By Anish Chand in Savusavu
Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) president Kalafi Moala says the organisation needs to consider restructuring and expanding its reach to ensure media organisations in remote and underrepresented parts of the Pacific have a stronger voice.
Speaking ahead of the 8th PINA Summit, Moala said he expected discussions to focus on changes that would make the regional media body more inclusive.
“I expect that we need to see some changes, changes in the way I think we are structured, so that we can expand and do more outreach, particularly to make the media that’s kind of in remote places a lot more inclusive,” he said.
Moala pointed to French Polynesia, New Caledonia and West Papua as areas where PINA could strengthen its engagement.
“The Pacific is a big place,” he said.
He said one option was to strengthen PINA’s presence through the three Pacific subregions of Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia.
“If need be, we restructure ourselves so that subregionally, from Polynesia, Melanesia and Micronesia, we’ll be able to do more outreach to those places to be inclusive.
Moala said while artificial intelligence, misinformation and disinformation were important challenges for Pacific media, PINA also needed to address more fundamental questions about its purpose and regional reach.
“I think we need to find out what is our real reason for existence as an organisation. What’s our purpose? What are we there for?”
He said greater regional participation would also strengthen the media’s ability to address issues such as climate change.
“The people that are affected greatly by climate change, we’re not reaching,” he said.
Moala also welcomed the participation of Fiji’s Prime Minister at the summit, saying he believed the Government was aligned with the regional media’s vision on preserving media freedom.
“I’m thrilled that he has chosen to be part of it,” Moala said.
“His acceptance to come in and open our conference is basically his endorsement of what we stand for.”
Rabuka will open the summit on Wednesday morning.
