The late journalist George John (Hon. D. Lit; HBM, Gold) did not go from sitting in the newsroom in the morning to working alongside the Prime Minister in the Parliament in the afternoon. Here is the chronology. John was editor of the the British-owned, now defunct, Daily Mirror in the mid-60s. When it folded he went into the field of public relations. His first job in this regard was as PRO for the T&T Chamber of Commerce, located on South Quay, Port-of-Spain, upstairs the Fort San Andres Building. On leaving there he was manager of a PR company known as Voice & Vision with offices on Oxford Street, Port-of-Spain. It was while working there he was approached by then Prime Minister Dr Eric Williams to become head of the Government Information Division.
He at first declined. However Dr Williams would not take no for an answer. At the time Voice and Vision had on its accounts the very lucrative Caroni Ltd contract. The late PM put it bluntly, either take the job being offered or V&V would lose the Caroni Ltd contract. John considered all factors and took the job and because he never did anything lightly he went on to create the blueprint by which the Information Division would eventually operate. By the time the public relations chapter in his life came around he was already a famous journalist, known throughout the region due to his work as the Federal Correspondent with the Daily Gleaner in Jamaica. This meant he was based for a time in Jamaica and he travelled the region to the islands involved in the Federation effort and formed lasting professional relationships not only with the politicians but with the journalists.
He could pick up the phone and call at any time Grantley Adams, Norman Manley, Alexander Bustamante, Cheddi Jagan, Robert Bradshaw and Eric Williams. They all respected his work as a journalist. Williams made the mistake of so many politicians and journalists, then and now, of thinking that the work of independent journalism could be pressed into the service of a state public relations machine in order to influence popular public opinion. That it's all the same thing. It is not.
John soon found himself in the "cold room" along with the same emissary who Williams gave the task of journeying up to Hilltop Drive, Champs Fleurs, to persuade him to take the job, none other than the late Dod Alleyne. It was after he left Whitehall that John eventually went back into active journalism as editor of the Trinidad Express for a few years. All of this is chronicled in his autobiographical work Beyond The Front Page, with particular reference to the chapter titled "PR Beckons."
Deborah John
Journalist