Watch that grammar!

PRESIDENT GEORGE Maxwell Richards yesterday called on the media to pay more attention to their writing and verbal skills, particularly basic grammar and spelling. The President was speaking at a luncheon hosted by the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) in honour of executives of the Commonwealth Journalists Association (CJA) at the Crowne Plaza Hotel. “Basic grammar and spelling,” he said, “suffer innumerable casualties in the media.” The President said he could not over-emphasise the need for training, and implored managers to place value on training. “The need for it is self-evident when we look at our enormous potential and compare that to our less impressive achievements.”

President Richards suggested that the proposed University of Trinidad and Tobago could have within its quarters a School of Print and Broadcast Journalism to develop optimum standards in the profession. Stating that the quality of reporting was on a “downward slide”, the President pointed out that “good and accurate handling of the news seems to be under threat by a marked trend of gory front pages. The President praised MATT for the accomplishment of securing the relocation of the headquarters of the CJA from London to Port-of-Spain. CJA President Hassan Shahriar said the organisation has been wrongly branded as a British organisation. He said he believed the organisation should be based in a developing country and added that the CJA wanted to be one of the first international NGOs stationed in the Caribbean. Shahriar and other CJA executives are currently in the country to source a location for their new headquarters.