Left to right, 'Ilisapeti Vaitafa and Fihinoa Fakaulu, diploma students; Viliami Lolohea, Program Coordinator 

The Media and Journalism programme at the Tonga Institute for Higher Education (TIHE) welcomed a donation of  $15,000 worth of equipment from the Auckland University of Technology School of Communication Studies yesterday, May 22.

The equipment included digital cameras, video cameras, TV monitors  will be used by students in the Certificate and Diploma Media and Journalism courses at TIHE.

Viliami Lolohea, the program coordinator said that the second hand equipment was  greatly appreciated as it would help improve the quality of the course offered.

He said the two year program currently had 15 students enrolled in the certificate program and  four students were working for their diplomas.

The students will learn how to use these important media tools before they can be recrutied into  newsrooms, he said.

Viliami said that he planned to engage students to go out into the field and film documents, do interviews and shoot pictures, in addition to writing stories of issues important in Tonga.

"It is vital that these students are equipped with the right set of skills that newsrooms need now in Tonga, and I hope that the equipments will help us achieve that," he said.

TIHE offered Tonga's first formal training course in journalism that was launched in 2007, with the first graduates in 2010.