Moffat Mamu (left) and Samisoni Pareti at the development media awards in Tokyo. Photo: USP

Pacific.Scoop
By a special correspondent in Suva

A University of the South Pacific journalism alumni says he hopes winning a major award in Asia-Pacific journalism will draw attention to climate change and encourage greater coverage of this issue in the regional media.

Solomon Star journalist Moffat Mamu received the Development Asia Journalism Awards first prize in the “climate change adaptation” category at the awards while Fiji’s Samisoni Pareti won third prize.

They were the only two Pacific participants in this this year’s Development Asia Journalism Awards (DAJA) and traveled to Tokyo to receive the honours.

A journalist from Bangladesh received first runner-up award.

In thanking the judges for recognising his work, Mamu said there was a need for the media to address climate change issues in the region.

He added that he hoped his win would inspire journalists and students of journalism in the region to investigate and write climate change stories as this was a critical issue.

Mamu studied journalism and history/politics at USP between 2000 and 2004.

He become a full time reporter with the Solomon Star in August 2004.

“Feature writing is a passion for me and it resulted in me being selected,” Mamu said.

Divisional head of USP journalism Shailendra Singh congratulated Mamu. Singh said he clearly remembered Mamu as a determined and hard working student.

“He liked to write,” Singh said.

“He had a true passion for journalism, and he has stuck with the newspaper that employed him after his graduation instead of moving on to public relations jobs.”

Mamu said USP journalism’s courses helped him improve his research and writing  skills, techniques and knowledge. He said he is still applying these skills and knowledge in his work.

The trophy and certificates for the annual event were awarded by the Asian Development Bank Institute (ABDI), a sister organisation of Asian Development Bank (ABD).

It was the first time Solomon Islands participated in the competition since its inception five years ago.

“I’m honoured because I wasn’t expecting to get this recognition as it is a tough competition against entrants from the Asia/Pacific region,” Mamu said.

The annual competition organisers received about 240 articles in the four different categories.