A few years ago, in 2013, I did a story with 18 Degrees North on police lock-ups, or where people charged with a crime go prior to prison. My story was on children being placed in adult lock-ups, which contravenes international law. Apparently, the government has not completed the task of retrofitting some building to accommodate youth, nor are they improving the situation for adults. Check out some interviews here. I wish I had the time to follow up and see where children are being held.

I watched a long interview with Jesse Royal yesterday while I was waiting for a meeting. He’s got a lot to say…

This is the Sculpture Park at Utech. Note the fencing at the bottom of the left-hand picture. University administration decided to refurbish the park, starting right when students came back for this semester. It is all blocked off, so one has to walk around the park, making traveling time longer (by a few seconds). Students are very upset about this. They tell me they have to walk longer and have fewer places to gather. I told them to write a story about it for one of their assignments, and a few did.

A short feature on Ocho Rios yesterday in the Guardian. They fail to mention, as some people did in the comments, how unpleasant it can be with the harassment. Check it out here.

The bright green parrots gather at night up at Utech. Last night it seemed there were hundreds of them roosting in the trees as I headed to class. It is quite a cacophony. I wonder what they are communicating about?

I have meant to write about this for several days, but some other posts got in the way. Jamaica can be proud of the fact that it ranks eighth in press freedom by Reporters Without Borders. This is up two spots from last year. Part of the criteria includes the amount of media workers killed in the last year, and Jamaica had none. Unfortunately, it is still not safe in many other countries. Witness the killing of the journalist who investigated the Panama Papers.

From Reporters Without Borders’ web site:

Jamaica ranks among the countries that most respect freedom of information. The very occasional physical attacks on journalists must be offset against this, but no serious act of violence or threat to media freedom has been reported since February 2009, a month that saw two cases of abuse of authority by the Kingston police. The law decriminalizing defamation passed by the house of representatives in 2013 was a step in the right direction.

From my own experience, I can say that reporters in this country do enjoy a large measure of freedom to conduct their activities (I only have Canada and the US to compare to). What stymies investigative journalism, as I have talked a lot about, is the bureaucratic inertia, partisanship and a lack of resources.

We ventured up to Funland at Hope Zoo yesterday. It was a cooler day, with rain threatening the whole time. But it held off and we had a great time. There are rides for children, games and a virtual reality center for the older children. The prices are reasonable and there is a small selection of food, including fried chicken and shaved ice. The only thing I had a problem with was the extremely loud and inappropriate dancehall music, which I usually enjoy, but not in the context of a children’s play area.

Overall, it was nice to see children playing in a safe, clean area. More spaces like this are badly needed.

A journalist with the International Journalists’ Network contacted me wanting to do an interview about our community journalism project. Here is the story. It is strange being on the other side of the questions. I think it turned out well.