20 Feb 2017

Samoa establishes Media Council

2:24 pm on 20 February 2017

Samoa's first Media Council has been established after more than a decade.

The local Journalist Association of Samoa had sought assistance from the British Thompson Foundation to draft a National Media Codes and Ethics.

The first meeting of the council on Friday accepted changes and amendments to the codes of ethics which covers editorial, news, advertising and content management.

Samoa Media Council members and consultants

Samoa Media Council members and consultants Photo: RNZI/ Autagavaia Tipi Autagavaia

The media council consists of 15 members including five media representatives and is chaired by a prominent lawyer, Leautulilagi Vanessa Barlow Schuster.

"It's been a long time coming and a lot of hard work preceded this. Without the work of many people and many in the industry, we would not have got so far. We had a piece of legislation, the Media Council Act, so it is now well overdue for us to be doing some work that was given to us under that legislation."