Desmond Richards is new PAJ president
DESMOND Richards, news editor at the Sunday Herald, was yesterday unanimously elected as president of the Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ), at the association’s rescheduled 60th annual general meeting, held at its East Avenue headquarters in Kingston yesterday.
“Let us look forward to a new dawn in the Press Association of Jamaica. We must bring new meaning to journalism in Jamaica,” Richards said in his acceptance speech.
At the same time, however, he had concerns about the financial state of the association.
“The PAJ must be run as a business. We cannot allow this to continue,” Richards said as he referred to the fact that the association was broke.
Sports journalist Horace Helps was elected as first vice-president, while Carole Beckford was elected as second vice-president.
The other members of the PAJ executive are:
* Andrea Downer, secretary;
* Ralston Hyman, treasurer, and Rohan Powell, assistant treasurer/secretary.
Elizabeth Bennett, Gillian Haughton, Dawn Muirhead, John Maxwell and Ken Chaplain were also voted in to serve on the PAJ’s executive body.