Ten indigenous language journalists from seven Pacific Island nations honed their basic journalistic skills in a seven-day workshop sponsored by the Cox Center, the Pacific Island News Association (PINA) and the British Department for International Development July 20 to 26, 1997, in Port Vila, Vanuatu.

The journalists discussed how to conduct interviews, how to handle sensitive issues, and how to write in basic news format. The journalists also learned how to market their news products and about the fundamentals of advertising and public relations.

The goal of the workshop was to provide basic tools to journalists working for the indigenous language media of the region. It was the second workshop dealing with this topic sponsored by the Cox Center in the Pacific in recent years. In the summer of 1996, the Center held a workshop in Tonga on the topic.

The 1997 workshop staff consisted of Anna Solomon, editor-in-chief of Word Publishing in Boroko, Papua New Guinea, Dr. Jim Richstad, an international journalism consultant and specialist on Pacific Island media, Dr. Doug Newsom, a professor at Texas Christian University in Ft. Worth, Texas, U.S.A., and Dr. Bob Carrell, professor emeritus at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma, U.S.A.

"It was clear from the first workshop (in Tonga) that the indigenous language journalists filled a special role in journalism in the Pacific," Richstad said, "and that training should be based on that special role to the extent possible."

The journalists in the workshop discussed the role of the indigenous languages in reaching the citizens of the Pacific Islands and the limitations of using only European languages in media communications. Most Pacific people use local languages for communication, the journalists were told.

The journalists discussed the importance of taking local customs into consideration in reporting stories. They also discussed the difficulties of covering such topics as AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Steven Vete, Inter Country Programme Adviser for UNAIDS in Fiji led this discussion.

Journalists attending the workshop came from Vanuatu, Tonga Islands, Kiribati, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Western Samoa, and the Fiji Islands.