World News Day approaches. It is now just over a month away, on 28 September.

The Fiji Sun again leads the Pacific Islands participation.

We are among more than 300 global news organisations united by this World Editors Foum and Canadian Journalism Foundation presented event.

The aim: Promote the important role journalists play. That journalists provide vital facts to inform people and help them make informed decisions.

We at the Fiji Sun are proud of our role in this. We go beyond the He Said, She Said talking head journalism with the same old people making the same old noise.

What are some examples, you ask?

FACT: Our Shine A Light investigative project, Climate Watch pages, and Business and Financial liftout are examples of our major investment in more informed journalism. We like to think they help us lead the way in Fiji.

So do our our Explainer columns – both news and sport – by some of the country’s most experienced editors.

How do we do this?

FACT: We have invested heavily in training and development to build a strong foundation of educated journalists.

We have more graduates in our newsrooms than any other Fijian news organisation. Both in first degrees and masters qualifications.

We have award-winning University of the South Pacific graduates. We have honours graduates from such prestigious educational institutions as Delhi, Pune and Osmania universities in India.

We have editors doing postgraduate studies online with internationally recognised universities in China and the United Kingdom. China – the world’s emerging economic superpower -has been especially supportive of our efforts.

FACT: We are recognised by our news organisation peers around the world as a Pacific Islands leader.

For example, we have recently been selected as the Pacific participant in major journalism development projects by the famous Columbia University, New York, journalism school, the World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), Facebook and the PACMAS project run by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

We also lead in other ways.

FACT: We lead the Fijian news media in women in leadership. Four of our five key decision making managing editors are women. All three of our main commercial and financial managers are women.

We have more women in decision making than any other Fijian news organisation. We have more women in our newsrooms than any other Fijian news organisation. Incidentally, we also have more newsrooms nationally (Suva, Nadi, Labasa, Lautoka) than any other Fijian news organisation.

FACT: We are independently owned by major local shareholders strongly supportive of our role. We thank them for this and their commitment.

We also thank all our readers and advertisers who help make us Fiji’s most read newspaper.

As for World News Day we are proud to be in the company of such illustrious news titles as the Straits Times, New York Times, Sydney Morning Herald, South China Morning Post, Toronto Star, Philippine Daily Inquirer, the Washington Post, And hundreds more.

For 2021, the World News Day campaign next month aims to show how newsrooms are telling the most defining story of our time: climate change.

We at the Fiji Sun are joining news leaders globally to highlight the day’s objectives: showcase some of our best journalism in reporting on the climate emergency, showing how journalism impacts all of the society and why it matters. This should be no surprise. It’s what we strive for every day.

Feedback: maraia.v@fijisun.com.fj