22 July 2022, Apia - Interest is growing in the 2022 Vision Pasifika Media Awards as the countdown to the closing date draws near on 10 August 2022.
Since the competition was launched in June, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) continues to receive inquiries from members of the Pacific media fraternity, who are keen and are working on submitting entries.
The Vision Pasifika Media Awards invite entries from Pacific media workers on published or broadcast stories, from 1 January 2022 to 10 August 2022, that highlight the region’s climate change challenges and the way Pacific people have addressed or are addressing these for survival. There are five categories: Television news, Radio production, Online content, Print media, and Tertiary-level journalism students. Category winners will be awarded USD1,000. There will also be additional prizes.
SPREP’s Communications Consultant, Mr Mata’afa Sosikeni Lesa, who is an experienced Pacific media personality, said the competition could not have come at a better time.
“Everywhere you look around the world today, media coverage about extreme weather events are dominating the news cycle. From heat waves, flooding, bushfires to king tides smashing the shores of the Pacific, as the watchdog of global developments, the role of the media in reporting these events becomes that much more important,” Mr Lesa said. “In this part of the world, I know how hard our Pacific media colleagues work to get these stories. Through the 2022 Vision Pasifika Media Awards, it is wonderful that the spotlight is being shone on them, they deserve the recognition. Here at SPREP, we encourage our Pacific media family to submit entries before the due date. Tell the world our stories of resilience.”
The Vision Pasifika Media Award 2022 is the culmination of a partnership between Aotearoa New Zealand, SPREP, Pacific Islands News Association (PINA), Internews Earth Journalism Network, and the Pacific Environment Journalists Network (PEJN).
Media workers are encouraged to submit stories on how their nations, or communities, are dealing with issues like:
• The need for a 1.5-degree Celsius world for Pacific survival (mitigation, ambition)
• Climate change impacts in our ocean (ocean acidification, ocean sink, sea level rise, marine heat waves, coral reefs)
• Natural solutions for Pacific resilience (ecosystem-based adaptation for Pacific resilience, agricultural solutions)
• Our climate change reality (personal experiences, extreme weather events, coastal erosion, adaptation, how we live with climate change impacts)
• Climate finance
• Climate solutions and/or climate resilience.
“If you look at all the themes highlighted above, each and everyone of them relate to the extreme weather events of today. They are all interlinked and interconnected and that’s why this competition is not just timely, it is also very relevant to everyone in SPREP’s member countries, or anywhere in the world for that matter,” SPREP’s Acting Communications and Outreach Adviser, Ms Nanette Woonton, said.
“We are grateful for the partnership with Aotearoa New Zealand and our key regional media partners — the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA), Internews Earth Journalism Network, and the Pacific Environment Journalists Network (PEJN) for this opportunity to highlight and honour the work being done by our media friends to tell the stories of Pacific resilience in the face of the escalating climate crisis.”
For inquiries, email: [email protected] or [email protected]. Submissions close 4pm, 10 August 2022, Samoa time. To find out more about the competition and how you can enter, visit: : https://library.sprep.org/sites/default/files/2022-06/media-awards-digital.pdf