ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada (CMC) — The Grenada correspondent for the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), Linda Straker, died Tuesday at the General Hospital after a prolonged battle with illness.
She was 55.
Straker, who also freelanced for a number of regional and international publications, had been hospitalised for over a month due to a number of medical complications.
She had also served as an executive member of the Media Workers Association of Grenada and was also Grenada’s representative on the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.
“Linda was known for asking tough questions, even evoking strong reactions from those being interviewed. She was fearless and above all loved her three children, whom she regarded as her pride and joy,” said CMC’s editor, Peter Richards.
“Her youngest daughter Naomi recently graduated at the top of her class as a registered nurse at a university in Cuba and yesterday was her first day on the job,” he added.
In a statement announcing her death, her friends, Rawle Titus and Nicole Best, wrote that “Linda was more than a journalist, she was a force of excellence, a voice for truth and a champion for the media profession”.
They said Straker was renowned for her “deep commitment to accurate, ethical and impactful journalism” and that “she tirelessly championed press freedom, media development and the importance of a strong, independent media”.
Among her various awards was “Best Research Journalist” and “Linda’s legacy lives on in the stories she told, the journalists she mentored and the doors she opened”.
Newly appointed St. Vincent and the Grenadines Ambassador to Taiwan and a former CMC correspondent, Kenton X. Chance, said that he had gotten to know Linda through his work with the Barbados-based CMC.
“She was a staunch believer in and defender of freedom of the press. She paid close attention to developments in the media across the region and would reach out to me whenever she perceived that freedom of the press was being infringed upon in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
“We took part in various online training and in-person training programmes, including, in recent years, those by the Media Institute of the Caribbean, the training arm of the Association of Caribbean MediaWorkers (ACM). In all those sessions, Linda willingly shared her years of experience, and we were all better for it. Grenada and the rest of the region have launched a strong advocate for freedom of the press.
“May the current cadres of media professionals draw inspiration from and carry on her legacy. My thoughts and prayers go out to Linda’s immediate family and the wider media fraternity across the region,” said Chance, the founder of the St. Vincent and the Grenadines-based iWitness News.
