The Solomon Islands Acting Prime Minister Gordon Darcy Lilo, will today open the Pacific Islands News Association convention in Honiara.

The opening will be attended by a host of dignitaries and journalists from across the region, with are number of notable absentees. The President of PINA, Ken Clark, is attending to private matters in the United States. The Vice President, Elenoa 'Amanaki from the Tonga Broadcasting Commission, is also not present at the convention.

The convention has attracted more than 90 delegates who have arrived in Honiara from throughout the region. The bi-annual PINA event is being hosted by the Media Association of Solomon Islands (MASI). This is the first PINA convention that has been totally organised by a national media association without any help from the secretariat in Suva.