The Ju­di­cia­ry has joined the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty in mourn­ing the loss of one of the Caribbean’s most il­lus­tri­ous jour­nal­ists and for­mer Court Pro­to­col and In­for­ma­tion Man­ag­er, Jones P. Madeira.

"Madeira’s con­tri­bu­tions to jour­nal­ism are leg­endary," a state­ment is­sued on Mon­day said.

As the head of the Court Pro­to­col and In­for­ma­tion Unit (CPIU) at the Ju­di­cia­ry of Trinidad and To­ba­go, the state­ment said Madeira brought, “his trade­mark in­sight, tact, and grace to the role.”

“His in­flu­ence went far be­yond his job de­scrip­tion,” the state­ment ob­served.  “Mr. Madeira’s qui­et poise and calm de­meanour were hall­marks of his lead­er­ship. He be­came a much beloved and val­ued mem­ber of the se­nior man­age­ment team whose wise coun­sel proved in­valu­able. Af­ter leav­ing the Ju­di­cia­ry, he re­mained a god­fa­ther of sorts—a men­tor, an ad­vi­sor, a friend and ad­vo­cate to many of the Ju­di­cia­ry’s em­ploy­ees.”

The Ju­di­cia­ry’s state­ment not­ed:

"Madeira’s voice res­onat­ed across bor­ders. He spear­head­ed ini­tia­tives at NBS 610, shap­ing the news land­scape with his vi­sion­ary ap­proach to cur­rent af­fairs. His pi­o­neer­ing lead­er­ship at Trinidad and To­ba­go Tele­vi­sion (TTT), the Trinidad Guardian, and the Caribbean Broad­cast­ing Union (CBU) strength­ened me­dia col­lab­o­ra­tion across the re­gion, earn­ing him in­duc­tion in­to the CBU Caribbean Me­dia Hall of Fame in 2000. Madeira’s lead­er­ship at re­gion­al in­sti­tu­tions such as the Caribbean News Agency (CANA), CARI­COM, and UN­ESCO fur­ther high­light­ed his ded­i­ca­tion to Caribbean in­te­gra­tion."

Madeira died on Fri­day (Jan­u­ary 10, 2025) at the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex.

He was 80 years old.