A year ago this week, the tsunami devastated southern Samoa and also hit American Samoa and parts of Tonga. At least 192 people died, most of them in Samoa. The disaster struck just a month after Pacific Scoop had been launched. Here we begin a series of special reports to mark the anniversary of that fateful day last September 29.
This was the “intro” to a series of four special Tsunami: One Year On articles by Pacific Media Watch contributing editor Alex Perrottet and published in Pacific Media Centre Online and Pacific Scoop.
His reports explored the recovery efforts of the people of Samoa one year on from the devastating 2009 tsunami which killed 192 people and crippled the Pacific country’s south-eastern tourism zone on the island of Upolu for months.
He was the only student journalist at a New Zealand media school to attempt such an ambitious assignment and organised and funded it himself with the support of the Pacific Media Centre at AUT University.
The series recently won him a highly commended prize for the best online story (undergraduate or postgraduate) in the annual Ossie national journalism awards run by the Journalism Education Association of Australia (and the Pacific).
These are the premier student journalism awards in the Asia-Pacific region, including New Zealand.
Perrottet is a postgraduate student in the School of Communication Studies. Another postgraduate student journalist at AUT, Josh Gale, won the prize for best news story.
Reportageonline.com, the ACIJ student online magazine, won the best publication in any medium and best online publication in the awards. Reportage and Pacific Scoop often collaborate on stories.
Pacific Media Centre
