PNG, Solomon Is Media Councils Launch Website

PNG, Solomon Is Media Councils Launch Website

PORT MORESBY (PNG Media Council/Pacific Media Watch): With a simultaneous "go live" launch in Port Moresby, Honiara and Brisbane at Queensland University of Technology and a video webcast from the Brisbane celebrations, www.png-simediacouncil.org has been launched.

The site is the first web presence for the Media Council of Papua New Guinea and the Media Association of the Solomon Islands. It was developed for MCPNG and MASI by the Creative Industries Faculty of QUT to support their journalism training, information sharing and anti-corruption campaigns.

The site was designed and built over nine months by two teams of communication design, journalism and media and communication students as an international community service project under the supervision of QUT staff Sharon Tickle and Marcus Foth. The project was advised by the Federation for Development Cooperation and Transparency International.

In launching the site at the office of the Post-Courier newspaper in Port Moresby, founding father of the Papua New Guinea Media Council Luke Sela joked that the "coconut wireless is much better and faster", but added that the launch of the website was "testimony to the strong support of the council for the media industry".

PNG's Minister for Intergovernmental Relations Sir Peter Barter said he was full of admiration for what has been accomplished and he hopes that the information sharing the site makes possible will be the first step towards a deeper relationship between the PNG and Solomon Islands media industries.

President of the Media Council of PNG Peter Aitsi said he wanted the site to be "a tool for training to enable journalists in the region to exchange their experiences and learn together".

In November, two council staff from PNG and one from MASI will visit Creative Industries Faculty to learn about website management. Their visit is funded by a QUT community service grant.

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PACIFIC MEDIA WATCH ONLINE http://www.pmw.c2o.org

PACIFIC MEDIA WATCH is an independent, non-profit, non-government organisation comprising journalists, lawyers, editors and other media workers, dedicated to examining issues of ethics, accountability, censorship, media freedom and media ownership in the Pacific region. Launched in October 1996, it has links with the Journalism Program at the University of the South Pacific, Bushfire Media based in Sydney, Journalism Studies at the University of PNG (UPNG), the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ), Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, and Community Communications Online (c2o).

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