Reporter Priestley Habru Wins Fellowship

Reporter Priestley Habru Wins Harry Brittain Fellowship

http://www.cpu.org.uk/fellowsh_hb_selected.html

HONIARA (CPU/Pacific Media Watch): A senior Solomon Star reporter who was trained at both the University of Papua New Guinea and University of the South Pacific journalism schools is among 10 Commonwealth journalists awarded a Harry Brittain Fellowship this year.

Priestley Habru, 28, will take up the six-week scholarship in London with his colleagues from May 17.

After beginning his journalism studies at UPNG in Port Moresby, working on the award-winning Uni Tavur newspaper, Habru transferred to USP in Suva, Fiji.

He graduated at USP in 2002 with a double major BA in journalism and language and literature.

Habru worked with the Solomon Star as a cadet reporter from 1996, before starting on a permanent basis in 2002.

In 2003, he was appointed sports editor and senior reporter, covering both general news and also editing sports news.

Earlier this year, he was appointed to specifically cover health, education, and religion, while also editing sports news.

The Solomon Star is the main newspaper of the Solomon Islands and has a circulation of about 5000.

Other scholarship winners are: Cameron Thompson (Australia), Francis Pabai (The Gambia), Sreyashi Dastidar (India), Sumitha Martin (Malaysia), Geoff Collett (New Zealand), Kirsty Pickett (New Zealand), Asfiya Aziz (Pakistan), Kay Karriem (South Africa) and Wilton Mamba (Swaziland).

The fellowship will take the journalists to Manchester, Northern Ireland (hosted by the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office), Wales (hosted by The Thomson Foundation) and another city where they will spend one week on attachment with a regional newspaper.

Commonwealth Press Union (CPU) training director Jane Rangeley said: "Fellows are selected from countries within the Commonwealth and we try to strike a balance of successful male and female applicants.

"Many past recipients have gone on to hold senior key editorial and management roles."

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PACIFIC MEDIA WATCH ONLINE http://www.pmw.c2o.org

PACIFIC MEDIA WATCH is an independent, non-profit, non-government organisation comprising journalists, lawyers, editors and other media workers, dedicated to examining issues of ethics, accountability, censorship, media freedom and media ownership in the Pacific region. Launched in October 1996, it has links with the Journalism Program at the University of the South Pacific, Bushfire Media based in Sydney, Journalism Studies at the University of PNG (UPNG), the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ), Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, and Community Communications Online (c2o).

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