Government Media Take Top Honours as CCF and CBU Crown Caribbean’s Best Arts Journalism
Media organisations from Cuba, Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago and Barbados took home awards for Excellence in Media Coverage of Caribbean Arts and Culture at the 37th Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) Media Awards, held in August in Georgetown, Guyana. The awards are given in partnership between the CBU and the Caribbean Culture Fund (CCF).
Three of the four are state or government media: Cuba’s ICS and Barbados’s BGIS are government institutions, while TTT Ltd is a state-owned enterprise whose board is appointed by the prime minister. The fourth, Guyana’s News Room Inc., is an independent, privately owned outlet.
Each entry focused on the people keeping Caribbean culture and history alive: décima poets in Cuba, steelpan musicians in Guyana, Carnival masqueraders in Trinidad and Tobago, and culinary tradition-bearers in Barbados.
Cuba’s ICS, through Mayabeque Radio Station in Mayabeque province, took the Radio award for La Décima Es Una Sola(The Décima Is One and the Same), produced by Elizabeth Álvarez Hernández. The documentary followed poets and improvisers from Mayabeque, tracing how the décima, a 10-line poetic form from Spain that took root in Cuban culture, is composed, sung and passed down from one generation to the next.
Guyana’s News Room Inc. claimed the Television award for Steel Pan Revival: Guyana’s Big Bands and the Fight to Keep Mash Alive, produced by Daniel Swain and filmed and edited by Shatanand Anude. The piece followed the pan players and arrangers keeping steelpan central to Mashramani, Guyana’s annual Republic Day festival.
Trinidad and Tobago’s TTT Ltd picked up the Digital award for Right Here with Khary Roberts – Rope Jab, produced by Khary Roberts with camera work by Jvon Pollonais. The feature took Roberts to Couva, a town in central Trinidad, where practitioners of the Rope Jab tradition, one of Trinidad Carnival’s traditional masquerade characters, explained what it takes to preserve and present it each year.
The Barbados Government Information Service (BGIS) took the Print award for Beyond Buns and Flying Fish, by Sheena Forde-Craigg and Tyson Henry, a feature on the cooks and food traditions behind flying fish, Barbados’s national dish. BGIS was also among the top performers at the 2026 CBU Media Awards overall, taking home seven awards and one special mention across all categories.
Each category winner received a USD 1,000 award. This year’s field also marked an increase in entrants from 48 to 61. In a shift from last year’s awards where one of the four arts awards went to an individual writer, this year’s awards were all copped by established media houses.
The awards are part of an ongoing partnership between CBU and the Caribbean Culture Fund (CCF), which recognises journalism that documents, critically engages with and amplifies Caribbean arts and culture. Different islands, different media, same concern: coverage of artists preserving Caribbean culture and history, and journalists making sure that work doesn’t go unrecorded.
The 2026 awards marked the second year of the partnership between the Caribbean Culture Fund (CCF) and the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) to recognise excellence in media coverage of Caribbean arts and culture.
Through the partnership, awards are presented in four categories — radio, television, digital and print — with each category winner receiving a USD 1,000 bursary.
The categories were introduced in 2025 to encourage greater and more sustained media attention to Caribbean artists, cultural organisations, traditions and creative industries. Entries increased from 48 in the inaugural year to 61 in 2026.
The Caribbean Culture Fund (CCF) is a regional fund dedicated to strengthening arts and culture across the Caribbean. It provides grants and other forms of support to artists, cultural organisations and creative projects while helping to build stronger systems for cultural funding, collaboration and visibility across the region.
CCF has supported 100 projects across 32 Caribbean countries and territories, spanning the performing arts, film, music, literature and publishing, visual arts, multimedia, archives and other creative disciplines.
CCF works with artists, cultural practitioners, funders and regional partners to expand access to resources for Caribbean creativity and strengthen the conditions in which the region’s cultural sector can grow.
