Hon. Oliver Frederick Clarke OJ
With your financial prowess and strong business instincts you turned around the fortunes of the grand dame of Caribbean print media, the Gleaner Company establishing it as a financially strong organization, now celebrating its 190th anniversary and boasting the accolade of being the longest continuing publication in the Americas.
Under your stewardship, the organization expanded its publications outside of Jamaica including in Canada, the United States, and the United Kingdom. It established two (2) radio stations as well as smaller publishing entities contributing to youth media literacy through products such as Youth Link and a joint venture, A-Plus Learning.
You and the late Lester Spaulding were the two architects of the amalgamation of the Gleaner and the RJR Communications Group, to form the RJRGLEANER Communications Group in 2016, succeeding Spaulding as its second Chairman in 2018.
But most of all, you were known at home and abroad for your commitment to press freedom. In the late 1970s, spurred by the critique by the national administration of the day, considered an effort to bring “pressure on The Gleaner to influence editorial policy or, indeed, to close the company,” you launched a campaign to protect the free press, which you regarded as a critical pillar of democracy.
Recalling that The Gleaner’s “membership of the Inter American Press Association and of the Commonwealth Press Association stood us in good ground,” you maintained a dominant presence in both international press organisations and were eventually elected president of IAPA. In the late 1990s, as president of IAPA you led the lobby to get Caribbean governments to sign on to the Declaration of Chapultepec which sets out ten fundamental principles of press freedom.
As a champion for increased transparency and accountability, you were instrumental in the enactment of Jamaica’s Access to Information laws. You were also in the forefront of advocacy for changing the defamation laws in Jamaica, travelling the country with members of the Hugh Small Committee, appointed to review Jamaica’s libel laws which were eventually amended in 2009.
Among the amendments were key provisions you championed for many years, including the abolition of criminal libel, the establishment of a “wire service defence” and having a jury decide guilt or innocence in a defamation matter, but a judge determine the more complex issue of the quantum of damages to be awarded.
Your giant influence and media advocacy were felt around the region, supporting the Caribbean News Agency (CANA), and adding the Gleaner as a key member. You eventually went on to become CANA Chairman as well as a Director of the Caribbean Media Corporation.
You also offered tangible and moral support to fellow publishers across the region. You will be long remembered with your publishing peers, for taking on the Maurice Bishop-led People’s Revolutionary Government of Grenada after it shut down several private newspapers and jailed journalist Alister Hughes.
In 1996, you were one of the four-member team of Caribbean media leaders to stage an intervention when the Basdeo Panday government launched a campaign against the Trinidad Guardian demanding the firing of its editor-in-chief.
Until the end of your career, at home and abroad, you stood firm in fostering democratic governance, prosperity, and social equity, through your fierce advocacy for press freedom in the Americas.
Mr. Clarke was inducted into the CBU Caribbean Media Hall Of Fame in 2024.