The new President of the Caribbean Broadcasting Union, Mrs. Kayleaser Deveaux-Isaacs continues to encourage her colleague media managers in their ongoing support to their personnel as they offer vital service to national efforts to beat back the COVID-19 pandemic in the region.
At the recently held 52nd Annual General Assembly, Mrs. Deveaux-Isaacs, the General Manager/CEO of the Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas, popularly known as ZNS, was elected to succeed Mr Gary Allen, head of the RJR-GLEANER Communications Group in Jamaica.
In chairing her first meeting of the CBU Board of Directors this month, she noted the ongoing significant effect the pandemic is having on media professionals in the CBU member institutions across the Dutch, English, French and Spanish Caribbean.
The efforts of Caribbean media professionals in covering the pandemic will be recognized in the revamped CBU Media Awards for 2021, which will pay special attention to content produced this year by member organisations to counter the COVID-19 misinformation plaguing the Caribbean region.
The September CBU Board meeting also considered other critical technical and policy matters affecting Caribbean electronic and print media, and appointed Mr Keith Campbell, CEO of the Public Broadcasting Corporation of Jamaica as the CBU’s representative on the Technical Committee of the World Broadcasting Unions (WBU).
In looking ahead to the CBU’s programme of work for the remainder of 2021 and into 2022 it was noted that the Union will continue to emphasize raising awareness about disaster risk reduction. This month CBU partnered with the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) to produce a feature marking the thirtieth anniversary of CDEMA on
September 9. That programme has been shared with CBU members across the region as well CBU affiliate the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) for online and broadcast transmission.
And in the same vein, the CBU will be continuing its partnership with the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR). The CBU participants in the recent UNDRR training, offered to member Unions of the WBU, will be recognized in a special virtual ceremony during the VII Regional Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in the Americas and the Caribbean taking place in Jamaica and online from November 1 to 4 this year.
The President invited members, partners, and other stakeholders to share with the CBU by getting in touch with the Secretariat via email, call or even on the CBU website at www.caribroadcastunion.org.