Rhon­dor Dowlat

Se­nior Re­porter

rhon­dor.dowlat@guardian.co.tt

The na­tion is to­day griev­ing the loss of Jones P Madeira, a ti­tan of T&T’s me­dia land­scape, whose un­par­al­leled con­tri­bu­tions to jour­nal­ism and pub­lic ser­vice have left an en­dur­ing lega­cy.

Madeira, who died yes­ter­day at the age of 80, spent his fi­nal days at the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, Mt Hope, where he was be­ing treat­ed for mul­ti­ple med­ical con­di­tions.

He left to mourn his wife Mel­ba and chil­dren, Melanie, Lo­rilee and Justin, who ex­pressed their grat­i­tude to the med­ical staff for their com­pas­sion­ate care dur­ing his fi­nal days.

Madeira was hailed as a na­tion­al icon, a man whose ca­reer helped shape and el­e­vate the stan­dards of jour­nal­ism across print, ra­dio, and tele­vi­sion.

Trib­utes flood­ed in from col­leagues, pub­lic fig­ures, and friends who hailed him as a con­sum­mate pro­fes­sion­al, a men­tor and a pa­tri­ot.

Madeira’s ca­reer was marked not on­ly by jour­nal­is­tic ex­cel­lence but al­so by his deep com­mit­ment to his coun­try.

For­mer news ex­ec­u­tive Do­minic Kaliper­sad high­light­ed Madeira’s pa­tri­o­tism and courage dur­ing the 1990 coup at­tempt by the Ja­maat-al-Mus­limeen.

Kaliper­sad said, “Jones P Madeira was the ul­ti­mate jour­nal­ist. He mas­tered and in­flu­enced all arms of the me­dia—print, ra­dio, and tele­vi­sion—do­ing ground­break­ing work, ir­re­spec­tive of po­lit­i­cal or cor­po­rate pres­sures. Most of all, he was a pa­tri­ot; he faced off with Yasin Abu Bakr dur­ing the 1990 coup at­tempt in de­fence of the coun­try and its democ­ra­cy. He re­mained un­her­ald­ed for sav­ing many lives dur­ing that dark pe­ri­od.”

Kaliper­sad said while Madeira was award­ed the Cha­co­nia Medal (Gold) for his con­tri­bu­tions to jour­nal­ism, it re­mained “shame­ful that he was nev­er be­stowed a na­tion­al award for the role he played in sav­ing lives in 1990.”

Madeira’s ca­reer be­gan in the 1960s as a young re­porter at Pi­ar­co Air­port, where he in­ter­viewed no­table trav­ellers. He went on to ex­cel in var­i­ous me­dia plat­forms, work­ing with NBS Ra­dio 610, the BBC Caribbean Ser­vice in Lon­don, and the Caribbean Broad­cast­ing Union.

As head of news and cur­rent af­fairs at Trinidad and To­ba­go Tele­vi­sion (TTT) in the 1980s, Madeira ex­pand­ed pro­gram­ming and in­tro­duced pi­o­neer­ing ini­tia­tives. He al­so held lead­er­ship roles at the T&T Guardian and News­day, where his ed­i­to­r­i­al in­flu­ence el­e­vat­ed jour­nal­is­tic stan­dards.

For­mer col­league Jai Paras­ram ex­pressed his ad­mi­ra­tion for Madeira, stat­ing, “I am deeply sad­dened by the pass­ing of my friend and col­league. We worked on many spe­cial projects, most no­tably get­ting a Caribbean news ex­change pro­gramme start­ed. He was a true and ded­i­cat­ed pro­fes­sion­al and one of the most re­spect­ed jour­nal­ists of his day. My deep­est con­do­lences go to Mel­ba and the rest of his fam­i­ly.”

Madeira was wide­ly re­gard­ed for shap­ing the ca­reers of many young jour­nal­ists.

For­mer news an­chor Francesca Hawkins said, “I owe my ca­reer in tele­vi­sion to Jones. He guid­ed us with in­tegri­ty and pro­fes­sion­al­ism. The jour­nal­ism field in Trinidad and To­ba­go owes so much to him.”

For­mer court ed­i­tor Fran­cis Joseph re­called Madeira’s pas­sion for men­tor­ing younger re­porters, de­scrib­ing him as a leader who “looked out for young tal­ent and en­cour­aged ex­cel­lence in news re­port­ing.”

MATT rep­re­sen­ta­tive Dale Enoch re­marked, “Jones P Madeira was a ge­nius who in­spired count­less jour­nal­ists. His con­tri­bu­tions to the me­dia fra­ter­ni­ty can­not be over­stat­ed.”

For­mer Port-of-Spain May­or Louis Lee Sing de­scribed Madeira’s death as “the end of a long and fer­tile sea­son of good jour­nal­ism,” ac­knowl­edg­ing the sig­nif­i­cant role Madeira played in shap­ing the coun­try’s me­dia land­scape.

Madeira’s in­flu­ence ex­tend­ed be­yond jour­nal­ism. As com­mu­ni­ca­tions di­rec­tor at the Caribbean Epi­demi­ol­o­gy Cen­tre (CAREC), he spear­head­ed cam­paigns to raise aware­ness about HIV/AIDS. He lat­er served as com­mu­ni­ca­tions man­ag­er for the Ju­di­cia­ry of T&T and the Min­istry of Health, demon­strat­ing his ver­sa­til­i­ty and ded­i­ca­tion to pub­lic ser­vice.

For­mer col­league John Vic­tor de­scribed him as “the con­sum­mate me­dia pro­fes­sion­al” whose in­flu­ence will be felt for gen­er­a­tions.

Fu­ner­al arrange­ments are yet to be dis­closed.