Caribbean media professionals to get new equipment after hurricanes

Media professionals from Dominica will be among the first to get help as part of the a scheme to replace equipment lost of destroyed by Hurricane Irma and Hurricane Maria.

Journalists and other media staff will receive laptops, mobile phones, digital recorders and other tools from the Association of Caribbean MediaWorkers (ACM).

Members of the media in Anguilla, Barbuda and Tortola will also benefit.

The ACM is a network of journalists, media workers and media associations spanning the Caribbean Basin.

The presentation of equipment for Dominica will take place on Saturday, 16 December.

Former ACM assistant general secretary, Anika Kentish of Antigua & Barbuda, will represent the association at that function.

Media workers from the other islands will receive their equipment over the coming week through a number of other designated ACM focal points.

For this effort, the ACM received substantial financial assistance from Free Press Unlimited - a global media development foundation based in the Netherlands – and laptops from the Americas office of Reporters Without Borders.

Reporters Without Borders, or Reporters Sans Frontières, is an international non-profit, non-governmental organization that promotes and defends freedom of information and freedom of the press.

This project was managed by Julian Rogers and ACM President Wesley Gibbings with assistance from representatives in the affected islands.

“We recognise that this is a limited response and that not all needs of the kind we have sought to meet have been covered,” Gibbings said.

“But this is our best shot in a relatively uncharted territory for our organisation.

“I also want to pay tribute to the work of Julian Rogers for keeping on top of things and ensuring that this assistance reaches journalists who suffered serious losses as a result of the hurricane.”