The 6th Pacific Media Summit of 2022 commenced yesterday with pre-summit workshops in Honiara, Solomon Islands.
InsidePNG is amongst media persons and delegates within the Pacific region including Australia and New Zealand who have convened in the Solomon Islands for the biennial event.
With the fast evolution of technological advances in the world, the Pacific region is no exception. Archiving Pacific stories and its rich cultural heritage is in a more vulnerable state than ever before and the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) Summit is focused on the theme: Digital Revolution: Transforming threats into opportunities for the Pacific Media.
The weeklong series of workshops will be facilitated by UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), PINA, Australian Broadcasting Corporation and its Media Development Initiative, Pacific Media Assistance Scheme, and Oceania National Olympic Committees (ONOC).
Pre-Summit topics which started yesterday (26th Sept) included Media Role in Investigating the Management of Public Resources and ‘Sports Media Dialogue.
Today, (27th Sept) the summit is covering Digitising Archives and Preserving Pacific stories, Reporting on Sports integrity & corruption in the Pacific and Digital Communications safety and Security. The plenary sessions are presented via the partnership of PACJM, PINA, and UNODC.
Throughout the week the group will look at topics such as ‘the media and political leadership in a digital age, shrinking spaces for media freedom, and digitising archives and preserving Pacific stories’.
The Summit also hopes to ensure participants have a better understanding of the role of the media in investigating the management of public resources; how to increase reporting on UNCAC and anti-corruption by Pacific Island journalists, and transfer knowledge of corruption awareness to other media in-country as trainers and through partnerships; and specifically, the participants will have clarity and understanding on how to access more information and resources on the management of public resources.
“While we don’t have the capacity as developing countries to fully digitise our content, monetary-wise, It is extremely important to start the process of digitising our content in whatever means and ways we can, especially Pacific Island content as it captures the rich history of our island countries,” said Kora Nou, the President of PINA.
The Summit will conclude on Friday, 30th September 2022 with a PINA retreat and General Conference.
