Other News Jamaica ~ 1991 (Newspaper Print & Radio)

Features Clarence 'Ben' Brodie, editor of the Jamaican community newspaper Boulevard News, and Suzanne Francis-Hinds, a journalist, lecturer and radio programmer. In a time before the advent of the Digital Age, 'News print', radio and television were extensively and somewhat exclusively the prime source of any country's daily news. Newspapers such as The Daily Gleaner (founded in 1834), and The Jamaica Record provide the 'main stream' news to the general public. Boulevard News a community newspaper sought to broaden the 'scope' of what was published as news. What defines news can be broadly defined as the dispersion of information, the general purpose of which is to inform, entertain, educate, with an emphasis on recent events or happenings. Today in the 21st century the internet has provided a social media, giving ordinary 'everyday people' a voice. Mobile phones, each equipped with high a resolution camera, facilitate instant rapid 'public reporting', with immediate potential evidence. Cellular mobile phones, having become an interwoven part of the fabric of our daily public lives, can be used positively as a tool for the protection of exposing what is real... i.e. the truth. The professions of journalist and photographer are now also in the hands of the unqualified public, free, unrestrained and unrestricted, and without the limitations of advertisers and profit making. Today The Press Association of Jamaica's Code of Practice states that: "The rights of freedom of expression and the freedom to receive and impart information are fundamental rights of all human beings" Ben Brodie: " We all have the right to take pictures of anyone, anywhere, as long as they are in the public domain."  Today Ben Brodie is an honored journalist, noted for his work towards improving the welfare of Jamaican society. He's worked with the Union of Journalists and Allied Employees, and been a former president of the Press Association of Jamaica. He's even been a 'guest columnist' for The Gleaner. In 2017 he drafted a well-researched Collective Security Plan, proposing ways of reducing crime in Jamaica by 70 per cent. These were published in the August-September issue of the community newspaper — The News. “It is about working together on a sustainable anti-crime plan conceived by the community and implemented at the community level, as opposed to 'solutions' conceived and imposed on the community from outside.” Since independence/emancipation anti-crime measures have failed to stem crime and violence in Jamaica. Stopping the proliferation of guns and ammunition coming into Jamaica remains a significant part of the solution. National Heroes Marcus Garvey and Bob Marley were proposed to be used as the patrons of the Collective Security Plan, to inspire justice, peace, and love... Suzanne Francis-Hinds, a journalist, lecturer and radio programmer, discusses the attributes of Journalism, and what constitutes 'a story' for the Women's Feature Service. (Suzanne Francis-Hinds became Suzanne Francis-Brown, after her marriage to Professor Winston Aggrey Brown.) brotherwhitelion This film was made with the assistance from The Commission Of The European Communities.