15 May 2013

Samoa's largest church group to launch a tv and a radio station

8:48 am on 15 May 2013

Samoa's largest church denomination, the Congregational Christian Church of Samoa is launching a television and a radio station tomorrow.

General Secretary Reverend. Dr Iutisone Salevao says the stations will be called EFKS Television and Radio Broadcasting for now and will operate in a building behind the church's headquarters in Apia.

The initial focus is youth, and all programmes will be in English and Samoa.

Both stations are co-funded by the Council for World Mission in Singapore and London, but the church hopes for financial self-sufficiency in the future.

The general manager of both church stations is Tuiasau Uelese Petaia, a former Chief Executive Officer of TV One, who also ran his own television station and had also been editor of Samoa Times, and the Samoa Observer.

Tuiasau, a formed vice president of the Pacific islands News Association served time at Tafaigata prison for not paying National Provident Fund employee payments for staff of his Lau TV tv station which eventually folded.

The Catholic Church in Samoa also operates a TV and radio station.