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A team from the Caribbean Investigative Journalism Network (CIJN) has earned major recognition for its investigative and multimedia reporting at recent regional journalism awards.
The standout work, “Tricked into Sex Slavery: Global Crackdown hasn’t Stopped Caribbean Traffickers”, won the 2025 Inter American Press Association (IAPA) Excellence in Journalism Award under the Migration Journalism “Claudio Paolillo” category. The piece investigates a young Cuban migrant’s experience in Suriname, exposing human trafficking networks in the Caribbean. The same story also took top honours at the 36th Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) Awards for Excellence in Responsible Reporting on Trafficking in Persons.
Another report, “Seniors: Climate Change Forgotten Ones”, led by CIJN and helmed by Editor/Mentor Wesley Gibbings (Trinidad and Tobago), won the CBU Production Awards (Radio) category for Best Investigative Report. The team included contributors from Barbados, Jamaica, and Trinidad and Tobago. A multimedia version of “Barbados’ Forgotten Few” also earned a Special Mention in the Print Category at the same awards.
CIJN’s regional collaboration features editors/mentors and investigative journalists from across the Caribbean: for the trafficking story, the team included Freeman Rogers (British Virgin Islands) as lead editor/mentor, with Valerie Fris (Suriname), Natanga Smith (Barbados), Roseann Pile (Barbados/Antigua & Barbuda), Soyini Grey (Trinidad and Tobago), and Marion Ali (Belize).
CIJN (launched in December 2019 by the Media Institute of the Caribbean) operates across 22 Caribbean states, combining training, research, data verification, and cross-border collaboration to produce high-impact journalism. Its President, Kiran Maharaj, praised the network’s methodology—strong storytelling, rigorous research, data use, and fact-checking—as central to its growing success.
These recent accolades reinforce CIJN’s reputation and role in uplifting Caribbean investigative journalism through ethical, collaborative, and regional voices.
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