Celebrating Jones P’s legacy

Jones P Madeira was the voice of calm the country needed on July 27, 1990.

As TTT’s head of news, he announced a coup attempt was underway while surrounded by armed Muslimeen insurrectionists, sitting alongside their leader, Imam Yasin Abu Bakr.

He gave no sign of panic as he spoke to citizens, relying on his controlled skill as a broadcast journalist.

Off the air, he would mediate communication between the insurrectionists and the TT Defence Force who were making it clear that the country had not abdicated its commitment to democratic governance.

It’s this historic moment many most likely recalled when Mr Madeira’s family announced his death on January 10, at age 80.

He had spent his final week at the Mt Hope hospital being tended to for “serious medical conditions.”

Mr Madeira’s journalism career is legendary. It spans radio, television and newspapers, as the editor-in-chief at Trinidad and Tobago Newsday and Trinidad Guardian.

He began working as a journalist hustling stories at Piarco Airport, a building now long decommissioned, talking to important people as they arrived or left the country.

The experience probably sharpened the young man’s wanderlust, as he quickly moved on to the start of a long career in electronic media throughout the Caribbean.

He began as a reporter for NBS Radio 610 before being promoted to the top rank of the station’s journalism team, working on the popular magazine radio show, The NewsMakers.

By then he’d had a taste of the way the world news-gathering machine worked after spending two years with the BBC’s Caribbean Service.

His work with the Caribbean Broadcasting Union, undertaken decades before the internet, was a pioneering effort at creating radio programmes such as CaribScope and CaribVision for distribution throughout the region.

As TTT’s head of news, he worked to strengthen the news and current affairs content of the state-owned broadcast house, the only television station in the country at the time.

In the wake of a perceived challenge to the integrity of the newsroom at the Trinidad Guardian, Mr Madeira resigned his position, along with managing director Alwin Chow, many editors and senior staff.

From there, he would lend his talents to the business of corporate communications, serving as communications director at the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (Carec) where he would oversee the production of radio and television programmes and educational materials in response to the growing incidence of HIV/Aids.

He also served as communications manager for the Ministry of Health and then was appointed court information and protocol manager of the Judiciary.

His final assignment was at Newsday, which he led after the death of our founding editor-in-chief Therese Mills. He remained our editorial consultant until his retirement.

In 2018, Mr Madeira received the Chaconia Medal (Gold) for public service and journalism. He was inducted into the CBU Caribbean Media Hall of Fame in 2000.

Newsday celebrates Mr Madeira – Jones P to his friends – for his patriotism, wit and most enduringly, his example of calm, considered leadership.

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