PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — A three-day workshop for Caribbean journalists on “Communicating Rights at Work” began here yesterday with a senior official of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) underscoring the importance of labour issues within regional societies.

“When it comes to rights at work, they underpin just about every aspect of social and economic development that one may find reported in the news. Sometimes we do not remember this but if we were to take a closer look behind the headlines, rights’ become apparent,” said Dr Anna Theresa Romero, the Director at the ILO Office for the Caribbean.

She said she believed that the workshop, which will also examine issues such as the quest for social justice, the role of tripartism and social dialogue, and HIV/AIDS in the world of work, could provide the platform to help journalists enhance their skills in reporting on work and rights issues.

“I have no doubt that this workshop would help to reinforce that which you already know and report about rights in the world of work and it will give you additional knowledge and skills to refer accurately to standards in your work which, as I said earlier, provokes, informs and influences all segments of society at the national and Caricom (Caribbean Community) levels.”

President of the Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) Wesley Gibbings, said the workshop comes at a time “when the region appears challenged by the need to balance political and economic expediency against the minimum requirements of universally-accepted rights and standards that span virtually the entire spectrum of human, social interaction.”

Gibbings said the regional journalists would, over the next three days, be swamped with raw material in helping write stories on labour and right issues, insisting also that journalists need to get their stories right always.

“It is an important requirement which substantiates the case for specific, discrete rights and freedoms for a sector upon which modern democracies continue to rely,” he said.

“Understanding labour standards and their impact on tangible economic outputs can provide a much needed nexus between aspiration and achievement, how societies construct tangible evidence out of otherwise elusive, unseen values and standards and goals.”

The workshop is being facilitated by ILO representatives from the United States, Peru as well as regional and international journalists, Tony Fraser and Vittoro Longhi.