Tribune reporter chosen as journalism fellow to Japan

Saipan Tribune reporter Liberty Dones will travel to the Land of the Rising Sun next week to report on stories related to the Pacific and Japan after being selected, along with two other senior journalists from the region, as Sasakawa Pacific Islands Fellows.

Dones will join The Fiji Times deputy chief of staff Vasemaca Rarabici and The Pacific Daily News local news editor David Crisostomo in the trip, which will also take them to Okinawa to report on the PALM Summit, a gathering of the leaders of the independent Pacific Islands sponsored by the government of Japan.

The three Sasakawa Fellows were chosen among applicants and nominees from Saipan, Guam, American Samoa, Fiji, Wallis and Futuna, and Papua New Guinea.

A selection committee reviewed the candidates and selected the three fellows. Dones was originally chosen as one of two alternates, but made the final list when Avaiki News Service editor Jason Brown begged off due to personal reasons.

Dones boasts of a 10-year career in journalism, five of which were spent in the CNMI covering significant issues that range from education, public health, labor and immigration, to tourism, government, and business, among others.

“I’m very proud of Ms. Dones being chosen for this opportunity. This speaks of her high caliber output as a reporter and a journalist and I’m happy that Sasakawa Fellowship was able to recognize this. This would only further help the Saipan Tribune in its coverage of local and regional issues,” said Saipan Tribune editor Jayvee Vallejera.

In 2004, Dones was named by the Philippine Overseas Labor Office one of the recipients of that year’s “10 Outstanding Overseas Filipino Workers in the CNMI.”

Crisostomo was recognized in 2003 as among the top 16 Gannett newsroom managers for exemplifying leadership and, according to Pacific Daily News publisher and president Lee Webber, “is one of the most responsible, dependable, level-headed, young senior supervisors I’ve worked with to date.”

Pacific Daily News hired him in 1996 as a local news reporter but has since worked as lifestyle reporter, assistant lifestyle editor, assistant local news editor, and projects editor.

Rarabici, in collaboration with Sereana Narayan, won the Islands Business International prize for best feature story in November last year for their work on the missing Rakiraki sisters.

She also won The Fiji Times Award for the most promising first year student. University of South Pacific journalism school coordinator Shailendra Singh said Rarabici has never let her full-time job affect her performance at school.

Rarabici also shared the Westpac Media Woman Recognition Award with three other recipients in April 2005.

The Sasakawa Pacific Islands Journalism Fellowship is being conducted by the Sasakawa Pacific Islands Nations Fund Media Project, in partnership with Pacific Magazine of Honolulu, Hawaii and the Institute for the Global Media and Journalism of Tokyo, Japan.

The fellowship program is the third round of SPINF’s Media Project. SPINF has been conducting exchange projects for the Japan and Pacific Islands media over the last 15 years and has invited almost 80 journalists from Pacific Islands to participate.

As part of the fellowship, the SPINF Media Project has also launched a website, forum.yahinomi.to. Pacific alumni of the SPINF Media Program are invited to contribute to the online community. Those who are interested in participating should contact the SPINF to obtain an ID to log in to the site.