Nanette’s report top in the islands

Nanette Woonton … her
“Tereora College Recycling Project”
report was judged top on television
in the region.

COOK ISLANDS Television news director Nanette Woonton has won the region’s top award for environmental journalism on television with a report featuring Tereora College.
Her entry (with technical support from Vincent Peters) beat entries from such bigger stations as Fiji Television and those in the Samoas.
Winners of the 2006 SPREP (Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme)/PINA (Pacific Islands News Association) Environmental Media Awards are:
- TV: Woonton (with technical support from Peters) for an item broadcast on Cook Islands TV, about the “Tereora College Recycling Project”
- Print: Vasemaca Rarabici for a feature article in the Fiji Sunday Times called: “Rebirth of a harbour”; and
- Student: Sakiasi Nawaikama for a feature in the University of the South Pacific’s Wansolwara student newspaper, titled: “Fighting chance [for fish larvae]”.
- Radio: no award.
The winning TV report was about the “Tereora College Recycling Project”, started by the college in an effort to encourage better waste practices.
An environmental NGO helped the school start the project and the students now manage the school’s recycling effort. It also illustrated problems the students faced with people nearby dumping their household rubbish in the recycling bins.
This item shows that the awareness of recycling is growing and having a positive impact upon students; and the message they are sending out to the community.
Woonton, on being told of the award, thanked the Te Ipukarea Society, Tereora College students, and Tekao Herrmann for their help. She also thanked Pitt Media Group colleagues for their support.
The SPREP/PINA awards are intended to encourage a high standard of environmental reporting in the Pacific Islands news media
JUDGES
SPREP praised the entries and said selection of the winners was a tough job for the judging panel, which comprised:
- Ken Clark (PINA President, and General Manager Commercial of Fiji TV),
- Nina Ratulele (Pacific Director of the Asia Pacific Forum of Environmental Journalists, APFEJ),
- Jake Brown (Lecturer in Journalism at the National University of Samoa) and
- Dr Jaap Jasperse (Editor and Publications Officer at SPREP).
The winners get US$500 each for the best TV entry and the best print entry, and US$200 for the best student entry.
This year’s prizes were sponsored by the International Waters Project (IWP). In line with the IWP objectives, the theme for the 2006 competition was: “Environmental protection and management at work in Pacific communities”.

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