The Newsday newspaper is due to hold its annual general meeting on February 23, with indications that Port-of-Spain mayor Louis Lee Sing will be elected to the board of Daily News Ltd, the company which publishes the newspaper. Lee Sing, a long-standing member of the People's National Movement, is a businessman who is the majority shareholder of Citadel Ltd, the company which operates three radio frequencies: I95.5fm, RED 96.7 and 107.1. A vacancy developed at Daily News Ltd, after the death on October 8, 2010, of Wayne Chookolingo, at age 58, of a heart attack.
Chookolingo was the managing director of Mirror Group Publication Ltd, and chairman of Choko Holdings Ltd, which also publishes the Mirror newspapers. Choko Holdings owns a 40 per cent stake in Daily News Ltd. The other shareholders are: the Chin Lee family and Steve Castagne, who among them own 40 per cent; Newsday's chief executive and editor-in-chief, Therese Mills, who owns 12 per cent; former journalist Clevon Raphael, who owns seven per cent and Michael Hart, who owns one per cent. At the AGM on February 23, the shareholders of the company will vote to elect a replacement for Chookolingo.
Lee Sing, who started his career with Choko Holdings founder Patrick Chookolingo at the Bomb newspaper, is the nominee of Choko Holdings and therefore is almost certain to be elected to the board of Daily News. Lee Sing's election to the board of the newspaper may cause some contention, given his own political alignment and the fact that the newspaper has adopted an editorial position that has been very supportive of the People's Partnership. Up to now, the editorial position of the Newsday has been largely the prerogative of Mills, an iconic journalist who worked at the Guardian for decades, ending her career at the newspaper as editor-in-chief. Mills turns 83 this year.
Traditionally, the majority owners of a newspaper have determined its editorial positioning. Castagne is the owner of M&M Insurance and he served as the chairman of the Diego Martin Regional Corporation, which was controlled by the PNM. Castagne was one of the three directors appointed by former CL Financial chairman Lawrence Duprey in June 2009 to represent the interests of the CL Financial shareholders on the reconstituted board of the financially troubled conglomerate. Raphael, who worked at the Newsday for several years, is now employed as an adviser to Attorney General Anand Ramlogan.
