Budding journalists from around the region will now be able to see their work reach a wider audience in Fiji and around the globe.
This comes after a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was inked between the University of the South Pacific (USP) and The Fiji Times during World Press Freedom Day in Suva yesterday.
USP’s Head of School for Journalism Dr Shailendra Singh said The Fiji Times had been a long standing partner of USP Journalism.
“A very important partner in helping us train not only our local journalists, but regional ones,” he said in an interview.
He said this was done in a major way through USP journalism students who were taken as attaches in The Fiji Times newsroom for a six-week stint.
“They are expected to operate just like normal journalists, and this is a very important part of their training and Fiji Times has been accepting our attachments right from the beginning.
“The MOU is to semi-formalise and this is a milestone for the first time ever and after years of working together cooperatively, we now have a MOU.
“I think one of the major outcomes of the MOU is that Fiji Times will now print and circulate our student newspaper so that will be a major boost for our students.
“The fact that they will get such wide coverage across Fiji and outside of Fiji, so what that means for us is we have to lift our game even further to match Fiji Times’ standard and I think it’s a major recognition of our collaboration.”
In addition, Dr Singh said the move would encourage and empower journalism students and offer them a huge incentive that they appear in one of the top newspapers in the Pacific region.
Fiji Times Pte Ltd general manager Christine Lyons said the company would cover the printing of Wansolwara, the USP Journalism student training newspaper, twice in the academic year.
This amounted to once per semester.
“It will be circulated as an insert in The Fiji Times as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility,” she said.
“The MOU allows The Fiji Times to provide ongoing support in other areas, including the six-week internships for final year journalism students.”
Ms Lyons said this allowed the company’s experienced journalists to provide guidance and expertise to the young professionals on the expectations within the media industry.
