DAME Bernice Lake, a senior member of the Eastern Caribbean Press Council, will be one of a host of speakers at a seminar on press freedom and corruption, scheduled for Thursday at the Mona Visitors' Lodge at the University of the West Indies.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding is also among the speakers for the function which is being put on jointly by the Media Association of Jamaica (MAJ), the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce (JCC) and the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ).

The four-hour seminar takes place during the Press Association of Jamaica's annual 'Journalism Week'. It will also be addressed by Hugh Small, Q.C., who was appointed recently to head an 11-member panel reviewing the Libel and Slander Act.

During a meeting with the committee at Jamaica House on November 14, the Prime Minister said updated legislation would give the press greater freedom to present information to the public. In the past, he noted, threats of libel have often prevented this.

At Thursday's session, speakers will address the challenges, and importance, of a free press, as well as the influence of corruption on media.

Gary Allen, deputy managing director at the RJR Communications Group, Anand Persaud, editor at the Stabroek News in Guyana, and talk-show host Wilmot Perkins are expected to speak at the seminar.

Finance Minister Audley Shaw, JCC president Mark Myers, PSOJ president Christopher Zacca and Edward Khoury, a member of the MAJ and JCC, complete the list of speakers.