PORT VILA (Media Asosiesen blong Vanuatu / Pacific Media Watch): The Media Asosiesen blong Vanuatu (MAV) today announced that it will conduct a survey of media workers in Vanuatu.
MAV president Evelyne Toa said: “This confidential survey will gather information on pay and conditions of workers in the media as part of MAV’s goal to develop standards for pay and conditions for media workers employed in Vanuatu. These standards will help media organisations and workers to negotiate fair pay and conditions for different levels of education, skills and experience, and for different kinds of roles.
'“Vanuatu has never had a system of classification for media workers, and this is reflected in quite different pay and conditions for people. We now have young people graduating with a diploma from the Vanuatu Institute of Technology and we need a way to recognise their qualifications and as they gain experience and responsibility in their media work,” she said.
The standards will also provide much needed recognition of the special role played by media in society. “It is recognised internationally that education and pay impact significantly on the media’s ability and capacity to promote transparency and accountability, and this is turn affects the participation of citizens and the ability of governments to communicate and engage with the people.
"As we move towards Freedom of Information laws for Vanuatu, it is essential that we have in place a media that has the capacity to gather and disseminate information
professionally, ethically and responsibly,” Toa said.
MAV’s confidential survey of Vanuatu media workers is part of a long term strategy for the organisation to raise standards and professionalism of the media in Vanuatu.
The information from the survey will be used to develop classifications and minimum pay and conditions guidances for the media industry. MAV will consult with both media workers and media organisations in developing these guidelines.
In a related development, this week the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) called on journalists from around the world to campaign for decent pay and conditions by taking part in a global wage survey.
The survey will be conducted by the WageIndicator Foundation.
The IFJ survey aims to measure the wages of more than 1500 different occupations and 400 industries in over 56 countries around the world.
However, Pacific Island countries are not included in the survey.
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