12 August 2022, Apia - The deadline has been extended for members of the Pacific media fraternity to submit entries for the 2022 Vision Pasifika Media Award.
The two-week extension was announced by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) Acting Communications and Outreach Adviser, Ms Nanette Woonton, on Friday.
“We want to acknowledge everyone who had submitted entries by our initial deadline of Wednesday 10 August. We have received some incredible stories and we are looking forward to working with our panel of judges to review them all,” she said. “However, due to the disruptive nature of COVID-19 and how it has impacted the Pacific region, we have decided to extend the competition for another two weeks with the new deadline now set for COB Thursday 25 August Samoa time.”
The Vision Pasifika Media Award 2022 is the culmination of a partnership between Aotearoa New Zealand, SPREP, the Pacific Islands News Association, Internews Earth Journalism Network, and the Pacific Environment Journalists Network. It was launched virtually on 16 June 2022 to coincide with SPREP’s 29th birthday, recognizing the role of Pacific media in amplifying Pacific voices on climate change.
The competition encourages entries from Pacific media workers on published or broadcast stories, from 1 January 2022 to 25 August 2022, that highlight the region’s climate change challenges and the way Pacific people have addressed or are addressing these for survival. There are five categories: Television news, Radio production, Online content, Print media, and Tertiary-level journalism students. Category winners will be awarded USD1,000. There will also be additional prizes.
Media workers are encouraged to submit stories on how their nations, or communities, are dealing with issues like:
· The need for a 1.5-degree Celsius world for Pacific survival (mitigation, ambition)
· Climate change impacts in our ocean (ocean acidification, ocean sink, sea level rise, marine heat waves, coral reefs)
· Natural solutions for Pacific resilience (ecosystem-based adaptation for Pacific resilience, agricultural solutions)
· Our climate change reality (personal experiences, extreme weather events, coastal erosion, adaptation, how we live with climate change impacts)
· Climate finance
· Climate solutions and/or climate resilience.
Ms Woonton said the team at SPREP is looking forward to more exciting entries.
“This competition will not be possible without our partnership with Aotearoa New Zealand and our key regional media partners, the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA), Internews Earth Journalism Network, and the Pacific Environment Journalists Network (PEJN). We thank them for this opportunity to highlight and honour the work being done by our media friends to tell the stories of Pacific resilience in the face of the escalating climate crisis.”
Category winners will be awarded USD 1,000. There will also be additional prizes. Submissions close 4pm, 25 August 2022, Samoa time.
For inquiries, email: [email protected] or [email protected]. To find out more about the competition and how you can enter, visit: https://library.sprep.org/sites/default/files/2022-06/media-awards-digital.pdf