DR Hopeton Dunn has been appointed chairman of the Broadcasting Commission, succeeding Dr Simon Clarke who served as a commissioner for the last four years.

At the same time, two other new members have been appointed to the commission to serve for the next five years, joining six others recently reappointed by Governor-General Professor Kenneth Hall.

The two other new appointees are recently retired chief parliamentary counsel Hyacinth Lindsay QC, and journalist and author Tanya Batson-Savage.

The returning members of the commission are Claude Robinson, Rosemarie Vernon, Dr Elaine Wallace, Erica Gordon, Rev Canon Peter Mullings and Elaine Foster-Allen.

The new chairman is a media specialist, communication scholar and technology policy analyst. He currently heads the Telecommunications Policy and Management Programme (TPM) at the Mona School of Business, University of the West Indies.

Dr Dunn, who previously served as a commissioner on the Broadcasting Commission, is chairman of the Communications Policy and Technology Division of the International Association for Media and Communication Research (IAMCR). He is also the outgoing chairman of the Creative Production and Training Centre Limited (CPTC), a board member of the National Library of Jamaica, and a member of the Jamaica National Commission for UNESCO.

Hyacinth Lindsay is a distinguished attorney-at-law. She recently retired as chief parliamentary counsel, after serving in that capacity for sixteen years. She was also chairperson of the Caricom Committee of Regional Chief Parliamentary Counsel for the Harmonisation of Laws Relating to the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. In recognition of her long and distinguished service in the public sector and to the region, Lindsay was appointed Queen’s Counsel in February 2006. She currently serves as an elected member of the Inter-American Judicial Committee.

Tanya Batson-Savage is a Jamaican writer whose experience spans print, radio, advertising, film, theatre and publishing. She holds a Master of Arts degree in English from the UWI and is author and publisher of Pumpkin Belly and Other Stories, a collection of children’s stories.

Batson-Savage is currently pursuing a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) degree in Cultural Studies at the University of the West Indies.

The Broadcasting Commission is the regulatory institution with oversight responsibility for radio, television and subscriber television output in Jamaica.