A former contributing editor of the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch project was honoured last night at the AUT University awards night for the School of Communication Studies.
Josephine Latu received the Dean’s Award for Excellence in Postgraduate Research for a masters thesis on Tongan media and democracy and sent some words of thanks and advice to current students from her new communications post in Tonga.
"I'd like to encourage students - especially Pasifika students in the audience pursuing research - to listen to your gut feelings," she said.
"If you know something that's right, that's relevant, that's key to your community and you're ready to put in the hard work to research that issue, do it and fight for it."
Latu now works for the Ministry of Information and Communication in Tonga, after a brief stint as the editor of Tonga Chronicle.
The evening had plenty of worthy recipients, all of whom thanked staff and colleagues for the opportunities and experiences they had at AUT.
Rukhsana Aslam was the recipient of the Asian Journalism Fellowship with the PMC, sponsored by the Asia New Zealand Foundation. She is researching peace journalism, an area that Aslam said is “something we desperately need at the moment.”
Top TV graduate
Aziz Al Sa’afin, received the award for Television Graduate of the Year. The award was sponsored by TVNZ and a snapshot of Sa’afin’s work was on display on the big screen.
Al Sa’afin’s The Struggling Butterfly, a short film based on a young child’s struggle to live the demands of Ramadan in a Western country, was featured in last year's Flavorz Film Festival at AUT
Al Sa’afin said he was happy all the hard work had paid off.
“I worked so hard, it is all a blur,” he said. “The degree has opened my eyes to a variety of things I can now get into.”
He has already picked up a job with Pickled Possum Productions and is happy to get the experience.
“I want to be able to present and direct, perhaps at the same time,” he said.
“I think there could be a good collaboration of the two.”
Peter Parussini, head of corporate affairs at TVNZ, was on hand to present the award and spoke highly of Al Sa’afin.
“He’s fantastic. He is a star in the rising,” he said.
“His piece on the child living Ramadan is a great modern story and we should have more of these.
“Modern media is so different from where it was 10 years ago – it requires a broad range of skills. Aziz certainly has those and that is a tribute to AUT.”
Asian assignments
Corazon Miller was picked for an international exchange with the Jakarta Globe, thanks to the Asia New Zealand Foundation. She was also presented with the Storyboard Award and Spasifik Magazine Prize for diversity journalism by Spasifik publisher Innes Logan.
Miller said she was excited about heading to Indonesia next semester.
“I am nervous but excited,” she said.
“It’s kind of scary. I guess it will help me build up contacts and get some good international experience.”
Miller said she had a natural passion for diversity journalism and was drawn to the marginalised stories.
Kim Bowden, a recent graduate of the Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism, scooped the pool and became a familiar face on the stage. She received the Radio New Zealand International Award for Asia-Pacific journalism and was also presented with the award for the Outstanding Graduate in the course, sponsored by APN National Publishing.
Bowden said she was “honoured” to receive the award.
“When you look at the range and calibre of the journalists in the course, and read their bylines in the major papers such as the Herald, I am honoured to receive an award from among them,” she said.
Bowden was also chosen for an international internship with the China Daily online, and thanked her husband for “sitting here in New Zealand for four months” while she headed to Beijing.
“I have just finished six weeks of Mandarin, just to be able to get by in the newsroom,” she said.
“It will be great to get the international experience, seeing how a newsroom is run in a foreign country, particularly one with such a political history and situation as China.”
The former tour guide is no stranger to travel but said she was happy to be staying in the one place and getting the fuller international and cultural experience.
“I think the best journalists are those that have seen the world,” she said.
Charles Mabbett, media adviser of the Asia New Zealand Foundation, which sponsors the travel for the international internships is stepping down this year and AUT associate professor Dr David Robie paid tribute to his efforts over the years to better reporting of the Asia-Pacific region, especially in enabling such close collaboration with the university.
Alex Perrottet
