Photo: Samoa Observer
The Journalists Association of Samoa, or JAWS, is offering its services to police trainers, after a photojournalist was stopped doing his job last month.
The Samoa Observer journalist was taking photos at an accident scene, but police insisted he couldn't do that and bundled him into a police car for questioning.
The JAWS president, Rudy Bartley, said he thought over-zealous new recruits might have been to blame and he wants police to learn more about the role of the media and the rights of journalists.
He is offering his organisation's expertise to sort out any misunderstandings.
"We'd like to get involved and provide some sort of help in discussing the types of things we would like the police to know about the media's role in things like this and we would also like to know, from their side, what are the rules of engagement when we turn up to a scene. It is very much a grey area, nothing written, I think, on how things are supposed to be handled in situations like this," he said.
