APIA: 25 Feb 2009: When the Deputy PM and Minister of Samoa Tourism “exclusively” invited Publishers, Editors and media owners last Monday afternoon, I went along anticipating something to be out of the ordinary. “All details will be made available at the press conference,” ended the email message I got. After all, it is not often one has an audience with our handsome Deputy PM.
The anticipation however quickly came to frustration bordering on irritation as one felt manipulated.
The scenario is this. A Caucasian man who claimed to have been a journalist represents an overseas company filming a popular TV reality show on CBS that claimed 100 million TV viewers worldwide. He asked that the name of the series be kept out of the media until an official announcement in May. Their logistics team is arriving in Samoa in April and they expect none of their activities to be reported by the local media.
The TV series which is filmed in different countries is about individuals being tested for their survival skills in various remote locations.
For the Pacific, episodes have been filmed in Palau, Fiji and Aitutaki. Samoa, is the next location west of the Faleolo International Airport (according information we obtained in Tonga last month). So what is so secret when it is already public knowledge elsewhere? Samoa, we were told, stands to lose out if there is premature announcement, and this was why the Publishers and Editors were invited and indirectly issued this warning.
So when I moved to open my camera bag inside the crammed meeting room, I was told I was not to take any photographs. I did anyway.
The CEO of Samoa Tourism, Matatamalii Sonja Hunter pleaded for the medias support “as we have asked in the past.”
The people who own the TV Show usually announce the next location at the end of the current series. And that was what they wanted but did not say to the local media.
At one stage when the CEO of Samoa Tourism made a slip mixing “bull” with pull, I was quick to step in with “exactly”.
Was this all necessary for the STA to use the Ministers name to call the meeting which was totally unnecessary and a waste of time?
STA and the production company could have easily and tactfully handled any media inquiries giving general information without the details until the announcement is made. This without this week’s manipulation which makes it hard for any journalist to hold the story. It is like covering a rally where someone in the audience gets up and shoots the main speaker and the journalist covering the event is asked not to write about it as they wait and see if the guy dies or survives.
What has Samoa got to lose if there is a premature announcement?
Well, the company promises 150 local jobs. “It would be sad if Samoa misses out,” he said. Then there’s the flow on effect in local spending, accommodation, transportation etc..for the two months of filming and the lead time before and after.
He was saying that the equipment and supplies will come in a yacht and as happened in Aitutaki, the unused supplies were donated locally.
So what has Samoa to lose if they don’t come here? And if they don’t come here, would Samoa lose anything at all?
One thing is sure, STA would put in (public) money under the illusion that the show will do ‘wonders’ for Samoan tourism.
This is the illusion that needs proper scrutiny. And the CEO must get this information from Fiji, Palau and the Cook Islands on how much their tourism benefited from this exercise? Were there any tourists who ever came looking for the place where the show was filmed after the show was aired to the claimed 100 million viewers? Because that is how this has been pitched and sold making STA feeling desperate not to miss out.
Well by the sounds of the CEO, Samoan tourism is already about to turn over backwards to make sure this TV Show is filmed in Samoa.
My beef is, last Mondays meeting (which was a waste of time), did not have to happen. I find it irritating to use the Ministers name in such a way as the overseas guy admitted that he did not know that a press conference was being arranged.
So it was STA flexing the muscle as if our small island is about to be swamped by a tsunami if this show did not happen.
Let us welcome them, as we always do to similar visitors and do what is necessary so they will be able to do their work in our country. But let us be cautious not to climb the unnecessary as if half our world is about to come down.
What STA needs is tact in handling the media in issues such as this to avoid subjecting the Authority to unnecessary exposure.
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