Media loses popular figure ‘John Toki’

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A popular media personnel John Toki has passed on yesterday at his home village in West Guadalcanal.

Toki was a stringer for the national broadcaster, SIBC, and his news also filled the newspapers.

SIBC, which employed Toki as one of its stringers confirmed that Toki died yesterday.

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 “We are sad at Toki’s passing,” said SIBC’s Jacob Panada.

Toki was renowned for reporting on issues from West Guadalcanal and events from Savo and the Russell Islands region.

Toki had a strong passion for media work. He started reporting on Catholic Church issues in the 1990s and grown his interest, which had taken him to newsrooms across Honiara where he brought news items to them for free.

He usually recorded major events in his region and brought photos and audio to newsrooms who then create those into news for public consumption.

Toki’s sheer interest led to almost all the newsrooms engaging him as their stringer and he also covered most of the Catholic news in the area for the news houses. He was a popular voice on SIBC.

When asked by the media, why he was interested in his work, Toki replied: “I am doing it for public interest. I heard people complaining but they never reached decision markers. By raising them through the media, which I did, it would surely reach the leaders. I had seen leaders responding to my news items so in some ways I am contributing to national development.”

Many people including media personalities have gone to the social media to express their condolences on the demise of Toki.

The SBMOnline Team wishes to convey its sincere condolences to the family of Late Toki and thanked him for his services to the nation especially the media fraternity.