By Linda Straker
A working media policy for Grenada and establishing a secretariat are among the initiatives that Shere-Ann Noel — re-elected President of the Media Workers Association of Grenada, is hoping to achieve by the end of her second term in 2017.
Noel, who was appointed for a second term last Saturday during the Association’s annual General meeting, said the policy which is a long-standing project at the government level, had a lot of work done on it especially during the previous National Democratic Congress administration, but it once again became a stagnant project when former president Rawle Titus resigned as the Chairman of the committee that was spearheading the discussion and research in 2011.
“The issue of the media policy will be high on the agenda. We believe that is something we need to look at, and we started researching to know what had happened and was able to get some information. We will now endeavour to review it and meet with the relevant authorities to make it become a working document,” she said.
Describing the first term of office as a learning experience, Noel said that she and her executive will be working toward increasing the membership and engaging in activities that will make the membership of the professional body grow and develop.
“We will once again appoint the training, fundraising and social committees. we want to see members get involved in activities that will develop them, and it’s against this background we will start doing the groundwork for establishing a working secretariat,” she said.
New elected secretary Sophia Phillip of WeeFM Radio said, “It’s a privilege for me to serve on the executive of MWAG. As a young journalist, I’m very familiar with the challenges my peers encounter every day while executing their duties. I hope that my inclusion in MWAG’s executive would lead to positive changes that could directly impact the lives of media practitioners and their audiences. I hope as an executive we could all grow and learn together.”
The other members of the executive are: Mikey Hutchinson as 1st Vice President — he previously served as 2nd VicePresident; Kern Mason as 2nd Vice President; Assistant-Secretary Bernard Baptiste; and Treasurer Yuri Marryshow.