(SAMOA OBSERVER)—Samoa has taken a leading role in the Pacific’s anti-corruption Journalists’ Network (PACJN) following the selection of Rudy Bartley, President of the Journalists Association of Western Samoa (JAWS) to chair the network’s steering committee.
The announcement was made during a virtual meeting of Pacific journalists hosted early this week by the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) and the United Nations Pacific Regional Anti-Corruption (UN-PRAC).
Journalists met for ‘The Role of Whistleblowers in Preventing Corruption in the Pacific’ webinar held at the Suva Peninsula Hotel on Wednesday 31 March, 2021.
Invitations to participate in the webinar were extended to journalists across the region.
It was the second webinar in a series of activities for working Pacific journalists who are reporting on integrity and corruption issues, as part of a new project by UNPRAC and PINA for the PACJN.
The new project will run for eight months, a spokesperson for PINA said during the meeting.
The anti-corruption network for journalists was established in 2019 at a PINA conference in Auckland, New Zealand.
PACJN aims to build the knowledge and skills of journalists and writers who report on anti-corruption in Pacific countries.
Under the project, four grants will be made available to freelancers and journalists in the Pacific who wish to pursue investigative stories.
The newly formed steering committee for PACJN met via Zoom on Monday, 29 March, 2021.
At the meeting, Bartley, who owns and operates WTMedia and serves as JAWS president, was elected to chair the committee. He is president of PACJN.
Bartley and his vice president from Palau will work with PACJN Coordinator Samisoni Pareti on the project.
PACJN has a presence in eight Pacific countries.
In addition to the grants to fund investigative stories, journalists will also be given the opportunity to travel to regional conferences.
It is hoped by the end of the project, select journalists will have produced well-researched investigative stories that expose corruption in government and business in their countries.
The PACJN steering committee plans to launch a membership drive for PACJN in the Pacific’s newsrooms, Pareti said.
The drive will take place after the long Easter weekend.
Bartley told the Samoa Observer was only made aware of his selection as PACJN president and steering committee chair last Thursday
