Baptism of fire: How journalism students from the University of the South Pacific covered the speight putsch and its aftermath

Philip Cass, Zayed University

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Round Table

Publication Date

1-1-2002

Abstract

During the violent coup staged by businessman George Speight in Fiji in May 2000, accurate information about what was happening was often restricted to a handful of Fijian websites. On some occasions the only site still operating-and the only source of information for readers outside Fiji-was the one run by the journalism programme at the University of the South Pacific. Journalism students began to cover the unfolding events as an academic exercise but, before long, their newspaper and its associated website became vital links to the outside world. Despite attempts to suppress it, the student website was often the sole source of news for people outside Fiji as commercial websites went off line. Their work was rewarded with international acclaim, including awards for journalism education. Ten months later, the journalism students were again on assignment, reporting the complexities of the elections that followed the coup.

ISSN

0035-8533

Publisher

Carfax Publishing Company

Volume

366

Issue

366

First Page

559

Last Page

574

Disciplines

Social and Behavioral Sciences

Keywords

Coup, Fiji, George Speight, Journalism, Students, University of the South Pacific

Scopus ID

0036749067

Indexed in Scopus

yes

Open Access

yes

Open Access Type

Green: A manuscript of this publication is openly available in a repository

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS