[Source: Supplied]

Five high-profile, international award-winning journalists and journalism academics will join their regional media counterparts to address the 2024 Pacific International Media Conference in Suva, Fiji, this week.

They include a three-time Emmy Award-winning television news producer from the United States, a widely published award-winning journalism academic and author based in Hong Kong, a recently honoured Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, a finalist in the 2017 Pulitzer Prize, and a renowned investigative journalist from New Zealand.

Professors Emily Drew, Cherian George, and David Robie, alongside Irene Liu and Indira Stewart, will speak on wide-ranging topics related to media and development in the Pacific, from an international perspective.

Organised and hosted by The University of the South Pacific, in collaboration with the Pacific Islands News Association and the Asia Pacific Media Network, the conference will be held from tomorrow until Saturday under the theme “Navigating Challenges and Shaping Futures in Pacific Media Research and Practice.”

Associate Professor in Pacific Journalism, Shailendra Singh, says it is important to address Pacific media issues in light of global changes affecting the sector, hence the lineup of international and Pacific regional speakers.

Singh says Pacific media have not escaped global trends such as digital disruption and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, not to mention recent geopolitical developments.

The conference will also celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Pacific Journalism Review and launch the book, Pacified: Media, Peace and the Development Complex in the Pacific, co-edited by Dr. Singh, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Professor Biman Prasad, and Dr. Amit Sarwal.

The conference will be held at the Suva Holiday Inn from July 4th to 6th.

In addition to the conference, a side cultural event “Connecting Diaspora: Pacific Prana” exhibition has also been organised from 3 July to 28 August at the USP Oceania Arts Centre on Laucala Campus.