By Pita Ligaiula in Savusavu
Papua New Guinea has secured the bid to host the Pacific Media Summit in 2028, with the decision taken at the Pacific Islands News Association Annual General Meeting in Savusavu on Friday.
President of the PNG Media Council, Neville Choi, said PNG was ready to host the regional summit and build on the standard set by Fiji with this year’s event.
“We are ready to host. And we have a very, very tough act to follow,” Choi said.
Choi said PNG had spent several years working with the government to strengthen the media industry and ensure it remained self-regulating.
He said the media industry needed to move while it still had the confidence of regional governments, particularly with elections approaching in several Pacific countries.
“While the eye is hot, while we still have the confidence of regional governments in some of our countries, I think we need to start moving before the next elections,” Choi said.
He said PNG was preparing for an election scheduled for April next year and acknowledged that the current members of Parliament may not remain after the election.
“What we do know is that the work that we have done over the past three to four years has put the media in PNG on a stronger footing with negotiating with the government, with ensuring that the industry remains self-regulating,” he said.
Choi said the PNG media industry had spent the past five years working to find the right balance of negotiation, understanding and collaboration with national leaders.
“Those things have now put us with legislation that says, or at least sets the foundation, for how we can be not just Papua New Guinea, but the Pacific,” he said.
Choi said PNG’s cultural diversity would also provide an important backdrop for the 2028 summit.
“We are a land of more than a thousand tribes. We have the same number of cultural foundations,” he said.
He said the PNG Government was currently supportive of the media sector, but warned that the situation could change.
“There are things that we know that can change overnight,” Choi said.
“Our passion now is to ensure that that doesn’t happen before we can achieve what we want to achieve.”
Choi said the PNG media delegation and PINA members across the country were ready to begin preparations for the 2028 summit.
He acknowledged the Fiji Media Association(FMA) for setting a high standard with the 2026 Pacific Media Summit.
“I think the Fijian Media Association has shown that this is the level and standard of the PINA Summit,” he said.
“And it’s going to be, like I said, a tough act to follow. But we are up to the challenge.”
Choi called on regional media organisations to support PNG as it prepares to host the summit.
“If you are only supportive, then we want you along with us on this journey over the next few years,” he said.
