The Tribune

THE Cabinet Office announced Thursday the appointment of Anthony Newbold as press secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister.

This appointment is the beginning of the resolve of newly elected Prime Minister Dr Hubert Minnis to make transparency one of the watchwords of his new Free National Movement government.

The new press secretary will be the official spokesman for Prime Minister Minnis and his government. He will conduct media briefings on Cabinet decisions after Cabinet meetings and coordinate media appearances and press conferences for the prime minister among other duties.

Mr Newbold is a 22-year veteran broadcast journalist who has specialised in parliamentary news, current affairs reporting and programming while producing self-sustaining and award winning radio and television shows focusing on the contributions made by present and past nation builders.

After serving stellar stints in sales and marketing for leading hotels in the Bahamas and for the state-owned national airline Bahamasair, Mr Newbold was recruited into the then newly privatised radio and television industry in the 1990s serving first with Jones Communications’ Love 97 Radio and Bahama Journal newspaper, then moving along with Darold Miller to the state-owned Broadcasting Corporation of The Bahamas (BCB).

Mr Newbold has served as president of The Bahamas Press Club from 2014 to the present and became a founding member of the 79-member ACP Press Clubs Federation and Executive Council Member in 2016. He was appointed vice president of the federation at its most recent meeting in Brussels earlier this month.

He is a former news director for radio and television at the state-owned BCB and most recently held the post of director of the Parliamentary Channel at the corporation.

Mr Newbold has hosted the award-winning television show Legends, The Untold Story, a one-hour news magazine created by Darold Miller and now the longest running show on Bahamian television. The show recently celebrated its 200th episode.

In 2013, Mr Newbold was the first Bahamas Icon Award winner for journalism. In 2012 he won best documentary for The Price of Being A Man, the story of Ed Moxey and the Undoing of Jumbey Village at the International Film Festival in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

He has a daughter, Elle, and is married to Dr Barbara Rodgers-Newbold, country head, UWI Open Campus Bahamas.