The PINA Pacific Media Pacific Summit 2009 got off to a shaky start at Port Vila Vanuatu this week.

On the opening day of the Pacific Islands News Association's meeting on July 27, Port Vila was shaken by a 6.2 earthquake. Then after lunch, the Fiji issue where government censors are placed in news rooms caused an uproar.

During a session on "Access to Information and Media Freedom", moderated by Charmaine Rodrigues, from the UNDP Pacific Center, with Sophie Foster, the Associate Editor of the Fiji Times, as one of the three panelists, the President of the Media Council of Tonga, Pesi Fonua questioned the logic of inviting censors of news to attend a Media Freedom Preliminary.

After a few hard comments particularly from John Wood, the Managing Editor of the Cook Islands News and George, also from the Cook Islands questioning a decision to allow the two censors into the meeting, there was a call by George for a vote to remove the two Fiji censors from the meeting.

The question then was raised as to who invited the censors into the meeting. The president of the Vanuatu Media Organisation, Mosese Stevens, said that they were not responsible for invitation of participants, it was a responsibility of the PINA Secretariat.

Matai 'Akau'ola, the manager of PINA's secretariat explained that the Ministry of Information for Fiji is a member of PINA and "like other members, can attend the meeting."

The issue that a member is censoring the news of other member news organizations was difficult for the meeting to come to terms with, given that media freedom is a fundamental pillars of PINA.

Fiji

One of the two Fiji soldiers who have been working as censors in newsrooms in Fiji, Lance Corporal Talei Tora, told the gathering that she had prepared a paper that she would present in the next session.

During the following session, "Shooting the messenger - intimidation and violence against Pacific media practitioners", Lance Corporal Talei stated that they were there to represent the government of Fiji, and that the Ministry of Information was a member of PINA.

Talei said that they would present a report to government on their return.

The editor of the Fiji Times Netani Rika, who was speaking in the same session, told of the difficulties of working and pointed out to the censors of the contrast of the treatment that was extended to them during the PINA convention, comparing to what they are given back home in Fiji.

Netani whose own home in Suva was stoned, and who has been personally assaulted by supporters of the Fiji regieme, made a peaceful protest by walking out of the meeting after he made his speech.

The question of whether or not PINA should revoke the membership of the Fiji Ministry of Information remained a hot issue for the meeting.

Vanuatu

The drama did not end there. Esther Tinning, a journalist with the Vanuatu Daily Post told her own story, of how she was beaten up and she lost her baby. She accused the Vanuatu Media Oganisation of not standing up and saying something against the thugs who beat up both her and her publisher Marc Neil-Jones.