Plaudits have flowed in for the coverage by a team of postgraduate journalism students from the Asia-Pacific Journalism course in AUT's School of Communication Studies who had their very own scoop.
The students covered the 42nd Pacific Islands Forum leaders summit representing 15 countries in the region, including New Zealand - only Fiji was missing, suspended because of its military regime.
Along with the Forum, the students covered the visit of the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, and the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso.
Top of the agenda were issues such as climate change, regional security and "turning opportunity into prosperity".
At the end of the week, several prime ministers attended the World Rugby Cup opening match between New Zealand and Tonga, won by the All Blacks 41-10.
The students' stories, videos and audio reports were published on their course website Pacific Scoop www.pacific.scoop.co.nz
Their live coverage was organised by AUT's Pacific Media Centre and supervised by director Associate Professor David Robie, who said: "This is quite extraordinary for students to have an opportunity to cover an international event of this calibre - and all the students excelled."
Scoop co-editor Alastair Thompson told the students: "I think this has been the best reported Pacific Islands Forum ever - by your team in particular. And in doing such a marvellous job, you have set a new bar of professionalism for student/industry journalism projects."
Students involved in the coverage: Alex Perrottet (Australia), Karen Abplanalp, Kim Austin, Christopher Chang, Chen Bei (China), Nigel Moffiet, Idoko Ojabo (Nigeria), Sarah Robson, Alexander Winkler, Henry Yamo (Papua New Guina) and Victoria Young.
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Ten students were accredited from AUT University to cover the Pacific Islands Forum in Auckland, New Zealand, from September 6-9 on the eve of the World Rugby Cup. The also covered pre-forum and post-forum stories. Their archive on our sister website Pacific Scoop is here.
Alex Perrottet
