Professor Robert Hooper Addresses Pacific Media Summit in Vanuatu
09/03/2009
Robert Hooper,
IR/PS Professor Robert Hooper addressed the Pacific Media Summit on Media Freedom in Port Vila, Vanuatu, hosted by Vanuatu’s Prime Minister, Edward N. Natapei. The Summit was called by the Pacific Islands News Association to confront the crisis in Fiji following a military coup and the imposition of draconian restrictions on press freedoms. Professor Hooper outlined the role of free, independent and pluralistic media in restoring democracy and effective governance in the Pacific nations, based on his work with media systems in Asia, Central Europe and the Middle East. Journalists from 12 Pacific island nations participated in the Media Summit in the final week of July.
As a Fulbright Senior Scholar to Fiji in 1994, Professor Hooper launched the first broadcast journalism course at the University of the South Pacific and trained the staff of Fiji Television News. With Fiji now in a political crisis, he reunited with former students from Fiji-TV, Fiji Broadcasting Corporation and PACNEWS to advise, support and encourage them under difficult circumstances.
While in Vanuatu, Professor Hooper also conducted intensive courses in broadcast journalism and news reporting for journalists and news editors of Vanuatu Broadcasting and Television, the nation’s national broadcaster. Under his supervision, journalists conducted professional stand-up reporting of news stories for national broadcast for the first time in the nation’s history. Vanuatu, which celebrates it’s 29th year of independence this year, has asked Professor Hooper for assistance in developing broadcasting to international standards.
