BCJ marks 40 years with conference on trust, disasters and digital media

MONTEGO BAY — The Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica marked its 40th anniversary on June 25, 2026 with a conference framed around legacy, transformation and the industry’s next chapter, drawing Caribbean regulators, broadcasters, researchers and youth voices to examine trust, disasters and digital change.

Host Terry Carell welcomed delegates including BCJ Chairman Professor Lloyd Waller, Executive Director Cordell Green, ATSC President Madeleine Noland, and Barbados Broadcasting Authority Chairman Dr the Honourable Allison Leacock.

Waller opened by arguing that Jamaica’s media ecosystem has shifted so sharply that influencers and short-form platforms can outpace legacy stations overnight. He urged broadcasters to treat data, local content and technological adaptation as central to remaining competitive, warning small island states against lagging while tools such as agentic artificial intelligence reshape how audiences find news.

Leacock’s keynote, titled “Trust on Life Support,” said global news trust remains stuck near 40 per cent and that 58 per cent of people worldwide struggle to tell real online information from false. Citing Caribbean cases of viral vaccine rumour and a forged Bahamas CARICOM withdrawal notice, she recalled that Prime Minister Mia Mottley, at a CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in Jamaica last July, cast AI-fuelled disinformation as a threat to democracy. She urged regulators to become guarantors of authenticity through content credentials, human investigative journalism and media literacy.

A BCJ-UNESCO rapid assessment after Hurricane Melissa found roughly 67 per cent of media operators running only partly, about one in five offline, and 112 staff unable to work after injury, closures or property damage. Panellists including Dr Claire Grant, UNESCO’s Dr Paul Hector, More FM’s Patrick Williams and the Development Bank of Jamaica pressed for media to be treated as critical infrastructure in disaster law, with fuel priority, training and financing for resilience.

Other sessions covered Jamaica’s ATSC 3.0 digital transition, radio’s role in emergencies, Fulbright scholar Kita Williams’s Project Iris on a sovereign Jamaican language model, and young creators’ demand for authenticity and safer online spaces. The Commission also spotlighted a forthcoming Content Code to replace the children’s programming code and honoured retiring technical services director Donovan Campbell for more than 22 years’ service.