Fiji will host the Pacific’s largest media gathering for the first time in 14 years, with Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka to officially open the 8th Pacific Media Summit in Savusavu on 22 September.
The Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) event, hosted by the Fijian Media Association (FMA), will bring together almost 200 media leaders, journalists, communications specialists, development partners and government representatives from across the region.
The summit, themed “Reaching the Remote: Media and Digital Innovation for a Connected Blue Pacific”, will be held at Wasawasa Lodge in Savusavu.
FMA General Secretary, Stanley Simpson said the return of the summit to Fiji marked significant progress for the country’s media sector.
“The last time the summit was held in Fiji in 2012, we were still living under censorship and some journalists refused to attend,” Simpson said.
“The summit in Savusavu celebrates all we have overcome on this ongoing journey and how we can continue to strengthen a democratic blue Pacific.”
The four-day programme will focus on press freedom, media sustainability, climate and disaster reporting, artificial intelligence and digital innovation, public broadcasting funding and independence, and inclusive media leadership.
Simpson said the summit comes at a critical time for Pacific journalism as newsrooms confront misinformation, disinformation and limited resources.
“This summit comes at a critical time for Pacific media, bringing together the people fighting misinformation, disinformation and keeping independent journalism alive in some of the region’s most under-resourced newsrooms,” he said.
“We have deliberately taken the region’s biggest media gathering out of Suva and into Vanua Levu, closer to some of the communities our newsrooms struggle hardest to serve, and discuss how AI and digital innovation, while posing challenges, can also offer solutions.”
Deputy Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica will represent the Fiji Government at the opening High-Level Panel on 23 September, alongside Papua New Guinea Minister for Information and Communications Technology Robert Naguri, who will join the discussion from PNG via Zoom.
PINA President Kalafi Moala will deliver a response.
The FMA will also host a Pre-COP Climate Change Town Hall at Nukubalavu Village next Wednesday evening, giving Northern residents an opportunity to raise environmental and climate change concerns and question government action.
Six pre-summit workshops will be held from 21–22 September to strengthen journalists’ skills and knowledge.
The sessions will cover innovative storytelling with BBC Media Action; loss and damage and climate change with the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP); digital innovation with the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS); climate corruption and transnational organised crime with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC); ocean reporting with the Waitt Institute; and a session with Women in Media Fiji and the Fiji Council of Social Services (FCOSS).
The summit will close on 25 September with the PINA Annual General Meeting and presentation of the Savusavu Outcome Statement by FMA President Rosi Tamani-Doviverata and PINA President Kalafi Moala.
Support for the summit includes Australia’s Regional Media Support Fund and PACMAS, the British High Commission and BBC Media Action, the Fiji Government, FCOSS, the Pacific Community, SPREP, UNODC and the Waitt Institute.
Vodafone Fiji is a corporate partner for the event.
Registrations closed on 6 September, with the first delegates expected to arrive in Fiji from Thursday.
