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A Caribbean Investigative Journalism Network (CIJN) team has won the 2025 Inter American Press Association (IAPA) Excellence in Journalism Award in the Migration Journalism “Claudio Paolillo” category with “Tricked into Sex Slavery: Global Crackdown hasn’t Stopped Caribbean Traffickers.”
The IAPA Awards Committee described the report on the case of a young Cuban migrant in Suriname as “a powerful and well-documented investigative report exposing the tragedy of human trafficking in the Caribbean.”
The CIJN team was led by Editor/Mentor, Freeman Rogers (British Virgin Islands) and included: Valerie Fris (Suriname); Natanga Smith (Barbados); Roseann Pile (Barbados/Antigua and Barbuda); Soyini Grey (Trinidad and Tobago); and Marion Ali (Belize).
The same story also won top honours at the 36th Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) Awards Ceremony on August 20 in Barbados for Excellence in Responsible Reporting on Trafficking in Persons.
Another CIJN report entitled: ‘Seniors: Climate Change Forgotten Ones’ won the CBU Production Awards (Radio) Category for Best Investigative Report. That team was led by Editor/Mentor Wesley Gibbings (Trinidad and Tobago) and included: Esther Jones (Barbados), Natalee Legore (Jamaica/Trinidad and Tobago), and Ryan Bachoo (Trinidad and Tobago).
‘Barbados’ Forgotten Few’ – the multimedia version of this story - also earned Special Mention in the Print Category of the CBU Awards.
This series of achievements by CIJN regional teams follows on successes at CBU Awards in 2022 and 2024.
In 2022, CIJN’s David Papannah (Guyana) won the Intra-ACP EU-GCCA+ Project, Enhancing Climate Resilience in CARIFORUM countries award with ‘The Climate Test of Guyana’s Mangroves’, edited by Gibbings.
Esther Jones (Barbados), working with Editor/Mentor Sasha Chavkin (USA) earned Special Mention for ‘The Cost of Being a Climate Change Champion.’
In 2024, Jones, with Gibbings as Editor/Mentor, won top honours in CariSECURE 2.0 Award for Excellence in Responsible Reporting on Youth Involvement in Crime with ‘The Tropical Journey of a Firearm.’ That very year, Jones was longlisted for the One World Media Awards - Freelance Journalist of the Year.
She also received Special Mention for her work on ‘Mental Break’ under the direction of Editor/Mentor, Jim Clancy (USA).
CIJN is the region’s premier investigative journalism organisation producing engaging stories for multiple platforms. It was launched in December 2019 by the Media Institute of the Caribbean (MIC) which is headquartered in Jamaica with journalistic reach in 22 Pan-Caribbean states.
MIC President and CIJN instructor, Ms Kiran Maharaj, said “such recognition of the work of the CIJN reinforces the value of the network’s commitment to harnessing regional journalism resources through high-quality programmes of training followed by regional collaborations involving the work of leading editors/mentors.”
“Over the years, we have developed a methodology focused on compelling storytelling, research and data, and verification techniques to ensure accuracy,” she said. “It is our intention to further reinforce such journalistic values in all our activities and watch them come to life through the stories we tell. As Caribbean voices, we must be an active creator of our own stories to truly reflect our circumstances.”
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