Media
Walles Kotra's French vision for Pacific TV
Conrad Mill, former television specialist of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) in Suva, talked about the need for more locally produced programming and less Western productions transmitting into Pacific Islands homes.
Walles Kotra, Reseau France Outre-mer (RFO) international relations director, thinks along the same lines.
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The difference being RFO's target territories and countries such as Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and French Polynesia, which are French speaking.
The idea is the same though; stimulate local television producers to make home-grown productions rather than immersing viewers in irrelevant soaps such as Friends or Shortland Street or something made in Paris.
A New Caledonian man in Paris, quite a distance from his home in New Caledonia's outer islands, Kotra has created a niche for himself at RFO, France's radio and television network for its overseas territories around the globe.
Recently the Paris-based organisation undertook a review where every television station under its umbrella had to affirm its identity. This translates to one concept that RFO's been trying to apply for the past two years. They're talking of a 'country' television in which the primary audience and the primary areas of interest should be local and regional. RFO's French Polynesian station, Tele Polynesie, for instance, tries to adhere to the 'country' specifics by maintaining a particular presentation suitable for French Polynesian viewers. No longer does programming beamed in from France dominate.
Kotra's vision is to have a comprehensive television network in the Pacific.
Already the vision is a reality in French Polynesia, Vanuatu and New Caledonia, which are engaged in an exchange of programmes. Now add English-speaking Fiji to that list.
Kotra was in Fiji in May presenting a satellite dish each to the inter-government Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Fiji Television and the local branch of Alliance Francaise to facilitate inter-Pacific connectivity.
It followed announcements he made about the regional satellite service during the 1999 Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) convention in Suva and follow up discussions with PINA members such as Fiji TV.
Kotra says that the two free RFO channels, accessible by Fiji TV, will transmit weekly news highlights from New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna and lately Vanuatu. The late night transmissions, currently aired on an experimental basis, will contain French or English subtitles where applicable.
There are attempts to push airtime periods to earlier hours. It will be possible, says Kotra, for television viewers in Noumea to watch current affairs goings-on in, for instance, Fiji or Vanuatu.
Kotra says that he has had talks with the SPC media centre for the organisation's Pacific Way programme and similar productions to be aired on RFO channels as well.
SPC, unlike the Pacific Islands Forum of self-governing countries, has France and all its Pacific territories as full members.
France, through its Suva embassy, is pumping money into the SPC media centre to promote French news and views and France's media expertise. The French Government appears to have decided having a hand in regional TV development is one of the priorities.
Says Kotra of his TV project: "Regionally, it increases a sense of unity as RFO has eight regional stations spread across three oceans; the Pacific, Atlantic and the Indian Ocean, thus increasing a South to North flow of information as opposed to the conventional North to South transmission.
"Vanuatu's weekly programme, for instance, can be viewed in Europe." RFO and France have pumped millions of francs into developing the French programming of Vanuatu's government-run TV service.
Vanuatu is the only independent country in the Pacific Islands which has both English and French as national languages. France has provided extensive training to the French-speaking TV staff at Vanuatu Broadcasting and Television Corporation.
French territories covered by RFO include French Polynesia, Wallis and Futuna and New Caledonia within the Pacific. The Atlantic includes Martinique, Guadeloupe and Saint-Pierre and Miquelon islands and in the Indian Ocean the Reunion and Mayotte Islands.
Obstacles? Says Kotra: "It's like rediscovering the problems that voyagers of the past faced; the problem of transport, mutual recognition and exchange."
