When you switch the TV on in New Zealand, you could be forgiven for thinking you were in America or Britain. New Zealand television is so saturated with overseas content that it's easy to miss the Pacific Island media industry operating on the fringes.

In Auckland, Triangle Television has up to five Pacific Island programmes broadcasting weekly and TVNZ's long runing Pacific Island show, Tagata Pasifika, will soon increase its airtime by half an hour because of community demands that it be longer.

Pacific Island radio is also a booming industry. Radio 531 PI based in Auckland is set to transmit nationally, and Access Radio stations up and down the country have a wide variety of Pacific Island broadcasters speaking their own languages. There are also several ethnic radio stations operating including Radio Samoa in Auckland and Samoa Capitol Radio in Wellington.

The newspaper stands have also felt the weight of Pacific Island newspapers. These ethnic newspapers are read voraciously by Tongans, Samoans, Fijians, Niueans and Cook Islanders nationwide. Many of these have gone online, joining the growing number of Pacific Island websites popping up in New Zealand.

It's because of these trends that a small group of Pacific Island journalists recently joined forces to form PIMA - the Pacific Island Media Association. The association will be launched at the opening of the Pacific Island Media Conference in October.
 

The conference was initiated because of the large number of Pacific Island journalists working in the media and the need for a Pacific Island journalists' network.

Organiser, John Utanga, says there was also a need for a formal media watchdog and lobby group to monitor Pacific Island media coverage in New Zealand. "There is a growing need for more understanding and better communication with Pacific Island communities in New Zealand," says Utanga. "We need to do this by encouraging more Pacific Island people to take up journalism careers and work in mainstream as well as their own areas. This conference is also aimed at Palagi journalists and communicators who want to learn how to communicate better with our people."

The conference is being sponsored mainly by the Auckland University of Technology along with support from the New Zealand Journalist Training Organisation. During the conference there will be four workshops, one debate, one dinner and a banquet. The banquet will be a formal, ticketed event with guests from the Pacific and mainstream media, business, sports and entertainment industries attending.

Workshops include a panel discussion on Pacific Island broadcasting; a practical session on how to use the internet to research stories; a light-hearted debate on what a "Pacific Islander" is as depicted by the media, and a workshop on whether freedom of speech is a Pacific Island value.

David Robie, the head of the School of Journalism at Fiji's University of the South Pacific will be one of the guest speakers with others expected to attend from Samoa. "We hope this event will be held annually with an official executive committee elected at this year's event," says Utanga. "We also want to establish relationships with other media bodies in the Pacific like the Pacific Island News Association and the Pacific Island Broadcasting Association."

Photographs & some Pacific Links:

The Team at Tagata Pasifika on TV One: www.tvone.nzoom.com

Samoan Television & Pacific Pieces on Triangle Television www.tritv.co.nz

Samoana Newspaper: www.samoana.org.nz

Radio Samoa: www.radiosamoa.co.nz
 

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