Sonia Gill to become first female secretary-general of Caribbean Broadcasting Union

Caribbean Broadcasting Union announced Sonia Gill as the new secretary-General of the union. The boards and president took this decision unanimously. Sonia Gill is the first female secretary-general, rejoins as head of the Secretariat from September 1, 2021.

While welcoming back Gill, President of CBU Gary Allen said that her years of experience as Head of Programme for the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS) in the Dutch and English Caribbean would help her in future and make her stand in good stead as she retakes the controls and responsibilities of the regional organization.

Sonia Gill joined the union while carrying a sizeable portfolio of media experience. She had experience as a broadcast journalist and producer in the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation in Barbados. A regulator and policy-maker with the Broadcasting Commission of Jamaica.

Sonia Gill had advocated over the years for the assurance of intellectual property claims of Caribbean media producers. She was also an attorney at law and member of the Bar in both Barbados as well as Jamaica,

An attorney at law, and member of the Bar in both Barbados and Jamaica, Ms Gill has advocated over the years for the protection of the intellectual property rights of Caribbean media producers.

Another focus of her career has been children and media, as demonstrated in her key involvement in the development of the Children’s Code for Programming in Jamaica, as well as the partnership with the Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM) on the United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) sponsored training manual for media practitioners in the coverage of children and youth.

A previous media teacher at the University of the West Indies, Ms Gill was acknowledged by the Caribbean School of Media and Communications (CARIMAC) as the keynote speaker at the rise of the Institute to a School of Communication in 2017.

President Allen got the chance to announce the new SG to show profound gratefulness to the departing Acting Secretary-General, Mrs Hilda Cox-Bullen, for her two years of service to the organization.