Wider media role advocated

Media in the Pacific Islands are neglecting a nation-building role that is critical to developing countries, says Pacific media expert Dr David Robie.

Robie, who teaches journalism at Auckland University of Technology, said while many Pacific newspapers and other media tried to fit the New Zealand and Australian mould of journalism, they were missing good examples in the developing world like in the Philippines and India.

"Journalism and the media in the region do need to play a far more important role in the nation building process and the only way to do that is to have better trained journalists."

Robie said journalists needed to understand how their countries operated and explain the society in transition about them.

"The real argument is for the media to play a vitally important role in democracy because democracy is what it is all about, and developing a greater understanding of their own institutions."

Part of the problem was the inadequate training of journalists with too many still learning on the job under poor supervision, he said.

Robie has written a book, Mekim Nius, South Pacific media, politics and education, in which he argues that Pacific journalists need more university-level training.

He points to the success of many Papua New Guinea journalists who studied at that level as far back as 1975 in a ground-breaking training scheme funded by New Zealand.

Robie said Pacific Island Governments should increase the numbers of scholarships available to students wanting to study at degree level.

Overseas aid money for basic journalism courses was a waste, he said.

Governments in many Pacific countries were part of the problem as they did not understand or support the role of the media.

In countries like Tonga, where the Government ruled with unchecked authority, newspapers were forced into being either a Government mouthpiece or its unofficial opposition.