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CURRENT EXECUTIVE
- The current PAJ Executive was elected in 2022 – 2024 to serve a two-year term:President – Milton Walker
Immediate Past President – George DavisFirst Vice president – Gillian Haughton
Second Vice president – Lloyd B Smith
Secretary – Kimberley Hibbert
Treasurer – Jovan Johnson
Assistant Treasurer/Secretary – Damion Mitchell
Director – Javaughn Keyes
Director – Janella Precius
Director – Dionne Jackson Miller
BIOS
MILTON WALKER – Milton Walker is Deputy General Manager Broadcast & Cable News & Sports at RJRGLEANER Communications Group. He has been a journalist for over two decades. After earning his Bachelor’s degree at the University of the West Indies Communications School – Carimac -he first worked with the now defunct state-owned Jamaica Broadcasting Corporation as a Producer before moving into the News division. His stay at that company while a challenging and dynamic experience, did not last long given the strict controls the Government placed on the independence of the Corporation’s journalistic efforts.
However, he did shine while at the JBC. He covered such diverse issues as the Pope’s visit and the Caricom Heads of Government conference in the Bahamas in 1993. He started the weekly financial programme the Financial Week on Fridays which is now in its eighteenth year.
In 1993 he moved to the new CVM Television as News Editor at 24. There he was responsible for the development of the station’s local news and current affairs programmes. Under his leadership CVM News was a pioneer in news coverage winning over 40 major awards 1994. With Milton Walker at the helm, CVM News has been responsible for the ground breaking coverage of crime, the activities of the police, inner city, rural issues, politics, finance and the environment.
Milton is interested in three main areas Politics, Finance and Crime. Pursuing these issues has taken Milton on a fascinating journey over the last eighteen years and has provided a rich reservoir of understanding of the Jamaican people and the society they inhabit. He has covered almost all of the social ills as well as the achievements of the nation including the infamous gun battles in the inner city communities of Mountain View, Tivoli in 1996 and again in 2001.
For his efforts Milton has been honoured with two Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ) Awards for News Coverage in Mountain View in 2000 and West Kingston in 1998. The Caribbean Broadcasting Union also awarded Milton with the award for Investigative journalism for his work on the failed Nibbi Tractor programme as well as for a documentary on Caribbean integration, both in 1996. Milton also received the PAJ Award for Sports Journalism for his documentary on Soccer Violence in 1997. CVM Television named him employee of the year in 1995.
He has covered stories in most Caribbean territories, Caricom Heads of Government Summits, the Caribbean Development Bank AGM and the Volcano eruption in Montserrat. Milton is also attended numerous conferences and seminars across the region and North America and Europe.
Milton has also covered a wide range of subject matters including the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Kampala, Uganda, State visits including Cuban President Fidel Castro, the death and state Funeral for the late former Prime Ministers Michael Manley in 1997, Hugh Shearer in 2004, all major Jamaican elections between 1993 and 2004 and the National Gas Riots in 1999. The highlight of his career this year has been his anchoring of the station’s coverage of the People’s National Party presidential elections in February where he was on air from 8:30am till 7:30 with only a two hour break.
Milton left CVM in March 2007 and moved to London where worked for the Voice newspaper. He returned to Jamaica in March 2008 to take up an appointment with the RJR Group as News Director for the Jamaica’s largest Communications Group. Later Sports was added to his portfolio. He was the first Caribbean journalist to arrive in Haiti after the 7.0 earthquake devastated that country’s capital. Milton provided the first regional perspective on RJR 94fm and Television Jamaica.
At CVM Television Milton was also responsible for managing the convergence necessitated by the creation of the communications group including Hot 102 and CVM Television to achieve the desired efficiencies and synergies.
He is also Press Freedom advocate and was one of the main Speakers at a conference on Freedom of the press in the Greater Antilles staged by the Centre for Press Freedom in San Juan Puerto Rico in August 2002. He has also been one of the liaison personnel in Jamaica for Reporters Sans Frontières, the Paris based press freedom group.
Milton was selected a One World Broadcasting Trust Fellow in 2003 and also participated in the European Union Trade Commission forum on Trade as a development tool for the Third World in 2002. He was one of the speakers at the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association conference on drugs at Westminster, London in February 2008.
GEORGE DAVIS – George Davis joined the media fraternity in 2005. He is an Executive Producer at SportsMax Limited and has responsibility for the Sportsmax Zone, aired live in 27 markets in the Caribbean and North America. He has oversight for CEEN News and is the host of ‘The Conversation’, a current affairs programme on CEEN TV.
George has provided commentary and analysis on sporting events such as the FIFA World Cup, Summer and Winter Olympics, UEFA Champions League, EUROPA League, Copa America, ISSA Schoolboy Football Competition, Red Stripe Premier League and all major track and field events on the local calendar. George has reported from three NBA All Star Games/Weekends in New Orleans, Los Angeles and Chicago.
A Gleaner columnist since 2012, George honed his journalism skills at Nationwide 90FM. He was Managing Presenter of ‘This Morning’ and co-host of ‘Nationwide at Five’. By the time George left Nationwide in 2016, he was Manager of News and Current Affairs.
George left media briefly, working in Public Relations/Public Education at the National Environment and Planning Agency from March 2008 to July 2010.
George led the University of Technology Jamaica to three World Universities Debating Championships in Singapore, South Africa and Malaysia. He has helped prepare succeeding UTech teams for the same competition.
GILLIAN HAUGHTON – Gillian A. Haughton is a former Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the American Chamber of Commerce of Jamaica (AMCHAM, Jamaica). A seasoned media practitioner, Haughton spent nearly 20 years between the Jamaica Broad-casting Corporation and the RJR Communications Group in various positions, including radio news producer, news and current affairs editor, and television news editor.
She has lectured in the Introduction to Media and Communications course at the International University of the Caribbean, worked as a copy editor for The Gleaner Company, and was public relations director at Advertising & Marketing (Ja).
LLOYD B SMITH – The name Lloyd Barnes Smith is synonymous with the city of Montego Bay, St. James as is the popular and much sought-after community newspaper, The Western Mirror, which he has helmed for over 30 years.
Widely referred to as ‘The Governor’, Mr. Smith is renowned for journalistic prowess, sharp business acumen and unwavering generosity to his beloved city.
For these traits, in 2022, he was unsurprisingly been conferred with the Order of Distinction in the rank of Officer (OD) for service in the field of Business, Media and Community Service.
The proud Cornwall College alumnus discloses that it was during his time in school that he discovered his love for writing after winning a national essay competition.
After graduating from Cornwall College, instead of hurdling head-on into the writing career for which he was destined, Mr. Smith went the more traditional route of teaching.
He was among the first batch of students to attend the Church Teachers’ College in Manchester.
Among the schools at which Mr. Smith taught were Holmwood Technical High School and Craig Head Primary School in Manchester, and St. Georges College and Kingston College in Kingston.
He also served as Principal of Oxford Preparatory School. However, during his tenure there, he saw an opportunity to finally segue into his dream career and he became the editor at Kingston Publishers.
After making his mark at Kingston Publishers, Mr. Smith joined Jamaica Publishing House, a subsidiary of Teachers’ Book Store, in a sales and marketing position, based in Kingston. He was, however, promoted to the entity’s Western Regional Manager, which saw him returning to Montego Bay.
Now back home, Mr. Smith once again gave in to his urge to write. Always still in pursuit of his journalism dreams, he approached the editor of a small community newspaper based in Montego Bay, called The Beacon, to write a column.
“I started to write a column under the pseudonym ‘The Republican’. It turned out to be a very controversial column because I was hitting left right and centre, upsetting the status quo, making life miserable for those in authority,” the newsman says with a twinkle in his eye.
The stir created by Mr. Smith’s column reflected in paper sales, and the rest is history. Soon, destiny landed him a full time job at The Beacon, where he became the editor. However, when he started in his new job, he realised that the publication’s operations were collapsing.
The owner and director of the paper, who had welcomed Mr. Smith with open arms, unceremoniously left the entity.
The entity also suffered the misfortune of its printing press being seized by the bank funding its operations through a loan, for which the equipment was used as collateral, after the firm defaulted.
This made the newspaper heavily dependent on a popular printery in Montego Bay, a move which drained its then meagre funds. These misfortunes left a shocked Mr. Smith to pick up the pieces.
“The paper was crumbling, no ads; [for] many weeks, [the] staff didn’t get paid. I even went home for several weeks [with] no salary and the workers started to rebel; there was unrest,” he recounts.
“One day, one of the workers said, ‘Mr. Smith, you look like our only hope here; what can you do for us? We want you to take over the business’. I said ‘I couldn’t do that. If I were to move in such a position, you all would have to write a letter that clearly [states this]’; so they did the letter,” he says.
Thereafter, the editor formed a management team and got to work, and in 1980, out of the ashes of The Beacon, The Western Mirror was born, published by its own publishing arm, Western Publishers Limited.
It was not an easy undertaking, as rebuilding the company took grit, determination and, most of all, heart.
Mr. Smith recounts how the company finally acquired another printing press but, unfortunately, they could not afford to charter a vehicle to bring it the paper’s location.
He emotionally recalls how dedicated staff members pushed the press on a cart across town to the Western Mirror’s location at the time.
Even with his running of the newly formed company, Mr. Smith was awarded a media fellowship by the then United States Information Service (USIS) to study mass media at the Newhouse School of Communication at Syracuse University, New York, USA, in 1985.
With over 45 years in media and contributions to several other fields, Mr. Smith’s accolades and professional accomplishments read like the making of a well-rounded man of excellence.
In addition to being Managing Director and Editor-in-Chief of the Western Mirror, Mr. Smith holds the distinction of being the longest serving columnist of the Jamaica Observer, writing for the publication since its inception in 1993.
He also copped the Pegasus News Chief Award and the Advertising Agencies Association of Jamaica (AAAJ) Media Personality of the Year and lifetime achievement Award, in 2008.
The veteran also received the Sam Sharpe Award for Journalism from the St. James Municipal Corporation and Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry Award for notable contribution in the field of Journalism.
Under Mr. Smith’s leadership, the Western Mirror has received numerous awards and citations, including the Press Association of Jamaica’s Best Small Publication Award on six occasions, the Marcus Garvey First Memorial Achievement Award, Print Media and the St. James Parish Council Trailblazer Award in recognition of Montego Bay’s 35th Anniversary of its attainment of city status.
In addition to his media career, Mr. Smith is a former Member of Parliament and was Deputy Speaker of the House of the House of Representatives in 2011.
In the area of philanthropy, Mr. Smith was the chief sponsor and organiser of the Lloyd B. Smith Community Football League in St. James from 1979 to 2019. He is also an honorary director of the Committee for the Upliftment of the Mentally Ill (CUMI), and a Justice of the Peace (JP).
He is an accomplished theatre actor and was first from western Jamaica to cop the local Actor Boy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role.
Mr. Smith is married and the proud father of two children.
While his list of accolades keeps growing, the veteran newsman remains the undisputed ‘Governor’ of Montego Bay.
This profile was published by the Jamaica Information Service, JIS.
DAMION MITCHELL – Damion Mitchell has held a long career in media, spanning print, radio, television and online. He entered in 1998 as a trainee reporter at the community newspaper, The Mandeville Weekly, where he worked for four years. During his last two years there, he became a Manchester correspondent for The Gleaner and recorded his debut in television as a host and producer for three programmes on cable. In 2003, Damion joined the staff of The Gleaner in Kingston and later held several positions on its news desk as well as The Gleaner/Power 106 News Centre. He is a graduate of the Caribbean School of Media and Communication at the University of the West Indies, Mona, where he specialised in radio and later, the faculty of Social Sciences where he studied political science and criminology. Damion is also a multi award-winning journalist.
ARCHIBALD GORDON – Archibald Gordon is Managing Director of Archibald Gordon Communications, a public relations and media training entity as well as Director of Marketing and Communications at the Caribbean Maritime University which he joined in November 2017 after a 16-year full time career in journalism.
Prior to joining the senior management of the CMU, Mr. Gordon spent just under seven years as the Television News Editor at the RJR Communications Group which he joined in 2001 as a reporter in the Radio division. He had editorial responsibility for all television news and current affairs broadcasts including the flagship Prime Time News (for which he’s co-anchor). He was also Supervising Editor for the award winning current affairs programme All Angles with Dionne Jackson Miller.
Archibald was project manager for the RJR Group Newscentre’s coverage of the 2016 Parliamentary Election. He also planned and coordinated Television coverage for other special events such as hurricanes, local government elections, political party conferences and breaking news events.
DIONNE JACKSON MILLER – Dionne Jackson Miller has been working in media for over 20 years. She has hosted a daily radio current affairs programme “Beyond the Headlines” on RJR 94 FM for over 20 years, and a weekly TV current affairs programme “All Angles” on TVJ for over 10 years. She is also a practicing attorney-at-law, having been called to the Bar in 2010.
Her multiple academic qualifications include a post-graduate certificate in Media Law, a Master of Laws in Human Rights Law (Distinction), and a post-graduate certificate in University Teaching. She is an adjunct lecturer in Constitutional Law at the University of the West Indies, and a part-time Lecturer at EXED Community College. She is a two-time Journalist of the Year, served two terms as President of the Press Association of Jamaica, and continues to serve on the Association’s Executive.
She is also a Ph.D. candidate in the Faculty of Law at the University of the West Indies where her area of research is Access to Information.
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