BY JOY OFASIA
THE 6th Pacific Media Summit 2022 opens yesterday evening on September 27 with a welcoming dinner at the Heritage Park Hotel Honiara.
The Pacific region’s biggest media summit which featured media executives and practitioners from Fiji, Palau, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Australia, New Zealand, and Vanuatu was jointly hosted by the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) and Solomon Islands Media Association (MASI).
Speaking at the official opening ceremony of the 6th Pacific Media Summit 2022, MASI President Georgina Kekea welcomed and acknowledged the media professionals attending the Pacific region’s biggest media Summit in Honiara.
“It is a pleasure and a proud moment for me to stand here on behalf of the Media Association Solomon Islands MASI and the Pacific Islands news association PINA to welcome you to the official opening of the 6th Pacific Summit here in Honiara.
“Tonight on behalf of the hardworking staff, I welcome all of the media professionals from all over the Pacific for attending this year’s weeklong Pacific Media Summit 2022 which will cover topics on digitizing archives and preserving Pacific stories, reporting on sports integrity & corruption in the Pacific and digital communications safety and security,” she said.
The Summit consists of several parts: pre-summit workshops, the opening ceremony, series of plenary sessions, and concludes on Friday, September, 29 with a PINA Retreat and General Conference.
Themed “The Digital Revolution – Transforming Threats into Opportunities for the Pacific Media”, this year’s weeklong summit featured topics and sessions on ‘the media and political leadership in a digital age, shrinking spaces for media freedom, and digitizing archives and preserving Pacific stories’.
The Summit aims 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.
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).
