BARJAM to media practitioners: Take a bow

MEMBERS of the local media fraternity, particularly those on the front line who have been keeping the country abreast of developments of the COVID-19 pandemic, have been asked to take a bow.

President of the Barbados Association of Journalists and Media Workers (BARJAM), Emmanuel Joseph made the call yesterday as Barbados joined the rest of the world in celebrating World Press Freedom Day, while acknow-ledging that it is generally a thankless profession.

Lamenting that COVID-19 has blocked some of the planned programmes to benefit local media practitioners, he announced that a number of developmental initiatives are still in the pipeline.

“I can announce that following a proposal submitted to the Attorney General Dale Marshall requesting permission for reporters to do audio recordings of the proceedings of the law courts, we have been officially informed that the BARJAM request has been forwarded to the Registrar for her input and the input of the magistracy and judiciary. We look forward to a favourable outcome.

Additionally, Joseph revealed that BARJAM also made successful representation to the leadership of a key organisation in this country, which had on two occasions in February and March, turned back media workers who had been assigned by their editors to cover those events and for which notice had been received by the media houses.

“Based on the proposals outlined in the entity’s response letter to us, following what they described as a series of miscommunications, and once they act on their measures, the conflict between media professionals and the organization is unlikely to happen again.

“I can also state that a window of hope has been opened for the news media and the Barbados Defence Force to work more closely together in a mutual and respectful partnership of information flow.”

Highlighting other initiatives, the BARJAM President revealed that the representative body has also been recently admitted to sit on the UNDP’s Global Environmental Facility Small Grants Programme National Steering Committee for Barbados (GEF SGP). The programme offers financial and technical support to civil society organizations for community-driven projects that contribute to conserving global biodiversity, adapting and mitigating global climate change, protecting international waters and preventing land degradation. Joseph is the representative in his capacity as president of BARJAM.

As it relates to training, it was noted that there were a number of other training opportunities for media workers that went a begging due to the COVID-19 enemy, including an investigative journalism workshop slated for this month, a Crisis Communications seminar to coincide with the start of the hurricane season next month and an information-sharing workshop with the National Council on Substance Abuse (NCSA), with whom a partnership has been formed.
Some BARJAM members have also been in Zoom meetings with a number of entities to discuss information flow and the conditions under which journalists are working during the COVID crisis.

“These entities included the Association of Caribbean Media (ACM) and the US Embassy, which days ago facilitated what it called an “Infodemic” that addressed disinformation during COVID. That was moderated by BARJAM Floor Member and veteran media professional Trevor Thorpe of motoring news fame. He represented well.”

And finally, BARJAM still has at the top of its agenda, the establishment of a Benevolent Fund to assist members who fall on hard times and the need for Government to introduce that long-mooted Freedom of Information Bill into Parliament.

“We also place on record our acknowledgement of the Government’s decision to declare the media an essential service during the State of Public Health Emergency and hope that this designation is not only for times of crisis, but for all time,” the BARJAM president said.