POLITICIANS have power but journalists have influence.

With that reminder, Deputy Prime Minister and Attorney-General Mia Mottley told journalists and health professionals gathered at the Hilton Barbados on Friday night for the 13th annual Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) Caribbean Media Awards For Excellence In Health Journalism, that issues relating to the development of the country and the region could not always be reduced to a sound bite, a picture, or a headline.

Mottley said there was pressure to capture the short attention span of the public, created by technological developments like television, by using dramatic but not necessarily "nice" ways.

What was required however, was reasoning and dialogue.

"In relation to the print media, you have the aspect where headlines drive how people respond to purchasing the newspaper.

"I speak in these terms because while this is part of the reality in the world in which we live, many of the challenges we face as a people cannot be reduced to a sound bite or a dramatic picture.

"What is required of us is a conversation and the ability to reason. How we are capable of having that public conversation is so critical to what we can achieve today and how we fight the challenges that confront us as a society, particularly in the area of health, will determine whether we will be successful in meeting those challenges," said the deputy prime minister.

She said studies done in recent years, showed some of the major challenges facing the region at the moment were those which related to lifestyle and behavioural attitudes.

Though the focus has been on HIV/AIDS, attention must be placed on non-communicable diseases also, Mottley told the audience.

She lauded PAHO for its vision of establishing the awards, now regarded as a premier event in the region.

"The fact that prizes are only awarded when standards are met is something we must continue to commend because too often in our region, we substitute mediocrity for excellence," she said.

Those in the winners' circle included Roseanne Pile of Starcom Radio and Karin Dear of THE NATION who both received National Awards. Pile was awarded for her story Coping With Alzheimers. She also received a regional certificate of merit for
that story.

Dear's feature, Little Victims, was a report on the Child Care Board's initiative to establish a Survivors' Support group for children who have been raped.

However, the spotlight was on Sasha Mohammed of the Trinidad Guardian who captured the coveted judges' award for the Most Outstanding Piece submitted for her weekly column Health And Well Being Of The People. She also won Best Newspaper Feature for a series of articles for that column.