Scholarship supports Pasifika research on Fiji media freedom

By Yvonne Brill: Office of Pasifika Advancement

Former publisher of Fiji’s Daily Post newspaper and political commentator Ranjit Singh has been given the opportunity to fulfill his dreams of working on a media research project close to his heart - media freedom in his homeland.

Singh says that while he has experience in the media industry, academic study will help him “smooth out the rough diamond”.

The funding received through the AUT/Pacific Islands Media Association (PIMA) Pasifika Communications scholarship for his studies has enabled him to begin that journey.

Singh is the 2009 recipient of the postgraduate scholarship. Through his research, he is investigating media freedom with a focus on Fiji. Singh also has an interest in issues of fairness and balance in reporting by Fijian media.

Already tertiary qualified with an MBA from Massey University, Singh’s decision to resume study reflects his desire to see a truly ‘free press”, and stand up to what he says is “ignorance and misinformation” on the part of some journalists and media outlets.

“I have held a belief that any media in any country should be a reflection of society,” says Singh.

“My research is of great importance and significance to media studies, as it attempts to firstly remove the myth about a free, responsible and balanced press and about media freedom in a Third World country.”

Abuse of freedom
Singh says that it is not good enough for media groups and organisations to blindly blame governments for interfering with press freedom. They must also consider if any abuse of press freedom is happening within the media organisations themselves.

This is of special interest in multiracial environments such as Fiji, which has been crippled by racially divisive politics and racial overtones from politicians through the media for many decades, he says.

A key part of his research considers the responsibility of media in a developing country suffering from racial divisions. Upon completion, he plans to send his research to academics and press organisations in his native Fiji.

A chance encounter with Asia-Pacific journalism educator and director of the Pacific Media Centre, Associate Professor David Robie, prompted Singh to consider researching the media in his homeland.

After learning about the AUT/PIMA scholarships, Singh applied and won one of the two annual awards.

“I have always felt that there was a vacuum in media research on Fiji,” says Singh, who hopes his research will encourage others to conduct research in media studies.

Singh plans to work within the New Zealand media in future to add diversity to the industry.

“Had it not been for the scholarship, I would not have done it so I am very thankful. I am thankful to PIMA and AUT, and in particular David Robie, who encourages Pacific media and research,” says Singh.

Long established
The AUT/PIMA scholarships were established in 2004. AUT School of Communication Studies sponsors the scholarships, which are worth NZD$10,000 a year and cover tuition for one year of full-time study. They may be renewed depending on academic performance.

Both undergraduate and postgraduate students are eligible to apply.

PIMA executive board chair Iulia Leilua says scholarship recipients are assessed by academic performance, work experience, maturity and general commitment to Pasifika media. She adds that the scholarships reflect PIMA’s desire to encourage more Pasifika people enter the media industry.

There are 17 alumni of the AUT/PIMA scholarship, starting with the first, Leilani Momoisea - now a successful broadcast journalist working at Radio New Zealand.

At the PIMA annual general meeting on October 1, undergraduate scholarship recipients Courtenay Brooking and Jordan Puati acknowledged PIMA and AUT for providing Pasifika students with the opportunity to add to the advances in media studies.

“My ethnicity definitely has an impact on who I am as a person and will no doubt influence my career. I think it’s important for there to be more Pasifika and Maori students to go to University and to be supported and succeed” says Brooking, a Samoan/Māori student in her last year of the Bachelor in Communication Studies programme.

Applications for the 2011 scholarships close in November 2010 for undergraduate and January 2011 for postgraduate study. This year people enrolling for the new Graduate Diploma in Pacific Journalism can apply for the scholarship.

Yvonne Brill is a postgraduate student from AUT’s School of Communication Studies. She is completing a corporate studentship in PR/communications for the Office of Pasifika Advancement.

Pictured: (from left) AUT/PIMA Pasifika Communication Scholarship holders Ranjit Singh (postgraduate), Courtenay Brooking and Jordan Puati (undergraduate). Photo: Yvonne Brill/OPA

Tagaloatele speaks to PIMA conference

Tagaloatele Professor Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop's opening comments at the PIMA 2010 conference

Kia orana, malo e lelei, fakalofa lahi atu, ni sa bula vinaka, taloha ni, namaste, talofa lava and warm Pacific greetings.

Faafetai Pastor for your well chosen words of blessing for this Pacific Islands Media Association (PIMA) opening, reminding us of the tremendous responsibilities of the media. You referred to the media as the eyes, the ears and voice of Pacific people. Can I also add that, to me, the media also represents the "heart" of Pacific people? Faafetai.

It is my pleasure and honour to welcome you all to AUT University and the PIMA conference today and to the home of the School of Communication Studies and the Pacific Media Centre, which, as I have been told, saw the birthplace of PIMA almost 10 years ago. A warm welcome, especially to those from overseas - such as our renowned keynote speaker Kalafi Moala – and to others here whom I have only seen "on the news" and /or "in the news". I also welcome the Hon. Hone Harawira, Māori Party MP for Te Tai Tokerau. Faafetai for joining us today.

I would like to acknowledge the support to Pacific journalism over the years of Dr Alan Cocker, head of the School of Communication Studies; Dean of Creative Industries Desna Jury; Pacific Media Centre Advisory Board and chair John Utanga; and Associate Professor David Robie – director of the Pacific Media Centre. Also, a huge faafetai to Rosemary Brewer who plays a key role in the Bachelor of Communication Studies degree and continues to offer strong support to our Pacific Students. I also acknowledge the director of the Office of Pacific Advancement, Pauline Winter and the Ministry of Pacific Islands Affairs (MPIA) who are also sponsoring this meeting.

When I was thinking about what to say this morning, I thought about the beautiful "Palagi/Raj" term "jewel in the crown". Since coming to AUT almost a year ago, I have found the School of Communication Studies and the Pacific Media Centre to be one of the brightest jewels in the AUT crown.

This school is one of exciting initiatives, such as today, "outside the box" ideas and people - all of whom are passionate about Pacific journalism - sharing information, and making sure people are informed and "getting things right" and investigative journalism. This commitment is not only to Pacific people, but to the wider public – making sure they are informed about Pacific views and interpretations/ideas/spins on stories.

The planning which has gone into this meeting signifies another step in the development of the Pacific journalism and curriculum. In earlier days, the focus was on how Pacific (issues) were portrayed in the media (if at all) by amount and content and, stereotypes. Today, as seen in the programme, there are new challenges. In a very fine master’s thesis I have just been reading – the writer focussed on some of the challenges Pacific journalists face as they reconcile and negotiate their professional credo of freedom of the press, equity and justice and, their own cultural meanings and values. This student asked, "How can Pacific journalism transform the media"?

Back to childhood
These words took me back to my own childhood, when to me, anything that was written down was truth – as, the Bible, the newspapers, textbooks. I suspect that this is the same for many Pacific people today. What a responsibility this belief places on journalists! I also remember some words from a recently published biography of Queen Salote that, "whatever Queen Salote said was truth". Again, this is food for thought.

Finally, I would like to say a few words about the relationship between AUT and PIMA:

• As noted, AUT and the School of Communication Studies have supported the Pacific Islands Media Association (PIMA) and its annual conference since the first one in 2001.

• The school has sponsored the two annual AUT/PIMA Pasifica Communication Studies undergraduate and postgraduate scholarships worth more than $10,000 a year since 2002.

• Seventeen Pasifika students have been helped by the scholarship programme and some have made their mark in the media industry today, such as Leilani Momoisea - the first graduate on the programme with a Bachelor of Communication Studies, on Radio New Zealand; Christine Gounder, who completed a masters degree and is also working on Radio New Zealand after working on NiuFM: and John Pulu who is now with Tagata Pasifika on TVNZ.

• Three Pacific scholarship and internship students linked to the PMC have produced research theses on media topics and more are on the way. I referred to one earlier … the author used a mainstream methodology and then applied a Pacific cultural spin to that.

• Cooperation between the school's Pacific Media Centre and PIMA over media development and research projects. One of the founders of PIMA, John Utanga, is now the advisory board chair of PMC.

And the Graduate Diploma in Pacific Journalism course of study, which will take its first intake of students next year is another exciting new AUT initiative. The School of Communications is presently going through the process of appointing a Pasifika journalism lecturer.

To conclude, congratulations to the PIMA executive on attracting this large group of influential, informed, talented and stroppy Pacific journalists to this forum today and, wannabes - such as me. I look forward to hearing about the new organisation, PasiMA.

Manuia le fonotaga – best wishes for the discussions, the ideas that will be shared, and the networks and relationships which will be built.

Malo soifua

Tagaloatele Professor Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop speaking at the PIMA conference @ AUT University on 1 October 2010. This is the text of her opening address. Also pictured, MP Hone Harawira. Photo: Del Abcede/PMC

Kalafi Moala's keynote speech
PIMA website

Tribute to Elma MaUa, a Pacific journalism pioneer

By Gladys Hartson: Pacific Media Watch

Pacific Island journalists and broadcasters in New Zealand have paid tribute to veteran broadcaster and journalist Elma MaUa who has passed away after a long illness.

MaUa was one of the first Pacific Island women journalists in the NZ media industry.

Journalists and broadcasters remembered MaUa in their own way, hosting their own memorial events.

Former colleague and Pacificeyewitness website publisher Vienna Richards shared her memories.

“I first met Elma in the mid-1990s. She was doing a story on Pacific women and the issues they faced with the mainstream health system,” Richards said. “I was working in health at the time and she called me up out of the blue for an interview.”

Richards remembers thinking “this woman is on to it”. It was only after MaUa’s death on April 28 did Richards recall that it was her first experience of being interviewed by a Pacific Islands journalist - and a woman.

MaUa was known for her passion for Pacific media with her involvement with the Pacific Islands Media Association (PIMA).

Richards said: “She was a real professional, and told it like it was.”

“I will miss her and it’s a real shame we won’t have her as a mentor for the next lot of Pacific journalists and broadcasters coming through.”

Pacific Radio News newsreader Jae’d Victor, a veteran of 18 years in Pacific radio, recalled his time working with MaUa at Niu FM.

“She was a woman who had so much knowledge. She was an expert in her field, particularly in sport,”he said.

“Elma was never one to mince words!” Victor added.

“Those of our Pacific journalist/broadcasters already in the media industry, need to put their foot forward and ensure the doors are open for up and coming journalists so they can make their mark like Elma did.”

MaUa, who migrated to New Zealand in the mid-1950s from the Cook Islands, was one of the first Pacific journalists to work for Radio New Zealand in the mid-1980s.

She was sports editor for the Radio New Zealand International service that was launched in 1990.

MaUa was aged 61. She is survived by her five children.

Gladys Hartson is a Graduate Diploma in Journalism student at AUT University and is working with the Pacific Media Centre's Pacific Media Watch.

Pictured: Elma MaUa and top (right front) with the Radio NZ International team. Photos: RNZI

Pacificeyewitness tribute

Pasifika media scholarship winners set their goals

By Josephine Latu: Pacific Media Centre

Two new Pasifika scholarship students have joined the Bachelor of Communication Studies degree programme at AUT University this year - and hope to inspire young people in their communities to follow their lead.

Jordan Puati, 20, and Krissy Rangi, 18, have been awarded AUT/Pacific Islands Media Association (PIMA) Pasifika communication scholarships.

PIMA chair and Māori Television investigative journalist Iulia Leilua presented the prizes at the School of Communications Studies awards on March 31 – a special ceremony to celebrate student achievements and acknowledge supporters.

“The AUT/PIMA award is to support a new generation of Pacific people in their studies and to show them a career in the media is achievable. People are creative, but they need support,” said Leilua.

The AUT sponsorship covers tuition costs for both Rangi and Puati until they graduate, subject to annual reviews of progress.

“Pasifika students have the potential to tell our stories in an authentic way, and they also have the potential to show that they can have a mainstream perspective as well, rather than just being pigeonholed for Pacific Islands material,” she added.

Natural performer
Jordan Puati was born in London, raised in Wellington, before moving to the Cook Islands for his high school education.

A natural performer, Puati has travelled around the region performing Cook Islands music and dance, and is looking towards a career in TV presenting or advertising.

If he succeeds, Puati plans to use his profile to encourage youth in Pacific Island communities in New Zealand as well as the Cook Islands.

“It’s a big deal. For Cook Islanders, if they see someone else doing it, then it’s not so hard to do it themselves. It would feel good to give something back and to make things easier for other Pacific Islanders,” he said.

Although he is the only Pacific Islander in one of his classes, Puati sees it as a chance to give a Pasifika point of view.

“You don’t have to see your Pacific Island identity as a barrier. It’s a positive thing.”

Creative streak
Krissy Rangi is Samoan-Maori and has shown a strong creative streak since her years at Selwyn College in Mission Bay.

“I started being interested in photography, but now I’m interested in moving images. It’s fascinating,” she said.

For Rangi, media is relevant to young generations because of its creative potential, although it “needs to be suitable for the younger audiences because they are growing up too fast".

While she is also outnumbered in her classes as a Pacific Islander, Rangi urges Pasifika students not to be “put off”.

“Just do it,” she said. “I’m loving it. The programme is everything I wanted to do”

Former recipients of the award have gone on to successful careers in the industry, including Leilani Moimoisea (Radio New Zealand), Kitekei’aho Tu’akalau (Pacific Media Network), Christine Gounder (Radio NZ), John Pulu (TNews/TVNZ) and Taberannang Korauba (Pacific Community News).

Among other scholarships presented was the inaugural Kiwi Asian Journalism Scholarship sponsored by the Asia New Zealand Foundation, which has been awarded to nurse Corazon Miller, a fluent Tagalog speaker.

The foundation also supports the AUT/China Daily Journalism Scholarships, organised by the Pacific Media Centre. Michelle Ong and Lucy Mullinger have won the three-month internships in Beijing this year.

Winner of this year's inaugural Indian Newslink Postgraduate Journalism Scholarship is Imogen Crispe and Alisha Lewis has won the TVNZ Diversity Journalism Scholarship. PMC director Dr David Robie presented the Asia NZ Foundation scholarships on behalf of media adviser Charles Mabbett and the Indian Newslink award for editor Venkat Rahman.

News chief Cliff Joiner presented the TVNZ scholarship.

Pictures: Top: PIMA's deputy chair Chris Lakatani (fom left), Jordan Puati, PIMA chair Iulia Leilua and Krissy Rangi. Middle: Iulia Leilua; senior lecturer Rosemary Brewer presents the top year one BCS award to Kimberlee Downs, winner of last year's TVNZ diversity award; PMC's Dr David Robie with the China Daily scholarship winners Lucy Mullinger and Michelle Ong. Below: Scholarship winners Krissy Rangi, Corazon Miller, Lucy Mullnger, Michelle Ong and Imogen Crispe. Photos: Josephine Latu and Del Abcede



For more information on the AUT-PIMA and other diversity opportunities, visit the AUT School of Communications Studies scholarships webpage.

Awards and scholarships photo gallery

New Pacific media freedom group plugs the gaps

“It’s time to stand up. Journalists have human rights too,” says Lisa Williams-Lahari, founder of a new Pacific media freedom group.

By Kara Segedin: Pacific Media Centre

The Pacific’s newest media watch group wrapped up its inaugural forum in Samoa earlier this month, but has vowed that it will not be challenging the long-established Pacific Islands News Association over press freedom issues.

“We arose out of the gaps in PINA,” says founding coordinator Lisa Williams-Lahari (pictured) of the Pacific Freedom Forum.

But, rather than compete with the established parent organisation, PFF’s goal is to act as its media freedom arm.

“We’re part of the PINA family,” she says. “In July, at PINA’s forum in Vanuatu they will decide how to engage with us.”

More than 40 delegates from 12 Pacific nations gathered at the UNESCO-funded PFF meeting dubbed “Courage under fire” at Apia on May 6-8.

The forum drew up an outcomes statement, saying all Pacific people have the right to freedom of speech and access to a free media.

It identified a growing number of threats to media freedom in the region and called on governments to act on commitments to international agreements such as the Rarotonga Media Declaration of 1990 and Article 19 of the universal declaration of human rights.

Strong links
The PFF wants to build strong relationships within the region, online and with the PINA.

Williams-Lahari says as an online forum the PFF has met the needs for monitoring abuses against journalists.

It is raising the alarm on threats to media freedom, which is ultimately linked to the freedom of people.

PFF’s Project XIX was one of three Pacific media schemes approved for funding by UNESCO through the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC).

“Only a handful of Pacific Island groups got funding. This paid for the conference.”

The PFF started off small, but Williams-Lahari says it quickly developed a following among experienced journalists. It has been a busy year and the next step is to apply for NGO status.
There is also talk of a name change.

Williams-Lahari says there is an attitude among Pacific Island journalists that the abuse and threats they sometimes face are part of the job.

“It’s time to stand up. Journalists have human rights too,” she says.

“We want to let the region know it’s not on. Let leaders know that for the development and growth of Pacific countries the media needs to be part of the process.”

Right track
There were many outcomes from the forum and Williams-Lahari says they felt a lot of solidarity from members that they were all on the right track.

She has been to a number of conferences in the past, but this one was different because while the issues were serious there was a lot of laughter.

“There was a lot of wisdom and experience,” she says. It was also a chance to put faces to some well-known names.

Williams-Lahari says one criticism of PINA is that is has not engaged with Pacific Island needs in New Zealand.

The PFF want to create ties with the New Zealand-based Pacific Islands Media Association (PIMA).

“They are another slice of the Pacific, but it’s a different media industry,” she says. “We’re keen to hook up with the Pacific Island network because we’re all on the same page.”

Williams-Lahari says they want to make sure all abuses, even the ones people think are small, are reported.

The next step for the PFF is training, continued advocacy and to make sure all countries are covered, from Hawai’i to Papua New Guinea.

“Doing what we’re doing now and doing it better,” she says.

Rights and safety
Deborah Muir, programme manager of the Asia-Pacific bureau of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in Sydney, ran two days of workshops for the PFF.

The IFJ supports journalists and their unions and works against censorship, and for the rights and safety of journalists.

Muir says IFJ got involved when the PFF asked it to help with training on monitoring and reporting on media rights.

“We were invited to provide some expertise and give it a structure”.

According to Muir, there has been a vacuum of strong advocacy and freedom of expression in the Pacific.

“A lot of the problems in the Pacific Islands are similar. Fiji is an extreme example,” she says.

“Advocacy had been insufficient and the situation in Fiji brings this home,” she says. “In my understanding, the (PFF) members are requiring a much stronger advocacy approach.”

At the forum, delegates heard first hand stories of physical abuse and intimidation.

“Fiji sets such a bad example. We’re worried that other states may adopt their tactics,” she says.

Contempt for journalists
There is overt obstruction and intimidation of journalists as power holders seek to maintain control.

In the Pacific, there are difficulties with public perception and with the media itself. Muir says contempt for journalists is a common problem across the region and members of the public may object to the way the media reports issues.

The media also has weak procedures for dealing with complaints.

“At the moment it’s early days, but members are committed to setting up a system of reporting and advocacy,” she says.

“They’ve said they didn’t want to compete with PINA but fulfil the role missed by PINA. And that’s for Pacific Islands journalists to work out.”

Muir identifies a number of things that can be done to help repair the situation.

“The first step is strong advocacy and in the long term professional development and ethics.”

It is also important to network with similar associations.

Crucial time
Phil McGrath, a spokesman for PIMA, says “it’s a crucial time for media freedom”.

“Governments in the region are undertaking massive change in the way they work. Journalists and the public have the right to be informed,” he says.

McGrath says the situation in the Pacific is very delicate and it does not help that outside media are coming in with little understanding of the complexities.

“It’s good to have local people working together.”

He says PIMA members can help with training and engaging the community in New Zealand and in their home countries.

Associate professor David Robie, director of AUT University’s Pacific Media Centre, sees the forum as an enormous step forward and he hopes the centre will work closely with the PFF.

“There was a real buzz of energy and commitment about it,” he says. “I hope it continues.”

“It was an inspiring meeting. Many journalists who have suffered abuse were there to tell their stories.”

He agrees that PINA has not been meeting its obligations on media freedom issues, but says it is still the main media organisation in the region.

Dr Robie, present at the meeting as an observer for the NZ National Commission for UNESCO, is concerned the PFF will overlap with PINA and end up competing for limited funds.

PMW monitoring
Also, the PMC at AUT has been monitoring media freedom in the Pacific through the 13-year-old Pacific Media Watch news service and database started at the University of Papua New Guinea and Australian Centre for Independent Journalism.

The current PMW contributing editor, Josephine Latu, is a journalist from Tonga.

Media freedom organisations are generally independent, but there is a risk of PFF being compromised.

“Some journalists have either business or other media interests,” he says.

“There is a danger of people pushing their own barrow.

“It’s important that the Pacific is kept in perspective – it still largely a safe place for journalists and media freedom by comparison in global terms,” he says.

“There are none of the really serious threats and assaults, kidnappings or murders that journalists face in other countries such as Burma, Iraq, or even a democracy such as the Philippines.”

Dr Robie says ongoing issues for journalists in the region include cultural and political pressures, and the ease of inducements because Pacific journalists are poorly paid and often face poor work conditions.

This remains an ongoing threat.

Kara Segedin is a Graduate Diploma in Journalism student on the AUT Asia-Pacific Journalism course.

Pacific Freedom Forum
Pacific Islands News Association
Pacific Islands Media Association
Pacific Media Watch

PIMA chair resigns over Pacific media 'politics'

By Josephine Latu: Pacific Media Watch

Tagata Pasifika reporter Aaron Taouma (pictured) has stepped down from his post of interim chair of the New Zealand-based Pacific Islands Media Association.

The executive committee will meet later this week to discuss his successor.

Taouma announced his resignation in a letter later circulated on Pacific Islands Journalists Online, saying PIMA was “pushed towards certain political directions”. This went against the founding documents of the organisation.

He wrote that a recent PIMA news release about media freedom “may have been at odds with PIMA’s constitution and general Pacific media opinion”.

PIMA was not just a forum for journalists but everyone involved in Pacific Islands media, he added.

According to PIMA spokesperson Phil McGrath, Taouma’s statement followed PIMA’s stand in support of journalists at the Pacific Freedom Forum conference held in Samoa on May 6-8.

This was during the height of debate surrounding Television New Zealand’s controversial report by Pacific affairs correspondent Barbara Dreaver on gangs, guns and drug smuggling in Samoa.

“Barbara Dreaver, being a member of PIMA, approached the executive for support,” McGrath told Pacific Media Watch.

Supporting journalists
“Our position at the time was that we support the right of any journalist to investigate and report - without fear of attacks - either personally or professionally,” he said.

McGrath added that an executive is “all about compromise”.

Dreaver’s television exposé ran on April 6 and included footage of young Samoans smoking marijuana, wielding machetes, and discussing the drug trade in Samoa.

It also reported that guns were smuggled into Samoa from the US and drugs from New Zealand.
The Samoan government has since filed a broadcasting standards complaint against TVNZ . The government alleges the report damaged the country’s reputation as a tourist destination and that Dreaver’s crew staged interviews with “actors”.

TVNZ rejects this claim and is vigorously defending the Dreaver report.

In his resignation letter on May 10, Taouma said “recent reports have…brought to light the issues of ‘parachute reporting’ and sensationalised single-angled accounts of events in the Pacific Islands”.

However, PIMA deputy chair Chris Lakatani, who accepted Taouma’s resignation, said PIMA was not a political body and had “no advocacy issues in its constitution”.

“We haven’t come to our members and said, ‘well what do you think of [the Barbara Dreaver] issue’, because we don’t have any mandate to make statements on those issues,” he told Pacific Media Watch.

“We will not support her just because she is a member of PIMA, but just like any other regular journalist, we support her right to be protected.”

McGrath said PIMA’s statement concerned the rights and freedoms of journalists across the entire Pacific.

Several Samoan newspapers have published articles with personal attacks on Dreaver and the issue was debated at an evening talanoa session of the UNESCO-funded PFF workshop in Apia.

Pacific Freedom Forum
Pacific Media Watch
PIMA
'Gangsta paradise' vendetta against Dreaver
Dreaver story on Samoan gangs [video]

Tnews intern, former Fiji publisher win Pasifika scholarships

Staff Reporter: Pacific Media Centre

A Triangle TV Tnews intern and continuing AUT University media student and a former Fiji newspaper publisher have been awarded the two AUT/PIMA Pasifika communication scholarships for this year.

John Pulu, a 20-year-old former Otahuhu College student who is now in the final year of a Bachelor of Communication Studies television major, has won the undergraduate award.

Thakur Ranjit Singh, 53, a former publisher of the Fiji Daily Post who migrated to New Zealand with his family and is an outspoken columnist for papers such as the Fiji Times, Fiji Sun and Indian Newslink and a community advocate, has been awarded the postgraduate award. He will undertake a Master in Communication Studies degree.

The annual scholarships have been sponsored by AUT's School of Communication Studies in partnership with the Pacific Islands Media Association (PIMA) since 2003.

While at Otahuhu College, John Pulu helped produce a news item broadcast on TVNZ's Tagata Pasifika about the "gateway" project enabling students from decile one schools in South Auckland to get industry experience.

"I'm a firm believer that Pacific people deserve to be served by and represented in the media and I have worked hard for this goal since leaving high school," he says.

After joining AUT, he has worked as a part-time reporter filming and covering news items for the Tongan community on T-News.

As part of his coursework, Pulu has also filmed a couple of short documentaries currently available on the Pacific Media Centre's channel on YouTube.

They are Kava Commune, which was screened at the 2008 Manukau Film Festival, and a short video about the 2008 PIMA conference which Pulu filmed, directed, and edited.

As well as television, Pulu co-hosted the breakfast shift at the Pacific Islands radio network Niu FM.

"At AUT’s Pacific Media Centre, I'm an enthusiastic and motivated team player, often volunteering in the centre’s projects," he says. "I like to share my experiences and advice with fellow students and hope this will develop into a mentor role in the future."

Pulu is also a student representative for PIMA.

"I'm passionate about documenting Pacific Island issues and highlighting our rich history."

Ranjit Singh was publisher of the Fiji Daily Post at the time of the George Speight coup in 2000 and he wrote a lively weekly column about cultural and political issues.

While much of his career has been in administrative and business roles - he graduated from the University of the South Pacific and later did an MBA at Massey University in New Zealand - he has for several years been striving to take up a career in journalism.

He has a keen interest in Pacific issues, human rights and political and social challenges facing the region. At one stage, he was an exchange student from USP with the University of Papua New Guinea.

Since migrating to Auckland, he has contributed regular columns to newspapers in Fiji and New Zealand and believes the AUT/PIMA scholarship will help refine his analytical and journalistic skills for community benefit.

"I welcome the challenge to contribute to more analytical journalism and media research for the Pacific. We need more Pacific voices in the media in New Zealand," he says.

"And it will be good for PIMA to have a fresh, different perspective too."

Pictured: Top: John Pulu at work in the AUT television studio. Above: Ranjit Singh at PIMA 2008.

Pacific Media Centre
PMC on YouTube
PIMA
Scholarships
Triangle TV T-News