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Wansolwara Online: VETERAN Fiji journalist, the late Robert Keith-Reid, is to be honoured by a special FAME Award that will carry his name.

While the actual award name has yet to be decided on, it is intended that it will be introduced at the second annual Fiji Media Council Fiji Awards for Media Excellence  (FAME) Awards.  Entries for these awards open tomorrow (June 1).

Mr Keith-Reid, publisher of Islands Business magazine, was one of the best known and respected journalists in the South Pacific. He died on May 13 of complications following heart surgery in Brisbane, Australia.

The award is a discretionary one. Any winner will be chosen from the winners of the main FAME Award categories, Print, Radio and Television, but only if the judges feel the person has been outstanding in their profession.

May 31, 2006

USP NEWS: USP journalism student Ms Vasemaca Rarabici has been selected for the Sasakawa Pacific Islands Journalism Fellowship. She will travel to Japan in the coming weeks to report on stories related to the Pacific and Japan.

Ms Rarabici who is also deputy chief of staff at The Fiji Times, one of the three local dailies in Fiji, has been selected alongside two other senior journalists from the region. They are Ms. Liberty Dones, Reporter, Saipan Tribune and Mr. David Crisostomo, Local News Editor, The Pacific Daily News, Hagatna.

The Fellows will also travel to Okinawa to report on the PALM Summit, a gathering of the leaders of the independent Pacific Islands sponsored by the Government of Japan.

Ms Rarabici won the USP Journalism’s most promising student award last year and was also deputy editor of the programme’s award-winning training newspaper, Wansolwara.

She was congratulated by USP Journalism Programme Coordinator Mr Shailendra Singh who said that Ms Rarabici was not only an outstanding student but a hard-working and committed journalist.

“She is a good choice for the award,” said Mr Singh

Ms Rarabici, who withdrew from studies in the first semester to report on the Fiji elections, will resume her studies later in the year.

“We look forward to having her back and sharing her experiences when she returns,” said Mr Singh.

The three Sasakawa Fellows were chosen from among applicants and nominees from Saipan, Guam, American Samoa, Fiji, Wallis and Futuna, and Papua New Guinea. A Selection Committee reviewed the candidates and selected the three Fellows. Two alternates were also chosen.

The Sasakawa Pacific Islands Journalism Fellowship is being conducted by the Sasakawa Pacific Island Nations Fund (SPINF) Media Project, in partnership with Pacific Magazine of Honolulu, Hawaii and the Institute for the Global Media and Journalism of Tokyo, Japan.

May 23, 2006