IN 1995 I recall giving a paper at an AMIC conference in Singapore in which ranted against the creeping globalisation of practical journalism books, meaning of course that they were increasingly American with American cultural values and American examples and ways of doing things.

Why should America, I reasoned, corner the market on books as well as Coca Cola! We needed locally written books on practical journalism to counter the educational encroachment of American books. Preferably in the local languages, but English would do so long as the content was local.

I was in Hongkong at the time and was specifically thinking of that market, as well as Singapore. Countries in the developing world need their own books - urgently.

What was needed, I recall saying, was a series of books that gave students in countries such as Hongkong, China and the South Pacific their own books on the practice of journalism, with their own examples, their own cultural differences highlighted, and, where necessary, in their own languages; or at least in English but with local situations and journalistic problems explored and explained. The law and ethics according to the locality would be explored and explained.

And now we have one. And it is a good one. The Pacific Journalist: A Practical Guide seeks to fill this vacuum in the South Pacific. As David Robie says in his acknowledgements, "to help address this need, I have gathered a group of contributors, both working journalists and editors and others who have spent years in journalism education and training in the region, to share their insights and experience".

And for that we should be all grateful - not only is it a very important book for those studying and practising journalism in the South Pacific, but also for the rest of us who wish to learn something important about the lives and professional desires of those studying journalism and the problems they face when practising it. He ends this section with the hope that the book will contribute to raising professional and ethical standards around the region. I am sure it will.

The book is made up of contributed chapters - which usually find a problem because of the subsequent unevenness of style and content. It always needs a strong editor with a mind and a focus, and David has both. The book therefore reads like a book with a definable house style. This is good.

The first thing I do when reviewing a book is to look at the index. This is a comprehensive one and shows the wealth of material contained in the book. The second thing I do with a contributed book is to look at the contributors. These all have great experience and can speak about the region's journalism and journalistic problems with practical authority. Some have taught journalism in the region; some have worked as broadcast journalists in the Pacific and Papua New Guinea; some like Richard Dinnen are from countries not absolutely within the South Pacific - in his case Australia - but are foreign correspondents working within the region.

This focus on knowledge of the region is also very important and I wish there were more books like it for other similar geographic and cultural regions. It also means that the examples used are real life local examples and the students will easily relate to them.

The book has been constructed in six parts: and I detect a valiant and praiseworthy attempt to link theory and practice throughout. This also is something that other practical guides should imitate in future. The book looks at news and news writing, media law and ethics, the print media in the region, the broadcast media in the region, the online media in the Pacific (a very valuable chapter, which will be a useful source in other parts of the world as well, particularly in Australia and New Zealand).

The final part is a collection of thoughts about various issues in the media. In this section it is good to see such issues as trauma and health reporting covered as well as the problems of the foreign correspondents in the region, from both sides of the coin.

I particularly like the way David and the other contributors have woven genuine thoughts from genuine students into the text. This can sometimes be very moving and makes us realise the importance of journalism to any democracy. I particularly like the sec tion early in the book on pressure and ethics for local journalists.

There are many politicians and others in the Pacific who might not be so pleased to see such a book in print, espousing as it does the importance of journalism to the democracy of the region. The news gathering section, and others throughout the book, obviously focus on the May 2000 coup attempt and the problems which journalists, and indeed journalism students and David Robie himself, found themselves dealing with. It is good to have this on the record.

The practical chapters, the how to write and find news, sections, which have to be included in such a book, are pretty much those taught in any reputable journalism course anywhere, except of course that the examples are so local and this makes these how-to sections even more interesting for outsiders. Sometimes would-be authors say to me that it is too difficult to make a book local because it limits the sales. This can, of course, be true, but if handled properly, it gives a global interest and importance. This book achieves this and will be of interest to anyone who teaches journalism throughout the world.

The legal systems and the Pacific media section is particularly valuable to outsiders and should be read as widely as possible. Likewise with the court reporting chapter.

I commend David Robie for editing such a welcome book; I commend the chapter contributors for such a wealth of information about the region and about journalism itself; I commend the University of the South Pacific for publishing it under their imprint. I very much like this book, and approve of what it sets out to do. I hope it will be read widely throughout the region and beyond.