Felix Chaudhary
SUVA (The Fiji Times/Pacific Media Watch): When severe tropical Cyclone Pam approached Fiji while devastating Vanuatu last weekend, the Fiji Meteorological Service opened its doors to the media in a bid to boost dissemination of information to the public.
Acting Director Aminiasi Tuidraki said this was a new approach to get warnings out in a more effective manner to save lives and reduce losses to the country.
"We invited the media into the Weather Office in Nadi from the first day warnings were issued of the approaching cyclone, this is part of government's strategy to improve and enhance warnings to the public," he said.
"The mission and vision of government and the Fiji Meteorological Service is to ensure the safety and security of the public.
"And apart from minimising risk to lives, there is also the socioeconomic loss to Fiji.
"Every cyclone that has come in the past five years has cost the country upwards of $100 million per cyclone.
"This is a huge cost to the government and one way to minimise this loss is by using the media as a medium to convey information as soon as possible to the public."
Tuidraki said lessons were learnt from Tropical Cyclone Evan in 2012.
"We worked with the media and because of the early warnings that were issued, there were no casualties from the category four cyclone."
The Fiji Meteorological Service head said co-ordination between his organisation, the National Disaster Management Office, and media outlets had improved significantly since 2012.
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Pacific Media Watch
