“World Press Freedom Day is an occasion for both media introspection and recognition of the value of this important right to all society. In 2022, special emphasis is that almost everywhere, journalism prevails under states of virtual siege. The nature of this condition should be of concern not only to the media sector but to everyone with an interest in freedom and democracy. In T&T, we must be clear that such an obligation should not elude us or that we consider ourselves immune.” – Wesley Gibbings.

Wesley Gibbings is a journalist/media trainer/press freedom advocate with over 40 years of experience in print, broadcast, and newswire media and online platforms.

Gibbings is currently Managing Editor of the Caribbean Investigative Journalism Network (CIJN) and Vice President of the Media Institute of the Caribbean (MIC), a columnist and freelance writer with the T&T Guardian and a published poet with five collections.

Gibbings, who regularly addresses media colleagues at advocacy events in Africa, Europe, North America, and Latin America globally, has contributed to several journalism handbooks.
He is a founding executive member of the Media Association of Trinidad and Tobago (MATT) and served two terms as President.

In 2001, he led the establishment of the Association of Caribbean Media Workers (ACM), for which he served as President for four two-year terms.

In 2008 Gibbings was elected to the inaugural Steering Committee of the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) and in 2011, the Council of the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX). He currently sits as a Caribbean representative on both bodies.

Wesley Gibbings interviewing the late Kenyan activist/Nobel Laureate Wangari Maathai in Oslo, 2012.

In 2012, he led the successful hosting of the World Congress of the International Press Institute (IPI) and, in 2015, the General Meeting and Strategy Conference of IFEX – both in Port of Spain.

Regionally, he has been a driving force behind the free movement provisions for media workers under the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) and, in 1997, served as a member of the Advisory Council to the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on the CSME.

His other assignments include work on the Advisory Board of the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication (CARIMAC) in 2003 and the Caricom Working Committee on a Single Communication Space in 2019.

Between 2007 and 2008, Gibbings was appointed Visiting Journalism Lecturer at the Caribbean School for Media and Communication at UWI, Jamaica.

For his work in press freedom advocacy regionally and internationally, Gibbings was presented with the Percy Qoboza Foreign Journalist Award by the US National Association of Black Journalists in 2017.