Caribbean Journalists Converge in Belize for CBU AGM, Media Awards

Belize is hosting this year’s Caribbean Broadcast Union’s  55th Annual General Assembly in Placencia from August 11–14. The keynote speaker is Belize’s Prime Minister, John Briceño. The AGM is being held under the theme ‘Media and the Environment’.

The opening ceremony takes place tonight at the Naia Resort and Spa and will be broadcast by Great Belize Productions (News 5). The 35th Caribbean Media Awards is scheduled to take place on Tuesday night at the same venue.

In 2024, the CBU Secretariat set a new record, receiving 484 submissions across 63 categories from 34 organisations representing 13 countries and territories in the Dutch, English, and Spanish Caribbean.

The single outlet with the highest number of nominations is Great Belize Productions Limited. GBPL’s television service, Channel 5, garnered twenty-five (25) nominations.

One of the sponsors of this year’s CBU award is the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC). The Centre is sponsoring seven climate change categories. “The CCCCC’s sponsorship underscores its commitment to promoting climate change education and advocacy through diverse media channels.”

“The CCCCC is proud to support these CBU awards to celebrate media excellence in climate change,”  said Dr. Colin Young, Executive Director of the CCCCC. In addition to the awards, the CCCCC, in collaboration with the CBU, is hosting a regional media forum on climate change on August 12. This forum encourages more extensive coverage of climate issues, underscoring the media’s vital role in climate reporting. Participants for the forum began arriving in Belize on Saturday. On Sunday, the group travelled to Laughing Bird Caye off the coast of Placencia to familiarise themselves with the work that Fragments of Hope is doing, specifically coral restoration at different sites.

Fragments of Hope is a community-based organisation in Placencia, Belize, dedicated to the restoration of coral reef habitats and the sustainable management of associated ecosystems. They have been particularly successful in their efforts at Laughing Bird Caye National Park, where they have outplanted about 96,000 nursery-grown coral fragments.

Coral bleaching is a significant issue affecting reefs worldwide. It occurs when corals, stressed by changes in conditions such as temperature, light, or nutrients, expel the symbiotic algae living in their tissues, causing them to turn white and often leading to coral death. Fragments of Hope focusses on re-seeding reefs with resilient coral species to help them recover from such events.

Monique Vernon of Fragments of Hope told reporters that the organisation employs several methods to restore corals. “Right now, the one we are focussing on is using cement. We would mix cement. Put those in those ziploc bags and then we would have divers waiting for those with corals. Basically, it’s going and finding a sturdy area…there is a criteria how we go about selecting a site to restore. Once all of that is checked we go to that site and basically, we take the same cement, put it on a study dead coral and then we attach a live fragmented coral in that.” Monitoring efforts continue.

The Caribbean journalists also had the opportunity to snorkel and see first-hand the works of Fragments of Hope.