Papua New Guinea's 50th anniversary of independence is also a significant milestone for the country’s premier television broadcasters.
By Michelle Curran
Strategic Communications, Pasifika TV
As Papua New Guinea reflects on the past five decades of nationhood this year, the occasion also marked a significant milestone for the country’s premier television broadcasters of the diverse Pacific nation.
Independence from Australia is marked annually on September 16 in PNG, and this year, it rallied to commemorate 50 years of national unity, reflecting on past and present challenges, and looking ahead to a prosperous and sovereign future.
A PNG 50th Working Group Committee was formed, within the Prime Minister’s office, to organise and manage Hon James Marape’s schedule of events leading up to the 50th Independence Day celebrations.
One of the Committee’s many deliverables was to engage PNG’s three leading television stations (TVWan, EMTV and NBC) to work together and collaborate in broadcasting these events as far and wide as possible.
Appointed by the Committee to lead this broadcasting component of the 50th anniversary as Broadcast Liaison Lead was Sheena Hughes, who has over a decade of experience in PNG’s broadcast industry.
“The coverage and broadcasting of PNG’s 50th Independence Day Celebrations and commemoration of events into the homes of Papua New Guineans, through collaborative TV, online and radio platforms, was always the priority of this broadcast super team,” Sheena says.
This meant bringing together three PNG television stations to work as one team, collaborate and share resources to deliver a world-class broadcast coverage of these events with the aim to reach Papua New Guineans nationwide and those living abroad.
Papua New Guinea commemorates 50 years of nationhood.
It was made possible through the LIVE feed being provided FOC by PNG’s PM office, through Telstra Australia and Pasifika TV, as content for their stations, whether live or as re-plays.
The unified collaboration of broadcasting the 50 years of independence was a PNG broadcast milestone.
The Independence celebrations marks a significant event in PNG’s history and has allowed the broadcasters to work as one team to bring this story to the people of PNG, whether they were in PNG or not.
It has given the broadcasters a chance to re-live PNG’s history of 50 years through visual storytelling and document and preserve a part of PNG’s history – PNG’s 50th anniversary – through visuals, for years to come and for future generations.
Sheena says each and every one of the crew, the broadcasters, on location and behind the scenes, stepped up to the mark for the love of their country and people.
She explains it is the first time all three PNG broadcasters have collaborated with a 99 percent local capacity to deliver a broadcast of such magnitude, location range and diverse setup which included on water, in the air and various land locations.
“It is for this reason the broadcast was so successful…it has been a chance for broadcasters/media to tell their story through the spectacular images they were able to recollect and capture; what to show and how to show it and in a way all Papua New Guineans could understand and relate to,” Sheena says.
“The initiative and collaboration also served as a great training ground for all broadcasters to learn from each other, share broadcasting knowledge and be innovative.”
With Pasifika TV showing footage regionally, and Telstra offering a link to global broadcasters, Papua New Guineans – anywhere in the world – were able to experience and view this milestone and re-connect with their culture and traditions.
The broadcast has given Papua New Guineans worldwide the chance to view PNG’s 50th Independence Day Celebrations and connect with their people and be one step closer to their country.
See Pasifika TV website for its current schedule of programmes.
