In-depth Solomons investigative journalist wins top Pacific media award for best environmental reporting

In-depth Solomons’ investigative journalist Charley Piringi has won a Pacific media award for his reporting on mining in Guadalcanal.

Piringi, a co-founder of In-depth Solomons, a recently established online news outlet pursuing investigative journalism in the Solomon Islands, won the SPREP Best Environment story award.

The inaugural Pasifika Environews Awards is a collaboration between the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA), Internews Earth Journalism Network (EJN), Office of the Pacific Ocean Commissioner (OPOC), and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP).

Picture caption: (Left to right): FijiVillage News Director and winner of the OPOC Best Ocean Story, Vijay Narayan; President of the Republic of the Fiji Islands, Ratu Wiliame Katonivere; Acting Secretary General of the Pacific Islands Forum and the incoming Pacific Ocean Commissioner, Dr Filimon Manoni; Islands Business International Editor, Samantha Magick and Imelda Abano, Internews Earth Journalism Network (EJN) Senior Coordinator for the Pacific region.|Photo by SPREP.

Piringi has reported extensively on the impacts of mining on the environment and how dodgy miners attempted to smuggle gold out of the country.

The Award Winning Story was supported by Inernews and published in November 2022 by SIBC News and Earth Journalism network.

“As an environmental and investigative journalist, this is one of the stories I am so keen on working on,” Piringi said.

“It took me six months to work on the story alone,” he added.

“Gathering information for the story was challenging especially when there were officials who were not so willing to share information, and there was also the challenge of traveling down to remote Guadalcanal where the mining operation was happening.

“I traveled several times to the remote village for interviews, and at some point, I was not allowed to enter the mine site to do my work.

^{Award Winners, Charley Piringi of In-depth Solomons(L) and Irwin Angiki of Island Sun(R)
(Photo credit, DART Center Asia Pacific)}

“Simply, it is not easy working on environmental stories that involve mining and logging in the country.”

Three other Solomon Islanders also won awards in the Pacific-wide competition.

Former Solomon Star editor and senior journalist Moffat Mamu won the award for the Pasifika Environews Best Climate Change Story.

*_{Moffat Mamu Ghala(R) conducting an interview at Gizo market, Western Province}*

Irwin Angiki of Island Sun newspaper was the runner-up in the category.

Ben Bilua, a former Island Sun reporter, came second in the OPOC Best Ocean Story. Vijay Narayan scooped the top award for this category.

^{Ben Bilua former Island Sun reporter, runner-up of OPOC Best Ocean Story}

Makereta Komai, Pacific Islands News Association Manager and PACNEWS Editor, commended the winners and journalists who submitted entries.

“We were impressed with the quality of the entries received from journalists across the region.

“We thank our partners – Internews Earth Journalism Network, Office of the Pacific Ocean Commissioner, and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme for supporting this inaugural Pasifika Environews Awards,” Komai said.

The winners of the three main categories will each receive USD$1,000 prize money while the runners-up will each receive USD$500.

The winners of the Pasifika Environews Awards are: