PMC director gives media awards keynote, research seminar at Pacific university
Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie has visited Fiji as the guest of the regional University of the South Pacific to present a keynote address at the annual journalism awards night and to present a research seminar for academics.
He was speaker at the awards event marking the 21st anniversary of the regional Pacific media education programme as the longest-serving expatriate head of journalism to lead the school.
He shared the event with the French Ambassador to Fiji, Michel Djokovic, who celebrated the government aid from Paris that established the programme and supported it over many years.
Dr Robie noted how he had joined the USP programme in 1998 as head of the journalism school at the University of Papua New Guinea.
He was with USP for five years building up the programme internationally before joining Auckland University of Technology in 2002.
He paid tribute to the graduates of USP over many years including those working on the award-winning Wansolwara newspaper, saying he was especially proud of the award-winning team who covered the May 2000 George Speight coup.
“My concluding message to graduating student journalists is that no matter what government, political or industry pressure you face, you should hold on strongly to your core values of truth, accuracy, honesty and courage in the public interest,” he told the students.
“Our communities deserve the best from their media in these deceitful times.”
Dr Robie later addressed academic staff on the theme “Journalism as research – Research as journalism”, providing insights into trends in journalism research methodology and how academic staff could raise their research profile in the media.