The Tribune

CALSEY Johnson, Bahamas High Commissioner to Canada, is the recipient of the Sir Etienne Dupuch Lifetime Achievement Award to be presented at the Bahamas Press Club Media Awards on November 19, the club announced yesterday.

The award, to be presented at the British Colonial Hilton, is named in honour of the long time Publisher and Editor of The Tribune. It is sponsored by the Bahamas Telecommunications Company and is one of a host of awards to be given out to media professionals.

A veteran broadcaster, Mr Johnson got his start in July, 1959, when the late Eric Wilmott resigned from ZNS, the national station, creating a vacancy in the newsroom. He transferred from the Public Treasury’s Audit Department and became a news reporter.

To add to his on the job training, Mr Johnson enrolled in and successfully completed a British Broadcasting Corporation correspondence course, broadening his knowledge of news writing, feature writing and broadcasting.

Mr Johnson was appointed Acting News Editor in 1966 and after completion of a two-year in-service scholarship at Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto, Canada, in 1971, he was appointed News Director.

In 1972 Mr Johnson was chosen by the Broadcasting Corporation to launch ZNS’ Northern Service in Freeport, Grand Bahama, and stayed for two years as station manager.

He returned to New Providence in 1974 and was subsequently appointed general manager of the Corporation after the resignation of the late Walter Wisdom.

Failing his bid to win a seat as a Progressive Liberal Party candidate in the 1992 general election, he was appointed to the Senate by the late Prime Minister Sir Lynden Pindling and served until 1998.

Mr Johnson was named the Bahamas’ High Commissioner to Canada in 2013 by the Prime Minister.

“Calsey Johnson is unquestionably one who paved the way for many of today’s senior broadcasters, most of whom followed him at ZNS,” said Press Club President, Anthony Newbold. “It is therefore with great pride that we reward this pioneer and trailblazer who for many years set the pace in broadcasting in the Bahamas.”

At the inaugural Press Club Awards in November, 2015, the Lifetime Achievement Award went to Eileen Dupuch Carron, Editor and Publisher of the Tribune and daughter of the late Sir Etienne.