Leone Cabenatabua
SUVA (Fiji Sun / Pacific Media Watch): An international award-winning investigative journalist will take part in the big PINA Pacific Media Summit at the Lagoon Resort, Pacific Harbour, next week.
The Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) manager/training coordinator Matai Akauola yesterday confirmed Graham Davis had joined the programme.
Fiji-born Davis publishes the independent blog Grubsheet and has won awards for investigative reporting that include:
* Australia's top journalism award, the Walkley;
* Australia's top TV award, the Logie;
* the New York Festivals Award;
* along with the major media prizes in science, medicine and education reporting.
Judge for awards
Davis has also judged major media awards in Australia and New Zealand and was on the national panel that reviewed the Australian journalists’ code of ethics.
He has worked for both the BBC in Britain and ABC in Australia as well featuring full time and as a guest reporter over a period of 20 years on the Australian Nine Network's flagship current affairs programme Sunday. He has reported from around the world, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.
Davis was born in Suva. He did his primary schooling in Lakeba in the Lau islands, Savusavu in Vanua Levu and Lautoka in Viti Levu before going to boarding school and further education in Australia.
He is a regular visitor to Fiji as a journalist and his reportage and opinion columns are published regularly in the Fiji Sun.
Akauola also confirmed six pre-summit workshops in which local journalists are now being offered places alongside regional colleagues.
They are:
1. Sports and the Media
IOC/ONOC ‘Sport has power to change the world’ facilitated by the International Olympic Committee and Oceania National Olympic Committee. Issues: Olympism in action, challenges facing Oceania sport, illegal sports betting, understanding ONOC programmes - OSEP, STOP HIV, ORADO and Media as a partner in sports development.
2. Climate change and REDD
GIZ/SPC as sponsors of the workshop hopes to get the Pacific media to better understand the REDD (reducing carbon emissions through deforestation) and the work being carried out in the region. SPC/GIZ experts will simplify REDD which is now a formal mechanism within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) for mitigation.
3. Non-communicable diseases and the media
The Ministry of Health (Fiji) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) have combined to educate the media on why non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are the biggest killers in Fiji and the Pacific region. Apart from NCDs and communicable diseases there are also emerging diseases.
4. UN Convention on anti-corruption
Since the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) came into force in 2003, seven Pacific Island nations have signed up to the Convention including Solomon Islands in January this year. However, very little is known about state responsibilities. Media being an important stakeholder needs to understand UNCAC and hold their governments accountable to the convention.
5. Communication for development (C4D)
Communication for Development workshop has been formulated by Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS) and the focus is on young and budding journalists from journalism schools in the Pacific to discuss the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and its impact and realities on the ground. PACMAS has combined with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community’s Regional Media Centre for hands-on practical work.
6. Building a media literate Fiji and a responsible Fiji media
Fiji Media Watch, an independent media monitoring group, is organising this workshop. It will focus on the health and wellbeing of journalists, good governance and media development.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Pacific Media Watch
