level of broadcasting in the region, but for also bringing the Caribbean community closer together. He also took the opportunity to give best wishes to the CBU in becoming the organization of “many voices, one Caribbean, but a very, very strong Caribbean”.
This year also sees CARICOM Secretary General, Dr.Carla Barnett as the first sitting head participate in a CBU AGM, highlighting the importance of indigenous media houses as a critical space for society.