Dr Canute James has been appointed to succeed Dr Marjan de Bruin as director of the University of the West Indies' Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication (CARIMAC).

Dr James was appointed in August after serving as acting director from January 2008 to July 2009.

Dr James is a past president of the Press Association of Jamaica (PAJ), a former editor of the defunct Jamaica Daily News, and former Caribbean correspondent of the Financial Times of London.

He also worked with the British Broadcasting Corporation as a radio reporter, presenter and producer.

Dr James is a recipient of the 1995 Maria Moors Cabot Prize for Journalism from the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University in New York.

CARIMAC is one of the academic departments of the University of the West Indies and is widely considered the Caribbean's leading institution for media and communication training.