The Thirteenth File January 21
Sun, 12/06/2009 - 18:56 | 
Marie Berbick-Graham
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Huntley Medley Heading for the JIS?
When the veteran Carmen Tipling vacates the chair as Chief Executive Officer of the Jamaica Information Service (JIS) monthend, the new man at the top will be Huntley Medley, best remembered, perhaps, as the press secretary to immediate past prime minister, P J Patterson, that is, if word on the street is correct.
Spike’s hardly-ever-wrong sources could not confirm that Medley got the nod, but got strong indications he was out front and Spike's phone calls to an old Medley cell number went unanswered.
The selection process for JIS CEO is lengthy and tedious. It involves a series of written tests, live presentations and several interviews at different levels, under the new head-hunting process for CEOs of executive agencies.
We also gather that Ian Boyne, the number two man at the JIS has shown no interest in the number one post, presumably because he is quite satisfied with the other irons he has in the fire.
Media movement
• Gillian Haughton of the RJR Group is moving on to become communication director at the National Security Ministry, effective February 1, 2007. You know we like Gillian and we wish her all success in her new job. If she can get past the transition period, she’ll be okay.
One of the interesting things about leaving mainstream media for a job such as hers, is how the shoe gets on the other foot. You get to understand how bureaucrats handle information and why they so tenaciously hang onto it when reporters are trying to wrest it from them. You get to appreciate what are the imperatives which drive them and, importantly, the best way of approaching your job of prising information out of the bureaucracy. At the end of the day, you are likely to be better off. Still it has its challenges for hardened journalists, but Gillian is up to it.
• Kenya Keddo who used to run the HOT 102-FM offices in Montego Bay is the new branch manager for the Jamaica Observer in the tourist resort city. She takes back the post from Patricia Roxborough-Wright who was acting branch manager while doing a good job as editor-at-large for the Observer’s Western Bureau. Have you read her Observer West publication lately in the Thursday Observer? You should.
Freelance travel writers/ photographers
The publishers of Caribbean Heritage Magazine are in the process of re-launching the publication and are looking for freelance travel and culture writers and photographers to provide material for the magazine. If you are interested, please make contact with Marva Griffiths Herman at marva_herman@msn.com.
CPU Photo Awards
The Commonwealth Press Union (CPU) is now inviting entries for the 2006/7 Photo Awards which is open to anyone who is a resident of a Commonwealth country and is over the age of 18. “You may be a professional or amateur photographer or you may simply have taken a striking image that is worthy of the Awards — whoever you are and whatever your photograph, this is a competition worth entering,” according to the CPU.
Deadline is January 31, 2007. Click on http://www.cpu.org.uk/photoawards/ to go to the Photoawards website and press release. Please note in particular The Canberra Times/CPU Young Photographer Award category. This prize will give a young person from a developing country the opportunity of travelling to Australia — all expenses paid — to take up a six-week photographic residency at The Canberra Times. In addition, there is a main prize of £1,000 which will go to the overall winner, as well as other prizes of £250.
Investigative journalism awards
Journalists worldwide are invited to submit nominations for the inaugural "Global Shining Light Award", which honours excellence in investigative reporting in a developing country or country in transition. The competition is open to any journalist, journalism team or media outlet whose independent, investigative reporting was broadcast or published between January 1and December 31, 2006, and which originated in and affected a developing or emerging country. Eligible reporting must have uncovered an issue, wrong-doing or a system of corruption that gravely affected the common good, and did so in the face of arrest, imprisonment, violence, threats or intimidation.
Nominations can be made by independent investigative journalism organisations, journalists' associations, independent media outlets or an individual investigative journalist. Deadline for entries is February 16, 2007. Send entries to: Sandra Bartlett, CBC National Radio News, Room 3B200C, P.O. Box 500, Station A, Toronto ON, M5W 1E6, Canada.
The CAD$1000 (US$850) award will be presented at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference, which will be held May 24-27, 2007 in Toronto, Canada. For more information, visit: http://tinyurl.com/ybkfh8.
Photo gallery of journalists
I’m trying to compile a photo gallery of Jamaican journalists. If you have any photos of journalists bouncing about send or e-mail them to me at 40-42 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5, or desal@cwjamaica.com.
Last week for journalism nominations
Next column I’ll publish the list of journalists you selected for doing well in 2006. If you haven’t made your selections yet, you have until January 25. Give your colleagues who performed well a shout out at desal@cwjamaica.com.
Desmond Allen aka The Spike, a 33-year veteran of journalism, is a past president of the Press Association of Jamaica and a past general-secretary of the regional Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM)
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