Media for Democracy and Human Rights in the Pacific

‘Pacific Media Rising’: Pacific Media Partners Forum and Regional Roundtable
October 19-22, Honiara, Solomon Islands

MEETING SUMMARY

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Regional media roundtable highlights social media, citizen journalism trends.
A roundtable meeting of Pacific journalists and media partners has highlighted the importance of developing media skills and standards for both mainstream and citizen reporters.

The meeting opened with a strong affirmation from the government of the Solomon Islands of the important ‘watchdog’ role of a free and independent media.
The meeting noted the growing influence of citizen journalism via social media, expanding the voice of Pacific people on public issues that affect them – especially marginalised groups such as youth and women.

Roundtable events included train the Trainer activities for 14 Pacific journalists from eight countries and an inaugural one-day Partners’ Forum for non-mainstream media partners to present on priorities for their own work with media.

Train the Trainer sessions focused on the crucial role of public service journalism for recognizing marginalised or unheard voices in society, building trust with readers or viewers, being responsive to citizens' information needs, and promoting democracy, pluralism and tolerance.

Linking to the public service journalism focus, a renewed call for stronger media ethics and responsiveness of journalists to non-mainstream voices in civil society as well as alternatives to mainstream media emerged from the Partners Forum.

The final day of the roundtable program featured a joint plenary between journalists and media partners with media freedom and media standards the key agenda items. Human rights and media freedom, communication skills, freedom of information, codes of practice, and emerging trends in communications were discussed. Ideas for improving partnerships amongst media and development agency networks were also tabled.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Pacific project presented initial findings from its forthcoming inaugural Pacific Press Freedom Report. Common challenges to media freedom identified in the country chapters of the report include self-censorship by journalists, a prevailing acceptance of threats experienced through news-gathering which continues to make monitoring work difficult, and high staff turnover or lack of trained staff in many media workplaces.

Pacific progress on FOI legislation has shown policy needs resource support. While a promising number of Pacific governments are considering proactive laws for information sharing, the Cook Islands, having made Pacific history with right to information legislation in 2008, are struggling with implementation.
Advances in media technologies and online-networking as well as the growth of civil society voices in social media spaces are capturing more attention from Pacific communities and their leaders, and media organisations need to keep up with these changes to remain relevant to their audiences.
The Pacific roundtable in Honiara, Solomon Islands was organised by the IFJ Asia-Pacific, with partnership support from the Media Association of the Solomon Islands, MASI, and the Media and Communications arm of the Solomon Islands Government, SIG, amongst others.

The roundtable is the second in a series for the IFJ Pacific Media, Democracy and Human Rights project. The European Community and the United Nation’s key body dealing with media empowerment, UNESCO, fund the project.

Participants included the Pacific Islands News Association, and members from the Media Alliance of the Pacific covering Pacific Freedom Forum, Pasifika Media Association, and Pacific WAVE Media Network. A cross section of public and private sector media, community organisations, observers, and development partners were also at the roundtable events. Key technical partnerships to the roundtable came from the Pacific Forum through their media adviser, and the United Nation’s lead agencies for development and human rights work in the Pacific, UNDP, and OHCHR.

Honiara, 22 October 2011

ENDS

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