Great Belize Production Snags 8 CBU Awards

For yet another year, Channel Five and its team of reporters, cameramen and editors have made the company and the country proud. This year, Channel Five’s team won eight awards and two special mentions at the Caribbean Broadcasting Union’s thirty-fifth Caribbean Media Awards on Tuesday night. The awards in the television category for which we won include Best News Story, Best News Item on Poverty Reduction and Empowerment of Vulnerable Groups, Best Sports Story, Best Magazine Program, Best Investigative Item in the Digital Content category, Best Climate Change News Item, Best Commercial Spot, Special mention for our Open Your Eyes Morning Show, Special mention for Best Investigative Item in the digital category. We also received the award for Best Director and Best Sound Engineer. News Five’s Marion Ali put together this story on the award winners.

 

Marion Ali, Reporting

It was a momentous occasion in Placencia on Tuesday night, as the name Great Belize Television was repeatedly announced. It was the Caribbean Media Awards ceremony for excellence in journalism. The reporters and videographers who submitted excellent news stories in 2023 to the CBU were announced. Adding to the team’s success were winning categories in sound engineering, producer and digital content. Reporter Paul Lopez walked away with three of those awards, including one in Health Education Journalism with a story titled “Bridging the Gaps of Mental Illness Treatment” with videographer, Chris Mangar.

 

Paul Lopez, C.B.U. Award Winner

“When I heard my name called for the first time, I was definitely surprised. I think the first one was Best News Item and I could recall now walking up on stage and getting a bit emotional because when you’re there it’s completely different than when you watch it on a live stream like we have been doing for years. To be there and to actually receive this award on stage and having all those reflections and flashbacks of my journey, career journey, as well as my personal journey, I don’t think there’s anything like it and no other feeling, at least up to this point in my life, no greater feeling.”

 

Lopez also won the Best News Story for Television with a story titled “A Competency-Based Approach to Education in Belize” with Darrell Moguel and Kenroy Michael as videographers, and George Tillett as editor. Lopez’s third winning piece was in the Best Sports Story for Television with George Tillett as videographer.

 

 

 

Hipolito Novelo won the Best Climate Change News Item, along with videographer Darrel Moguel for a story titled “Cultivating Hope: Belize’s Seaweed Farming Industry Takes Root.”

 

 

 

 

Hipolito Novelo, C.B.U. Award Winner

“In this particular story, we focus on TNC’s aim to empower women down south, so what we did is we went down south, we saw the women and the participants participating in how to create their own seaweed farm and the benefits that come along with seaweed.”

 

 

 

Marion Ali

“What kind of challenges did you have, if any?”

 

Hipolito Novelo

“There weren’t any challenges, per se. I mean, the sun mi hot, you get sunburn up, so I think that was the only challenge we had. I can’t swim, so I remained in the boat. I couldn’t see. I, we couldn’t dive to see exactly what they were doing underwater, but we got some footage on T.N.C. and the women explained to us what exactly they were doing in terms of trying to tie the rope and in terms of planting the seaweed branches there.”

 

Novelo also received a special mention for the Best Investigative Item in the Digital content category. In the Best Magazine Program for Television, Open Your Eyes received a Special Mention for its “Easter Special” with hosts, Sabreena Daly and John Palacio and producers, Viannie Reyes and Brianna Bennett. The videographers for this show were Rick Romero and Joel Wesbey. Great Belize Productions Ltd and producer, videographer, Rick Romero also won in the Best Commercial Spot with a piece called “UNITEX: No Worries With A Spark Beach Cruiser”

 

 

Rick Romero, C.B.U. Award Winner

“The commercial for this year was for a company called Unitex Belize, so we did a commercial on the beach cruiser that they are advertising. It’s a little boy, you know, riding a bike in traffic and saying he gets to school on time because he rides a beach cruiser, right? So it’s a cute little commercial. It’s a challenge, you know, in this business, to top your previous work and to come up with new ideas, whether it be for a story, a commercial, a documentary, you know. After all these years I’ve been doing this, it’s easy, but it’s also very challenging because you have to find new ways of telling stories.”

 

Romero also won the award for Best Director for television. The award for Best News Story on Poverty Reduction & Empowerment of Vulnerable Groups went to Duane Moody, who is no longer with us. He won that award with videographers Darrel Moguel and Rick Romero. And the Best Sound Engineer for television went to Luis Sosa.

 

 

 

Luis Sosa, C.B.U. Award Winner

“I feel very honored and very happy to have won my first award as a  TV song technician, as you know, that you could have good video, but not good song and that don’t go together well. I do it every day, so it wasn’t that difficult, just a matter of, you know, getting the sound right on the TV, mixing board, you know, and I did it with the steel pan with Alex Evans, and he’s a professional, so it wasn’t that hard.”

 

 

 

The winners were selected from among four hundred and forty-four submissions in several categories in print, radio, television and digital media. Channel Five’s CEO, Marleni Cuellar puts the fierceness of the competition into perspective.

 

Marleni Cuellar, C.E.O., Channel 5

“There were over four hundred entries into this year’s CMAs and the awards submissions, the numbers just keep growing and growing and the competition keeps getting tighter and tighter. And so the pressure is definitely there to be able to keep up to standard with what we have always been capable of achieving. I am incredibly proud for my team that Secure these awards and for the extended support team at Channel 5 that works to be able to keep the environment conducive to creating these types of awards.”

 

Climate and Environmental Journalist from Trinidad, Kalain Hosein, who won several awards in 2023, said on Open Your Eyes today that he was happy that the Caribbean Broadcast Union decided on creating an award category for environmental journalism.

 

Kalain Hosein, Climate & Environmental Journalist, Trinidad

“We heard yesterday at several of their panels about how the media landscape has changed and how editors should be prioritizing environment, weather climate stories as well, especially when they impact so many people across the region. It doesn’t come as a surprise to me because if you have been following, a lot of the CARICOM Heads of Government meetings, they have been putting climate change at the forefront of many of their discussions and it seems to be a topic that has gained regional prominence.”

 

The awards ceremony for the 2024 winners will be held in Barbados next year. Marion Ali for News Five.