One of the organisers of a Pacific Media and Human Rights Summit, which has just ended in Samoa, says he hopes politicans and officials will pay attention to the final communique.
It urged Pacific states to urgently adopt freedom of information legislation.
The Summit also expressed grave concern about incidents of violence and intimidation directed at Pacific journalists in the course of their work.
The meeting was organised by the NZ Human Rights Commission and the Pacific Cooperation Foundation, the PCF.
Programme Manager with the PCF, David Vaeafe, says it is important that the message is delivered in a strong and consistent voice:
"Sure these points have been made before but issues still happen, hence why they keep coming up, hence why we need to reinforce those points again and again. Change doesn't happen overnight. It happens slowly and consistent pressure and eventually something will happen down the line and changes will show through."
The Programme Manager with the Pacific Co-operation Foundation, David Vaeafe
