KINGSTON, Jamaica—Minister of Information, Skills, Youth and Information, Senator Dr Dana Morris Dixon on Friday urged journalism students attending the Caribbean School of Media and Communication (CARIMAC) at the University of the West Indies, Mona, to join the profession to combat fake news.

“I want to acknowledge the CARIMAC students who are here, I know many of you will leave and go and work in the media,” she told the students seated in the visitors’ gallery inside Gordon House as the Senate debated the 2026/27 Appropriations Budget.

“We need you more than ever in the media space; we need you to tell the truth, to be able to tell Jamaicans what is real and what is not,” Morris Dixon added.

“You’re going to have to be able to dispel misinformation and disinformation and there’s a lot of that in our country and so we need you very much,” she continued.

The minister used a portion of her presentation to talk about the Jamaica Labour Party’s historic victory in last September’s general election and to push back at comments made by Opposition Senator Cleveland Tomlinson during his contribution to the debate.

Tomlinson, the youngest of the nation’s senators, said many of his peers told him they were intending to migrate as they did not see a future in remaining in Jamaica. According to Tomlinson, they were “willing to take their chances up North,” despite the immigration crackdown in the United States.

Responding, Morris Dixon pointed to the many policies of the Government which are aimed at uplifting young people, including programmes being offered free-of-cost at the HEART NSTA-Trust, the soon-to-be constructed STEAM schools, developments in early childhood education and a plethora of other policy initiatives of the Administration.

She argued that it was during the near 19-year tenure of the People’s National Party from 1989-2007 that Jamaica’s economy was held up as a “basket case” around the world and when a majority of the students she went to university with migrated because they felt they could not survive in Jamaica.

This, she said was no longer the case, thanks to the leadership of Prime Minister Dr Andrew Holness.

-Lynford Simpson