LOCAL MEDIA PUSH in 2020

Barbados Association of Journalists and Media Workers (BARJAM) plans to partner with several entities next year to make more training opportunities available for members of the local media fraternity.

BARJAM’s President, Emmanuel Joseph disclosed this recently as he spoke at the organisation’s pre-Christmas meeting held at the Embassy of Argentina, Lucerne Building, Hastings, Christ Church.

Joseph said some of the training workshops to be conducted will cover topics such as assessing and forecasting trends in politics, interpreting political developments and financial and economic reporting. There will also be those dealing with effective writing for broadcast and print, defamation and libel, the powers of judges and magistrates as they impact the profession, developing and protecting sources, the art of investigative reporting, the role of integrity and ethical behaviour in the media profession, as well as effective broadcasting skills. Additionally, there will be training sessions on the rights of the media versus the powers of the police and that includes the limits of photographers,of videographers and reporters at scenes of crimes.

The BARJAM head said in past months, he has been contacted by organisations who are willing to assist the association to facilitate the training workshops. He identified the Central Bank of Barbados,

Inter-American Development Bank and the Embassy of the United States of America to Barbados, the Eastern Caribbean and OECS as three such entities.

Speaking about other plans for the coming year, Joseph said members will be exposed to the best investment options as they are encouraged to secure their financial future so when they retire or become physically incapable of working or are placed on the breadline for any reason or length of time, then they would have funds to fall back on.

He also spoke of plans to have a television show which will possibly be aired in February where journalists will have their say ontopical issues. “This television show will involve the journalistsnow being the panellists; the expert people speaking about issues of the day and we would invite one key person who is relevant to that particular topic to answer questions on the spot. You know we are always looking for the so-called experts to speak, so on this occasion the journalists or the media practitioners will now be the experts,” Joseph said. (MG)