Jamaica's Janet Silvera wins top journalism honor
Reports in Gleaner newspaper receive global recognition
Bevan Springer
KINGSTON, Jamaica (January 12, 2010) – Jamaica’s Janet Silvera was recently presented with the prestigious Hector Bernard/Theodore Sealy Award for "Best News Journalist." at the Press Association of Jamaica's (PAJ) National Journalism Awards Ceremony.
Silvera, a senior reporter for Jamaica’s Gleaner Newspaper and "Hospitality Jamaica" coordinator, received praise for her articles regarding incestuous sexual abuse. Response to Gleaner’s articles f came from readers around the globe.
In May of 2009, Silvera broke the story of four sisters who were seeking justice from their father’s sexual abuse, after alleging he began raping them when they were as young as four years old.
The family migrated to the United States, and it was while there that that the daughters initially filed charges against him. He fled the United States in 1988 in the middle of the trial at the U.S. Family Court in New York State, and moved back to eastern Jamaica. A report was made to the Jamaican police in July 2006 and he was arrested in 2008.
Silvera's winning series included poignant stories from the daughters of the accused, which generated an outpouring of national and international responses from people who had suffered sexual abuse, and from organizations that treat and support victims of sexual abuse.
Silvera received a letter from Gretchen Paules, the administrative director of Let Go, Let Peace Come In Foundation, whose mission is to help heal and support adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse worldwide.
Paules, noted that “Only recently have laws been enacted in the US to help battle the statute of limitations rules that have been protecting the perpetrators of these crimes. By uniting survivors from around the globe we hope to show legislators and health care officials that childhood sexual abuse has grown to epidemic proportions and that positive changes need to be made."
Janet Silvera had been marketing officer at the Jamaica Tourist Board before adopting a career in jounalism. In 1993 she joined the Gleaner Company Limited.
Silvera is constantly honing her skills in journalism and has become an integral part of the Gleaner team. She was appointed coordinator of the innovative bimonthly tourism trade publication Hospitality Jamaica, five years ago; in addition to being appointed senior writer of the Caribbean’s Gleaner newspaper
Silvera is president of the Western Jamaica Media Association (WJMA), a director of the Press Association of Jamaica. She has previously served as director of the Montego Bay Chamber of Commerce and Industry and as a member of the Kiwanis Club of Providence. Silvera is a 2006 American Express Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA) awardee for Excellence in Tourism Reporting.
Photo:The Gleaner's Janet Silvera accepts the Hector Bernard/Theodore Sealy Award for Best News Journalist from Ruthlyn Johnson, Senior Communications Officer of the Jamaica Public Service Company Limited at the PAJ Awards in Kingston.
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