- Editor of Asia Pacific Report
David Robie Publishing Limited
PO Box 47716
Ponsonby
AUCKLAND 1144
Aotearoa New Zealand
AUT University
Private Bag 92006
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David Robie
Pacific Journalism Review, Editorial, Faculty Member
- Auckland University of Technology, School of Communication Studies, Faculty MemberAuckland University of Technology, Pacific Media Centre, Faculty Memberadd
- Pacific Island Studies, Pacific Islands Forum, Creative Commons, Peace Journalism, Asia-Pacific media, Comparative Journalism Cultures, and 30 moreEnvironmental Politics, International Journalism, Cyberjournalism, Journalism Ethics, Cultural Studies (Communication), Development communication, Political Economy of Communication, Asia-Pacific Politics, Political Economy of Development, Digital Media, New Media, Online Journalism, Media, Journalism, Communication, Digital Story Telling, Paywalls, Media Studies, Media Literacy, Media Education, Alternate Media, Media Research, Social Communication, Media Impact and Effects and Usages, Iphones, Facebook, Google, Digital Marketing, Virtual Revolution, and Youtubeedit
- David Robie is a semi-retired professor of journalism and communication studies and is founding director of the Pacif... moreDavid Robie is a semi-retired professor of journalism and communication studies and is founding director of the Pacific Media Centre in the School of Communication Studies at Auckland University of Technology. He holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Technology, Sydney, and a PhD in history and politics from the University of the South Pacific, Fiji. He is founding editor of Pacific Journalism Review and Pacific Journalism Monographs, and convener of Pacific Media Watch and is currently editor of Asia Pacific Report. He has written several books on Asia-Pacific media, including Mekim Nius: South Pacific Media, Politics, and Education (2004), and Don’t Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific (2014), and on the environment, including Eyes of Fire (2015) on the Rainbow Warrior bombing and nuclear testing. He also publishes the media freedom blog Café Pacific. He has served as an Asia-Pacific analyst for Reporters Without Borders (Paris) and Freedom House (New York).edit
For almost a quarter of a century, the December 1975 Indonesian invasion and subsequent occupation/annexation of Timor-Leste were a news media “blind spot” (Leadbeater, 2008, p. 168; Perrottet and Robie, 2011; Robie, 1989, 1992, 2014,... more
For almost a quarter of a century, the December 1975 Indonesian invasion and subsequent occupation/annexation of Timor-Leste were a news media “blind spot” (Leadbeater, 2008, p. 168; Perrottet and Robie, 2011; Robie, 1989, 1992, 2014, 2021)—largely out of the public consciousness in New Zealand and among Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) member nations despite some of the territory’s leaders’ close relationship with Australia and a significant Timorese diaspora in that country.
During the period of Indonesian control, which defied the United Nations Security Council’s persistent recognition of Portugal’s sovereignty over Timor-Leste as legitimate colonial power until the latter finally won independence in 2002, international media had little access to the region. Chapter 2, published in "Waves of Change Media, Peace, and Development in the Pacific", edited by Shailendra Singh, Biman Prasad and Amit Sarwal.
https://kulapress.com.au/
During the period of Indonesian control, which defied the United Nations Security Council’s persistent recognition of Portugal’s sovereignty over Timor-Leste as legitimate colonial power until the latter finally won independence in 2002, international media had little access to the region. Chapter 2, published in "Waves of Change Media, Peace, and Development in the Pacific", edited by Shailendra Singh, Biman Prasad and Amit Sarwal.
https://kulapress.com.au/
Research Interests: Journalism, Peace and Conflict Studies, Pacific Island Studies, Mass Communication, Conflict Journalism, and 10 moreAsia Pacific Region, Timor-Leste Studies, Peace Journalism, Pacific History, West Papua, Timor-Leste, Journalism And Mass communication, Mass Communication and Journalism, Conflict Reporting Peace Journalism, and Asia Pacific Studies
When I first encountered Owen Wilkes it was at a range of 17,000 kilometres – the distance between Auckland, Aotearoa, and Stockholm, Sweden. He was already something of an extraordinary and increasingly well-known, although humble,... more
When I first encountered Owen Wilkes it was at a range of 17,000 kilometres – the distance between Auckland, Aotearoa, and Stockholm, Sweden. He was already something of an extraordinary and increasingly well-known, although humble, celebrity in the final decade of the Cold War. As a researcher for the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), Owen had taken on the Scandinavian security establishment and challenged and embarrassed it in a quiet and unassuming way for a second time (after an earlier skirmish in Norway), and the powers that be were not going to let him get away with it. My attention was drawn to Owen Wilkes while I was back in Auckland freelancing after working for three years in Paris with the French news agency Agence France-Presse as an editor and correspondent. Before that I had spent several years editing newspapers and reporting on the African continent, mainly in Kenya and South Africa. In that time I had stumbled across an edition of the Fredstidningen PAX, a Swedish magazine featuring sustainable peace and disarmament, in February 1982, which carried the intriguing headline ‘Spionutrustningen’ – ‘Spy gear’. It was a cover story devoted to the trials of Owen Wilkes. The cover illustration depicted the alleged ‘spy equipment’ belonging to Owen – a trusty bicycle, kitbag, small camera and pocket binoculars. I contacted Owen to find out more about the back story and these enquiries led to an article and years of correspondence and debate, plus collaboration on two books – Blood on their Banner: Nationalist Struggles in the South Pacific (1989) and Tu Galala: Social Change in the Pacific (1992). We formed a long friendship that stretched to his final years in Kāwhia and his ‘retirement’ from the peace movement and ‘rebirth’ as an archaeologist and occasional community coastal tour guide. --
An excerpt from Chapter 8 (pp. 102-122) of the book Peacemonger: Owen Wilkes: International Peace Researcher, edited by May Bass and Mark Derby. Published 23 November 2022. ISBN 978-1-99-1153-86-9
An excerpt from Chapter 8 (pp. 102-122) of the book Peacemonger: Owen Wilkes: International Peace Researcher, edited by May Bass and Mark Derby. Published 23 November 2022. ISBN 978-1-99-1153-86-9
Research Interests: Journalism, Peace and Conflict Studies, New Zealand Studies, Pacific Island Studies, Militarism, and 11 moreAsia Pacific Region, Scandinavian Studies, Peace Studies, Peace Education, Peacebuilding, Militarism and militarization, New Zealand, Journalism And Mass communication, Mass Communication and Journalism, Security and Peace Studies, and Asia Pacific Studies
The Pacific Media Centre (PMC) completed a challenging year dealing with the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic through several projects, including an international grant for a climate and Covid environmental initiative. Although social... more
The Pacific Media Centre (PMC) completed a challenging year dealing with the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic through several projects, including an international grant for a climate and Covid environmental initiative. Although social distancing ruled out its usual public and industry seminars, staff and students collaborated in several virtual conferences and symposia. It completed the year with its own symposium under the theme of "Pacific Media Centre 2020 and Beyond: Highlights and New Horizons" which hosted two groups of West Papuan students from Auckland University of Technology and Waikato University.
[This was the last annual report before the PMC's demise in 2020].
ISSN 2624-375X (Print)
ISSN 2624-3768 (Online)
[This was the last annual report before the PMC's demise in 2020].
ISSN 2624-375X (Print)
ISSN 2624-3768 (Online)
Research Interests:
Tahitians have an expression, 'seaside or mountainside', which once symbolised a sort of socio-economic barrier roughly dividing the island's poor and the privileged élite. For decades only the narrow coastal strip at the foot of the... more
Tahitians have an expression, 'seaside or mountainside', which once symbolised a sort of socio-economic barrier roughly dividing the island's poor and the privileged élite. For decades only the narrow coastal strip at the foot of the lofty mountain peaks was inhabited -- a road loops the island with homes spread out on both sides. Between the road and the Pacific Ocean were fashionable homes of the privileged and wealthy, often screened off by hedges or walls. Around Punaauia, the density of the chic homes frequently barred access to the beach for several kilometres at a time.
[Introduction from the book Tu Galala: Social Change in the Pacific (editor: David Robie), which was assisted by the Pacific Development and Conservation Trust, a fund established by the New Zealand government with compensation money paid for the sabotage of the Rainbow Warrior by French state terrorists in Auckland harbour on 10 July 1985. Contributors to the book include Robert Robertson, Akosita Tamanisau, Rita Baua, Owen Wilkes, Sitiveni Ratuva, Jone Dakuvula, Bunny McDiarmid, Roger Moody, Pauline Tangiora and Ed Rampell.]
[Introduction from the book Tu Galala: Social Change in the Pacific (editor: David Robie), which was assisted by the Pacific Development and Conservation Trust, a fund established by the New Zealand government with compensation money paid for the sabotage of the Rainbow Warrior by French state terrorists in Auckland harbour on 10 July 1985. Contributors to the book include Robert Robertson, Akosita Tamanisau, Rita Baua, Owen Wilkes, Sitiveni Ratuva, Jone Dakuvula, Bunny McDiarmid, Roger Moody, Pauline Tangiora and Ed Rampell.]
Research Interests:
Edited by Philip Cass and David Robie: This edition of Pacific Journalism Review was originally planned as an unthemed edition. However, a cluster of media papers on COVID-19, climate change and the ongoing human rights crisis in West... more
Edited by Philip Cass and David Robie: This edition of Pacific Journalism Review was originally planned as an unthemed edition. However, a cluster of media papers on COVID-19, climate change and the ongoing human rights crisis in West Papua has led to it being designated as a 'Pacific Crises' edition. The edition also features a Photoessay case study on Pacific refugee migration and Australian 'imperialism'; Frontline on the making of the documentary Ophir and the Bougainville 'silences'; and the 'Watchdogs under Pressure' Special Report is a major study on the state of journalism in the Pacific. Included in the unthemed section are articles on sustaining democratic freedoms in the Pacific, a journalists' 'toolbox' of the Digital-Global Age, mobile phones and the digital divide, urban settlement communication in Papua New Guinea, and hate speech in Indonesia. Ten books and documentaries are examined in the Reviews section.
Research Interests:
In contrast to disastrous Western exceptionalist trends in Europe and the United States in countering the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, New Zealand was influenced by the success of Asian countries such as Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan,... more
In contrast to disastrous Western exceptionalist trends in Europe and the United States in countering the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, New Zealand was influenced by the success of Asian countries such as Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. New Zealand was conscious of its strategic responsibility for vulnerable Pacific Island nations and launched a bold 'go hard and go early' offensive. After an impressive two-month lockdown period that gave the country time to strengthen its public health defenses, health experts predicted a 97 percent chance of COVID-19 being eliminated. However, there was a relapse in August 2020 when a sudden cluster emerged in the country’s largest city which threatened New Zealand’s COVID-free status. This cluster in turn was contained and eliminated. But the health issue dominated the economic recovery debate until the general election on October 17 when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s youngest and most popular political leader, won re-election with a landslide victory. The news media initially played a decisive support role in Ardern’s ‘kindness’ model in rallying a united nation, but later this fragmented. *** Chapter 8 in COVID-19, Racism and Politicization: Media in the Midst of a Pandemic (Kalinga Seneviratne and Sundeep R. Muppidi - Editors) ISBN: 978-1-5275-7089-4
Research Interests: Media Studies, Journalism, Politics, International Political Economy, Conspiracy Theories, and 11 moreTruth, International Politics, Media, New Zealand and Oceania, Conspiracy Theories and Transparency, New Zealand, Journalism And Mass communication, Fake News, Coronavirus COVID-19, COVID-19 PANDEMIC, and Economic effects of COVID-19
Media freedom means journalism can "shape and spread values, defuse tensions, and counter hate-speech." Through its capacity to investigate, challenge, and question competing views and opinions with facts and balanced reason, journalism... more
Media freedom means journalism can "shape and spread values, defuse tensions, and counter hate-speech." Through its capacity to investigate, challenge, and question competing views and opinions with facts and balanced reason, journalism can contribute to positive and sustainable notions of peace. However, advocating for positive peace in the news media is not just about reducing or eliminating violence or conflict narratives, it is also about offering alternative narratives of hope and action toward peace. In this case study about West Papua, human rights and peace narratives, the author examines changing strategies over more than half a century by the Melanesian Papuan people to achieve a just, positive, and sustainable peace in the Pacific.
Book Chapter: Robie D. (2021) Media Freedom: A West Papuan Human Rights Journalism Case Study. In: Standish K., Devere H., Suazo A., Rafferty R. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Positive Peace. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3877-3_30-1
Book Chapter: Robie D. (2021) Media Freedom: A West Papuan Human Rights Journalism Case Study. In: Standish K., Devere H., Suazo A., Rafferty R. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Positive Peace. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-3877-3_30-1
Research Interests:
We now live in the age of science and technology. In this age, the senior citizens among us walk around bewildered by these strange electronic gadgets and programs in the hands of the millennials—video games, computers, PSP games, phone... more
We now live in the age of science and technology. In this age, the senior citizens among us walk around bewildered by these strange electronic gadgets and programs in the hands of the millennials—video games, computers, PSP games, phone apps, mobile phones, tablets, and many others. As we move into this new age of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, we need to understand what is going on if we are to survive. The mission of science communicators is clear. They must make all these science and scientific inventions understandable to the general public. Science has many publics and the role of the science communicator—to reach these various publics--is a gargantuan task. This small book will try to address the huge issue of how to communicate science to Everyman. - Professor Crispin Maslog is the lead author.
Research Interests:
‘The original [Panguna mine] agreement overrode our customs, denied us our land rights and was too rushed. It contradicts our way of life; what comes from the land should benefit the landowners … nobody else. ’ A Nasioi militant... more
‘The original [Panguna mine] agreement overrode our customs, denied us our land rights and was too rushed. It contradicts our way of life; what comes from the land should benefit the landowners … nobody else. ’
A Nasioi militant landowner
APART from convoys with soldiers riding shotgun and yellow ochre Bougainville Copper Limited trucks packed with security forces sporting M16s, you would hardly guess that a guerrilla war was in progress near the Bougainville provincial capital of Arawa. But once you reached the sandbagged machinegun nest in Birempa village at the foot of the rugged mountain jungles of the Crown Prince Range, the tension started to rise.
Scanning the dense vegetation for a sign of the militants of the Bougainville Republican Army (BRA)—known as Rambos in the first year of the decade-long civil war – the Papua New Guinea Defence Force soldier manning the machinegun didn’t notice the irony of the T-shirt he was wearing.
Chapter 16 of Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific, by David Robie (2014). ISBN 9781877484254
A Nasioi militant landowner
APART from convoys with soldiers riding shotgun and yellow ochre Bougainville Copper Limited trucks packed with security forces sporting M16s, you would hardly guess that a guerrilla war was in progress near the Bougainville provincial capital of Arawa. But once you reached the sandbagged machinegun nest in Birempa village at the foot of the rugged mountain jungles of the Crown Prince Range, the tension started to rise.
Scanning the dense vegetation for a sign of the militants of the Bougainville Republican Army (BRA)—known as Rambos in the first year of the decade-long civil war – the Papua New Guinea Defence Force soldier manning the machinegun didn’t notice the irony of the T-shirt he was wearing.
Chapter 16 of Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific, by David Robie (2014). ISBN 9781877484254
Research Interests:
ONCE I worked with a Kenyan chief editor, George Githii of the Daily Nation, who observed wryly about media freedom in developing nations: “For governments which fear newspapers, there is one consolation: We have known many instances... more
ONCE I worked with a Kenyan chief editor, George Githii of the Daily Nation, who observed wryly about media freedom in developing nations: “For governments which fear newspapers, there is one consolation: We have known many instances where governments have taken over newspapers, but we haven’t known of a single incident in which a newspaper has taken over a government.” George, always dressed in a dapper bow tie, no matter what the emergency—such as a senior reporter being abducted before dawn by secret police because of a front page exposé on a pharmaceuticals corruption case—had impeccable credentials politically. He was former press secretary for then President Jomo Kenyatta, founding “father” of Kenya. His comment stuck with me for a long time, and at one stage I used the quote as a personal email rider. The notion that newspapers might take over a government or two seemed laughable. - "Reporting in West Papua is a risky business." - Introductory chapter to David Robie's 2014 book Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific.
Research Interests:
South Pacific media face a challenge of developing forms of journalism that contribute to the national ethos by mobilising change from passive communities to those seeking change. Instead of news values that have often led international... more
South Pacific media face a challenge of developing forms of journalism that contribute to the national ethos by mobilising change from passive communities to those seeking change. Instead of news values that have often led international media to exclude a range of perspectives, such a notion would promote deliberation by journalists to enable the participation of all community stakeholders. Deliberative journalism is issue-based and includes diverse and even unpopular views aboutg the community good and encourages an expression of plurality. Chapter 24 in Robie, D. (2014). Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific (pp. 321-343)
ISBN 9781877484254
ISBN 9781877484254
Research Interests:
The General’s Goose: Fiji’s Tale of Contemporary Misadventure, by Robbie Robertson. Canberra: Australian National University. 2017. 366 pages. ISBN 9781760461270 When Commodore (now rear admiral retired and an elected prime minister)... more
The General’s Goose: Fiji’s Tale of Contemporary Misadventure, by Robbie Robertson. Canberra: Australian National University. 2017. 366 pages. ISBN 9781760461270
When Commodore (now rear admiral retired and an elected prime minister) Voreqe Bainimarama staged Fiji’s fourth ‘coup to end all coups’ on 5 December 2006, it was widely misunderstood, misinterpreted and misrepresented by a legion of politicians, foreign affairs officials, journalists and even some historians. A chorus of voices continually argued for the restoration of ‘democracy’ – not only the flawed version of democracy that had persisted in various forms since independence from colonial Britain in 1970, but specifically the arguably illegal and unconstitutional government of merchant banker Laisenia Qarase that had been installed on the coat-tails of the third (attempted) coup in 2000. Yet in spite of superficial appearances, Bainimarama’s 2006 coup contrasted sharply with its predecessors.
When Commodore (now rear admiral retired and an elected prime minister) Voreqe Bainimarama staged Fiji’s fourth ‘coup to end all coups’ on 5 December 2006, it was widely misunderstood, misinterpreted and misrepresented by a legion of politicians, foreign affairs officials, journalists and even some historians. A chorus of voices continually argued for the restoration of ‘democracy’ – not only the flawed version of democracy that had persisted in various forms since independence from colonial Britain in 1970, but specifically the arguably illegal and unconstitutional government of merchant banker Laisenia Qarase that had been installed on the coat-tails of the third (attempted) coup in 2000. Yet in spite of superficial appearances, Bainimarama’s 2006 coup contrasted sharply with its predecessors.
Research Interests:
University education for South Pacific journalists is a relatively recent development. It has existed in Papua New Guinea for merely a generation; it is less than a decade old at degree level in Fiji, and in the former colonies in... more
University education for South Pacific journalists is a relatively recent development. It has existed in Papua New Guinea for merely a generation; it is less than a decade old at degree level in Fiji, and in the former colonies in Polynesia. At the same time, mean age, experience and educational qualifications have been rising among journalists in the major Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) member countries, Australia and New Zealand, as the news media has become more professionalised. While the Papua New Guinea media has largely depended on journalism education to provide the foundation for its professionalism, Fiji has focused on a system of ad hoc short course training funded by international donors. This thesis examines the history of South Pacific university media education and its impact on the region’s journalism. Its first objective is to test the hypothesis that tertiary education has a critical influence on how Pacific journalists practise their profession and perceive their political and social role in a developing society faced with the challenges of globalisation. Secondly, the thesis aims to analyse the political, economic and legal frameworks in which the media have operated in Papua New Guinea and Fiji since independence. Third, the thesis aims to explain and assess in detail the development of journalism education in the South Pacific since independence. The theoretical framework is from a critical political economy perspective. It also assesses whether the concept of development journalism, which had its roots in the 1980s debate calling for a ‘New International Information and Communication Order’ (NWICO), has had an influence on a Pacific style of journalism. The thesis argues within a context where journalists can be considered to be professionals with some degree of autonomy within the confines set by a capitalist and often transnational-owned media, and within those established by governments and media companies. Journalists are not solely ‘governed’ by these confines; they still have some freedom to act, and journalism education can deliver some of the resources to make the most of that freedom. The thesis includes historical case studies of the region’s three main journalism schools, Divine Word University (PNG), University of Papua New Guinea and the University of the South Pacific. It demonstrates some of the dilemmas faced by the three schools, student journalists and graduates while exercising media freedom. Research was conducted using the triangulation method, incorporating in-depth interviews with 57 editors, media managers, journalists and policy makers; two newsroom staff surveys of 15 news organisations in Fiji and Papua New Guinea in 1998/9 (124 journalists) and 2001 (106); and library and archives study. It also draws on the author’s personal experience as coordinator of the UPNG (1993-1997) and USP (1998-2002) journalism programmes for more than nine years. The thesis concludes that journalists in Papua New Guinea (where university education has played a vital role for a generation) are more highly educated, have a higher mean experience and age, and a more critically sophisticated perception of themselves and their media role in Pacific societies than in Fiji (where almost half the journalists have no formal tertiary education or training). Journalists in Fiji are also more influenced by race, cultural and religious factors. Conversely, PNG journalists are poorly paid even when compared with their Fiji colleagues. There are serious questions about the impact that this may have on the autonomy of journalists and the Fourth Estate role of news media in a South Pacific democracy.
Chapter in Ratuva, S., and Lawson, S., (2016). The People Have Spoken: The 2014 Elections in Fiji. Canberra: Australian National University. Fiji was a media pariah among Pacific nations, as well as a political outcast, for much of the... more
Chapter in Ratuva, S., and Lawson, S., (2016). The People Have Spoken: The 2014 Elections in Fiji. Canberra: Australian National University. Fiji was a media pariah among Pacific nations, as well as a political outcast, for much of the eight years after Voreqe Bainimarama’s military coup in December 2006. But while some media credibility was restored in the months leading up to the 2014 general elections and during the ballot itself, the elephant is still in the room: the 2010
Media Industry Development Decree (Fijian Government 2010). While this Decree remains in force, Fiji can hardly claim to have a truly free and fair media. Just seven months out from the September 17 elections, Fiji was ranked 107th out of 179 countries listed in the 2014 World Press Freedom Index prepared by the Paris-based global media freedom it was in many quarters during that year, and the promise of ‘free and
fair’ elections by 30 September 2014. The elections gave Fiji’s ranking a further boost, rising 14 places to 93rd (RSF 2015).
organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF). That ranking was an improvement on the previous year (RSF 2014a), rising 10 places from the 2013 ranking. The major reason for this improvement was the adoption of the new Constitution on 6 September 2013, criticised as it was in many quarters during that year, and the promise of ‘free and fair’ elections by 30 September 2014. The elections gave Fiji’s ranking a further boost, rising 14 places to 93rd (RSF 2015).
Media Industry Development Decree (Fijian Government 2010). While this Decree remains in force, Fiji can hardly claim to have a truly free and fair media. Just seven months out from the September 17 elections, Fiji was ranked 107th out of 179 countries listed in the 2014 World Press Freedom Index prepared by the Paris-based global media freedom it was in many quarters during that year, and the promise of ‘free and
fair’ elections by 30 September 2014. The elections gave Fiji’s ranking a further boost, rising 14 places to 93rd (RSF 2015).
organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF). That ranking was an improvement on the previous year (RSF 2014a), rising 10 places from the 2013 ranking. The major reason for this improvement was the adoption of the new Constitution on 6 September 2013, criticised as it was in many quarters during that year, and the promise of ‘free and fair’ elections by 30 September 2014. The elections gave Fiji’s ranking a further boost, rising 14 places to 93rd (RSF 2015).
Research Interests: Communication, Development Studies, Journalism, Pacific Island Studies, Development communication, and 8 moreAsia Pacific Region, Political Journalism, Online Journalism, Fiji, Online Media, Journalism And Mass communication, Fiji Coups, and New Media and General Elections: Online Citizen Journalism in Malaysia and Singapore
"Award-winning journalist David Robie was on board the Greenpeace environmental ship Rainbow Warrior on its last mission to Rongelap Atoll in May 1985 and continued to stay with the ship until it reached Auckland in July. Robie’s account... more
"Award-winning journalist David Robie was on board the Greenpeace environmental ship Rainbow Warrior on its last mission to Rongelap Atoll in May 1985 and continued to stay with the ship until it reached Auckland in July. Robie’s account of this voyage – of the Marshall Islands community poisoned by nuclear fallout and of the fatal bombing of the Rainbow Warrior by the French secret service – remains a definitive work on Western treachery in the Pacific, but also shows the power of good people who were willing to stand up and be counted when others desperately needed help."
‘ One of the most iniquitous stories of the nuclear age. ’
New Internationalist
‘ This is THE book of the last five months of the first Rainbow Warrior. ’
Rainbow Warrior skipper Peter Willcox
‘ Robie’s analysis places the bombing squarely in the context of the South Pacific politics and people, providing a
much-needed human backdrop. ’
Steve Sawyer, Greenpeace Magazine
‘ One of the most iniquitous stories of the nuclear age. ’
New Internationalist
‘ This is THE book of the last five months of the first Rainbow Warrior. ’
Rainbow Warrior skipper Peter Willcox
‘ Robie’s analysis places the bombing squarely in the context of the South Pacific politics and people, providing a
much-needed human backdrop. ’
Steve Sawyer, Greenpeace Magazine
Research Interests:
A special book edition of Pacific Journalism Review marking 20 years of publishing. This new publication features the Pacific asylum seeker and human rights, the Fiji post-coup general election and free speech, resource development in the... more
A special book edition of Pacific Journalism Review marking 20 years of publishing. This new publication features the Pacific asylum seeker and human rights, the Fiji post-coup general election and free speech, resource development in the Solomon Islands, Australia’s emerging “secret state” and shield laws, human rights in West Papua, martial law and e-martial law in the Philippines and New Zealand political and climate change reportage of the Pacific. The book includes chapters by Del Abcede, Pat Craddock, Kayt Davies, Eliki Drugunavalu, Lee Duffield, Amy Forbes, Walter Fraser, Maire Leadbeater, Irene Manueli, Ricardo Morris, Chris Nash, Mark Pearson, David Robie, Shailendra Singh and others. Published by the Pacific Media Centre and distributed by Little Island Press.
Research Interests:
""This is an extraordinary 'secret history' of a vast region of the world of which David Robie has been a rare expert witness. What makes this epic work so timely is that it allows us to understand the Asia-Pacific at a time of renewed... more
""This is an extraordinary 'secret history' of a vast region of the world of which David Robie has been a rare expert witness. What makes this epic work so timely is that it allows us to understand the Asia-Pacific at a time of renewed Cold War ambitions and dangers" - Investigative journalist John Pilger
"Twenty five years of reportage and media and research in the Asia-Pacific region and an analysis of journalism methodologies and studies such as conflict and peace journalism, development journalism, comparative international journalism, communication for social change and cross-cultural reporting."
David Robie, an independent journalist, media campaigner and educator, distils his lessons from 35 years of working in the Asia-Pacific region. Covering environmental challenges, coups, the nuclear-free and independent Pacific movement and civil rights, as well as the many barriers journalists face in the Pacific, his book, Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face, reveals many of the hidden stories from these island nations. - Little Island Press
362 pp. Illustrated, map, bibliography, index ISBN 978 1 877 314 86 5
"Twenty five years of reportage and media and research in the Asia-Pacific region and an analysis of journalism methodologies and studies such as conflict and peace journalism, development journalism, comparative international journalism, communication for social change and cross-cultural reporting."
David Robie, an independent journalist, media campaigner and educator, distils his lessons from 35 years of working in the Asia-Pacific region. Covering environmental challenges, coups, the nuclear-free and independent Pacific movement and civil rights, as well as the many barriers journalists face in the Pacific, his book, Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face, reveals many of the hidden stories from these island nations. - Little Island Press
362 pp. Illustrated, map, bibliography, index ISBN 978 1 877 314 86 5
This special issue of Dreadlocks publishes the proceedings of the “Oceans, Islands and Skies - Oceanic Conference on Creativity and Climate Change – The Role of Writers, Artists and the Media on Environmental Challenges in the Pacific.”... more
This special issue of Dreadlocks publishes the proceedings of the “Oceans, Islands and Skies - Oceanic Conference on Creativity and Climate Change – The Role of Writers, Artists and the Media on Environmental Challenges in the Pacific.” The OIS-OCCCC was held from 13th - 17th September, 2010 at the University of the South Pacific, Laucala Campus in Suva. The conference proceedings attest to the multidisciplinary achievements of the gathering of academics, writers, artists, performers and the general community in putting forward creative solutions, advocacy and awareness programs on climate change.
Research Interests:
On 10 July 1985, French secret agents bombed the Greenpeace campaign flagship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour, New Zealand. Portuguese-born photographer Fernando Pereira died in the sabotage outrage that shook the world. The bombed... more
On 10 July 1985, French secret agents bombed the Greenpeace campaign flagship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour, New Zealand. Portuguese-born photographer Fernando Pereira died in the sabotage outrage that shook the world. The bombed ship was scuttled off a New Zealand bay in 1987 to form a living reef and Rainbow Warrior II was commissioned. In 1996, France ended nuclear tests in Polynesia after further Greenpeace and Pacific protests. This redesigned and revised new "memorial edition" of the original 1986 book contains new material and additional pictures about American and French nuclear testing in the Pacific.
The memorial edition (2005) of this book 20 years after the bombing is dedicated to "the memory of nuclear-free campaigners Amelia Rokotuivuna, Bengt and Marie-Therese Danielsson, Elaine Shaw and Owen Wilkes, who opened our eyes".
The memorial edition (2005) of this book 20 years after the bombing is dedicated to "the memory of nuclear-free campaigners Amelia Rokotuivuna, Bengt and Marie-Therese Danielsson, Elaine Shaw and Owen Wilkes, who opened our eyes".
Research Interests:
"Coups, politics and the Pacific media - The news media is the watchdog of democracy. But in the South Pacific today the Fourth Estate role is under threat from governments seeking statutory regulation, diminished media credibility,... more
"Coups, politics and the Pacific media - The news media is the watchdog of democracy. But in the South Pacific today the Fourth Estate role is under threat from governments seeking statutory regulation, diminished media credibility, dilemmas over ethics and uncertainty over professionalism and training." - Back cover
Research Interests:
"WHY do Pacific Islanders want to become journalists? In spite of often tense relationships between governments and the media in the region, and poor pay and working conditions, growing numbers of young Pacific Islanders are choosing a... more
"WHY do Pacific Islanders want to become journalists? In spite of often tense relationships between governments and the media in the region, and poor pay and working conditions, growing numbers of young Pacific Islanders are choosing a career in journalism -- and usually seeking formal qualifications."
This new book from the Journalism Programme, University of the South Pacific, looks at regional careers in the media. It covers some of the core courses of the programme, such as news values, basic news gathering, news writing and style, media law and ethics, print and online media, radio and television journalism, photojournalism, and political reporting and editorial balance.
In the final section, several chapters raise contemporary issues facing the region -- trauma and conflict reporting, health reporting and HIV/AIDS, the growing importance of the environment, and NGOs as news sources. A chapter, "outside looking in", also examines the challenges for international media covering the region.
The book is edited by USP's journalism coordinator David Robie, a New Zealand journalist with more than three decades of experience in the international and Pacific media. He has gathered a wide range of contributors, both journalists and media educators/trainers with long Pacific experience. This provides a practical companion for the earlier volume, Nius Bilong Pasifik: Mass Media in the Pacific.
This new book from the Journalism Programme, University of the South Pacific, looks at regional careers in the media. It covers some of the core courses of the programme, such as news values, basic news gathering, news writing and style, media law and ethics, print and online media, radio and television journalism, photojournalism, and political reporting and editorial balance.
In the final section, several chapters raise contemporary issues facing the region -- trauma and conflict reporting, health reporting and HIV/AIDS, the growing importance of the environment, and NGOs as news sources. A chapter, "outside looking in", also examines the challenges for international media covering the region.
The book is edited by USP's journalism coordinator David Robie, a New Zealand journalist with more than three decades of experience in the international and Pacific media. He has gathered a wide range of contributors, both journalists and media educators/trainers with long Pacific experience. This provides a practical companion for the earlier volume, Nius Bilong Pasifik: Mass Media in the Pacific.
Research Interests:
The news media in the South Pacific may be small -- but the region has a diverse and vibrant mass communications industry. Ranging from the PNG Post-Courier (circulation 34,000) and Fiji Times to the fortnightly Tuvalu Echoes and monthly... more
The news media in the South Pacific may be small -- but the region has a diverse and vibrant mass communications industry. Ranging from the PNG Post-Courier (circulation 34,000) and Fiji Times to the fortnightly Tuvalu Echoes and monthly Madang Watcher, from EM TV's nationwide broadcasts via the Indonesian Palapa satellite to Niue's tiny television unit ...
Or the PNG National Broadcasting Commission's Kalang and Karai services to Tokelau's traffic-and-weather broadcasts ... the media caters for an audience and readership scattered over many islands and atolls.
In Nius Bilong Pasifik, 18 leading Pacific journalists, academics and media commentators explore the nature and problems of the contemporary Pacific mass communications industry. This is a unique book for Pacific journalism educators, students, sociology and political science scholars, media watchers and professional journalists.
Or the PNG National Broadcasting Commission's Kalang and Karai services to Tokelau's traffic-and-weather broadcasts ... the media caters for an audience and readership scattered over many islands and atolls.
In Nius Bilong Pasifik, 18 leading Pacific journalists, academics and media commentators explore the nature and problems of the contemporary Pacific mass communications industry. This is a unique book for Pacific journalism educators, students, sociology and political science scholars, media watchers and professional journalists.
Research Interests:
The Pacific is in upheaval -- growing poverty, nuclear testing, independence struggles, militarisation and massive social dislocation are pressing, often intractable issues. In Tu Galala (meaning "freedom"), indigenous and palagi writers... more
The Pacific is in upheaval -- growing poverty, nuclear testing, independence struggles, militarisation and massive social dislocation are pressing, often intractable issues. In Tu Galala (meaning "freedom"), indigenous and palagi writers describe the impact of these influences on their people.
Topics covered include the Bougainville crisis and the environmental impact of mining on indigenous communities in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea; hazardous waste dumping and the Johnston Atoll chemical weapons burn-off controversy; human rights violations in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and East Timor; "development" in Kanaky/New Caledonia, and tino rangatiratanga in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Topics covered include the Bougainville crisis and the environmental impact of mining on indigenous communities in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea; hazardous waste dumping and the Johnston Atoll chemical weapons burn-off controversy; human rights violations in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines and East Timor; "development" in Kanaky/New Caledonia, and tino rangatiratanga in Aotearoa/New Zealand.
Research Interests:
Nationalist Struggles in the South Pacific. Pluto Press. Leichhardt, Sydney. 1989. Reprinted by Malaya Books, Quezon City, The Philippines, c. 1991; 313, index; photos, maps; cardcover; cover unevenly inked, light browning of margins,... more
Nationalist Struggles in the South Pacific. Pluto Press. Leichhardt, Sydney. 1989. Reprinted by Malaya Books, Quezon City, The Philippines, c. 1991; 313, index; photos, maps; cardcover; cover unevenly inked, light browning of margins, o/wise good condition. Looks at the political forces which have shaken the South Pacific over the past few years, the author argues that the policies of France, Indonesia and the United States pose the gravest threat to the stability of the region, includes: Vanuatu, Micronesia, Fiji, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Timor and West Papua (Irian Jaya).
Research Interests:
"EVENTS in recent years in the South Pacific have dispelled hitherto widely held perceptions of the region as a peacefully modernising backwater of traditional societies. In particular, the 1987 coups in Fiji galvanised the attention of... more
"EVENTS in recent years in the South Pacific have dispelled hitherto widely held perceptions of the region as a peacefully modernising backwater of traditional societies. In particular, the 1987 coups in Fiji galvanised the attention of politicians and academics. But in truth, this was just one of a series of crises besetting South Pacific island states.
"David Robie's Blood on their Banner goes beyond the many accounts focusing on the Fiji coups to link together a range of events under the rubric of responses to colonialism and the emergence of Pacific nationalism. His credentials for doing this are excellent.
":Robie, who earlier wrote the only insider's book on the French bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, has worked as a journalist in the region for a number of years, winning the New Zealand Media Peace Prize in 1985 and Qantas Press Awards in 1987 and 1988 for his Pacific coverage. His personal experiences and political engagement give the book vitality and coherence.
"Blood on their Banner ranges over a number of post colonial crises in the Pacific from the recolonisation of East Timor and West Papua to the various, sometimes comic opera, on-going colonial excursions of the French -- very timely with this reissue of this book in view of the recent Moruroa upheaval.
"In this account of might triumphing over right the Indonesians and the French emerge as particularly culpable, but the sometimes dismal exercises in realpolitik by Australia and New Zealand in response to these episodes is also rightly condemned.
"Robie is at his best when he deals with matters he has followed closely as a journalist. His discussion of the Pacific news media, Kanak struggle and the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior is particularly engaging.
"The long section on the Fiji coups differs from the other episodes discussed in the book in having no obvious colonial villain. Yet Robie sees the events in Fiji as a culminating act of forces resisting nationalist reconstruction in the South Pacific." - Excerpt of review by Alan Robson
Behind the leis and smiles http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/1607 - Review by Robin Osborne in Green-Left Weekly (Sydney)
http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/8530/v3n2-448-449-bookrev.pdf?sequence=1
- Review by Professor Stewart Firth in The Contemporary Pacific
"David Robie's Blood on their Banner goes beyond the many accounts focusing on the Fiji coups to link together a range of events under the rubric of responses to colonialism and the emergence of Pacific nationalism. His credentials for doing this are excellent.
":Robie, who earlier wrote the only insider's book on the French bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, has worked as a journalist in the region for a number of years, winning the New Zealand Media Peace Prize in 1985 and Qantas Press Awards in 1987 and 1988 for his Pacific coverage. His personal experiences and political engagement give the book vitality and coherence.
"Blood on their Banner ranges over a number of post colonial crises in the Pacific from the recolonisation of East Timor and West Papua to the various, sometimes comic opera, on-going colonial excursions of the French -- very timely with this reissue of this book in view of the recent Moruroa upheaval.
"In this account of might triumphing over right the Indonesians and the French emerge as particularly culpable, but the sometimes dismal exercises in realpolitik by Australia and New Zealand in response to these episodes is also rightly condemned.
"Robie is at his best when he deals with matters he has followed closely as a journalist. His discussion of the Pacific news media, Kanak struggle and the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior is particularly engaging.
"The long section on the Fiji coups differs from the other episodes discussed in the book in having no obvious colonial villain. Yet Robie sees the events in Fiji as a culminating act of forces resisting nationalist reconstruction in the South Pacific." - Excerpt of review by Alan Robson
Behind the leis and smiles http://www.greenleft.org.au/node/1607 - Review by Robin Osborne in Green-Left Weekly (Sydney)
http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/8530/v3n2-448-449-bookrev.pdf?sequence=1
- Review by Professor Stewart Firth in The Contemporary Pacific
Research Interests:
The only account of the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior by somebody who was actually on board. Robie was on board as a journalist for 11 weeks leading up to the sabotage by French secret agents. His media coverage of the Rainbow Warrior... more
The only account of the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior by somebody who was actually on board. Robie was on board as a journalist for 11 weeks leading up to the sabotage by French secret agents. His media coverage of the Rainbow Warrior affair led to Robie being awarded the New Zealand Media Peace Prize. More than 60 photographs (mostly by the author), cartoons and other illustrations.
Research Interests:
När du slutför en beställning godkänner du säljarens villkor. Din beställning är bindande, men om säljaren inte kontaktar dig inom fem dagar (120 timmar) är du inte längre bunden att fullfölja affären. Läs därför noga igenom säljarens... more
När du slutför en beställning godkänner du säljarens villkor.
Din beställning är bindande, men om säljaren inte kontaktar dig inom fem dagar (120 timmar) är du inte längre bunden att fullfölja affären. Läs därför noga igenom säljarens villkor! Har du ångerrätt? Kan du betala efter leverans, eller kräver säljaren förskott?
This covers similar ground to Blood on their Banner on nationalist struggles in the South Pacific. However, this edition contains a chapter and other controversial material not in the English-language edition. It was published a few months before the English edition. The foreword was by Dr Bengt Danielsson, the late Swedish explorer, historian, social critic and journalist who is author of Moruroa Mon Amour.
Reviews:
Blood on their Banner pulls together the unrest and the external pressures that are turning the Pacific from a dozy backwater and reshaping it as part of the quick-change world with its old stability under threat.
Ted Reynolds, New Zealand Herald
Blood on their Banner is an excellent introduction for the general reader to the contemporary Pacific. Challenging and well-researched, it should prove equally valuable as a text for studies on the nature of nationalism and struggles for justice and democracy.
Robbie Robertson, Arena
David Robie's vivid and well-documented account is a powerful indictment of the foreign policies of the United States, France and Indonesia. Even New Zealand and Australia are implicated.
Nemani Delaibatiki, Waikato Times
David Robie is one of the better known New Zealand-based journalists currently reporting on the Pacific. His investigative articles on issues and conflicts of the day have brought a new and welcome seriousness to writing on the politics of this region.
Ian Frazer, Otago Daily Times
Din beställning är bindande, men om säljaren inte kontaktar dig inom fem dagar (120 timmar) är du inte längre bunden att fullfölja affären. Läs därför noga igenom säljarens villkor! Har du ångerrätt? Kan du betala efter leverans, eller kräver säljaren förskott?
This covers similar ground to Blood on their Banner on nationalist struggles in the South Pacific. However, this edition contains a chapter and other controversial material not in the English-language edition. It was published a few months before the English edition. The foreword was by Dr Bengt Danielsson, the late Swedish explorer, historian, social critic and journalist who is author of Moruroa Mon Amour.
Reviews:
Blood on their Banner pulls together the unrest and the external pressures that are turning the Pacific from a dozy backwater and reshaping it as part of the quick-change world with its old stability under threat.
Ted Reynolds, New Zealand Herald
Blood on their Banner is an excellent introduction for the general reader to the contemporary Pacific. Challenging and well-researched, it should prove equally valuable as a text for studies on the nature of nationalism and struggles for justice and democracy.
Robbie Robertson, Arena
David Robie's vivid and well-documented account is a powerful indictment of the foreign policies of the United States, France and Indonesia. Even New Zealand and Australia are implicated.
Nemani Delaibatiki, Waikato Times
David Robie is one of the better known New Zealand-based journalists currently reporting on the Pacific. His investigative articles on issues and conflicts of the day have brought a new and welcome seriousness to writing on the politics of this region.
Ian Frazer, Otago Daily Times
Research Interests:
Photoessay: A unique feature of Pacific Journalism Review, compared with many other journalism and media research journals, has been a particular focus on photography and documentary. Contributors have been eclectic and varied, ranging... more
Photoessay: A unique feature of Pacific Journalism Review, compared with many other journalism and media research journals, has been a particular focus on photography and documentary. Contributors have been eclectic and varied, ranging from activist photojournalist John Miller (Ngapuhi), who charted the new wave of Māori assertiveness from the first Nga Tamatoa protest at Waitangi in 1971 and who offered a research portfolio on the Ngatihine Land/ Forestry legal dispute in Northland Aotearoa, to Ben Bohane's 'Melanesian mythical places with unreported conflicts', to Kasun Ubayasiri's 'Manus to Meanjin' study of refugee migration, to Filipino Fernando G. Sepe's stunning but shocking portrayal of President Rodrigo Duterte's extrajudicial 'war on drugs' (in reality a 'war on poverty'), through to Todd M. Henry's Tongan 'Gangsters in Paradise' and the realm of kava in New Zealand. At least a dozen portfolios have been published by the journal and this article examines and reflects on some of the highlights. The photoessay is completed with a portfolio of protest photographs from the seven months of Israel's War on Gaza.
https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/article/view/1360
https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/article/view/1360
Research Interests:
The shrinking mainstream media plurality in Aotearoa New Zealand provides a context for examining publication of campus-based media where student and faculty editorial staff have successfully established an independent Asia-Pacific... more
The shrinking mainstream media plurality in Aotearoa New Zealand provides a context for examining publication of campus-based media where student and faculty editorial staff have successfully established an independent Asia-Pacific digital and print press over the past two decades. New Zealand’s largest city Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) has the largest urban population of Pacific Islanders globally—more than 300,000 people in a total of 1.7 million (Pasifika New Zealand, n.d.), earning the moniker ‘Polynesian capital of the world’. The presenter has had a pioneering role with four university-based journalism publications in the Pacific region as key adviser/publisher in Papua New Guinea (Uni Tavur, 1993-1998); Fiji (Wansolwara, 1998-2002); and Aotearoa/New Zealand (Pacific Scoop, 2009-2015; Asia Pacific Report, 2016 onwards), and also with two journalism school-based publications in Australia (Reportage, 1996, and The Junction, 2018-2020) (Robie, 2018). In early 2021, he was co-founder of the Asia Pacific Media Network | Te Koakoa Incorporated which has emerged as a collective umbrella for academics, student journalists and independent reporters producing innovative publications, including the research journal Pacific Journalism Review and a strengthened Asia Pacific Report, which draw on a cross-disciplinary range of media contributors and scholars in other professions. These contributors are mindful of the challenges of reportage about the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This article explores an independent journalism model drawing on professional outlets for Asia-Pacific students and how an investigative and storytelling model like ‘Talanoa Journalism’ can be an effective bridge to alternative media careers and addressing ‘blind spots’ in legacy news media.
https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/article/view/1349
https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/article/view/1349
Research Interests:
The 'watchdog' model has created a journalism culture that is too adversarial and creates conflicts rather than helping to solve today's problems/ conflicts. The panellists assess new journalism paradigms in the Asia-Pacific region where... more
The 'watchdog' model has created a journalism culture that is too adversarial and creates conflicts rather than helping to solve today's problems/ conflicts. The panellists assess new journalism paradigms in the Asia-Pacific region where the media is able to make powerful players to account for facilitating the development needs of communities, especially those in the margins of society. A challenge for contemporary journalism schools is to address such models in a global context of 'development rights' with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals as a benchmark. In the Pacific Islands context, journalists face a challenging news reporting terrain on their news beats, especially in the Melanesian countries of Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu. Besides dealing with political instability, coups, civilian unrest and complex developmental issues, journalists must contend with hostile governments and draconian media legislation. The talents, idealism and storytelling skills of Pacific journalists can be cultivated and strengthened to produce independent platforms and models of journalism that challenge the status quo. Examples of this campus strategy include Radio Pasifik, Wansolwara, Pacific Scoop and Asia Pacific Report.
https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/article/view/1335
https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/article/view/1335
Research Interests: Journalism, Pacific Island Studies, Mass Communication, Asia Pacific Region, South Pacific Politics, and 8 morePapua New Guinea, Journalism Studies, New Zealand, Journalism And Mass communication, Mass Communication and Journalism, Journalism and Media Studies, Fiji Islands, and Asia Pacific Studies
30th Anniversary Edition of Pacific Journalism Review: When editor Philip Cass and I, as founding editor, started planning for this 30th anniversary edition of Pacific Journalism Review, we wanted a theme that would fit such an important... more
30th Anniversary Edition of Pacific Journalism Review: When editor Philip Cass and I, as founding editor, started planning for this 30th anniversary edition of Pacific Journalism Review, we wanted a theme that would fit such an important milestone. At the time when we celebrated the second decade of the journal’s critical inquiry at Auckland University of Technology with a conference in 2014, our theme was ‘Political journalism in the Asia Pacific’, and our mood about the mediascape in the region was far more positive than it is today (Duffield, 2015). Three years later, we marked the 10th anniversary of the Pacific Media Centre, with a conference and a rather gloomier ‘Journalism under duress’ slogan. The PJR cover then featured a gruesome corpse at the height of Rodrigo Duterte’s callous and bloodthirsty ‘war on drugs’—and on media—in the Philippines. Three years later again the PMC itself had been closed in spite of its success.
https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/article/view/1368
https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/article/view/1368
Research Interests:
For more than a decade, the pioneering Pacific Media Centre at Aotearoa’s Auckland University of Technology led the way in journalism research and publication, publishing the globally ranked peer-reviewed journal Pacific Journalism... more
For more than a decade, the pioneering Pacific Media Centre at Aotearoa’s Auckland University of Technology led the way in journalism research and publication, publishing the globally ranked peer-reviewed journal Pacific Journalism Review, monographs, and a series of media and social justice books and documentaries. Perhaps even more important was the centre’s role in nurturing young and challenging Asia-Pacific student journalists and communicators seeking social change and providing them with the opportunity, support, and encouragement to enable them to become confident changemakers and community advocates. This article is a case study of a style of academic advocacy and activism that was characterised by its own multiethnic stakeholders’ advisory board as ‘the voice of the voiceless’. A feature was the ‘talanoa journalism’ model (Robie, 2014), focused more on grassroots people and community resilience, especially faced with the global COVID-19 pandemic and climate crisis. The inspired initiative ended with a change of management to a more neoliberal approach to education at the university with scant appreciation for the vision.
Original DOI as published in the Okinawan Journal of Island Studies (Japan):
https://doi.org/10.24564/0002019736
Original DOI as published in the Okinawan Journal of Island Studies (Japan):
https://doi.org/10.24564/0002019736
Research Interests: Journalism, Academic Freedom, Asia Pacific Region, Online Journalism, Journalism Studies, and 7 moreMedia Freedom, University Governance, Journalism And Mass communication, Journalism and Media Studies, Asia Pacific Studies, Department of Media Studies and Journalism, and Social Media and Freedom of Speech and Expression
For more than a decade, the pioneering Pacific Media Centre at Aotearoa's Auckland University of Technology led the way in journalism research and publication, publishing the globally ranked peer-reviewed journal Pacific Journalism... more
For more than a decade, the pioneering Pacific Media Centre at Aotearoa's Auckland University of Technology led the way in journalism research and publication, publishing the globally ranked peer-reviewed journal Pacific Journalism Review, monographs, and a series of media and social justice books and documentaries. Perhaps even more important was the centre's role in nurturing young and challenging Asia-Pacific student journalists and communicators seeking social change and providing them with the opportunity, support, and encouragement to enable them to become confident changemakers and community advocates. This article is a case study of a style of academic advocacy and activism that was characterised by its own multiethnic stakeholders' advisory board as "the voice of the voiceless." A feature was the "Talanoa journalism" model (Robie 2014), focused more on grassroots people and community resilience, especially faced with the global COVID-19 pandemic and climate crisis. The inspired initiative ended with a change of management to a more neoliberal approach to education at the university with scant appreciation for the vision.
https://davidrobie.nz/2023/05/voice-of-the-voiceless-the-pacific-media-centre-as-a-case-study-of-academic-and-research-advocacy-and-activism/
https://davidrobie.nz/2023/05/voice-of-the-voiceless-the-pacific-media-centre-as-a-case-study-of-academic-and-research-advocacy-and-activism/
Research Interests:
Te Amokura: Pacific Media Center (PMC) was founded at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in October 2007 at a time of great turbulence in the Pacific (Robie, 2018). Luamanuvao Dame Winnie Laban, at the time New Zealand’s Minister of... more
Te Amokura: Pacific Media Center (PMC) was founded at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in October 2007 at a time of great turbulence in the Pacific (Robie, 2018). Luamanuvao Dame Winnie Laban, at the time New Zealand’s Minister of Pacific Island Affairs before she later became Victoria University of Wellington’s Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Pasifika), launched the center and strongly welcomed the initiative (Robie, 2017). She returned a decade later in November 2017 as guest of honor to celebrate the center’s 10th anniversary. In 2007, corruption, gender violence, and other human rights violations were rife across the Asia-Pacific region. There were arbitrary, unlawful, and extrajudicial killings by elements of the security services in the Philippines (but not anything like the scale during the “war on drugs” era of President Rodrigo Duterte from 2016 to 2022). In Timor-Leste, security forces carried out nine killings in 2007—less than a third of the 29 recorded the previous year—and there were human rights violations against journalists and other civilians. These circumstances were fertile ground for the establishment of both the PMC at AUT (https://pmc.aut.ac.nz/) and its Pacific Media Watch (PMW) media freedom project as one of the first research and publication initiatives established under the university’s Creative Industries Research Institute (CIRI) umbrella, also established in 2007. The PMW project had been transferred to AUT’s PMC from the University of Papua New Guinea and University of Technology Sydney where it had been founded by ABC Four Corners investigative journalist Peter Cronau and me. [Published online ahead of the print edition. Available at Media Asia: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01296612.2022.2118802] [A longer fully documented version is available on request from the author: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361391867_Te_Amokura_The_rise_and_likely_demise_of_the_Pacific_Media_Centre ]
Research Interests:
Fires burned across Aotearoa New Zealand's Parliament grounds and violent clashes broke out between protesters and police on the day the law enforcement officers moved to quell a 23-day anti-vaccination mandate siege of the House in... more
Fires burned across Aotearoa New Zealand's Parliament grounds and violent clashes broke out between protesters and police on the day the law enforcement officers moved to quell a 23-day anti-vaccination mandate siege of the House in February-March 2022 in scenes rarely witnessed in this country (Fires and clashes, 2022). The riot climaxed a mounting campaign of disinformation and hate speech on social media fuelled by conspiracy theories circulated by New Zealand activist media such as Counterspin, which emulated their counterparts in Australia and the United States. Vitriolic death threats against political leaders and attacks on journalists and the media on an unprecedented scale were a feature of the protests. Anti-government messages were imported alongside white supremacist ideologies. Researchers have described the events as a 'tectonic shift' that will have a significant and lasting impact on Aotearoa New Zealand's democratic institutions This commentary introduces three perspectives about the protests and disinformation ecology framed in the journal's reflexive series Frontline.
Research Interests:
This keynote commentary at the 2021 Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) conference with the theme Change, Adaptation and Culture: Media and Communication in Pandemic Times is addressed through a discussion of three main... more
This keynote commentary at the 2021 Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) conference with the theme Change, Adaptation and Culture: Media and Communication in Pandemic Times is addressed through a discussion of three main issues: 1. The COVID-19 Pandemic and how it is being coped with; 2. A parallel Infodemic-a crisis of communication, and the surge of 'disinformation' and truth challenges in this 'age of hatred and intolerance'; and 3. The global Climate Emergency and the disproportionate impact this is having on the Asia-Pacific region. Finally the author concludes with an overview of some helpful strategies for communicators and educators from his perspective as a journalist and media academic with a mission.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Commentary: Frontline journalism in the age of COVID-19 has posed particular challenges in dealing with personal risk, tackling an 'infodemic' of misinformation, and providing valuable news that can be used in vulnerable Pacific countries... more
Commentary: Frontline journalism in the age of COVID-19 has posed particular challenges in dealing with personal risk, tackling an 'infodemic' of misinformation, and providing valuable news that can be used in vulnerable Pacific countries that have struggled with soaring infections and limited health infrastructure and resources. Five Pacific countries or territories have borne the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic-Fiji, French Polynesia, Guam, Papua New Guinea, and Timor-Leste. This article introduces two examples of public health storytelling in crisis communication, one being a pregnant Papua New Guinea woman who walked 25 kilometres to the nearest hospital-and died on reaching her destination; the other a pregnant Fijian nurse who died after battling COVID-19.
Research Interests:
Research Interests:
Environmental damage, climate change, and increasingly intense natural disasters are serious problems faced by humanity in this millennium. More ecological damage occurs due to expensive and destructive human activities. Illegal logging,... more
Environmental damage, climate change, and increasingly intense natural disasters are serious problems faced by humanity in this millennium. More ecological damage occurs due to expensive and destructive human activities. Illegal logging, expansion of mining areas, pollution of water sources, overfishing, trade-in protected wildlife continue to happen, and the scale is even greater. Meanwhile, climate change is increasingly visible and impacting communities in urban to rural areas. Coastal cities in the United States to coastal villages in the north of Java and the microstates of the South Pacific facing the real impact of sea-level rise. Disasters that occur bring not only material losses but also socioeconomic consequences for people affected. The emergence of new ecological problems is being faced by humanity. The complexity of ecological problems is nonlinear, turbulent, and dynamic. This was the theme of the panel (New) Ecological Problems: Defining the Relationship between Humans and the Environment at the Symposium on Social Science 2020. This paper, part of the SOSS 2020 panel on ecological problems, argues for countries to overhaul and "reset" their public health and economic systems to ones based on strengthening multilateral institutions and collaboration, and to abandon or seriously curtail neoliberalism models that have failed. It also argues that the profession of journalism also needs to approach climate change strategies with as much urgency as for addressing the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The current crisis is a precursor to further crises unless the globe changes its ways to heal both people and the planet.
Research Interests:
Parallel with the global spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic, a dangerous ‘disinfodemic’ has been infecting the flow of information worldwide. Communication and media outlets have faced a new challenge with not only being responsible... more
Parallel with the global spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic, a dangerous ‘disinfodemic’ has been infecting the flow of information worldwide. Communication and media outlets have faced a new challenge with not only being responsible for reportage and analysis of a fast-moving public health emergency—the biggest this century, but forced to sift through the mass circulation of falsehoods that have spread as rapidly as the virus. Concerned about the risks for both health and public responses to disinformation, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres identified the ‘new enemy’ as a ‘growing surge of disinformation’. The UN launched a COVID-19 Communications for Solidarity Initiative to rapidly inform people about facts and science and to ‘promote and inspire acts of humanity’ globally. New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world whose strategy of COVID elimination has been a sustained approach to ‘keep the virus out, find it and stamp it out’. Evoking a theme of ‘our team of five million’ and national kindness, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has led a remarkable campaign blending decisive action and transparency. In this context, this article critically examines a four-month ‘Coronavirus Plus’ initiative conducted by the Pacific Media Centre at a communication programme in one of the New Zealand’s universities in response to the pandemic, deploying the Asia Pacific Report website, asiapacificreport.nz.
Research Interests:
POST-TRUTH? Was there ever really such a thing as the Golden Age of Truth as trumpeted by the liberal Western press? According to Kalinga Seneviratne in his latest challenging book, quite simply ‘no’. In some countries, such as New... more
POST-TRUTH? Was there ever really such a thing as the Golden Age of Truth as trumpeted by the liberal Western press? According to Kalinga Seneviratne in his latest challenging book, quite simply ‘no’. In some countries, such as New Zealand, fake news and the manipulation of half-truths and disinformation has been dismissed as a by-product of the Trump era in the White House and the Brexit debacle. [Review]
Research Interests:
It is possible that future generations will think that BC stands for Before Coronavirus—and possibly that AD stands for After the Donald. All joking aside, here in Aotearoa New Zealand we have been far luckier than most countries, with... more
It is possible that future generations will think that BC stands for Before Coronavirus—and possibly that AD stands for After the Donald. All joking aside, here in Aotearoa New Zealand we have been far luckier than most countries, with early and decisive action by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her advisers rapidly bringing the pandemic threat under control. Several Island nations remain COVID-free, thanks again to early intervention and strong measures, including border control. In countries which did not react properly, the results have been catastrophic. The Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC, 2019) has predicted that the appalling death toll in the United States will reach and possibly surpass 250,000 by the time Donald Trump is finally ejected from the White House. Comparatively safe as we are in New Zealand, this is still the second edition of Pacific Journalism Review we have produced with COVID-19 in the background and even when the pandemic is over, or at least brought under control, we will still be threatened by a host of challenges—not least that of climate change, which has already forced internal migration in Papua New Guinea and Fiji and threatens to do the same in the ASEAN region, with its incomparably larger population. [Editorial]
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A three-year Pacific climate research and storytelling documentary and journalism project has contributed to a disruption and renewal theme in Pacific Island Countries (PIC) development. Focused initially on Fiji, the project has involved... more
A three-year Pacific climate research and storytelling documentary and journalism project has contributed to a disruption and renewal theme in Pacific Island Countries (PIC) development. Focused initially on Fiji, the project has involved three pairs of postgraduate students engaging with climate crisis challenges. Responding originally to the devastation and tragedy wrought in Fiji by Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston in 2016, the Pacific Media Centre embarked on the Bearing Witness journalism project by sending two postgraduate students to Viti Levu to document and report on the impact of climate change (Robie & Chand, 2017). Their main component was a multimedia report on Daku village in the Rewa River delta area. This was followed in 2017 with a series of reports leading to a multimedia package on the relocation of the remote inland village of Tukuraki (Robie, 2018). The third episode focused far more strongly on documentary with reports on waka navigation and climate change, the ‘ghost village’ of Vunidogoloa and a ‘homecoming’ short feature about the Banaban people of Rabi and the impact on them caused by climate change. The project explores Friere’s notions of ‘critical consciousness’ as they might relate to teaching documentary making and also draw on the concept of talanoa journalism.
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The sovereign states of Melanesia are countries where the yoke of colonialism and struggles for independence are still within living memory. There are territories within Melanesia where the questions and complexities associated with... more
The sovereign states of Melanesia are countries where the yoke of colonialism and struggles for independence are still within living memory. There are territories within Melanesia where the questions and complexities associated with achieving self-determination are very much live issues. In West Papua, this issue is one over which blood continues to be spilt. As these countries, and the communities within them, grapple with political-economic and technical shifts, the need for independent journalism is self-evident. However, journalists, editors, publishers and media owners face a barrage of challenges to their ability to operate free from repression or coercion by those who wield power in their societies. Some of these challenges are overt and can extend to threats or physical intimidation. Others are more subtle but no less pervasive and damaging. They lead to a narrowing of the media landscape, the loss of talented professionals to other areas, the rise of self-censorship, and more. [Editorial by: Kasun Ubayasiri, Faith Vlencia-Forrester, Tess Newton Cain and David Robie].
Research Interests: Communication, Media Studies, Censorship, Journalism, Pacific Island Studies, and 15 moreCulture, Media, South Pacific Politics, Internet & Society, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Press Freedom, Vanuatu, Melanesia, West Papua, Solomon Islands, Media Freedom, Journalism And Mass communication, Fiji Islands, and Fake News
Melanesia, and the microstates of the Pacific generally, face the growing influence of authoritarian and secretive values in the region—projected by both China and Indonesia and with behind-the-scenes manipulation. There is also a growing... more
Melanesia, and the microstates of the Pacific generally, face the growing influence of authoritarian and secretive values in the region—projected by both China and Indonesia and with behind-the-scenes manipulation. There is also a growing tendency for Pacific governments to use unconstitutional, bureaucratic or legal tools to silence media and questioning journalists. Frequent threats of closing Facebook and other social media platforms and curbs on online freedom of information are another issue. While Pacific news media face these challenges, their support networks are being shaken by the decline of Australia as a so-called ‘liberal democracy’ and through the undermining of its traditional region-wide public interest media values with the axing of Radio Australia and Australia Network television. Reporting climate change is the Pacific’s most critical challenge while Australian intransigence over the issue is subverting the region’s media. This article engages with and examines these challenges and also concludes that the case of West Papua is a vitally important self-determination issue that left unresolved threatens the security of the region.
Research Interests: Media Studies, Journalism, Southeast Asian Studies, Climate Change, Digital Media & Learning, and 14 moreIndonesia, Political Journalism, Political Economy Of Journalism, Papua New Guinea, Press Freedom, The Internet, Vanuatu, West Papua, Solomon Islands, Media Freedom, Journalism And Mass communication, Papua, Fiji Islands, and Fake News
THIS edition of Pacific Journalism Review is a special issue on several fronts in our 25th year. First, it is a double issue—the first in our history. Second, it began production as an ‘unthemed’ issue, partly to catch up with a backlog... more
THIS edition of Pacific Journalism Review is a special issue on several fronts in our 25th year. First, it is a double issue—the first in our history. Second, it began production as an ‘unthemed’ issue, partly to catch up with a backlog of accepted peer-reviewed papers that had missed recent themed editions. However, the tragic mosque massacre in the New Zealand city of Christchurch in March, and recent ballot box expressions over political futures and independence meant a group of papers emerged with a ‘terrorism dilemmas and democracy’ theme. New Zealand will be learning to live with its ‘loss of innocence’, as Mediawatch presenter Colin Peacock describes it, for the months ahead after the shock of a gunman launching his obscene act of livestreamed terrorism with a bloody assault on two mosques in Christchurch during Friday prayers on 15 March 2019 designed to go viral on global social media. Fifty people were killed that day, with another dying from his wounds several weeks later, unleashing an extraordinary and emotional wave of #TheyAreUs solidarity across the country
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The French-ruled territory of New Caledonia, or Kanaky, as Indigenous pro-independence campaigners call their cigar-shaped islands, voted on their political future on 4 November 2018 amid controversy and tension. This was an historic vote... more
The French-ruled territory of New Caledonia, or Kanaky, as Indigenous pro-independence campaigners call their cigar-shaped islands, voted on their political future on 4 November 2018 amid controversy and tension. This was an historic vote on independence in a ‘three-strikes’ scenario in the territory ruled by France since 1853, originally as a penal colony for convicts and political dissidents. In the end, the vote was remarkably close, reflecting the success of the pro-independence Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) in mobilising voters, particularly the youth. The referendum choice was simple and stark. Voters simply had to respond ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to the question: ‘Do you want New Caledonia to attain full sovereignty and become independent?’ In spite of prophecies of an overwhelming negative vote, the ‘no’ response slipped to a 56.4 percent vote while the ‘yes’ vote wrested a credible 43.6 percent share with a record turnout of almost 81 percent. New Caledonia is expected to face two further votes on the independence question in 2020 and 2022. The author of this article reported as a journalist on an uprising against French rule in the 1980s, known by the euphemism ‘les Évènements’ (‘the Events’). He returned there three decades later as an academic to bear witness to the vote and examine the role of digital media and youth. This article reflects on his impressions of the result, democracy and the future.
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As critical issues such as climate change, exploited fisheries, declining human rights and reconfiguration of political systems inherited at independence increasingly challenge the microstates of Asia-Pacific, approaches to news media and... more
As critical issues such as climate change, exploited fisheries, declining human rights and reconfiguration of political systems inherited at independence increasingly challenge the microstates of Asia-Pacific, approaches to news media and journalism education are also under strain. University based journalism education was introduced to the South Pacific in Papua New Guinea at independence in 1975 and in Fiji at the regional University of the South Pacific in 1994, while Technical Vocational Educational and Training (TVET) institutions have been a more recent addition in the region. Some scholars argue there is little difference between Pacific and Western approaches to journalism, or that some journalism schools are too focused on Western media education, while others assert there is a distinctive style of journalism in Oceania with cultural variations based on the country where it is practised and parallels with some approaches in Asia such as ‘mindful journalism’. This paper examines a ‘Pacific way’ journalism debate which echoes a regional political concept coined by the late Fiji president, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. The paper argues for a greater appreciation of the complexities of media cultures in Pacific nations and proposes a more nuanced, reflexive approach to journalism in the Pacific region. This is reflected in a ‘talanoa journalism’ model that he advocates as a more culturally appropriate benchmark than monocultural media templates.
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Auckland University of Technology’s Pacific Media Centre marked its tenth anniversary with a wide-ranging public seminar discussing two of the region’s most critical media freedom crises. The ‘Journalism Under Duress in Asia-Pacific’... more
Auckland University of Technology’s Pacific Media Centre marked its tenth anniversary with a wide-ranging public seminar discussing two of the region’s most critical media freedom crises. The ‘Journalism Under Duress in Asia-Pacific’ seminar in November 2017 examined media freedom and human rights in the Philippines and in Indonesia’s Papua region, generally known as West Papua. The introduction to the PMC seminar, later presented at a Reporters Without Borders summit for Asia-Pacific freedom advocates and activist journalists in Paris in July 2018 examined the culture of impunity over crimes against journalists and journalism safety as a major factor undermining media freedom in the region.
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The statistics globally are chilling. And the Asia-Pacific region bears the brunt of the killing of journalists with impunity disproportionately. Revelations in research published in this edition of Pacific Journalism Review on the trauma... more
The statistics globally are chilling. And the Asia-Pacific region bears the brunt of the killing of journalists with impunity disproportionately. Revelations in research published in this edition of Pacific Journalism Review on the trauma experienced by television journalists in the Philippines covering President Rodrigo Duterte’s so-called ‘war on drugs’, or as many describe it, a ‘war on poverty’, with more that 12,000 dead is deeply disturbing (Amnesty International, 2017). While these deaths, allegedly mostly extrajudicial killings, do not relate directly to the murders of journalists, the highest death toll ever of journalists in a mass execution took place in the southern Philippines almost nine years ago.
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For nine years, the Pacific Media Centre research and publication unit at Auckland University of Technology has published journalism with an ‘activist’ edge to its style of reportage raising issues of social justice in New Zealand’s... more
For nine years, the Pacific Media Centre research and publication unit at Auckland University of Technology has published journalism with an ‘activist’ edge to its style of reportage raising issues of social justice in New Zealand’s regional backyard. It has achieved this through partnerships with progressive sections of news media and a non-profit model of critical and challenging assignments for postgraduate students in the context of coups, civil war, climate change, human rights, sustainable development and neo-colonialism. An earlier Pacific Scoop venture (2009-2015) has morphed into an innovative venture for the digital era, Asia Pacific Report (APR) (http://asiapacificreport.nz/), launched in January 2016. Amid the current global climate of controversy over ‘fake news’ and a ‘war on truth’ and declining credibility among some mainstream media, the APR project has demonstrated on many occasions the value of independent niche media questioning and challenging mainstream agendas. In this article, a series of case studies examines how the collective experience of citizen journalism, digital engagement and an innovative public empowerment journalism course can develop a unique online publication. The article traverses some of the region’s thorny political and social issues—including the controversial police shootings of students in Papua New Guinea in June 2016.
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In 2016, the Pacific Media Centre responded to the devastation and tragedy wrought in Fiji by Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston by initiating the Bearing Witness journalism project and dispatching two postgraduate students to Viti Levu to... more
In 2016, the Pacific Media Centre responded to the devastation and tragedy wrought in Fiji by Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston by initiating the Bearing Witness journalism project and dispatching two postgraduate students to Viti Levu to document and report on the impact of climate change (Robie & Chand, 2017). This was followed up in 2017 in a second phase of what was hoped would become a five-year mission and expanded in future years to include other parts of the Asia-Pacific region. This project is timely, given the new 10-year Strategic Plan 2017-2026 launched by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) in March and the co-hosting by Fiji of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP23) climate change conference in Bonn, Germany, during November. The students dispatched in 2017 on the 'bearing witness' journalism experiential assignment to work in collaboration with the Pacific Centre for the Environment and Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD) and the Regional Journalism Programme at the University of the South Pacific included a report about the relocation of a remote inland village of Tukuraki. They won the 2017 media and trauma prize of the Asia-Pacific Dart Centre, an agency affiliated with the Columbia School of Journalism. This article is a case study assessing the progress with this second year of the journalism project and exploring the strategic initiatives under way for more nuanced and constructive Asia-Pacific media storytelling in response to climate change.
Research Interests: Journalism, Climate Change, Pacific Island Studies, Climate Change Adaptation, Climate change policy, and 8 moreEnvironmental Communication, Environmental journalism, Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation Strategies, Environmental Risk Communication, Fiji, Journalism And Mass communication, Oceania, and Bearing Witness
This article is of a comparative study of social adaptation in the Cyclone Winston disaster case in Fiji and rob flooding in Semarang, Indone-sia. In February 2016, the largest tropical storm in the Southern Hemisphere, Cyclone Winston,... more
This article is of a comparative study of social adaptation in the Cyclone Winston disaster case in Fiji and rob flooding in Semarang, Indone-sia. In February 2016, the largest tropical storm in the Southern Hemisphere, Cyclone Winston, struck Fiji and caused severe damage and loss of life. Meanwhile, in the last two decades flooding has become an increasingly acute disaster situation in Semarang and the northern coastal region of Java, Indonesia. Communities in the path of both these disasters are the ones who suffer most. Social adaptation is important to consider in these two cases to encourage improved future mitigation and adaptation efforts. Data was collected from interviews and documents in the form of news media articles and previous research reports relevant to tropical disasters and the impact of climate change. The results show that social adaptation to both types of disasters is not identical due to the characteristics of the two different disasters and the different social, economic, political and cultural contexts in Fiji and Indonesia.
Research Interests: Journalism, Coastal Management, Climate Change, Climate Change Adaptation, Disaster risk management, and 11 moreEnvironmental Communication, Disaster Management, Environmental journalism, Disaster Risk Communication, Impact of climate change on sea level rise, Tropical cyclones, Natural Disasters, Journalism And Mass communication, Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief, Adaptation to Coastal Flooding, and Rob flooding
When University of the South Pacific climate change scientist Elisabeth Holland gave a keynote address at the Second Pacific Climate Change Conference at Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, New Zealand, on February 2018, her message was... more
When University of the South Pacific climate change scientist Elisabeth Holland gave a keynote address at the Second Pacific Climate Change Conference at Te Papa Tongarewa in Wellington, New Zealand, on February 2018, her message was simple but inspiring. In an address advocating ‘connecting the dots’ about the climate challenges facing the globe, and particularly the coral atoll microstates of the Asia-Pacific region, she called for ‘more Pacific research, by the Pacific and for the Pacific’. The 2007 Nobel Peace Prize co-recipient, Professor Holland, director of the University of the South Pacific’s Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD), noted many of the global models drawn from average statistics were not too helpful for the specifics in the Pacific where climate change had already become a daily reality.
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Chapter 11 from the book Robie, D. (2014). Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific: Until the mid-1980s, international human rights organisations gave Pacific Islands states a relatively clean bill of... more
Chapter 11 from the book Robie, D. (2014). Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific: Until the mid-1980s, international human rights organisations gave Pacific Islands states a relatively clean bill of health. Apart, that is, from colonised East Timor [Timor-Leste] and West Papua, which figured regularly in the annual Amnesty International Reports through documentation of Indonesian violations. Now human rights violations have become a growing concern in the region, especially over gender and domestic violence, leading researchers to monitor them more rigorously, and this is an issue Pacific political leaders have been reluctant to face.
Research Interests: Journalism, Southeast Asian Studies, Pacific Island Studies, Human Rights, Indonesia, and 11 moreAsia Pacific Region, Timor-Leste Studies, South Pacific Politics, Papua New Guinea, Fiji, East Timor, Journalism Studies, Journalism And Mass communication, Oceania, South Pacific Media, and Asia/Pacific
The mood in the chapel on the outskirts of Malaybalay, capital of Bukidnon province was somber. Six datu (chiefs) and several delegates of the indigenous tribal Lumad people of the region were airing their concerns about a controversial... more
The mood in the chapel on the outskirts of Malaybalay, capital of Bukidnon province was somber. Six datu (chiefs) and several delegates of the indigenous tribal Lumad people of the region were airing their concerns about a controversial New Zealand-backed $5.7 million forestry aid project for the Philippines. Ironically, less than 100 metres away, in a derelict building nestling amid a plantation of benguet pines on land earmarked for the project, were living about 80 “squatters” who in a sense symbolised the problem at the root of the scheme. Squatters would be the term used by some New Zealand officials and their technical advisers. But it was hardly appropriate, and reflected the insensitivity to many of the social and economic problems in the province. The homeless people belonged to the Bukidnon Free Farmers and Agricultural Labourers’ Organisation, or Buffalo, as it was generally known. Their story was one of injustice, victimisation and harassment, only too common in the Philippines.
The opening two paragraphs of Chapter 14 in David Robie's 2014 book Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific (Auckland: Little Island Press) summarising his investigation in 1989/1990 into the the controversial $6 million New Zealand forestry aid programme in Bukidnon province, Mindanao, Philippines with a series of articles published in The Dominion and the NZ Listener and other publications.
The opening two paragraphs of Chapter 14 in David Robie's 2014 book Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific (Auckland: Little Island Press) summarising his investigation in 1989/1990 into the the controversial $6 million New Zealand forestry aid programme in Bukidnon province, Mindanao, Philippines with a series of articles published in The Dominion and the NZ Listener and other publications.
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This is the second edition of IKAT: The Indonesian Journal of Southeast Asian Studies and I have been honoured with a request to write an editorial foreword for this welcome addition to global research publishing with a focus on a region... more
This is the second edition of IKAT: The Indonesian Journal of Southeast Asian Studies and I have been honoured with a request to write an editorial foreword for this welcome addition to global research publishing with a focus on a region facing important challenges and interesting times. I thank Dr. phil. Hermin Indah Wahyuni, Dr. Vissia Ita Yulianto and her editorial colleagues for the invitation and opportunity to collaborate with this quality research initiative. The Center of Southeast Asian Social Studies (CESASS) at the Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, must be commended for launching such a valuable publication. The Pacific Media Centre at Aotearoa/New Zealand’s Auckland University of Technology (AUT) is proud to be associated with the venture.
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It was ironical that the most evocative demonstration of freedom of the press in Indonesia since the draconian Suharto era two decades ago was also given a global black mark for attempting to “gag” free discussion over violations on its... more
It was ironical that the most evocative demonstration of freedom of the press in Indonesia since the draconian Suharto era two decades ago was also given a global black mark for attempting to “gag” free discussion over violations on its own geopolitical doorstep. Indonesian hospitality was widely praised for the four-day efforts in hosting World Press Freedom Day 2017, yet both Jakarta and UNESCO officials were acutely embarrassed over events in the easternmost West Papuan region (Robie, 2017a). Four days before the WPFD event got under way on April 30, prominent Papuan journalist Victor Mambor, editor-in-chief of Tabloid Jubi and a former chairperson of the West Papuan chapter of the Aliansi Jurnalis Independen (Alliance of Independent Journalists) between 2010 and 2016, had warned in the New Internationalist that Indonesian double standards had imposed a silence over West Papua (Mambor & Payen, 2017). Even a Papuan protest outside the Jakarta Conference Centre venue on World Press Freedom Day itself was kept at the margins, ensuring most of the 1,500 journalists, media academics and communication policy makers from 90 countries were unaware of the shocking press and human rights violations that continue almost daily in the Melanesian provinces of Papua and West Papua (collectively known as “West Papua” in South Pacific nations).
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For five decades Tanah Papua, or the West Papua half of the island of New Guinea on the intersection of Asia and the Pacific, has been a critical issue for the region with a majority of the Melanesian population supporting... more
For five decades Tanah Papua, or the West Papua half of the island of New Guinea on the intersection of Asia and the Pacific, has been a critical issue for the region with a majority of the Melanesian population supporting self-determination, and ultimately independence. While being prepared for eventual postwar independence by the Dutch colonial authorities, Indonesian paratroopers and marines invaded the territory in 1962 in an ill-fated military expedition dubbed Operation Trikora ('People's Triple Command'). However, this eventually led to the so-called Act of Free Choice in 1969 under the auspices of the United Nations in a sham referendum dubbed by critics as an 'Act of No Choice' which has been disputed ever since as a legal basis for Indonesian colonialism. A low-level insurgency waged by the OPM (Free West Papua Movement) has also continued and Jakarta maintains its control through the politics of oppression and internal migration. For more than five decades, the legacy media in New Zealand have largely ignored this issue on their doorstep, preferring to give attention to Fiji and a so-called coup culture instead. In the past five years, social media have contributed to a dramatic upsurge of global awareness about West Papua but still the New Zealand legacy media have failed to take heed. This article also briefly introduces other Asia-Pacific political is-sues—such as Kanaky, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinean university student unrest, the militarisation of the Mariana Islands and the Pacific's Nuclear Zero lawsuit against the nine nuclear powers—ignored by a New Zealand media that has no serious tradition of independent foreign correspondence.
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IN SAMOA during July 2015, a new Pacific journalism education and training advocacy era was born with the establishment of the Media Educators Pacific (MEP) after a talkfest had gone on for years about the need for such a body. A draft... more
IN SAMOA during July 2015, a new Pacific journalism education and training advocacy era was born with the establishment of the Media Educators Pacific (MEP) after a talkfest had gone on for years about the need for such a body. A draft constitution had even been floated at a journalism education conference hosted at the University of the South Pacific in 2012. The initiative created unity of sorts between the Technical, Vocational and Educational Training (TVET) media institutes from Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu, and the regional University of the South Pacific journalism programme. Founding president Misa Vicky Lepou of the National University of Samoa pledged at the time to produce a vision with a difference.
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In February 2016, the Fiji Islands were devastated by Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston, the strongest recorded tropical storm in the Southern Hemisphere. The category 5 storm with wind gusts reaching 300 kilometres an hour, left 44 people... more
In February 2016, the Fiji Islands were devastated by Severe Tropical Cyclone Winston, the strongest recorded tropical storm in the Southern Hemisphere. The category 5 storm with wind gusts reaching 300 kilometres an hour, left 44 people dead, 45,000 people displaced, 350,000 indirectly affected, and $650 million worth of damage (Climate Council, 2016). In March 2017, the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) launched a new 10-year Strategic Plan 2017-2026, which regards climate change as a ‘deeply troubling issue for the environmental, economic, and social viability of Pacific island countries and territories’. In November, Fiji will co-host the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP23) climate change conference in Bonn, Germany. Against this background, the Pacific Media Centre despatched two neophyte journalists to Fiji for a two-week field trip in April 2016 on a ‘bearing witness’ journalism experiential assignment to work in collaboration with the Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD) and the Regional Journalism Programme at the University of the South Pacific. This article is a case study assessing this climate change journalism project and arguing for the initiative to be funded for a multiple-year period in future and to cover additional Pacific countries, especially those so-called ‘frontline’ climate change states.
Research Interests: Journalism, Climate Change, Digital Media, Climate Change Adaptation, Climate change policy, and 6 moreCitizen Journalism, Environmental journalism, Online Journalism, Mass Media and Environment, Environmental Journalism,Development Journalism, Journalism And Mass communication, and Climate Change Policies in Developing Countries
State-backed terrorism as exemplified by the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, the Amsterdam-registered flagship of the Greenpeace environmental movement, on 10 July 1985 in New Zealand, and the assassination of pro-independence leaders... more
State-backed terrorism as exemplified by the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, the Amsterdam-registered flagship of the Greenpeace environmental movement, on 10 July 1985 in New Zealand, and the assassination of pro-independence leaders and, allegedly, at least one journalist in French Pacific territories by secret agents or military officers in subsequent years, has left a legacy of insecurity. In July 2015, New Zealand marked the thirtieth anniversary of the bombing in a more subdued manner than a decade earlier. While there was considerable focus on a rehashing of the French spy drama from a narrow " how we covered it " perspective, there was little introspection or reflection on broader issues of regional security. For example, the sabotage of the environmental flagship was not addressed in the wider context of nuclear-free and independence movements active in New Caledonia, New Zealand's near Pacific neighbour, or of nuclear refugees such as those from Rongelap Atoll, from where the Rainbow Warrior had relocated an entire community to a safer environment following United States nuclear tests in the Marshall Islands. At the time of the second anniversary, Le Monde exposed the responsibility of President François Mitterrand for Opération Satanique and later revealed much of the detail about the so-called " third team " of bombers. This paper examines the broader context of the bombing in the Pacific geopolitical challenges of the time and the legacy for the region, from a journalist's perspective, as the region has moved from the insecurity of nuclear refugees to that of climate change refugees, or climate-forced migrants. The paper also contextualises a research and publication multimedia project by some forty student journalists in a university partnership with Little Island Press from the perspective of media and terrorism, deliberative journalism (DJ) and human rights journalism (HRJ).
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THIS edition of Pacific Journalism Review began with a theme around ‘Endangered Journalists’. However, by the time it was into full editorial production it was clear that this was also about the global silence and injustice imposed on... more
THIS edition of Pacific Journalism Review began with a theme around ‘Endangered Journalists’. However, by the time it was into full editorial production it was clear that this was also about the global silence and injustice imposed on West Papua and the ‘endangered’ indigenous people in this mountainous land on the cusp of Asia and the Pacific. While the edition layout was being prepared, remarkable events were happening in West Papua and elsewhere in Indonesia this year around the historically significant anniversary date of 1 May 2016 – fifty-three years after a United Nations Temporary Executive Authority (UNTEA) handed power over the former Dutch colony in West New Guinea to Jakarta with a mandate to rule until such time as the Papuan people decided on their future in a free vote.
Research Interests: Journalism, Peace and Conflict Studies, Pacific Island Studies, Human Rights, Asia Pacific Region, and 7 morePeace Journalism, West Papua, Media Freedom, Journalism And Mass communication, Freedom of Press and Media, Human Rights and Journalism, and Safety of Journalists in reporting terrorism and conflict situations
France detonated 193 nuclear tests in the South Pacific, at Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls, before halting the tests in 1996 in the face of Pacific-wide protests. On 10 July 1985, French secret agents bombed the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow... more
France detonated 193 nuclear tests in the South Pacific, at Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls, before halting the tests in 1996 in the face of Pacific-wide protests. On 10 July 1985, French secret agents bombed the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour, killing photographer Fernando Pereira, in a futile bid to stop a protest flotilla going to Moruroa. Journalist David Robie was on board the Rainbow Warrior for more than 10 weeks of her last voyage, coming ashore in Auckland just two days before the bombing, told his story in the book Eyes of Fire. Here he reflects on the 20-year legal struggle to prevent the French spies from gagging reportage of their guilty plea from public television and the lingering secrecy about the health legacy of nuclear tests in the Pacific.
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Media convergence within the news and current affairs landscape over the past two decades has opened opportunities for competing newspapers, television stations and online publishers to form alliances to approach digital and editorial... more
Media convergence within the news and current affairs landscape over the past two decades has opened opportunities for competing newspapers, television stations and online publishers to form alliances to approach digital and editorial challenges with innovative strategies. The partnerships have often enabled journalists to embrace multimedia platforms with flexibility and initiative. This has fostered a trend in 'gatewatching' and a citizen responsive and involved grassroots media rather than legacy mainstream gatekeeping, top-down models. Such committed media attempts in search of investigative journalism accompanied by 'public' and 'civic' journalism engagement initiatives have also been emulated by some journalism schools in the Asia-Pacific region. This has paralleled the evolution of journalism as a research methodology with academic application over the past decade. Selecting two New Zealand-based complementary and pioneering Pacific digital news and analysis publications, Pacific Scoop (founded 2009) and Asia-Pacific Report (2016), produced by a journalism school programme in partnership with established independent media as a combined case study, this article will demonstrate how academia-based gatewatching media can effectively challenge mainstream gatekeeping media. Pacific Scoop was established by an Auckland university in partnership with New Zealand's largest independent publisher, Scoop Media Limited, and launched at the Māori Expo in 2009. The article also explores the transition of Pacific Scoop into Asia-Pacific Report, launched in partnership with an innovative web-based partner, Evening Report. The study analyses the strategic and innovation efforts in the context of continuing disruptions to New Zealand's legacy media practices related to the Asia-Pacific region.
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France detonated 193 of a total of 210 nuclear tests in the South Pacific, at Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls, before halting them in 1996 in the face of Pacific-wide protests. On 10 July 1985, French secret agents bombed the Greenpeace... more
France detonated 193 of a total of 210 nuclear tests in the South Pacific, at Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls, before halting them in 1996 in the face of Pacific-wide protests. On 10 July 1985, French secret agents bombed the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour, killing photographer Fernando Pereira, in a futile bid to stop a protest flotilla going to Moruroa. The author was on board the Rainbow Warrior for more than 10 weeks of her last voyage. He was awarded the 1985 New Zealand Media Peace Prize for reportage and investigations into the ‘Rainbow Warrior and Rongelap Evacuation’. The following year, the author’s book Eyes of Fire told the inside story of state terrorism in the Pacific. He has subsequently reflected on a 20-year legal struggle by Television New Zealand and other media campaigners to prevent the French spies gagging reportage of their guilty plea from a public video record and the lingering secrecy about the health legacy of nuclear tests in the Pacific. In the context of the Frontline project for journalism as research, his work inspired a microsite—a community-driven collaborative project in 2015 coordinated by the publishers, Little Island Press, interrogating participants over a three-decade period and ‘challenging the nature of mainstream media in New Zealand’ with an alternative reader’s media model.
Research Interests:
La'o Hamutuk (Walking Together in English) is an independent social justice and development communication non-government organization established in Timor-Leste in 2000 by Timorese and international human rights activists and campaigners... more
La'o Hamutuk (Walking Together in English) is an independent social justice and development communication non-government organization established in Timor-Leste in 2000 by Timorese and international human rights activists and campaigners involved in the country's struggle for independence. Over the past 15 years, the NGO has monitored, analyzed, and reported on development processes in Timor-Leste and has forged a reputation for the quality of its communication for social change. La'o Hamutuk facilitates communication between grassroots people in the country and its elected leaders and decision-makers, and also establishes solidarity links with communities in other countries to explore alternative and independent development models. This author worked on a voluntary basis with La'o Hamutuk in November-December 2013 on a collaborative journalism education project to test notions of critical development journalism, peace journalism, and human rights journalism (HRJ) explored in his book published in 2014, Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific. This paper explores a case study on communication for change strategies deployed by La'o Hamutuk on specific issues including the maritime Timor Gap dispute with neighboring Australia and the future of the country's oil and gas reserves; the State budget and Tasi Mane project on the underdeveloped south coast; unresolved human rights cases; food sovereignty and land rights; and a controversial media law regarded as a threat to freedom of speech and information. The paper examines these issues in the context of notions of both HRJ and collaborative citizen journalism.
Research Interests: Social Change, Development Studies, Journalism, Pacific Island Studies, Human Rights, and 14 moreDevelopment communication, Sustainable Development, Citizen Journalism, Political communication, Asia Pacific Region, Political Journalism, Timor-Leste Studies, East Timor, Media Freedom, New Media and Political Activism, Timor-Leste/East Timor, Petroleum Law and Policy, Sociology of Journalism, and Media Censorship
Book Review and Interview by David Blackall with David Robie: David Robie’s latest book is incisive and autobiographical. Kalafi Moala, a courageous publisher and pro-democracy campaigner in his own right, attests to this in the book’s... more
Book Review and Interview by David Blackall with David Robie: David Robie’s latest book is incisive and autobiographical. Kalafi Moala, a courageous publisher and pro-democracy campaigner in his own right, attests to this in the book’s foreword. For many years, Moala was exiled by the kingdom
of Tonga and was involved in the celebrated case of the ‘Tongan Three’—he and his colleagues are the only people to have been jailed for ‘contempt of Parliament’ in the Pacific.
Informed by his articles and notes, this long-form narrative documents David Robie’s journalism and educational work over 40 years. The book covers his vast experience in journalism, education and travel. He has worked in and travelled through Africa, worked for Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Paris in the 1970s, then in Australia and lastly, his specialty, in the Asia-Pacific region. David Robie is politically astute, promoting a journalism education that delivers peace and political independence in the Pacific region, freeing it of what he calls ‘colonial legacy conflicts’. His environmental concerns and his striving for truth for Indigenous peoples create opportunities for public debate.
of Tonga and was involved in the celebrated case of the ‘Tongan Three’—he and his colleagues are the only people to have been jailed for ‘contempt of Parliament’ in the Pacific.
Informed by his articles and notes, this long-form narrative documents David Robie’s journalism and educational work over 40 years. The book covers his vast experience in journalism, education and travel. He has worked in and travelled through Africa, worked for Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Paris in the 1970s, then in Australia and lastly, his specialty, in the Asia-Pacific region. David Robie is politically astute, promoting a journalism education that delivers peace and political independence in the Pacific region, freeing it of what he calls ‘colonial legacy conflicts’. His environmental concerns and his striving for truth for Indigenous peoples create opportunities for public debate.
Research Interests:
France detonated 193 of a total of 210 nuclear tests in the South Pacific, at Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls, before halting them in 1996 in the face of Pacific-wide protests. On 10 July 1985, French secret agents bombed the Greenpeace... more
France detonated 193 of a total of 210 nuclear tests in the South Pacific, at Moruroa and Fangataufa atolls, before halting them in 1996 in the face of Pacific-wide protests. On 10 July 1985, French secret agents bombed the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour, killing photographer Fernando Pereira, in a futile bid to stop a protest flotilla going to Moruroa. A ni-Vanuatu citizen, Charles Rara, was on board. New Zealand journalist David Robie was on board the Rainbow Warrior for more than 10 weeks of its last voyage. His book Eyes of Fire tells the story and here he reflects about the Rainbow Warrior’s lasting legacy in the Pacific.
Research Interests: Journalism, Environmental Studies, Climate change policy, Nuclear Weapons, French colonialism, and 8 moreEnvironmental journalism, Nuclear Disarmament, Pacific Islands politics, Decolonization, Pacific Islands studies, Nuclear disarmament and proliferation, Nuclear Weapons Nonproliferation Disarmament, and Nationalism and Decolonization
Although the Pacific nation of Kiribati has been identified as one of the most vulnerable countries to the impact of climate change, little is known about the attitudes of the local media and the public toward this issue. This is in... more
Although the Pacific nation of Kiribati has been identified as one of the most vulnerable countries to the impact of climate change, little is known about the attitudes of the local media and the public toward this issue. This is in contrast to empirical studies’ findings which have shown that the public and the media were aware of the threats posed by climate change. Aware of and concern about are very different from ‘we care and let’s do something because it is our country’. President Anote Tong and his growing focus on this issue – centred on his close relationship with the foreign news media – have increasingly cast his I-Kiribati people as the victims and thus further marginalised their ability to learn about climate change. Further to this, there is no connection with what Tong has declared overseas with his government’s 2008-2011 Development Plan. This thesis argues that Kiribati is not united on climate change. Traditional, cultural and religious beliefs about land, environment and sea, and division among educated elites and political parties are some of the key barriers to communicating and receiving climate change stories. The government’s closed door policy, top down approach and its one-way communication have restricted the media’s access to information relating to climate change, and more importantly how 'climate funds' are distributed in the country. Despite attempts by the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) to bridge this gap with training workshops to increase media reporting, this study argues that the regional organisation has become part of the problem. Its workshops have been flawed and lack a solid theoretical basis. These complex issues shed new light on the problems facing the Kiribati media on communicating climate change to a society that is not united on this issue. Therefore, a culturally planned deliberative journalism model based on the Karoronga cultural concept is proposed as a framework to engage the media in addressing these issues and encouraging participation of I-Kiribati on climate change discourse through a bottom up, vertical and horizontal communication approach. This is an emerging challenge for the Kiribati media.
Research Interests:
President Ferdinand E. Marcos declared martial law in the Philippines on 21 September 1972. Issuing the declaration under Proclamation 1081 which suspended civil rights, gagged the news media and imposed military authority in the country,... more
President Ferdinand E. Marcos declared martial law in the Philippines on 21 September 1972. Issuing the declaration under Proclamation 1081 which suspended civil rights, gagged the news media and imposed military authority in the country, Marcos defended this draconian move under the Philippines Constitution in response to a series of bombings allegedly caused by communist rebels. The emergency rule at the height of the Cold War was also planned to quell rebellion and drive national development. Four decades later, on 12 September 2012, President Benigno Aquino III signed Republic Act No. (RA) 10175, or the Cybercrime Prevention Act, into law. This legislation was immediately widely condemned as a
threat to freedom of expression on the internet, the media and online privacy and has been likened by human rights groups, media freedom advocates, ‘netizens’ and opposition Congress members as comparable to the Marcos Martial Law era.
Kabataan Representative Raymond Palatino branded the legislation ‘e-Martial Law’, comparing it to repressive Marcos-era decrees censoring and harassing the media. Fifteen Supreme Court appeal petitions were lodged against the Cybercrime Law but the subsequent ruling found the law constitutional in February 2014. This article examines the law, challenges since the constitutional ruling, and demands for repealing the law and replacing it with a so-called ‘Magna Carta’ of internet media freedom.
threat to freedom of expression on the internet, the media and online privacy and has been likened by human rights groups, media freedom advocates, ‘netizens’ and opposition Congress members as comparable to the Marcos Martial Law era.
Kabataan Representative Raymond Palatino branded the legislation ‘e-Martial Law’, comparing it to repressive Marcos-era decrees censoring and harassing the media. Fifteen Supreme Court appeal petitions were lodged against the Cybercrime Law but the subsequent ruling found the law constitutional in February 2014. This article examines the law, challenges since the constitutional ruling, and demands for repealing the law and replacing it with a so-called ‘Magna Carta’ of internet media freedom.
Research Interests:
New Zealand’s Performance-Based Research Fund regime makes no explicit provision for journalism practice-as-research, although it does not exclude it either. The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) has hinted at applied research changes... more
New Zealand’s Performance-Based Research Fund regime makes no explicit provision for journalism practice-as-research, although it does not exclude it either. The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) has hinted at applied research changes that may open the door to investigative journalism and other long- form modes for the next audit in 2018. As a growing global debate responds to international pressure on journalism practitioner-academics to publish scholarly outputs and seek external research income, there has been a parallel paradigm shift in defining methodologies for some journalism as research. This article advocates a bolder approach by journalism educators in New Zealand to push the boundaries for greater acceptance of journalism research methodologies and to claim an enhanced academic space as a ‘critic and conscience of society’.
Research Interests:
The effects of climate change are already occurring in all continents and across the oceans, and the situation has deteriorated since the last account in 2007, warned the United Nations scientific agency charged with monitoring and... more
The effects of climate change are already occurring in all continents and across the oceans, and the situation has deteriorated since the last account in 2007, warned the United Nations scientific agency charged with monitoring and assessing the risks earlier this year. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Fifth Assessment Report (IPCC, 2014), the world is ill-prepared to manage warming and an increase in magnitude is likely to lead to ‘severe and pervasive impacts that may be surprising or irreversible’. Seriously at risk are Small Island Developing States (SIDS), including several in the Pacific, such as Kiribati, Marshall Islands and Tuvalu. The UN has declared 2014 as the International Year of SIDS and a summit was hosted in Samoa during September. Living in one of the world’s most vulnerable regions to the impact of climate change and the challenges of aid effectiveness and adaptation funding, journalists are at a critical crossroads. This article examines environmental risk, media creativity and a contradiction between normative and traditional Western journalism values and the Pacific profession’s own challenges of ‘adaptation’ in telling the story of global warming with a deliberative perspective.
The case: Pacific Media Watch, founded in 1996, is an independent, non-profit network reporting on media developments in and around New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region. Despite its limited resources, it has added greater diversity and... more
The case: Pacific Media Watch, founded in 1996, is an independent, non-profit network reporting on media developments in and around New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region. Despite its limited resources, it has added greater diversity and more analysis of the region’s media. Its value: As faith in commercial markets wears thin, universities and other non-profits are being seen as alternative backers for serious journalism. Pacific Media Watch is an early example of such a venture.
Research Interests:
Media freedom as an issue in the Pacific has been defined in far too narrow terms, as if Big Brother governments and politicians ignorant about the role of media are the only problem. Of course, they’re not. There are many other issues... more
Media freedom as an issue in the Pacific has been defined in far too narrow terms, as if Big Brother governments and politicians ignorant about the role of media are the only problem. Of course, they’re not. There are many other issues that are vitally important in the region that impinge on media freedom yet are rarely mentioned – such as self-censorship, media ownership and convergence, poor qualifications and salaries for many journalists (which make them potentially
open to undue influence and bribery) and lack of education.
open to undue influence and bribery) and lack of education.
Research Interests:
Overview of the 2013 Constitution and press freedom situation: Ranked 107th out of 179 countries in the 2014 World Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders, Fiji has improved its ranking in the past year. It rose 10 places from... more
Overview of the 2013 Constitution and press freedom situation:
Ranked 107th out of 179 countries in the 2014 World Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders, Fiji has improved its ranking in the past year. It rose 10 places from the previous ranking in 2013. The major reason for this improvement was the adoption of a new Constitution on 6 September 2013, criticized as it was in many quarters during 2013, and promised “free and fair” elections by 30 September 2014.
Ranked 107th out of 179 countries in the 2014 World Press Freedom Index of Reporters Without Borders, Fiji has improved its ranking in the past year. It rose 10 places from the previous ranking in 2013. The major reason for this improvement was the adoption of a new Constitution on 6 September 2013, criticized as it was in many quarters during 2013, and promised “free and fair” elections by 30 September 2014.
Research Interests:
Pacific Journalism Review (PJR) began life three decades ago in Papua New Guinea and recently celebrated a remarkable milestone in Fiji with its 30th anniversary edition and its 47th issue. Remarkable because it is the longest surviving... more
Pacific Journalism Review (PJR) began life three decades ago in Papua New Guinea and recently celebrated a remarkable milestone in Fiji with its 30th anniversary edition and its 47th issue. Remarkable because it is the longest surviving media, journalism and development journal published in the Global South. It is also remarkable because at its birthday event held in early July at the Pacific International Media Conference, no fewer than two cabinet ministers were present — from Fiji and Papua New Guinea — in spite of the journal’s long track record of truth-to-power criticism. Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister Biman Prasad, a former economics professor at The University of the South Pacific (USP) and a champion of free media, singled out the journal for praise at the event, which was also the occasion of the launch of a landmark new book.
https://devpolicy.org/pacific-journalism-review-at-30-a-strong-media-legacy-20240802/
https://devpolicy.org/pacific-journalism-review-at-30-a-strong-media-legacy-20240802/
Research Interests: Journalism, Southeast Asian Studies, Research Methodology, Pacific Island Studies, Educational Research, and 8 moreMass Communication, Asia Pacific Region, Academic Publishing, Journals, Academic Journals, Journalism And Mass communication, Mass Communication and Journalism, and Asia Pacific Studies
Former New Zealand attorney-general David Parker spoke on day 295 of Israel' genocidal war on Gaza in Auckland today, condemning the National-led government's inaction over the ongoing crisis. Responding to the recent International Court... more
Former New Zealand attorney-general David Parker spoke on day 295 of Israel' genocidal war on Gaza in Auckland today, condemning the National-led government's inaction over the ongoing crisis. Responding to the recent International Court of Justice's landmark advisory ruling that Israel's occupation of Gaza, West Bank and East Jerusalem-Occupied Palestine-was illegal and must end as soon as possible, Parker said he was disappointed in New Zealand's "equivocal" response. He also called on the government to recognise the state of Palestine, along with some 145 countries around the world that have already done so.
https://davidrobie.nz/2024/07/labours-parker-critical-of-weak-nz-response-to-icj-ruling-against-israel-over-gaza/
https://davidrobie.nz/2024/07/labours-parker-critical-of-weak-nz-response-to-icj-ruling-against-israel-over-gaza/
Research Interests:
Many platitudes about media freedom and democracy laced last week’s Pacific International Media Conference in the Fijian capital of Suva. There was a mood of euphoria at the impressive event, especially from politicians who talked about... more
Many platitudes about media freedom and democracy laced last week’s Pacific International Media Conference in the Fijian capital of Suva. There was a mood of euphoria at the impressive event, especially from politicians who talked about journalism being the “oxygen of democracy”. Last year’s dumping of the draconian and widely hated Fiji Media Industry Development Act that had started life as a military decree in 2010, four years after former military commander Voreqe Bainimarama seized power, and was then enacted in the first post-coup elections in 2014, was seen as having restored media freedom for the first time in almost two decades. As a result, Fiji had bounced back 45 places to 44th on this year’s Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index – by far the biggest climb of any nation in Oceania, where most countries, including Australia and New Zealand, have been sliding downhill.
https://davidrobie.nz/2024/07/when-media-freedom-as-the-oxygen-of-democracy-and-political-hypocrisy-share-the-same-pacific-arena/
https://davidrobie.nz/2024/07/when-media-freedom-as-the-oxygen-of-democracy-and-political-hypocrisy-share-the-same-pacific-arena/
Research Interests:
For more than 76 years, Palestinians have resisted occupation, dispossession and ethnic cleansing, culminating in Israel's genocidal war on Gaza. Yet in the midst of this catastrophic seven months of "hell on earth", it is a paradox that... more
For more than 76 years, Palestinians have resisted occupation, dispossession and ethnic cleansing, culminating in Israel's genocidal war on Gaza. Yet in the midst of this catastrophic seven months of "hell on earth", it is a paradox that there exists an extraordinary oasis of peace and nature. Nestling in an Al-Karkarfa hillside at the University of Bethlehem is the Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability (PIBS), a remarkable botanical garden and animal rehabilitation unit that is an antidote for conflict and destruction.
https://davidrobie.nz/2024/05/palestinian-visionary-who-fights-israels-ecocide-with-biodiversity-and-sustainability-resistance/
https://davidrobie.nz/2024/05/palestinian-visionary-who-fights-israels-ecocide-with-biodiversity-and-sustainability-resistance/
Research Interests:
Jean-Marie Tjibaou, a revered Kanak visionary, was inspirational to indigenous Pacific political activists across Oceania, just like Tongan anthropologist and writer Epeli Hau'ofa was to cultural advocates. Tragically, he was assassinated... more
Jean-Marie Tjibaou, a revered Kanak visionary, was inspirational to indigenous Pacific political activists across Oceania, just like Tongan anthropologist and writer Epeli Hau'ofa was to cultural advocates. Tragically, he was assassinated in 1989 by an opponent within the independence movement during the so-called "les événements" in New Caledonia, the last time the "French" Pacific territory was engulfed in a political upheaval such as experienced this week.
https://davidrobie.nz/2024/05/kanaky-in-flames-five-takeaways-from-the-new-caledonia-independence-riots/
https://davidrobie.nz/2024/05/kanaky-in-flames-five-takeaways-from-the-new-caledonia-independence-riots/
Research Interests:
ANALYSIS: By David Robie On my office wall hangs a framed portrait of Shireen Abu Akleh, the inspiring and celebrated American-Palestinian journalist known across the Middle East to watchers of Al Jazeera Arabic, who was assassinated by... more
ANALYSIS: By David Robie On my office wall hangs a framed portrait of Shireen Abu Akleh, the inspiring and celebrated American-Palestinian journalist known across the Middle East to watchers of Al Jazeera Arabic, who was assassinated by an Israeli military sniper with impunity. State murder. She was gunned down in full blue "press" kit almost two years ago while reporting on a raid in the occupied West Bank's Jenin refugee camp, clearly targeted for her influence as a media witness to Israeli atrocities.
https://davidrobie.nz/2024/04/from-gaza-to-west-papua-the-long-struggle-for-justice-and-freedom/
https://davidrobie.nz/2024/04/from-gaza-to-west-papua-the-long-struggle-for-justice-and-freedom/
Research Interests: Journalism, Southeast Asian Studies, Middle East Studies, Pacific Island Studies, Israel/Palestine, and 10 morePalestine, Indonesia, Asia Pacific Region, Political Journalism, Political Economy Of Journalism, South Pacific Politics, West Papua, Journalism And Mass communication, Gaza Strip, and Asia Pacific Studies
A leader of one of New Zealand’s main Palestine solidarity groups today called on the government to expel the Israeli ambassador and call for an immediate ceasefire in the genocidal war on Gaza. “We know what the crimes are — occupation.... more
A leader of one of New Zealand’s main Palestine solidarity groups today called on the government to expel the Israeli ambassador and call for an immediate ceasefire in the genocidal war on Gaza. “We know what the crimes are — occupation. Land theft. Ethnic cleansing. Apartheid. Genocide. All crimes against humanity,” Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) secretary Neil Scott told a cheering protest rally in Auckland’s Te Komititanga (Britomart) Square. “My challenge to the politicians of Aotearoa is stand up for international law. Oppose Israeli crimes against humanity. Speak up.”
https://davidrobie.nz/2024/03/nz-protesters-call-for-expulsion-of-israeli-ambassador-over-gaza-atrocities/
https://davidrobie.nz/2024/03/nz-protesters-call-for-expulsion-of-israeli-ambassador-over-gaza-atrocities/
Research Interests:
Western journalists taking a stand against their media outlets’ biased coverage of the Israeli war on Gaza are being targeted with career threats and even dismissal. But their colleagues in Palestine are suffering a worse fate. Israeli... more
Western journalists taking a stand against their media outlets’ biased coverage of the Israeli war on Gaza are being targeted with career threats and even dismissal. But their colleagues in Palestine are suffering a worse fate. Israeli forces explicitly warned newsrooms in Gaza they “cannot guarantee” the safety of their employees from airstrikes. Taken with a decades-long pattern of lethally targeting journalists, Israel’s actions show wide scale lethal suppression of speech. Israel has blocked foreign press entry, heavily restricted telecommunications and bombed press offices. Some 50 media headquarters in Gaza have been hit in the past month. Reporting Israel’s war on Gaza has become the greatest credibility challenge for journalists and media of our times. The latest assassination of an Al Jazeera photojournalist while documenting atrocities has prompted an appeal to global journalists to “take a stand” to protect the profession.
Research Interests:
A Palestinian advocate has appealed to the New Zealand government to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and to back the South African genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). “A sovereign state like... more
A Palestinian advocate has appealed to the New Zealand government to call for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza and to back the South African genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ). “A sovereign state like New Zealand that has historically stood for what is morally correct must not bend to foreign pressure, and must reject policies aligned with the United Kingdom of Israel and the United States of Israel which blindly endorse and support the apartheid regime,” said Billy Hania of the Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA). He was speaking at the pro-Palestinian rally and march in Auckland Tāmaki Makaurau yesterday as the Gaza death toll rose above 25,000 dead, mostly women and children. Belgium is among the latest of 61 countries — and the first European nation — to support the genocide case and a growing number of other lawsuits are also being brought against Israel.
Research Interests:
Fiji human rights activists have paid tribute in a Suva vigil to the more than 100 journalists — most of them Palestinian — killed in Israel’s War on Gaza. The NGO Coalition on Human Rights (NGOCHR) staged a #ThursdaysInBlack vigil last... more
Fiji human rights activists have paid tribute in a Suva vigil to the more than 100 journalists — most of them Palestinian — killed in Israel’s War on Gaza. The NGO Coalition on Human Rights (NGOCHR) staged a #ThursdaysInBlack vigil last week to remember the dead journalists, but only one local Fiji reporter turned up (from The Fiji Times). The coalition had invited local journalists to attend and share their views. However, according to coalition chair Shamima Ali (of the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre), Fiji media is reluctant to engage with the global crisis over the war.
Research Interests:
Reporting Israel’s war on Gaza has become the greatest credibility challenge for journalists and media of our times. The latest assassination of an Al Jazeera photojournalist while documenting atrocities has prompted a leading analyst to... more
Reporting Israel’s war on Gaza has become the greatest credibility challenge for journalists and media of our times. The latest assassination of an Al Jazeera photojournalist while documenting atrocities has prompted a leading analyst to appeal to global journalists to “take a stand” to protect the profession. The killing of Hamza Dahdoud, the 27-year-old eldest son of Al Jazeera Gaza bureau chief Wael Dahdouh, along with freelancer Mustafa Thuraya, has taken the death toll of Palestinian journalists to 109 (according to Al Jazeera sources while global media freedom watchdogs report slightly lower figures). Emotional responses and a wave of condemnation has thrown the spotlight on the toll faced by reporters and their families.
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2024/01/08/journalists-need-to-take-a-stand-over-the-gaza-carnage-after-latest-killing/
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2024/01/08/journalists-need-to-take-a-stand-over-the-gaza-carnage-after-latest-killing/
Research Interests:
Just months before the outbreak of the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza after the deadly assault on southern Israel by Hamas resistance fighters, Australian investigative journalist and researcher Antony Loewenstein published an... more
Just months before the outbreak of the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza after the deadly assault on southern Israel by Hamas resistance fighters, Australian investigative journalist and researcher Antony Loewenstein published an extraordinarily timely book, The Palestine Laboratory. In it he warned that a worst-case scenario — “long feared but never realised, is ethnic cleansing against occupied Palestinians or population transfer, forcible expulsion under the guise of national security”. Or the claimed fig leaf of “self defence”, the obscene justification offered by beleaguered Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for his two-month war of vengeance, death and destruction unleashed upon the people of Palestine, both in the Gaza Strip and the Occupied West Bank that has killed at least 14,850 Gazans — the majority of them women and children — and more than 218 West Bank Palestinians.
Research Interests:
Prime Minister James Marape has made two foreign policy gaffes in the space of a week that may come back to bite him as Papua New Guinea prepares for its 48th anniversary of independence on 16 September 2023. Critics have been stunned by... more
Prime Minister James Marape has made two foreign policy gaffes in the space of a week that may come back to bite him as Papua New Guinea prepares for its 48th anniversary of independence on 16 September 2023. Critics have been stunned by the opening of a PNG embassy in Jerusalem in defiance of international law-when only three countries have done this other than the United States amid strong Palestinian condemnation-and days later a communique from his office appeared to have indicated he had turned his back on West Papuan self-determination aspirations. Marape was reported to have told President Joko Widodo that PNG had no right to criticise.
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/09/14/pngs-marape-makes-foreign-policy-gaffes-over-israel-west-papua/
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/09/14/pngs-marape-makes-foreign-policy-gaffes-over-israel-west-papua/
Research Interests:
The Melanesian Spearhead Group has thrown away a golden chance for achieving a historical step towards justice and peace in West Papua by lacking the courage to accept the main Papuan self-determination advocacy movement as full members.... more
The Melanesian Spearhead Group has thrown away a golden chance for achieving a historical step towards justice and peace in West Papua by lacking the courage to accept the main Papuan self-determination advocacy movement as full members. Membership had been widely expected across the Pacific region and the MSG's silence and failure to explain West Papua's fate at the end of the two-day leaders' summit this week was a tragic anticlimax. Many see this as a terrible betrayal of West Papuan aspirations and an undermining of Melanesian credibility and solidarity as well as an ongoing threat to the region's security and human rights.
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/08/26/msg-throws-away-golden-chance-to-reset-peace-and-justice-for-west-papua/
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/08/26/msg-throws-away-golden-chance-to-reset-peace-and-justice-for-west-papua/
Research Interests: Political Economy, Journalism, Southeast Asian Studies, Pacific Island Studies, Indonesian Studies, and 9 morePolitical communication, Asia Pacific Region, Pacific Islands Forum, Southeast Asian Politics, Melanesian Spearhead Group, Vanuatu, West Papua, Journalism And Mass communication, and Asia Pacific Studies
New Zealand-adopted Fiji journalist, sports writer, national news agency reporter, anti-coup activist, media freedom advocate, storyteller and mentor Sri Krishnamurthi has died. He was just two weeks shy of his 60th birthday. Born on 15... more
New Zealand-adopted Fiji journalist, sports writer, national news agency reporter, anti-coup activist, media freedom advocate, storyteller and mentor Sri Krishnamurthi has died. He was just two weeks shy of his 60th birthday. Born on 15 August 1963, just after his twin brother Murali, Sri grew up in the port city of Lautoka, Fiji’s second largest in the west of Viti Levu island. His family were originally Girmitya, indentured Indian plantation workers shipped out to Fiji under under harsh conditions by the British colonial rulers. “My grandmother, Bonamma, came from India with my grandfather and came to work in the sugar cane fields under the indentured system,” Sri recalled in a recent RNZ interview with Blessen Tom.
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/08/07/moce-sri-krishnamurthi-sports-journalist-democracy-activist-storyteller-and-advocate/
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/08/07/moce-sri-krishnamurthi-sports-journalist-democracy-activist-storyteller-and-advocate/
Research Interests:
Two researchers examining responses to conspiratorial pandemic narratives have warned Aotearoa New Zealand not to be complacent over the risk of fringe views over climate crisis becoming populist. Byron C. Clark, a video essayist and... more
Two researchers examining responses to conspiratorial pandemic narratives have warned Aotearoa New Zealand not to be complacent over the risk of fringe views over climate crisis becoming populist. Byron C. Clark, a video essayist and author of the recent book Fear: New Zealand’s Hostile Underworld of Extremists, and Emmanuel Stokes, a postgraduate student at the University of Canterbury, argue in a paper in the latest Pacific Journalism Review that policymakers and community stakeholders need to be ready to counter politicised disinformation with a general election looming. They say that in their case study, Intersections of media influence: Radical conspiracist ‘alt-media’ narratives and the climate crisis in Aotearoa, has demonstrated that “explicit references to US narratives about stolen elections, communist plots and existential dangers to society – many of which bear the hallmarks of American far-right narratives, such as those of the John Birch Society” – are part of the NZ climate discourse.
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/08/06/researchers-warn-over-climate-crisis-fringe-views-danger-as-nz-election-nears/
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/08/06/researchers-warn-over-climate-crisis-fringe-views-danger-as-nz-election-nears/
Research Interests:
A new documentary and human rights report have documented savage attacks in 2021 by Indonesian security forces on a remote West Papuan village close to the Papua New Guinea border as part of an ongoing crackdown against growing calls for... more
A new documentary and human rights report have documented savage attacks in 2021 by Indonesian security forces on a remote West Papuan village close to the Papua New Guinea border as part of an ongoing crackdown against growing calls for independence. The documentary, Paradise Bombed, and the research report made public yesterday [4 August 2023] allege that six Papuan villagers were killed in the initial attacks, a further seven were killed later when fleeing to safety, and 284 people were recorded by witnesses to have died from starvation in the months since then. The researchers also allege that the security forces used bombs and rockets fired by helicopters and drones in the Indonesian attacks.
https://davidrobie.nz/2023/08/new-documentary-human-rights-report-allege-indonesian-atrocities-in-west-papua/
https://davidrobie.nz/2023/08/new-documentary-human-rights-report-allege-indonesian-atrocities-in-west-papua/
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By David Robie Free Papua Organisation (OPM) leader Jeffrey Bomanak has appealed to US President Joe Biden for a “proactive role” in ending Indonesia’s “unlawful military occupation and annexation” of West Papua. He claims this illegal... more
By David Robie Free Papua Organisation (OPM) leader Jeffrey Bomanak has appealed to US President Joe Biden for a “proactive role” in ending Indonesia’s “unlawful military occupation and annexation” of West Papua. He claims this illegal occupation led to the subsequent US “foreign policy failure” in protecting six decades of crimes against humanity. Bomanak made this appeal in an open letter to the President — a harrowing 22-page document citing a litany of alleged human rights violations against Papuan men, women and children by Indonesian security forces — days before Biden’s arrival in the Papua New Guinea capital Port Moresby next week for a vital summit with Pacific leaders.
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By David Robie Timor-Leste has topped a stunning rise among Asia-Pacific countries to make it to into the “top ten” countries in this year’s World Press Freedom Index that saw island nations improve their rankings. The youngest nation in... more
By David Robie Timor-Leste has topped a stunning rise among Asia-Pacific countries to make it to into the “top ten” countries in this year’s World Press Freedom Index that saw island nations improve their rankings. The youngest nation in Southeast Asia — which gained independence from Indonesia in 2002 — jumped from 17th last year to 10th as the Paris-based global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warned that this year’s survey demonstrated “enormous volatility” because of “growing animosity” towards journalists on social media and in the real world. The 2023 RSF Index was launched today as Pacific nations marked the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day with editorials, celebrations, seminars and rallies.
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/05/03/timor-leste-makes-top-ten-in-2023-world-press-freedom-index/
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/05/03/timor-leste-makes-top-ten-in-2023-world-press-freedom-index/
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By David Robie As part of an Indonesian-backed disinformation and troll campaign against West Papuan pro-independence advocates, a Facebook page has emerged making bitter and slanderous attacks on campaigners, Papuan exiles and media... more
By David Robie As part of an Indonesian-backed disinformation and troll campaign against West Papuan pro-independence advocates, a Facebook page has emerged making bitter and slanderous attacks on campaigners, Papuan exiles and media people in the Pacific region. Among the targets for this page-dubbed "View Information", purportedly based in the Vanuatu capital of Port Vila-are Pacific Council of Churches general secretary Reverend James Bhagwan over a "false campaign" on Papua, and Australian-based Indonesian human rights lawyer Veronica Koman who is accused of being "an imposter". Other targets include London-based United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) president Benny Wenda for allegedly "masterminding the Wamena riots" in 2019, Canberra-based youth advocate and activist Ronny Kareni for "cultural mockery" and New Zealand academic and journalist David Robie.
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/04/29/vila-based-indonesian-troll-page-targets-papuan-advocates/
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/04/29/vila-based-indonesian-troll-page-targets-papuan-advocates/
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Two countries. A common border. Two hostage crises. But the responses of both Asia-Pacific nations have been like chalk and cheese. On February 7, a militant cell of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), the armed wing of the... more
Two countries. A common border. Two hostage crises. But the responses of both Asia-Pacific nations have been like chalk and cheese. On February 7, a militant cell of the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB), the armed wing of the Free Papua Organisation (OPM) — a fragmented organisation that been fighting for freedom for their Melanesian homeland from Indonesian rule for more than half a century — seized a Susi Air plane at the remote highlands airstrip of Paro, torched it and kidnapped the New Zealand pilot. It was a desperate ploy by the rebels to attract attention to their struggle, ignored by the world, especially by their South Pacific near neighbours Australia and New Zealand . . .
Twelve days later, a group of armed men in the neighbouring country of Papua New Guinea seized a research party of four led by an Australian-based New Zealand archaeology professor Bryce Barker of the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) — along with three Papua New Guinean women, programme coordinator Cathy Alex, Jemina Haro and PhD student Teppsy Beni — as hostages in the Mount Bosavi mountains on the Southern Highlands-Hela provincial border.
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/02/27/two-countries-two-kidnappings-but-jakarta-and-port-moresby-responses-different-with-3-hostages-freed/
Twelve days later, a group of armed men in the neighbouring country of Papua New Guinea seized a research party of four led by an Australian-based New Zealand archaeology professor Bryce Barker of the University of Southern Queensland (USQ) — along with three Papua New Guinean women, programme coordinator Cathy Alex, Jemina Haro and PhD student Teppsy Beni — as hostages in the Mount Bosavi mountains on the Southern Highlands-Hela provincial border.
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/02/27/two-countries-two-kidnappings-but-jakarta-and-port-moresby-responses-different-with-3-hostages-freed/
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Papuan independence rebels are playing a desperate game of cat and mouse with Indonesian authorities over their hostage taking last week with a New Zealand pilot caught in the middle. Christchurch-raised Philip Mehrtens, 37, a pilot for... more
Papuan independence rebels are playing a desperate game of cat and mouse with Indonesian authorities over their hostage taking last week with a New Zealand pilot caught in the middle. Christchurch-raised Philip Mehrtens, 37, a pilot for the national feeder airline Susi Air owned by a former cabinet minister and with Jakarta government supply contracts, was seized by rebels last Tuesday, February 7, shortly after he had touched down at the remote Paro airstrip near Nduga in the Papuan highlands. Five Indigenous Papuans on board the aircraft were set free and the plane was set on fire.
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/02/16/papuan-cat-and-mouse-over-nz-pilot-taken-captive-by-freedom-rebels/
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/02/16/papuan-cat-and-mouse-over-nz-pilot-taken-captive-by-freedom-rebels/
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As the founder of the Jubi news media group, he remained defiant that he would tell the truth no matter what the risk while facing an oppressive and vindictive regime. "Journalists need to break down the wall and learn freely about our... more
As the founder of the Jubi news media group, he remained defiant that he would tell the truth no matter what the risk while facing an oppressive and vindictive regime. "Journalists need to break down the wall and learn freely about our struggle," he said in a message to New Zealand media via an interview with Pacific Media Watch. Now the 49-year-old journalist and editor finds that the risks are growing exponentially as his media network has expanded — with an English language website and Jubi TV becoming add-ons — and the exposure of his networks have also widened. He writes for the Jakarta Post, Benar News and contributes to international news services. Two years ago he was also co-producer of an award-winning Al Jazeera 101 East documentary about the plunder of West Papuan forests for oil palm plantations.
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/02/05/papuan-journalist-award-winner-victor-mambor-targeted-for-his-reports/
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/02/05/papuan-journalist-award-winner-victor-mambor-targeted-for-his-reports/
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New Zealand is still coming to grips with the exit of an inspirational leader: Aotearoa New Zealand has been shaken to the core by the sudden resignation of one of its most iconic and revered prime ministers amid a fierce controversy over... more
New Zealand is still coming to grips with the exit of an inspirational leader: Aotearoa New Zealand has been shaken to the core by the sudden resignation of one of its most iconic and revered prime ministers amid a fierce controversy over misogyny and death threats stirred by the global coronavirus pandemic. Jacinda Ardern, the world’s youngest female prime minister at 37 when she was elected in 2017 on a stardust wave of “Jacinda mania”, stepped aside on January 19 after emotional scenes at her last official function wrapped in a traditional Māori feathered cloak at the historic Ratana church. It is now barely a week after her resignation caught the nation by surprise and has thrown this year’s general election due on October 14 wide open. https://www.truthdig.com/articles/what-jacinda-arederns-resignation-means/
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2022 PACIFIC REVIEW: By David Robie: The Pacific year started with a ferocious eruption and global tsunami in Tonga, but by the year’s end several political upheavals had also shaken the region with a vengeance. A razor’s edge election in... more
2022 PACIFIC REVIEW: By David Robie: The Pacific year started with a ferocious eruption and global tsunami in Tonga, but by the year’s end several political upheavals had also shaken the region with a vengeance. A razor’s edge election in Fiji blew away a long entrenched authoritarian regime with a breath of fresh air for the Pacific, two bitterly fought polls in Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu left their mark, and growing geopolitical rivalry with the US and Australia contesting China’s security encroachment in the Solomon Islands continues to spark convulsions for years to come. It was ironical that the two major political players in Fiji were both former coup leaders and ex-military chiefs — the 1987 double culprit Sitiveni Rabuka, a retired major-general who is credited with introducing the “coup culture” to Fiji, and Voreqe Bainimarama, a former rear admiral who staged the “coup to end all coups” in 2006. Link: https://asiapacificreport.nz/2022/12/31/david-robie-2022-pacific-political-upheavals-eclipse-tongan-volcano/
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A tragic day of mourning. Thousands thronged the West Papuan funeral cortège today and tonight as the banned Morning Star led the way in defiance of the Indonesian military. There haven’t been so many Papuan flags flying under the noses... more
A tragic day of mourning. Thousands thronged the West Papuan funeral cortège today and tonight as the banned Morning Star led the way in defiance of the Indonesian military. There haven’t been so many Papuan flags flying under the noses of the security forces since the 2019 Papuan Uprising. Filep Jacob Semuel Karma, 63, the “father” of the Papuan nation, was believed to be the one leader who could pull together the splintered factions seeking self-determination and independence. It is still shocking a day after his lifeless body in a wetsuit was found on Jayapura’s Base-G beach. Police and Filep Karma’s family say they had no reason to believe that his death resulted from foul play, report Jubi editor Victor Mambor in Jayapura and Nazarudin Latif from Jakarta for Benar News.
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A Fiji-based academic challenged the Pacific region’s media and policymakers today over climate crisis coverage, asking whether the discriminatory style of reporting was a case of climate injustice. Associate Professor Shailendra Singh,... more
A Fiji-based academic challenged the Pacific region’s media and policymakers today over climate crisis coverage, asking whether the discriminatory style of reporting was a case of climate injustice. Associate Professor Shailendra Singh, head of the journalism programme at the University of the South Pacific, said climate press conferences and meetings were too focused on providing coverage of “privileged elite viewpoints”. “Elites have their say, but communities facing the brunt of climate change have their voices muted,” he told the Look at the Evidence: Climate Journalism and Open Science webinar panel exploring the role of journalism in raising climate awareness in the week-long Open Access Australasia virtual conference.
http://cafepacific.blogspot.com/2022/10/fiji-academic-warns-over-media-climate.html
http://cafepacific.blogspot.com/2022/10/fiji-academic-warns-over-media-climate.html
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By David Robie A human rights advocate appealed tonight for people in Aotearoa New Zealand to take personal responsibility in the fight against disinformation and to upskill their critical thinking skills. Anjum Rahman, project lead of... more
By David Robie A human rights advocate appealed tonight for people in Aotearoa New Zealand to take personal responsibility in the fight against disinformation and to upskill their critical thinking skills. Anjum Rahman, project lead of the Inclusive Aotearoa Collective Tāhono, said this meant taking responsibility for verifying the accuracy and source of information before passing it on and not fuelling hate and misunderstanding. "Our democracy is very fragile," she warned while delivering the annual David Wakim Memorial Lecture 2022 with the theme "Protecting Democracy in an Online World" at Parnell's Jubilee Hall. READ MORE: A lot has changed since March 15, 2019-but not enough She said communities were facing challenging and rapidly changing times with climate change, conflicts, inflation and the ongoing pandemic.
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Seven weeks ago the Philippines truth-telling martial law film Katips was basking in the limelight in the country's national FAMAS academy movie awards, winning best picture and a total of six other awards. Last week it began a four month... more
Seven weeks ago the Philippines truth-telling martial law film Katips was basking in the limelight in the country's national FAMAS academy movie awards, winning best picture and a total of six other awards. Last week it began a four month "world tour" of 10 countries starting in the Middle East followed by Aotearoa New Zealand today-hosted simultaneously at AUT South campus and in Wellington and Christchurch. The screening of Vincent Tañada's harrowing-especially the graphic torture scenes-yet also joyful and poignant musical drama touched a raw nerve among many in the audience who shared tears and their experiences of living in fear, or in hiding, during the hate-filled Marcos dictatorship.
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A lively 43sec video clip surfaced during last week’s Pacific Islands Forum in the Fiji capital of Suva — the first live leaders’ forum in three years since Tuvalu, due to the covid pandemic. Posted on Twitter by Guardian Australia’s... more
A lively 43sec video clip surfaced during last week’s Pacific Islands Forum in the Fiji capital of Suva — the first live leaders’ forum in three years since Tuvalu, due to the covid pandemic. Posted on Twitter by Guardian Australia’s Pacific Project editor Kate Lyons it showed the doorstopping of Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare by a melee of mainly Australian journalists. The aloof Sogavare was being tracked over questions about security and China’s possible military designs for the Melanesian nation.
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By David Robie Migrants and overseas Filipinos in Aotearoa New Zealand today called on the governments of both Australia and New Zealand to halt all military and security aid to the Philippines in protest over last month's "fraudulent"... more
By David Robie Migrants and overseas Filipinos in Aotearoa New Zealand today called on the governments of both Australia and New Zealand to halt all military and security aid to the Philippines in protest over last month's "fraudulent" general election. At simultaneous meetings in Auckland and Wellington, a new broad coalition of social justice and community campaigners endorsed a statement pledging: "Never forget, never again martial law!" "Bongbong" Marcos Jr, the son of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr, was elected President in a landslide ballot on May 9 and will take office at the end of this month.
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COMMENTARY: By David Robie Timor-Leste, the youngest independent nation and the most fledgling press in the Asia-Pacific, has finally shown how it's done-with a big lesson for Pacific island neighbours. Tackle the Chinese media... more
COMMENTARY: By David Robie Timor-Leste, the youngest independent nation and the most fledgling press in the Asia-Pacific, has finally shown how it's done-with a big lesson for Pacific island neighbours. Tackle the Chinese media gatekeepers and creeping authoritarianism threatening journalism in the region at the top. In Dili on the final day of Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi’s grand Pacific tour to score more than 50 agreements and deals — although falling short of winning its Pacific region-wide security pact for the moment — newly elected (for the second time) President José Ramos-Horta won a major concession.
Research Interests: Political Economy, Journalism, Asia Pacific Region, Political Journalism, Timor-Leste Studies, and 7 moreTimor-Leste, Media Freedom, South East Asian Studies, Journalism And Mass communication, Mass Communication and Journalism, Asia Pacific Studies, and Social Media and Freedom of Speech and Expression
Photographs by David Robie: Today is Nakba Day — “the great catastrophe”. This is the day marking the ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and forced off their land by Israeli militias in 1948. For 74 years... more
Photographs by David Robie: Today is Nakba Day — “the great catastrophe”. This is the day marking the ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Palestinians from their homes and forced off their land by Israeli militias in 1948. For 74 years Israel has refused to allow them to return to their homes and land in Palestine despite dozens of United Nations resolutions requiring them to do so. The Nakba has continued every day since 1948 as Israel seizes more Palestinian land and creates more Palestinian refugees every day. A random selection of photographs from today’s action in Auckland’s Aotea Square that also mourned the assassination of Palestinian journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli troops last Wednesday. Other reports on the assassination of Shireen Abu Akleh. [Multiple images]
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Sadly, the Philippines has sold its soul. Thirty six years ago a People Power revolution ousted the dictator Ferdinand Marcos after two decades of harsh authoritarian rule. Yesterday, in spite of a rousing and inspiring Pink Power... more
Sadly, the Philippines has sold its soul. Thirty six years ago a People Power revolution ousted the dictator Ferdinand Marcos after two decades of harsh authoritarian rule. Yesterday, in spite of a rousing and inspiring Pink Power would-be revolution, the dictator’s only son and namesake “Bongbong” Marcos Jr seems headed to be elected 17th president of the Philippines. And protests have broken out after the provisional tallies that give Marcos a “lead of millions” with more than 97 percent of the vote counted. Official results could still take some days. Along with Bongbong, his running mate Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, daughter of strongman Rodrigo Duterte, president for the past six years and who has been accused of human rights violations over the killings of thousands of alleged suspects in a so-called “war on drugs”, is decisively in the lead as vice-president.
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Opposition National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad is confident there will be a change of government in Fiji this year and his party will be part of the new lineup giving the people a genuine choice for an optimistic... more
Opposition National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad is confident there will be a change of government in Fiji this year and his party will be part of the new lineup giving the people a genuine choice for an optimistic future. "The people of Fiji are fed up with the lies and propaganda that they have seen with this government," he told listeners today on Pacific Media Network's Radio 531pi. "Why we are very optimistic is that we feel that the people are going to make a definite choice [in the general election] to reject this government that has been in power for the past 15 years."
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OPEN LETTER: By David Robie Kia ora Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi It is unconscionable. A bewildering and grossly unfair crisis for 34 young Papuan students – 25 male and 9 female – the hope for the future of the West Papua region, the... more
OPEN LETTER: By David Robie
Kia ora Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi
It is unconscionable. A bewildering and grossly unfair crisis for 34 young Papuan students – 25 male and 9 female – the hope for the future of the West Papua region, the Melanesian half of Papua New Guinea island ruled by Indonesia. They were part of a cohort of 93 Papuan students studying in Aotearoa New Zealand on local provincial autonomy government scholarships, preparing for their careers, and learning or improving their English along the way. They were also making Pacific friendships and contacts. They were fast becoming a “bridge” to New Zealand. Ambassadors for their people.
Kia ora Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi
It is unconscionable. A bewildering and grossly unfair crisis for 34 young Papuan students – 25 male and 9 female – the hope for the future of the West Papua region, the Melanesian half of Papua New Guinea island ruled by Indonesia. They were part of a cohort of 93 Papuan students studying in Aotearoa New Zealand on local provincial autonomy government scholarships, preparing for their careers, and learning or improving their English along the way. They were also making Pacific friendships and contacts. They were fast becoming a “bridge” to New Zealand. Ambassadors for their people.
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Archive: French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac has broken fresh ground by appointing Tahitian leader Gaston Flosse to the newly-created post of State Secretary for Pacific Affairs. It is the first time that a Pacific Islander has been... more
Archive: French Prime Minister Jacques Chirac has broken fresh ground by appointing Tahitian leader Gaston Flosse to the newly-created post of State Secretary for Pacific Affairs. It is the first time that a Pacific Islander has been given a job in the French cabinet. But faced with bitter attacks at home after an election victory, reports DAVID ROBIE in Pape'ete for Gemini News Service, it will be a difficult challenge for Flosse. [The Fiji Times, 24 April 1986, p. 7]:
ONE political cartoon depicted Tahitian President Gaston Flosse as a vampire. A note identified him as "Flossilus vampirus", noting that he easily mistook the party colour, orange, for gold. Another cartoon showed him as a giant coconut crab greedily grabbing state funds. Yet another portrayed the President as Bokaflossa I - after deposed Central African emperor-for-life Bokassa - with the party slogan "Always more for myself". The personal attacks on Flosse, a 54-year-old businessman, have been the most bitter in an election campaign in this sprawling South Pacific territory. Even after his election victory in March 1986 when he became the first Tahitian leader in 30 years to win an outright majority, the barbs continued.
ONE political cartoon depicted Tahitian President Gaston Flosse as a vampire. A note identified him as "Flossilus vampirus", noting that he easily mistook the party colour, orange, for gold. Another cartoon showed him as a giant coconut crab greedily grabbing state funds. Yet another portrayed the President as Bokaflossa I - after deposed Central African emperor-for-life Bokassa - with the party slogan "Always more for myself". The personal attacks on Flosse, a 54-year-old businessman, have been the most bitter in an election campaign in this sprawling South Pacific territory. Even after his election victory in March 1986 when he became the first Tahitian leader in 30 years to win an outright majority, the barbs continued.
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When David Robie set sail on the Rainbow Warrior for the Marshall Islands, he sensed a major story in the offing. The Warrior, flagship of the international Greenpeace environmental protest movement, was going to Rongelap to evacuate the... more
When David Robie set sail on the Rainbow Warrior for the Marshall Islands, he sensed a major story in the offing. The Warrior, flagship of the international Greenpeace environmental protest movement, was going to Rongelap to evacuate the inhabitants from their homeland. American nuclear testing in the Central Pacific in the 1950s had snowed radioactive fallout on the islanders. A legacy of radiation-related diseases had sprung up and, warned radiation experts, the worst was yet to come for the Rongelapese. Those diseases would peak around 40 years after the nuclear blast that brought the poison snowflakes. New Zealander Robie, 40, who has been covering the Pacific as a freelance reporter for the past eight years, had plans to write a book about the emotional forced migration of the Rongelapese to a safer island. [By John Richardson, Fiji Sunday Sun, 25 May 1986].
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A new catchcry has emerged in New Caledonia - "nomadisation". dating from French military strategies in Algeria and Indo-China during the indeoendence struggles, the tongue-twister applies to an apparent attempt to intimidate Kanak... more
A new catchcry has emerged in New Caledonia - "nomadisation". dating from French military strategies in Algeria and Indo-China during the indeoendence struggles, the tongue-twister applies to an apparent attempt to intimidate Kanak militants. Two French regiments of marines, the 8th and 21st, have been setting up small and medium-sized outposts in the brousse (bush) areas on the East Coast between Hienghene and Thio, regarded as the stronghold of pro-independence militants. [National Times on Sunday, Sydney, Australia, 17 August 1986]. See also: A visionary priest or the Pacific's Gaddafi, by David Robie [National Times on Sunday, 17 August 1986]
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The abduction and torture of a scientist by soldiers has exposed a sinister side to the current ruling regime in Fiji. DAVID ROBIE reports on the ordeal of Dr Anirudh Singh: Soft-spoken and unassuming, Dr Aniridh Singh plays down his role... more
The abduction and torture of a scientist by soldiers has exposed a sinister side to the current ruling regime in Fiji. DAVID ROBIE reports on the ordeal of Dr Anirudh Singh: Soft-spoken and unassuming, Dr Aniridh Singh plays down his role in Fiji as civil rights activist. Recalling the events of the past two months that led to his abduction and torture, the Indo-Fijian academic seems remarkably surprised at the international publicity he has unleashed. [The Dominion, 18 December 1990, p. 13].
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For the past three years [1987-1990], the Philippines has topped the world's list of killings of journalists. Last year [1990] seven died out of a total of 27 since the Aquino government came to power. Media commentators say the pressures... more
For the past three years [1987-1990], the Philippines has topped the world's list of killings of journalists. Last year [1990] seven died out of a total of 27 since the Aquino government came to power. Media commentators say the pressures on the press are worse than during the Marcos dictatorship. Journalists are frequently threatened by the military, powerful landowners and ambitious politicians because of stories they don't like. DAVID ROBIE backgrounds the pressures on Filipino journalists. [The Word (NZ Journalists Union), March 1991, pp. 4-5. Additional article by David Robie: Philippines tour opens doors, eyes - National Union of Journalists of the Philippines].
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The Greenpeace-funded trawler Rainbow Warrior will leave Hawai'i tomorrow [28 April 1985] on a mercy mission to evacuate about 200 "guinea pig" islanders from Rongelap atoll which was contaminated by nuclear tests three decades ago.... more
The Greenpeace-funded trawler Rainbow Warrior will leave Hawai'i tomorrow [28 April 1985] on a mercy mission to evacuate about 200 "guinea pig" islanders from Rongelap atoll which was contaminated by nuclear tests three decades ago. Auckland freelance journalist DAVID ROBIE, one of a handful of journalists on board, outlines the reasons for the ship's "Pacific voyage". ***
Like a lost tribe, the people of the Bikoni atoll in Micronesia have at last won their struggle to go back to their lonely homeland. They recently won a court agreement from the United States government to clean up the contamination from nuclear tests three decades ago and to help the islanders to return. About 1100 Bikinians - half of them living on tiny Kili in the southern Marshall Islands - have won more than NZ$50 million in cash payments and trust funds. They will also receive more than $140 million after the republic of the Marshall Islands becomes independent in free association with the US.
Like a lost tribe, the people of the Bikoni atoll in Micronesia have at last won their struggle to go back to their lonely homeland. They recently won a court agreement from the United States government to clean up the contamination from nuclear tests three decades ago and to help the islanders to return. About 1100 Bikinians - half of them living on tiny Kili in the southern Marshall Islands - have won more than NZ$50 million in cash payments and trust funds. They will also receive more than $140 million after the republic of the Marshall Islands becomes independent in free association with the US.
Research Interests: Journalism, Pacific Island Studies, Geopolitics, Environmental Studies, Political Science, and 12 moreNuclear Weapons, Environmental Politics, Environmental Sustainability, Environmental Law and Human Rights, Environmental Activism, Pacific Islands politics, Journalism And Mass communication, Greenpeace, Micronesia, Nuclear Testing in the Pacific 1946-, Asia/Pacific, and Nuclear Tests
After two false starts, Fiji's rival former prime ministers finally get together for vital talks over the country's future. DAVID ROBIE assesses their chances: After a few weeks of optimism over reports that Fiji's former prime ministers... more
After two false starts, Fiji's rival former prime ministers finally get together for vital talks over the country's future. DAVID ROBIE assesses their chances: After a few weeks of optimism over reports that Fiji's former prime ministers were burying their hatchets and agreeing to discuss a government of national unity to take over from the military-backed regime, the hopes have been dampened. Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, architect of Fijian independemnce and leader of the country for 17 years, and the man who ousted him in the April 1987 general election, Dr Timocy Bavadra, are still expected to have talks today.
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Harassment, intimidation and exile failed to silence two authors, a Fijian and a New Zealander, who claim to expose the 'truth' about Brigadier Sitiveni Rabuka's 1987 military putsch in Fiji. DAVID ROBIE reports.
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Is Sweden breaching its long tradition of neutrality and secretly cooperating with Nato countries? Yes, believes controversial New Zealand peace researcher Owen Wilkes. If true, disclosure that the Swedish military really is cooperating... more
Is Sweden breaching its long tradition of neutrality and secretly cooperating with Nato countries? Yes, believes controversial New Zealand peace researcher Owen Wilkes. If true, disclosure that the Swedish military really is cooperating with Western nations would be politically disastrous in Sweden. And Wilkes may have touched a panic button by his "snooping" on the Swedish defence communications system. "The reason why I got into trouble on this case is simply that Sweden doesn't want the public discussing the details of military policy the way it is happening in other countries, like Britain and West German," he says. [Owen Wilkes was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by researchers at the University of Canterbury].
Research Interests:
The Pacific year has closed with growing tensions over sovereignty and self-determination issues and growing stress over the ravages of covid-19 pandemic in a region that was largely virus-free in 2020. Just two days before the year 2021... more
The Pacific year has closed with growing tensions over sovereignty and self-determination issues and growing stress over the ravages of covid-19 pandemic in a region that was largely virus-free in 2020. Just two days before the year 2021 wrapped up, Bougainville President Ishmael Toroama took the extraordinary statement of denying any involvement by the people or government of the autonomous region of Papua New Guinea being involved in any "secret plot" to overthrow the Manasseh Sogavare government in Solomon Islands. Insisting that Bougainville is “neutral” in the conflict in neighbouring Solomon Islands where riots last month were fuelled by anti-Chinese hostilities, Toroama blamed one of PNG’s two daily newspapers for stirring the controversy.
Research Interests: Journalism, Southeast Asian Studies, Pacific Island Studies, Human Rights, Israel/Palestine, and 13 morePalestine, Asia Pacific Region, New Caledonia, Decolonisation, West Papua, Pacific Islands politics, Bougainville, Pacific Studies, Journalism And Mass communication, Development Journalism, Asia Pacific Studies, Asia/Pacific, and Human Rights Journalism
“Loyalist” New Caledonians handed France the decisive victory in the third and final referendum on independence it wanted in Sunday’s vote. But it was a hollow victory, with pro-independence Kanaks delivering Paris a massive rebuke for... more
“Loyalist” New Caledonians handed France the decisive victory in the third and final referendum on independence it wanted in Sunday’s vote. But it was a hollow victory, with pro-independence Kanaks delivering Paris a massive rebuke for its three-decade decolonisation strategy. The referendum is likely to be seen as a failure, a capture of the vote by settlers without the meaningful participation of the Indigenous Kanak people. Pacific nations are unlikely to accept this disenfranchising of Indigenous self-determination. In the final results on Sunday night, 96.49% said “non” to independence and just 3.51% “oui”. This was a dramatic reversal of the narrow defeats in the two previous plebiscites in 2018 and 2020.
Research Interests:
ANALYSIS: By David Robie After three decades of frustratingly slow progress but with a measure of quiet optimism over the decolonisation process unfolding under the Noumea Accord, Kanaky New Caledonia is again poised on the edge of a... more
ANALYSIS: By David Robie After three decades of frustratingly slow progress but with a measure of quiet optimism over the decolonisation process unfolding under the Noumea Accord, Kanaky New Caledonia is again poised on the edge of a precipice. Two out of three pledged referendums from 2018 produced higher than expected-and growing-votes for independence. But then the delta variant of the global covid-19 pandemic hit New Caledonia with a vengeance. Like much of the rest of the Pacific, New Caledonia with a population of 270,000 was largely spared during the first wave of covid infections. However, in September a delta outbreak infected 12,343 people with 280 deaths-almost 70 percent of them indigenous Kanaks.
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IN RESPONSE to the escalating COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in mid-February 2020 came a warning by the World Health Organisation (WHO) Secretary-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom, who declared that "we're not just fighting an epidemic; we're... more
IN RESPONSE to the escalating COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic in mid-February 2020 came a warning by the World Health Organisation (WHO) Secretary-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom, who declared that "we're not just fighting an epidemic; we're fighting an infodemic". He added that fake news "spreads faster and more easily than this virus". The following month, in March 2020, UN Secretary-General António Guterres identified the "new enemy" as a "growing surge of disinformation". However, the term "disinfodemic"-which I much prefer-was adopted by the authors of a policy brief for UNESCO to describe the "falsehoods fuelling the pandemic". This disinfodemic has been rapidly leading to upheavals in many countries-including in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand in the weeks with protests, civil disobedience and attacks on health officials, medical staff and frontline workers. Such assaults and violent confrontations have taken particular nasty turns in some of our neighbouring microstates of the South Pacific-notably Fiji and Papua New Guinea, the largest countries and biggest economies in the region. - This article is extracted from a keynote speech by Dr David Robie at the Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) conference in Auckland on 25-27 November 2021. The conference theme was Change, Adaptation and Culture: Media and Communication in Pandemic Times. Dr David Robie is editor of Asia Pacific Report and the retired founding director and professor of Pacific Journalism at Auckland University of Technology’s Pacific Media Centre.
Research Interests:
Pressure is mounting on Indonesia to back off its brutal and unsuccessful military strategy in trying to crush West Papuan resistance to its flawed rule in "the land of Papua". Critics have intensified their condemnation of the... more
Pressure is mounting on Indonesia to back off its brutal and unsuccessful military strategy in trying to crush West Papuan resistance to its flawed rule in "the land of Papua". Critics have intensified their condemnation of the intransigent "no negotiations" stance of authorities as West Papuans mark their national day today on 1 December 1961 when the banned Morning Star flag of independence was raised for the first time. The TNI (Indonesian military), the Polri (Indonesian police) and the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB) have been locked in a conflict since Jakarta ordered a crackdown in May following a declaration of resistance groups as "terrorists". Many groups have raised their criticism of Jakarta’s flawed handling of its two colonised Melanesian provinces, Papua and West Papua. Recent developments include:
Research Interests:
The shrinking mainstream media plurality in Aotearoa New Zealand provides a context for examining publication of campus-based media where student and faculty editorial staff have successfully established an independent Asia-Pacific... more
The shrinking mainstream media plurality in Aotearoa New Zealand provides a context for examining publication of campus-based media where student and faculty editorial staff have successfully established an independent Asia-Pacific digital and print press over the past two decades. New Zealand’s largest city Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) has the largest urban population of Pacific Islanders globally – more than 300,000 people in a total of 1.7 million (Pasifika New Zealand, n.d.), earning the moniker ‘Polynesian capital of the world’. The presenter has had a pioneering role with four university-based journalism publications in the Pacific region as key adviser/publisher in Papua New Guinea (Uni Tavur, 1993-1998); Fiji (Wansolwara, 1998-2002); and Aotearoa/New Zealand (Pacific Scoop, 2009-2015; Asia Pacific Report, 2016 onwards), and also with two journalism school-based publications in Australia (Reportage, 1996, and The Junction, 2018-2020) (Robie, 2018). In early 2021, he was a co-founder of the Asia Pacific Media Network | Te Koakoa Incorporated which has emerged as a collective umbrella for academics, student journalists and independent reporters and writers producing several innovative publications, including the research journal Pacific Journalism Review and a strengthened Asia Pacific Report, which draw on a cross-disciplinary range of media contributors and scholars in other professions. These contributors are mindful of the challenges of reportage about the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This section of the panel explores an independent journalism model drawing on professional outlets especially for Asia-Pacific students and how such an investigative and storytelling model as ‘Talanoa Journalism’ can be an effective bridge to alternative media careers and addressing ‘blind spots’ in legacy news media.
Reference:
Robie, D. (2018). Asia Pacific Report: A New Zealand Nonprofit Journalism Model for Campus-based Social Justice Media. Ikat: The Indonesian Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 2(1), 119-146. https://doi.org/10.22146/ikat.v2i1.37395
Reference:
Robie, D. (2018). Asia Pacific Report: A New Zealand Nonprofit Journalism Model for Campus-based Social Justice Media. Ikat: The Indonesian Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 2(1), 119-146. https://doi.org/10.22146/ikat.v2i1.37395
Research Interests:
FROM a journalist’s perspective, particular events or developments are sprung across us to create a “game changer”, a catalyst for ending an unjust status quo. For more than three decades Mā’ohi Nui suffered from this nuclear status quo –... more
FROM a journalist’s perspective, particular events or developments are sprung across us to create a “game changer”, a catalyst for ending an unjust status quo. For more than three decades Mā’ohi Nui suffered from this nuclear status quo – and then a further two decades since then. The 193 nuclear tests in the Pacific conducted by France in Polynesia between 1966 and 1996 were a crime against humanity. Of this, there is no doubt. Of course, proving it for international courts has been another matter. This is where a game changer comes in. And there have been many of these over the years – courageous Mā’ohi such as the beloved “metua” Pouvanaa a Oopa, who was exiled in the 1950s on trumped up charges (but later pardoned), and Francis Sanford, who was territorial president when I first began reporting from Aotearoa New Zealand on French nuclear testing and colonialism in the late 1970s.
Address at the Mai te Paura Ātōmī i te Tiāmara’a / From Bomb contamination to self determination, 17/18 July 2021
Address at the Mai te Paura Ātōmī i te Tiāmara’a / From Bomb contamination to self determination, 17/18 July 2021
Research Interests:
Parallel with the global spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic, a dangerous ‘disinfodemic’ has been infecting the flow of information worldwide. Communication and media outlets have faced a new challenge with not only being responsible... more
Parallel with the global spread of the novel coronavirus pandemic, a dangerous ‘disinfodemic’ has been infecting the flow of information worldwide. Communication and media outlets have faced a new challenge with not only being responsible for reportage and analysis of a fast-moving public health emergency – the biggest this century, but forced to sift through the mass circulation of falsehoods that have spread as rapidly as the virus. Concerned about the risks for both health and public responses to disinformation, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres identified the ‘new enemy’ as a ‘growing surge of disinformation’. The UN launched a COVID-19 Communications for Solidarity Initiative to rapidly inform people about facts and science and to ‘promote and inspire acts of humanity’ globally. Also alarmed by the growing disinformation trend, the World Health Organisation warned that the ‘same enemy’ also involved ‘an increase in stigma, hate speech and hate crimes’ over the pandemic. New Zealand is one of the few countries in the world whose strategy of covid elimination has been a sustained approach to ‘keep the virus out, find it and stamp it out’. Evoking a theme of ‘our team of five million’ and national kindness, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has led a remarkable campaign blending decisive action and transparency. Currently the country has only 22 deaths and 114 active cases, many contained in quarantine or managed isolation at the border. In this context, this paper examines a four-month ‘Coronavirus Plus’ initiative conducted by the Pacific Media Centre at one of the New Zealand’s universities in response to the pandemic, deploying the Asia Pacific Report website.
https://soss.ugm.ac.id/
The “Sociology of a pandemic” paper – video streaming on YouTube:
https://bit.ly/2FFWrxD
https://soss.ugm.ac.id/
The “Sociology of a pandemic” paper – video streaming on YouTube:
https://bit.ly/2FFWrxD
Research Interests:
Environmental damage, climate change and increasingly intense natural disasters are serious problems faced by humanity in this millennium. More ecological damage occurs due to expensive and destructive human activities. Illegal logging,... more
Environmental damage, climate change and increasingly intense natural disasters are serious problems faced by humanity in this millennium. More ecological damage occurs due to expensive and destructive human activities. Illegal logging, expansion of mining areas, pollution of water sources, overfishing, trade in protected wildlife continue to happen, and the scale is even greater. Meanwhile climate change is increasingly visible and impacting on communities in urban to rural areas. Coastal cities in the United States to coastal villages in the north of Java and the microstates of the South Pacific are facing the real impact of sea-level rise. Disasters that occur bring not only material losses but also socioeconomic consequences for those affected. The emergence of new ecological problems is being faced by humanity. The complexity of ecological problems is nonlinear, turbulent and dynamic. This is the theme of the panel (New) Ecological Problems: Defining the Relationship between Humans and the Environment. This presentation as part of the panel argues for countries to overhaul and "reset" their public health and economic systems to ones based on strengthening multilateral institutions and collaboration, and to abandon or seriously curtail neoliberalism models that have failed. They need to approach climate change strategies with as much urgency as for addressing the global COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The current crisis is a precursor to further crises unless the globe changes its ways to heal both people and the planet.
https://soss.ugm.ac.id/
Social Sciences Symposium, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 24-25 August 2020 The "Ecological problems" keynote Panel-video streaming on YouTube: https://bit.ly/32w5IB8
https://soss.ugm.ac.id/
Social Sciences Symposium, Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 24-25 August 2020 The "Ecological problems" keynote Panel-video streaming on YouTube: https://bit.ly/32w5IB8
Research Interests:
While preparing this pre-Melanesia Media Freedom Forum (MMFF) conference keynote, I have just returned to the Pacific from four weeks in Iran where media freedom is in dire straits. Iran has been described by the latest Reporters Without... more
While preparing this pre-Melanesia Media Freedom Forum (MMFF) conference keynote, I have just returned to the Pacific from four weeks in Iran where media freedom is in dire straits. Iran has been described by the latest Reporters Without Borders global index on press freedom as “one of world’s most repressive countries for journalists for the past 40 years”. State control of news and information is unrelenting and at least 860 journalists and citizen-reporters have been imprisoned or executed since the 1979 Islamic Revolution (RSF, 2019a). Media within the country lack the resources to report freely and independently with journalists subjected to intimidation, arbitrary arrest and unfair trials by revolutionary courts. Iran is ranked 170th among 180 countries, a drop of six places since last year. Just three months ago, RSF protested against the arrest of Farangis Mazloom, mother of the watchdog’s 2017 press freedom laureate Soheil Arabi (RSF. 2019b). In fact, Iran is currently the world’s worst jailer of women journalists – 10 currently are behind bars (RSF, 2019c). However, barely had I had been back in New Zealand for a few days than the major Australian newspapers were self-censoring their front pages, redacting complete sections stamped with red “secret – not for release” logos. In a rare demonstration of unanimity, the news media were protesting against strict national security legislation. - Pre-conference address for the Melanesia Media Freedom Forum (MMFF), South Bank Campus, Griffith University, Brisbane.
Research Interests:
West Papua: The Pacific’s secret shame: The challenges for Pacific news media Professor David Robie Director, Pacific Media Centre, Auckland University of Technology Abstract: On the fringe of the South Pacific geopolitical region... more
West Papua: The Pacific’s secret shame: The challenges for Pacific news media
Professor David Robie
Director, Pacific Media Centre, Auckland University of Technology
Abstract: On the fringe of the South Pacific geopolitical region are the independent state of Timor-Leste and two contested Melanesian provinces of Indonesia known collectively within Oceania as “West Papua”. A Pacific media freedom report in October 2011 raised an unprecedented profile for both Timor-Leste and West Papua in the region, describing the latter in particular as a media “blind spot” (Perrottet & Robie, 2011). Both territories experienced elections during 2012 and in West Papua a controversy over a protracted miners’ strike and the future of the Freeport mine have been issues where the performance of the Pacific region’s news media has been under scrutiny. In spite of prolonged reports that journalists were virtually barred from West Papua by Indonesian authorities (Chesterfield, 2011a), there appeared to be a loosening of barriers to reporting the territory. However, such optimism has been greeted with scepticism (Bachelard, 2013, 2014). This paper examines the conflict reporting framework in the South Pacific, and articulates two case studies in Timor-Leste and West Papua within the context of a widening global debate about reporting of conflict.
Professor David Robie
Director, Pacific Media Centre, Auckland University of Technology
Abstract: On the fringe of the South Pacific geopolitical region are the independent state of Timor-Leste and two contested Melanesian provinces of Indonesia known collectively within Oceania as “West Papua”. A Pacific media freedom report in October 2011 raised an unprecedented profile for both Timor-Leste and West Papua in the region, describing the latter in particular as a media “blind spot” (Perrottet & Robie, 2011). Both territories experienced elections during 2012 and in West Papua a controversy over a protracted miners’ strike and the future of the Freeport mine have been issues where the performance of the Pacific region’s news media has been under scrutiny. In spite of prolonged reports that journalists were virtually barred from West Papua by Indonesian authorities (Chesterfield, 2011a), there appeared to be a loosening of barriers to reporting the territory. However, such optimism has been greeted with scepticism (Bachelard, 2013, 2014). This paper examines the conflict reporting framework in the South Pacific, and articulates two case studies in Timor-Leste and West Papua within the context of a widening global debate about reporting of conflict.
Research Interests:
Classic liberalism evolved in response to political revolution against authoritarianism in European nation states. Its rationale was to help foster political stability and developed ‘professional’ characteristics for a free press to... more
Classic liberalism evolved in response to political revolution against authoritarianism in European nation states. Its rationale was to help foster political stability and developed ‘professional’ characteristics for a free press to protect this. Three key notions of a professional free media that emerged more than two centuries ago were that the press should be 1) watchdogs on political abuse of power, 2) provide accurate facts for citizens to make informed choices in general elections, and 3) provide a platform for critical and informed debate. These traditionally fundamental attributes of a free press with declining credibility have been under question in Western democracies for the past few decades (McChesney, 1999. McChesney & Pickard, 2011; Peters & Broersma, 2013), but nowhere has the legitimacy of the twin assumptions of ‘impartial reporting’ and ‘objectivity’ been more severely tested than with environmental journalism and evaluating risk. The new risks involve issues such as climate change, extraction industries degradation, depleted fisheries, genetically modified (GM) food and crops, nuclear waste and oil spills. Living in one of the world’s most vulnerable regions to the impact of climate change and the challenges of aid effectiveness and adaptation funding (Coates et al, 2012), journalists are at a critical crossroads. This paper explores traditional journalism values and the Pacific profession’s own challenges of ‘adaptation’.
Research Interests:
News media coverage of the Asia-Pacific region in Aotearoa/New Zealand has been traditionally limited and parochial, apart from Polynesia which has been regarded as an extension of the country with a significant Pacific Islander urban and... more
News media coverage of the Asia-Pacific region in Aotearoa/New Zealand has been traditionally limited and parochial, apart from Polynesia which has been regarded as an extension of the country with a significant Pacific Islander urban and rural population in the largest city of Auckland. Indonesia and the Philippines, New Zealand’s closest neighbours among Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), rarely have serious coverage or current affairs analysis. When Asia-Pacific reporting does get some exposure, it is often reflecting an Australian perspective rather than Asian, or even New Zealand. Few specialist political and current affairs media exist in the country and it is left to small special interest news services such as the state-funded public broadcaster Radio New Zealand International and the independent Scoop, both in the capital of Wellington, to provide critical coverage. This paper provides a case study of a small university-based media freedom advocacy and analysis service that has reported media developments in the region for almost two decades. Pacific Media Watch was founded as an independent, non-profit and non-government network by two journalism academics. Its genesis was the jailing of two Taimi ‘o Tonga journalists, ‘Ekalafi Moala and Filokalafi ‘Akau’ola, and a ‘whistleblowing’ pro-democracy member of Parliament in Tonga, ‘Akilisi Pohiva, for alleged contempt in September 1996. They were later freed by the Pacific kingdom’s Supreme Court which ruled their imprisonment was unconstitutional. PMW played an important role in the campaign to free the three men, including organising an international petition seeking their release. Since then, the agency has developed a strategy to challenge issues of parochial news-generation by reporting on the region’s media developments, including Indonesia and the Philippines in particular. At times it has also reported on China, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam. Ethics, media freedom, industry ownership, cross-cultural diversity and media plurality have featured in the service’s reports. PMW has also been involved in reporting coups d’etat, civil conflict, climate change, health, social activism and media independence. The paper examines the PMW project, history and purpose as a catalyst for activist journalists, educator journalists, citizen journalists and critical journalists in a broader trajectory of Asia-Pacific protest.
Research Interests:
"In the past three decades, global and regional media freedom advocacy and activist groups have multiplied as risks to journalists and media workers have escalated. Nowhere has this trend been so marked as in the Oceania region where some... more
"In the past three decades, global and regional media freedom advocacy and activist groups have multiplied as risks to journalists and media workers have escalated. Nowhere has this trend been so marked as in the Oceania region where some four organisations have developed a media freedom role. Of these, one is unique in that while it has had a regional mission for almost two decades, it has been continuously based at four university journalism schools in a quartet of countries, Australia, Fiji, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. Pacific Media Watch was founded as an independent, non-profit and non-government network by two journalism academics. Its genesis was the jailing of two Taimi ‘o Tonga journalists, ‘Ekalafi Moala and Filokalafi ‘Akau’ola, and a ‘whistleblowing’ pro-democracy member of Parliament in Tonga, ‘Akilisi Pohiva, for alleged contempt in September 1996. They were later freed by the Pacific kingdom’s Supreme Court which ruled their imprisonment was unconstitutional. PMW played an important role in the campaign to free the three men, including organising an international petition seeking their release. Since then, the agency has developed a strategy to challenge issues of ethics, media freedom, industry ownership, cross-cultural diversity and media plurality and has been involved in reporting and analysing coups d’etat, civil conflict and media independence. This paper presents a case study of the PMW project and examines its history and purpose as a catalyst for independent journalists, educator journalists, citizen journalists and critical journalists in a broader trajectory of Pacific protest.
Pacific Media Watch: www.pacmediawatch.aut.ac.nz
"
Pacific Media Watch: www.pacmediawatch.aut.ac.nz
"
Research Interests: Communication, Media Studies, Journalism, Pacific Island Studies, Development communication, and 11 moreMedia Education, Citizen Journalism, Media Literacy, Protest, Media, News agencies, Media Research, Social Communication, Freedom of the Press, Media Impact and Effects and Usages, and Alternate Media
Research Interests:
Peace journalism or ‘conflict-sensitive journalism’, as it is sometimes referred to in the Philippines, has emerged belatedly in the context of critical studies in Oceania, notably at the University of the South Pacific in the Fiji... more
Peace journalism or ‘conflict-sensitive journalism’, as it is sometimes referred to in the Philippines, has emerged belatedly in the context of critical studies in Oceania, notably at the University of the South Pacific in the Fiji Islands, where seminars over the past two years have addressed conflict reporting and the notion of peace journalism (Robie, 2011; Singh, 2011). This academic field (Keeble et al., 2010; Shaw at al., 2011) has become increasingly addressed as an appropriate paradigm in a South Pacific context, following a 10-year civil war in Bougainville in the 1990s and an ethnic conflict in the Solomon Islands in the early 2000s. With other political upheavals such as four coups d’état in Fiji in two decades, paramilitary revolts in Vanuatu, riots in Tahiti and Tonga, protracted conflict in Papua New Guinea’s Highlands, and an earlier pro-independence insurrection in New Caledonia in the 1980s, conflict resolution poses challenges for the region’s journalists and their education and training. On the fringe of the South Pacific geopolitical region are the independent state of Timor-Leste and two contested Melanesian provinces of Indonesia known collectively within Oceania as ‘West Papua’. A Pacific media freedom report in October 2011 raised an unprecedented profile for both Timor-Leste and West Papua in the region, describing the latter in particular as a media ‘blind spot’ (Perrottet & Robie, 2011). Both territories experienced recent elections and in West Papua a controversy over a protracted miners’ strike and the future of the Freeport mine have been issues where the performance of the Pacific region’s news media has been under scrutiny. This paper examines the conflict reporting framework in the South Pacific, and articulates two case studies in Timor-Leste and West Papua within the context of a widening global debate about peace journalism.
Research Interests:
At the time of the French revolution, the estates general comprised the clergy, the nobles and the commoners. As British politician Edmund Burke expressed it in post-revolutionary times, acknowledging three estates in Parliament, looked... more
At the time of the French revolution, the estates general comprised the clergy, the nobles and the commoners. As British politician Edmund Burke expressed it in post-revolutionary times, acknowledging three estates in Parliament, looked up at the press gallery, saying: ‘Yonder sits the Fourth Estate, and they are more important than them all’. In the context of the South Pacific, and particularly Fiji Islands in the wake of virtually five coups
, there is a notion of a ‘fifth estate’, a traditional cultural pillar, which is a counterbalance to all other forms of power, including the news media. This paper explores traditional political power, the i-Taukei ethno-nationalist movement and the dilemmas of cross-cultural reporting with a particular reference to the current Fiji impasse after 21 years of coup cycles. It also discusses a tanoa model incorporating culture as part of talanoa, or a more nuanced, approach to journalism in the Pacific based on dialogue.
, there is a notion of a ‘fifth estate’, a traditional cultural pillar, which is a counterbalance to all other forms of power, including the news media. This paper explores traditional political power, the i-Taukei ethno-nationalist movement and the dilemmas of cross-cultural reporting with a particular reference to the current Fiji impasse after 21 years of coup cycles. It also discusses a tanoa model incorporating culture as part of talanoa, or a more nuanced, approach to journalism in the Pacific based on dialogue.
Research Interests:
In July 1985, the Greenpeace environmental flagship Rainbow Warrior was moored in Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour about to embark on a protest campaign voyage against French nuclear testing at Moruroa Atoll in French Polynesia. Secret agents... more
In July 1985, the Greenpeace environmental flagship Rainbow Warrior was moored in Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour about to embark on a protest campaign voyage against French nuclear testing at Moruroa Atoll in French Polynesia. Secret agents of the French external intelligence service DGSE planted two limpet mines on the ship’s hull on the night of July 10, sinking it and killing Portuguese-born photojournalist Fernando Pereira. Two of the secret agents were arrested on July 12 during an exhaustive police investigation. The Rainbow Warrior affair, involving state terrorism by a friendly nation, became iconic in New Zealand history because it highlighted NZ opposition to nuclear testing in the Pacific. New Zealand High Court closed circuit television (CCTV) footage of the criminal proceedings showed the two French agents—Major Alain Mafart and Captain Dominique Prieur—pleading guilty to manslaughter after being charged with murder. During the next two decades, five separate attempts were made to gain legal access to the videotape for news and current affairs programmes. For the first four attempts, lawyers acting for agents Mafart and Prieur succeeded in blocking public release of the footage on privacy and administration of justice grounds. However, the fifth attempt, by state-owned public broadcaster Television New Zealand, was finally successful in the Court of Appeal and the footage was broadcast on 7 August 2006. A further appeal to the Supreme Court by the agents was dismissed. This paper analyses a case study of the 20-year struggle to broadcast this historic footage and how a remarkable triumph in the public right to know was achieved and balanced against privacy values.
Go to the Australian Journalism Review for the full published paper: http://www.academia.edu/1416895/The_Rainbow_Warrior_bombers_media_and_the_judiciary
Go to the Australian Journalism Review for the full published paper: http://www.academia.edu/1416895/The_Rainbow_Warrior_bombers_media_and_the_judiciary
Research Interests:
The University of the South Pacific’s Regional Journalism Programme, a course catering for 12 member countries1 from the Cook Islands in the east to the Solomon Islands in the west, was founded in 1994 with French Government aid. It began... more
The University of the South Pacific’s Regional Journalism Programme, a course catering for 12 member countries1 from the Cook Islands in the east to the Solomon Islands in the west, was founded in 1994 with French Government aid. It began producing double major graduate journalists for the South Pacific three years
later. Two-thirds of the graduates live and work in Fiji. While some news media organisations in Fiji have generally recruited graduates, others have preferred to hire untrained school leavers. The media industry has provided some training schemes, but the USP programme has the only regional vocational and educational
strategy that involves regular radio broadcasting (Radio Pasifik), website news (Wansolwara Online and Pacific Journalism Online), newspaper publishing (Wansolwara and Spicol Daily), and television news bulletins (WansolVisin) for tertiary trainees and students. Increasingly in recent months, parallel with draft
legislation designed to turn the self-regulating Fiji Media Council into a statutory body, there have been public calls for higher media standards and more professional training and education. This paper explores the career attitudes and destination of the university’s 68 journalism graduates between 1996 and 2002
based on empirical data from a six-year monitoring project that started in 1998. It also examines the policies of the Fiji media industry towards graduates and education.
later. Two-thirds of the graduates live and work in Fiji. While some news media organisations in Fiji have generally recruited graduates, others have preferred to hire untrained school leavers. The media industry has provided some training schemes, but the USP programme has the only regional vocational and educational
strategy that involves regular radio broadcasting (Radio Pasifik), website news (Wansolwara Online and Pacific Journalism Online), newspaper publishing (Wansolwara and Spicol Daily), and television news bulletins (WansolVisin) for tertiary trainees and students. Increasingly in recent months, parallel with draft
legislation designed to turn the self-regulating Fiji Media Council into a statutory body, there have been public calls for higher media standards and more professional training and education. This paper explores the career attitudes and destination of the university’s 68 journalism graduates between 1996 and 2002
based on empirical data from a six-year monitoring project that started in 1998. It also examines the policies of the Fiji media industry towards graduates and education.
Research Interests:
Recently a revealing book was published in the United States and, as far as I know, it was never reviewed, or barely mentioned, in the New Zealand media. But its message was a salutary lesson for us here, half a globe away from the... more
Recently a revealing book was published in the United States and, as far as I know, it was never reviewed, or barely mentioned, in the New Zealand media. But its message
was a salutary lesson for us here, half a globe away from the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols have argued for an honest debate over a
total rethink of policy for media if it is to continue to have an effective role in democracy, if it is to remain a genuine Fourth Estate.
was a salutary lesson for us here, half a globe away from the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols have argued for an honest debate over a
total rethink of policy for media if it is to continue to have an effective role in democracy, if it is to remain a genuine Fourth Estate.
Research Interests:
Review of: Climate Aotearoa: What’s happening and what we can do about it, edited by Helen Clark. Auckland: Allen & Unwin, 2021. 327 pages. ISBN 9781988547633 WHEN the publication of Climate Aotearoa was heralded by Radio New Zealand in... more
Review of: Climate Aotearoa: What’s happening and what we can do about it, edited by Helen Clark. Auckland: Allen & Unwin, 2021. 327 pages. ISBN 9781988547633 WHEN the publication of Climate Aotearoa was heralded by Radio New Zealand in April 2021 it was featured along with a striking image and a quote from the collection editor, former prime minister Helen Clark. The illustration by Vinay Ranchhod was a dazzling red lobster in a boiling pot. 'I would liken [the challenge of climate change] to being the lobster in the pot and the pot starts to heat, and by the time it’s realised it’s being cooked, it’s too late to change. Its fate is sealed. 'That’s in essence the message: you’ve got time to act, the window is closing. And if you don’t, you’re going to get over those tipping points from which there’s no return.' (‘Time for action’, 2021)
Research Interests:
Br(e)aking the News: Journalism, Politics and New Media, edited by Janey Gordon, Paul Rowinski and Gavin Stewart. Berne, Switzerland: Peter Lang AC. 2013. 308 pages. ISBN 978-3-034-3090-4-2 TWO DECADES ago, United States media ecologist... more
Br(e)aking the News: Journalism, Politics and New Media, edited by Janey Gordon, Paul Rowinski and Gavin Stewart. Berne, Switzerland: Peter Lang AC. 2013. 308 pages. ISBN 978-3-034-3090-4-2
TWO DECADES ago, United States media ecologist Neil Postman posed critical questions about the ‘mission of education’ in his book The End of Education. Detailing the failings of American education faced with encroaching corporate and managerial strategies that did not tackle the real problem—an ‘identity crisis’—he ironically heralded the coming challenges over journalism education. It has outgrown the rationales of the past.
TWO DECADES ago, United States media ecologist Neil Postman posed critical questions about the ‘mission of education’ in his book The End of Education. Detailing the failings of American education faced with encroaching corporate and managerial strategies that did not tackle the real problem—an ‘identity crisis’—he ironically heralded the coming challenges over journalism education. It has outgrown the rationales of the past.
Research Interests:
The Assault on Journalism: Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression, edited by Ulla Carlsson and Reeta Pöyhtäri. Gothenburg, Sweden: Nordic Information Centre for Media and Communication Research (Nordicom). 2017. 363 pages.... more
The Assault on Journalism: Building Knowledge to Protect Freedom of Expression, edited by Ulla Carlsson and Reeta Pöyhtäri. Gothenburg, Sweden: Nordic Information Centre for Media and Communication Research (Nordicom). 2017. 363 pages. ISBN 9789187957505
THE GHANAIAN investigative journalist summed up the mood among some 1500 media people with the beaded face veil rather well—a facial security screen symbolising both the safety of the reporter and his sources. But this was no empty gesture. It is characteristic of Anas Aremeyaw Anas who has captured judges on tape allegedly taking bribes. As the result of his celebrated documentary, Ghana in the Eyes of God: Epic of Injustice, more than 30 judges and 170 judicial officers were implicated in Ghana’s biggest corruption scandal.
THE GHANAIAN investigative journalist summed up the mood among some 1500 media people with the beaded face veil rather well—a facial security screen symbolising both the safety of the reporter and his sources. But this was no empty gesture. It is characteristic of Anas Aremeyaw Anas who has captured judges on tape allegedly taking bribes. As the result of his celebrated documentary, Ghana in the Eyes of God: Epic of Injustice, more than 30 judges and 170 judicial officers were implicated in Ghana’s biggest corruption scandal.
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Media coverage of the decapitation and other atrocities against journalists has heightened global awareness of just how dangerous the profession of journalists is when covering war zones, corruption and human rights violations under... more
Media coverage of the decapitation and other atrocities against journalists has heightened global awareness of just how dangerous the profession of journalists is when covering war zones, corruption and human rights violations under dictatorships. “Although violence against journalists is not a new phenomenon, the trend has worsened,” writes New Zealand-based media academic, political scientist and analyst Maria Armoudian in her new book Reporting from the Danger Zone: Frontline journalists, their jobs, and an increasingly perilous future. Researcher Dr Armoudian, lecturer in politics and international relations at the University of Auckland and author of the 2011 book Kill the Messenger, provides sobering statistics in her “danger zone for journalists” analysis.
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Review by Michael Segel: The 1985 bombing of the Rainbow Warrior is often remembered as the deadly consequence of a small Pacific nation taking a defiant stance against nuclear testing by major powers. Thirty years on, the updated edition... more
Review by Michael Segel: The 1985 bombing of the Rainbow Warrior is often remembered as the deadly consequence of a small Pacific nation taking a defiant stance against nuclear testing by major powers. Thirty years on, the updated edition of David Robie’s Eyes of Fire moves beyond the David and Goliath narrative that puts New Zealand at the centre of the story. Prime Minister David Lange called the bombing a ‘sordid act of international statebacked terrorism’ and an ‘unprecedented affront to sovereignty’ (p. 128). Months earlier, he had defended New Zealand’s anti-nuclear position at the Oxford Union. Years later, he said the lack of international support had only strenthened the country’s resolve (Young, 2005). But Robie reminds us the bombing was far more than a key date on New Zealand’s political timeline. The former British fishing trawler had been part of missions to stop whalers, sealers and nuclear warships in Scotland, Ireland, France, Spain, the United States and Peru. It had even been at the centre of a diplomatic Cold War clash during a visit to Siberia.
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One of the ironies of the digital revolution is that there is an illusion of growing freedom of expression and information in the world, when in fact the reverse is true. These are bleak times with growing numbers of journalists being... more
One of the ironies of the digital revolution is that there is an illusion of growing freedom of expression and information in the world, when in fact the reverse is true. These are bleak times with growing numbers of journalists being murdered with impunity, from the Philippines to Somalia and Syria. The world’s worst mass killing of journalists was the so-called Maguindanao, or Ampatuan (named after the town whose dynastic family ordered the killings), massacre when 32 journalists were brutally murdered in the Philippines in November 2009.
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Review by Associate Professor Pradip Thomas, University of Queensland: This book is a compendium of writings by David Robie and is a reflection of his long and eventful career as a journalist, media educator, political commentator and... more
Review by Associate Professor Pradip Thomas, University of Queensland: This book is a compendium of writings by David Robie and is a reflection of his long and eventful career as a journalist, media educator, political commentator and human rights activist in the Asia-Pacific region. To cite this article: Thomas, Pradip. Don't spoil my beautiful face: Media, mayhem and human rights in the Pacific [Book Review] [online]. Media International Australia, Incorporating Culture & Policy, No. 154, Mar 2015: 157. Availability: <http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=997097374109002;res=IELLCC> ISSN: 1329-878X. [cited 31 Mar 15].
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As its title suggests, the book is a tribute to human rights in the Pacific but much more than this, it takes a critical look at the role of journalism in the scheme of things. With a career in journalism and teaching that spans 35 years,... more
As its title suggests, the book is a tribute to human rights in the Pacific but much more than this, it takes a critical look at the role of journalism in the scheme of things. With a career in journalism and teaching that spans 35 years, Professor Robie presents his journalistic adventures in the Pacific, capturing the struggles of the oppressed and the pivotal role that journalism can play to initiate positive change.
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There are almost three books in David Robie's recent scholarly work, Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific - the story of his life, the story behind some of the most important reports he has done in... more
There are almost three books in David Robie's recent scholarly work, Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific - the story of his life, the story behind some of the most important reports he has done in the Pacific (and in Africa) over the past 30 years, and the story of, or at least his repeated call for, better journalism and journalism education in the region. It is a book destined to be referenced by generations of scholars of journalism and politics in the Pacific.
Research Interests:
By Alex Perrottet: It's easy to read a book written by a journalist, especially of it covers wars, environmental disasters, independence struggles, and what happens when you try to report on them. In this book, David Robie includes a... more
By Alex Perrottet: It's easy to read a book written by a journalist, especially of it covers wars, environmental disasters, independence struggles, and what happens when you try to report on them. In this book, David Robie includes a bundle of his own articles and how he got them published (or how he didn't) over a career spanning four decades. The Pacific journalist and educator makes no apology for walking down his own memory lane, but just as well, as it gives a clear idea of his motivations by the time he arrives at the final chapter: his theory on media models and journalism education.
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Review by Christopher Moore (p39): "In Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific, journalist and educator David Robie explores the challenges that confront the 21st century Pacific and the forces that... more
Review by Christopher Moore (p39): "In Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific, journalist and educator David Robie explores the challenges that confront the 21st century Pacific and the forces that have shaped the region during the past 50 years. Robie, arguably New Zealand's foremost Pacific [media] commentator, writes from long first-hand experience of events and places all too frequently overlooked by the wider New Zealand and Australian media."
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(pp54-55): "A leading advocate for media freedom and quality journalism for almost three decades, Professor David Robie remains as incisive as ever with his new book, Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face : Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the... more
(pp54-55): "A leading advocate for media freedom and quality journalism for almost three decades, Professor David Robie remains as incisive as ever with his new book, Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face : Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific. Director of AUT University's Pacific Media Centre, and former Head of Journalism at the University of the South Pacific, he focuses on a region and issues largely ignored by the New Zealand media. Below is an extract from his speech at the book launch at AUT Library in April."
Research Interests:
Brent Edwards looks at journalist and academic David Robie’s scrutiny of the Pacific region’s governance and journalism. Cartoon by David Pope: "David Robie has spent 35 years working as a journalist and journalism teacher in the Asia-... more
Brent Edwards looks at journalist and academic David Robie’s scrutiny of the Pacific region’s governance and journalism. Cartoon by David Pope: "David Robie has spent 35 years working as a journalist and journalism teacher in the Asia- Pacific region. In Don’t Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, mayhem and human rights in the Pacific, Robie summarises his reportage on many of the significant events that have marked his years working in the Pacific. It is part autobiography, part history and part journalism treatise. As well as providing his perceptive analysis of human rights and democracy, or lack of, in the Pacific, Robie also spends time commenting on journalistic practices, particularly as they relate to reporting on our immediate neighbourhood."
Research Interests:
When Rachel Buchanan penned a commissioned article entitled ‘From the classroom to the scrapheap’ for The Age last September, she railed against Australian journalism schools, in particular, against an alleged ‘lie’ and ‘little integrity’... more
When Rachel Buchanan penned a commissioned article entitled ‘From the classroom to the scrapheap’ for The Age last September, she railed against Australian journalism schools, in particular, against an alleged ‘lie’ and ‘little integrity’ of journalism education. ‘Between 2002 and 2012, enrolments in journalism degrees almost doubled,’ she noted about what was troubling her across the Tasman. ‘We now have the bizarre situation where there are more people studying journalism than there are working journalists.’
Research Interests:
Don’t Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific is being published today while Fiji is voicing the mantra of the “free press” at the same time as it continues to ban experienced Pacific reporters such as... more
Don’t Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific is being published today while Fiji is voicing the mantra of the “free press” at the same time as it continues to ban experienced Pacific reporters such as Barbara Dreaver and Michael Field from New Zealand and Sean Dorney of the ABC. Ashwin Raj, chairman of the new Media Industry Development Authority (MIDA) is haranguing journalists at public media meetings using expressions such as “…the complicity of select Fijian journalists and media either wittingly or those that remain oblivious to the laws of Fiji…” The same MIDA that is so upset with Sean Dorney’s mild comment that “there was a feeling in the room anyway that the situation in Fiji wasn’t as free and open for the media as it should be” is also asking for “an ethos of robust debate”. MIDA might strengthen its interpretation of robustness by reading David Robie’s arguments for improving journalism education rather than putting media training on hold.
Research Interests:
The 1988 Ouvéa massacre triggered a series of events that led to the Matignon Accord to open the door to self-government and self-determination in New Caledonia and hope for a Kanak future. But it also led to the assassination of key... more
The 1988 Ouvéa massacre triggered a series of events that led to the Matignon Accord to open the door to self-government and self-determination in New Caledonia and hope for a Kanak future. But it also led to the assassination of key pro-independence leaders Jean-Marie Tjibaou and his deputy Yéiwene Yéiwene a year later at a ceremony marking the anniversary of the martyrs. David Robie reviews the impact of a new film about the Ouvéa tragedy.
Research Interests: Communication, Media Studies, Journalism, Pacific Island Studies, Development communication, and 9 morePolitical Violence and Terrorism, International Political Economy, Media Education, Media Literacy, Media, Media Research, Social Communication, Media Impact and Effects and Usages, and Alternate Media
MY DOG-EARED yellow-covered copy of the late Robert Hunter’s Warriors of the Rainbow still has pride of place among my bookshelves. It was inspirational in many respects before I embarked on Rainbow Warrior I’s journey to the Marshall... more
MY DOG-EARED yellow-covered copy of the late Robert Hunter’s Warriors of the Rainbow still has pride of place among my bookshelves. It was inspirational in many respects before I embarked on Rainbow Warrior I’s journey to the Marshall Islands in May 1985 which led to the bombing in Auckland’s Waitemata Harbour two months later and my own book Eyes of Fire about that ill-fated humanitarian voyage, so very different from most Greenpeace campaigns.One of the original Greenpeace environmental crusaders, journalist Hunter provided a powerful and insightful tale of the Canadian birth and early years of the global movement ‘from Amchitka to Moruroa’. Even before the corporate trend to mission statements, Greenpeace had one provided by the Cree Indians and popularised by Hunter.
Research Interests:
A group of villagers declaring their people's independence by raising a flag on a homemade pole has become more common in our region over the past 15 years. The West Papuans have done it, as have the East Timorese, Kanaks, Tahitians and,... more
A group of villagers declaring their people's independence by raising a flag on a homemade pole has become more common in our region over the past 15 years. The West Papuans have done it, as have the East Timorese, Kanaks, Tahitians and, more recently, the Bougainvilleans. Yet while such people appear to have every right to political autonomy, their flags have seldom been allowed to fly outside UN headquarters in New York. Worse, most of the movements have been outlawed and their supporters persecuted and killed. Hence the title of David Robie's book.
Research Interests: Communication, Media Studies, Journalism, International Communication, Development communication, and 12 moreMedia Education, Political communication, Media Literacy, Political Journalism, Political Economy Of Journalism, Media, Online Journalism, Media Research, Social Communication, International Journalism, Media Impact and Effects and Usages, and Alternate Media
Indigenous Kanaks in Kanaky New Caledonia have revolted in the last two weeks in response to moves by the colonial power France to undermine moves towards independence in the Pacific territory. Journalist David Robie from Aotearoa New... more
Indigenous Kanaks in Kanaky New Caledonia have revolted in the last two weeks in response to moves by the colonial power France to undermine moves towards independence in the Pacific territory. Journalist David Robie from Aotearoa New Zealand spoke to the Green Left Show today about the issues involved. We acknowledge that this video was produced on stolen Aboriginal land. We express solidarity with ongoing struggles for justice for First Nations people and pay our respects to Elders past and present.
https://youtu.be/ZPWw2oSUGFs
https://youtu.be/ZPWw2oSUGFs
Research Interests:
Pacific media commentator and Asia Pacific Report editor David Robie has criticised New Zealand media coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, describing it as “lopsided” in favour of Tel Aviv. He said New Zealand media was too dependent on... more
Pacific media commentator and Asia Pacific Report editor David Robie has criticised New Zealand media coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza, describing it as “lopsided” in favour of Tel Aviv. He said New Zealand media was too dependent on American and British news services, which were based in two of the countries most committed to Israel and in denial of the genocide that was happening. New Zealand media were tending to treat the conflict as “just another war” instead of the reality of a “horrendous” series of massacres with a long-lasting impact on Western credibility and commitment to a global rules-based order.
Second part of a two-part interview with Earthwise.
Broadcast on Plains 96.9 FM radio on 1 April 2024
https://youtu.be/3QG9OGeS4d0
Second part of a two-part interview with Earthwise.
Broadcast on Plains 96.9 FM radio on 1 April 2024
https://youtu.be/3QG9OGeS4d0
Research Interests:
Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. Dr Robie, deputy chair of... more
Earthwise presenters Lois and Martin Griffiths on Plains FM 96.9 community radio talk to Dr David Robie, a New Zealand author, independent journalist and media educator with a passion for the Asia-Pacific region. Dr Robie, deputy chair of Asia Pacific Media Network and editor of Asia Pacific Report, talks about the struggle to raise awareness of critical Pacific issues such as West Papuan self-determination and the fight for an independent “Pacific voice” in New Zealand media. He outlines some of the challenges in the region and what motivated him to work on Pacific issues.
Part 1 of a two-part interview.
Audio/Video at YouTube: https://youtu.be/ueVlWkSN0yo
Broadcast on Plains FM 96.9 on 18 March 2024
Part 1 of a two-part interview.
Audio/Video at YouTube: https://youtu.be/ueVlWkSN0yo
Broadcast on Plains FM 96.9 on 18 March 2024
Research Interests:
New Zealand journalist and academic David Robie has covered the Asia-Pacific region for international media for more than four decades. An advocate for media freedom in the Pacific region, he is the author of several books on South... more
New Zealand journalist and academic David Robie has covered the Asia-Pacific region for international media for more than four decades. An advocate for media freedom in the Pacific region, he is the author of several books on South Pacific media and politics, including an account of the French bombing of the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour in 1985which took place while he was on the last voyage. In 1994 he founded the journal Pacific Journalism Review examining media issues and communication in the South Pacific, Asia-Pacific, Australia and New Zealand. He was also convenor of the Pacific Media Watch media freedom collective, which collaborates with Reporters Without Borders in Paris, France.
Interview took place on 17 October 2022 at the 13th Asian Conference on Media, Communication and Film, Kyoto, Japan. https://mediasia.iafor.org/programme/
https://vimeo.com/761329590
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2022/10/20/pacific-lessons-in-climate-change-journalism-and-combating-disinformation/
https://eyes-of-fire.littleisland.co.nz/
Interview took place on 17 October 2022 at the 13th Asian Conference on Media, Communication and Film, Kyoto, Japan. https://mediasia.iafor.org/programme/
https://vimeo.com/761329590
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2022/10/20/pacific-lessons-in-climate-change-journalism-and-combating-disinformation/
https://eyes-of-fire.littleisland.co.nz/
Research Interests:
Professor David Robie's keynote address entitled "Journalism education 'truth' challenges in an age of growing hate, intolerance and disinformation" at the Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) global virtual conference at... more
Professor David Robie's keynote address entitled "Journalism education 'truth' challenges in an age of growing hate, intolerance and disinformation" at the Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) global virtual conference at Auckland University of Technology on 25-27 November 2021. Dr Robie is founder of the Pacific Media Centre: https://pmc.aut.ac.nz/
News report here: https://bit.ly/3ovo0gZ
Missing video clips can be viewed here:
Papua New Guinea and COVID-19 at 10m43s: https://youtu.be/fzjdSNOIqdw
Pacific Climate Warriors at 18m44s: https://youtu.be/9Y12ezfEZBA
ACMC website: https://www.asianmediacongress.org/
Video of the lecture on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9ehqVkSerpQ
News report here: https://bit.ly/3ovo0gZ
Missing video clips can be viewed here:
Papua New Guinea and COVID-19 at 10m43s: https://youtu.be/fzjdSNOIqdw
Pacific Climate Warriors at 18m44s: https://youtu.be/9Y12ezfEZBA
ACMC website: https://www.asianmediacongress.org/
Video of the lecture on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9ehqVkSerpQ
Research Interests:
Professor David Robie's keynote address entitled "Journalism education 'truth' challenges in an age of growing hate, intolerance and disinformation" at the Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) global virtual conference at... more
Professor David Robie's keynote address entitled "Journalism education 'truth' challenges in an age of growing hate, intolerance and disinformation" at the Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) global virtual conference at Auckland University of Technology on 25-27 November 2021. Dr Robie is founder of the Pacific Media Centre: https://pmc.aut.ac.nz/
News report here: https://bit.ly/3ovo0gZ
Missing video clips can be viewed here:
Papua New Guinea and COVID-19 at 10m43s: https://youtu.be/fzjdSNOIqdw
Pacific Climate Warriors at 18m44s: https://youtu.be/9Y12ezfEZBA
ACMC website: https://www.asianmediacongress.org/
Video of lecture: https://youtu.be/9ehqVkSerpQ
News report here: https://bit.ly/3ovo0gZ
Missing video clips can be viewed here:
Papua New Guinea and COVID-19 at 10m43s: https://youtu.be/fzjdSNOIqdw
Pacific Climate Warriors at 18m44s: https://youtu.be/9Y12ezfEZBA
ACMC website: https://www.asianmediacongress.org/
Video of lecture: https://youtu.be/9ehqVkSerpQ
Research Interests:
Keynote address by Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie at The University of the South Pacific Journalism Awards,19 October 2018, celebrating 50 years of the university's existence. Wide-ranging speech covers core values of... more
Keynote address by Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie at The University of the South Pacific Journalism Awards,19 October 2018, celebrating 50 years of the university's existence. Wide-ranging speech covers core values of journalism, global threats to journalists and press freedom, political leaders fueling "media phobia", the Jamal Khashoggi assassination in Turkey on 2 October 2018, Pacific media whistleblowers and the history of the University of the South Pacific journalism.
Research Interests: Journalism, Pacific Island Studies, Hate Speech, Journalism Studies, Media Freedom, and 6 moreJournalism And Mass communication, South Pacific Media, University of the South Pacific, Sociology of Journalism, Safety of Journalists in reporting terrorism and conflict situations, and Journalist assassinations
For two decades, this paper presenter has been an initiator of a series of independent newspapers based in prominent South Pacific journalism programmes hosted in three universities. All of the publications have played an ‘activist’ role... more
For two decades, this paper presenter has been an initiator of a series of independent newspapers based in prominent South Pacific journalism programmes hosted in three universities. All of the publications have played an ‘activist’ role in raising issues of social justice and campaigning for more critical and challenging assignments for student media in the context of coups, civil war, climate change, development and neo-colonialism. All of the publications have won awards for their brand of journalism. Starting with the University of Papua New Guinea’s Uni Tavur in 1994 and the Sandline mercenary crisis, the models have progressed through Wansolwara at the University of the South Pacific (award-winning coverage of the 2000 George Speight attempted coup), to Pacific Scoop for six years at Auckland University of Technology with extensive coverage of human rights violations in Fiji and West Papua. The Pacific Scoop venture has now morphed into a new and distinctive independent venture for the digital era, Asia Pacific Report launched in January 2016. This series of case studies will sketch out the evolution of these newspapers and how the collective experience of citizen journalism, digital engagement and an innovative public empowerment journalism course based at AUT’s Pacific Media Centre has developed a unique social change publication. The presentation will traverse some of the region’s thorny political and social issues, and engage with the evolving theory behind the publications (Robie, 2004, 2006, 2012, 2014) such as reflected in deliberative journalism, human rights and other models (Obijiofor & Hanusch, 2011; Romano, 2010).
Research Interests:
Professor David Robie's speech at the University of the South Pacific 21st Anniversary Journalism Awards on 30 October 2015: "Kia ora tatou and ni sa bula vinaka, FIRSTLY, I wish to acknowledge the people of Fiji for returning this... more
Professor David Robie's speech at the University of the South Pacific 21st Anniversary Journalism Awards on 30 October 2015: "Kia ora tatou and ni sa bula vinaka, FIRSTLY, I wish to acknowledge the people of Fiji for returning this wonderful country to democracy last year, and also to the University of the South Pacific and Dr Shailendra Singh and his team for inviting me here to speak at this 21st Anniversary Journalism Awards event. [Acknowledgements to various university and media VIPs]. As I started off these awards here at the University of the South Pacific in 1999 during an incredibly interesting and challenging time, it is a great honour to return for this event marking the 21st anniversary of the founding of the regional Pacific journalism programme. Thus it is also an honour to be sharing the event with Monsieur Michel Djokovic, the Ambassador of France given how important French aid has been for this programme.
Research Interests:
News media coverage of the Asia-Pacific region in Aotearoa/New Zealand has been traditionally limited and parochial, apart from Polynesia which has been regarded as an extension of the country with a significant Pacific Islander urban and... more
News media coverage of the Asia-Pacific region in Aotearoa/New Zealand has been traditionally limited and parochial, apart from Polynesia which has been regarded as an extension of the country with a significant Pacific Islander urban and rural population in the largest city of Auckland. Indonesia and the Philippines, New Zealand’s closest neighbours among Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), rarely have serious coverage or current affairs analysis. When Asia-Pacific reporting does get some exposure, it is often reflecting an Australian perspective rather than Asian, or even New Zealand. Few specialist political and current affairs media exist in the country and it is left to small special interest news services such as the state-funded public broadcaster Radio New Zealand International and the independent Scoop, both in the capital of Wellington, to provide critical coverage. This paper provides a case study of a small university-based media freedom advocacy and analysis service that has reported media developments in the region for almost two decades.Pacific Media Watchwas founded as an independent, non-profit and non-government network by two journalism academics. Its genesis was the jailing of two Taimi ‘o Tonga journalists, ‘Ekalafi Moala and Filokalafi ‘Akau’ola, and a ‘whistleblowing’ pro-democracy member of Parliament in Tonga, ‘Akilisi Pohiva, for alleged contempt in September 1996. They were later freed by the Pacific kingdom’s Supreme Court which ruled their imprisonment was unconstitutional. PMW played an important role in the campaign to free the three men, including organising an international petition seeking their release. Since then, the agency has developed a strategy to challenge issues of parochial news-generation by reporting on the region’s media developments, including Indonesia and the Philippines in particular. At times it has also reported on Burma, China, Thailand and Vietnam. Ethics, media freedom, industry ownership, cross-cultural diversity and media plurality have featured in the service’s reports. PMW has also been involved in reporting coups d’etat, civil conflict, climate change, health, social activism and media independence. The paper examines the PMW project, history and purpose as a catalyst for activist journalists, educator journalists, citizen journalists and critical journalists in a broader trajectory of Asia-Pacific protest.
Dr David Robie is Professor of Journalism and Director of the Pacific Media Centre in the School of Communication Studies at Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand. He is also a former head of journalism at both the University of Papua New Guinea and the University of the South Pacific, and the author of Mekim Nius: South Pacific media, politics and education and The Pacific Journalist.
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Dr David Robie is Professor of Journalism and Director of the Pacific Media Centre in the School of Communication Studies at Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand. He is also a former head of journalism at both the University of Papua New Guinea and the University of the South Pacific, and the author of Mekim Nius: South Pacific media, politics and education and The Pacific Journalist.
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Research Interests:
At the heart of a global crisis over news media credibility and trust is Britain’s so-called Hackgate scandal involving the widespread allegations of phone-hacking and corruption against the now defunct Rupert Murdoch tabloid newspaper... more
At the heart of a global crisis over news media credibility and trust is Britain’s so-called Hackgate scandal involving the widespread allegations of phone-hacking and corruption against the now defunct Rupert Murdoch tabloid newspaper News Of The World. Major inquiries on media ethics, professionalism and accountability have been examining the state of the press in New Zealand, Britain and Australia. The Murdoch media empire has stretched into the South Pacific with the sale of one major title being forced by political pressure. The role of news media in global South nations and the declining credibility of some sectors of the developed world’s Fourth Estate also pose challenges for the future of democracy. Truth, censorship, ethics and corporate integrity are increasingly critical media issues in the digital age for a region faced with coups, conflicts and human rights violations, such as in West Papua. In this address, Professor David Robie reflects on the challenges in the context of the political economy of the media and journalism education in the Asia-Pacific region. He also engages with emerging disciplines such as deliberative journalism, peace journalism, human rights journalism, and revisits notions of critical development journalism and citizen journalism.
Research Interests: Screenwriting, Communication, Education, Media Studies, Journalism, and 22 moreHuman Rights, Digital Media, Development communication, Media Education, Radio, Media Ethics, Media Literacy, TV, Media, Convergence, Online Journalism, Cinema, The Internet, Film, Media Research, Social Communication, Newspaper, Reporting, Fiji Coups, Scripts, Media Impact and Effects and Usages, and Alternate Media
Research Interests: International Relations, Communication, Multiculturalism, Media Studies, New Media, and 48 moreJournalism, Peace and Conflict Studies, Climate Change, Critical Geopolitics, International Law, Human Rights, Digital Media, Political Ecology, International organizations, Conflict, Development communication, Security, Nationalism, Media Education, Media Literacy, Diplomacy, Facebook, Media, Postcolonial Theory, Timor-Leste Studies, Alternative Media, Online Journalism, Environmental Justice, Ethnicity, Press Freedom, Minority Rights, Google, Youtube, East Timor, Peace, West Papua, Media Research, Critical Development Studies, Freedom, Digital Marketing, Social Communication, Fiji Coups, Media Impact and Effects and Usages, Digital Story Telling, Iphones, Climate Politics, Paywalls, Virtual Revolution, Alternate Media, Global (North/South) Environmental Politics, Refugee Status, Permanent Relocation, and South Pacific Sociopolitical Issues
University education for South Pacific journalists is a relatively recent development. It has existed in Papua New Guinea for merely a generation; it is less than a decade old at degree level in Fiji, and in the former colonies in... more
University education for South Pacific journalists is a relatively recent development. It has existed in Papua New Guinea for merely a generation; it is less than a decade old at degree level in Fiji, and in the former colonies in Polynesia. At the same time, mean age, experience and educational qualifications have been rising among journalists in the major Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) member countries, Australia and New Zealand, as the news media has become more professionalised. While the Papua New Guinea media has largely depended on journalism education to provide the foundation for its professionalism, Fiji has focused on a system of ad hoc short course training funded by international donors.
This thesis examines the history of South Pacific university media education and its impact on the region’s journalism. Its first objective is to test the hypothesis that tertiary education has a critical influence on how Pacific journalists practise their profession and perceive their political and social role in a developing society faced with the challenges of globalisation. Secondly, the thesis aims to analyse the political, economic and legal frameworks in which the media have operated in Papua New Guinea and Fiji since independence. Third, the thesis aims to explain and assess in detail the development of journalism education in the South Pacific since independence.
The theoretical framework is from a critical political economy perspective. It also assesses whether the concept of development journalism, which had its roots in the 1980s debate calling for a ‘New International Information and Communication Order’ (NWICO), has had an influence on a Pacific style of journalism. The thesis argues within a context where journalists can be considered to be professionals with some degree of autonomy within the confines set by a capitalist and often transnational-owned media, and within those established by governments and media companies. Journalists are not solely ‘governed’ by these confines; they still have some freedom to act, and journalism education can deliver some of the resources to make the most of that freedom.
The thesis includes historical case studies of the region’s three main journalism schools, Divine Word University (PNG), University of Papua New Guinea and the University of the South Pacific. It demonstrates some of the dilemmas faced by the three schools, student journalists and graduates while exercising media freedom. Research was conducted using the triangulation method, incorporating in-depth interviews with 57 editors, media managers, journalists and policy makers; two newsroom staff surveys of 15 news organisations in Fiji and Papua New Guinea in 1998/9 (124 journalists) and 2001 (106); and library and archives study. It also draws on the author’s personal experience as coordinator of the UPNG (1993-1997) and USP (1998-2002) journalism programmes for more than nine years.
The thesis concludes that journalists in Papua New Guinea (where university education has played a vital role for a generation) are more highly educated, have a higher mean experience and age, and a more critically sophisticated perception of themselves and their media role in Pacific societies than in Fiji (where almost half the journalists have no formal tertiary education or training). Journalists in Fiji are also more influenced by race, cultural and religious factors. Conversely, PNG journalists are poorly paid even when compared with their Fiji colleagues. There are serious questions about the impact that this may have on the autonomy of journalists and the Fourth Estate role of news media in a South Pacific democracy.
This thesis examines the history of South Pacific university media education and its impact on the region’s journalism. Its first objective is to test the hypothesis that tertiary education has a critical influence on how Pacific journalists practise their profession and perceive their political and social role in a developing society faced with the challenges of globalisation. Secondly, the thesis aims to analyse the political, economic and legal frameworks in which the media have operated in Papua New Guinea and Fiji since independence. Third, the thesis aims to explain and assess in detail the development of journalism education in the South Pacific since independence.
The theoretical framework is from a critical political economy perspective. It also assesses whether the concept of development journalism, which had its roots in the 1980s debate calling for a ‘New International Information and Communication Order’ (NWICO), has had an influence on a Pacific style of journalism. The thesis argues within a context where journalists can be considered to be professionals with some degree of autonomy within the confines set by a capitalist and often transnational-owned media, and within those established by governments and media companies. Journalists are not solely ‘governed’ by these confines; they still have some freedom to act, and journalism education can deliver some of the resources to make the most of that freedom.
The thesis includes historical case studies of the region’s three main journalism schools, Divine Word University (PNG), University of Papua New Guinea and the University of the South Pacific. It demonstrates some of the dilemmas faced by the three schools, student journalists and graduates while exercising media freedom. Research was conducted using the triangulation method, incorporating in-depth interviews with 57 editors, media managers, journalists and policy makers; two newsroom staff surveys of 15 news organisations in Fiji and Papua New Guinea in 1998/9 (124 journalists) and 2001 (106); and library and archives study. It also draws on the author’s personal experience as coordinator of the UPNG (1993-1997) and USP (1998-2002) journalism programmes for more than nine years.
The thesis concludes that journalists in Papua New Guinea (where university education has played a vital role for a generation) are more highly educated, have a higher mean experience and age, and a more critically sophisticated perception of themselves and their media role in Pacific societies than in Fiji (where almost half the journalists have no formal tertiary education or training). Journalists in Fiji are also more influenced by race, cultural and religious factors. Conversely, PNG journalists are poorly paid even when compared with their Fiji colleagues. There are serious questions about the impact that this may have on the autonomy of journalists and the Fourth Estate role of news media in a South Pacific democracy.
Research Interests:
A review of: Journalists and Confidential Sources: Colliding Public Interests in the Age of the Leak, by Joseph M Fernandez. Routledge Research on Journalism Series. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2021. 287 pages. ISBN 9780367474126 IN 2015,... more
A review of: Journalists and Confidential Sources: Colliding Public Interests in the Age of the Leak, by Joseph M Fernandez. Routledge Research on Journalism Series. Abingdon, UK: Routledge, 2021. 287 pages. ISBN 9780367474126
IN 2015, media law professor Joseph M. Fernandez co-authored a comprehensive article for Pacific Journalism Review (Fernandez & Pearson, 2015) about the status of Australia’s shield law regime, drawing on his research to see whether it met journalists’ expectations and whistleblower needs in an era of unprecedented official capabilities. It didn’t, as can be seen from growing concerns over court cases that, according to the peak journalists’ organisation Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), ‘clearly demonstrate Australia’s patchy and desperate journalist shields fail to do their job’.
https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/article/view/1364
IN 2015, media law professor Joseph M. Fernandez co-authored a comprehensive article for Pacific Journalism Review (Fernandez & Pearson, 2015) about the status of Australia’s shield law regime, drawing on his research to see whether it met journalists’ expectations and whistleblower needs in an era of unprecedented official capabilities. It didn’t, as can be seen from growing concerns over court cases that, according to the peak journalists’ organisation Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), ‘clearly demonstrate Australia’s patchy and desperate journalist shields fail to do their job’.
https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/article/view/1364
Research Interests:
The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel exports the technology of occupation around the world, by Antony Loewenstein. Melbourne: Scribe Publications, 2023. 265 pages. ISBN 9781922310408. JUST MONTHS before the outbreak of the genocidal... more
The Palestine Laboratory: How Israel exports the technology of occupation around the world, by Antony Loewenstein. Melbourne: Scribe Publications, 2023. 265 pages. ISBN 9781922310408.
JUST MONTHS before the outbreak of the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza after the deadly assault on southern Israel by Hamas resistance fighters on 7 October 2023, Australian-German investigative journalist and researcher Antony Loewenstein published an extraordinarily timely book, The Palestine Laboratory. In it he warned that a worst-case scenario—‘long feared but never realised, is ethnic cleansing against occupied Palestinians or population transfer, forcible expulsion under the guise of national security’.
https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/article/view/1341
JUST MONTHS before the outbreak of the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza after the deadly assault on southern Israel by Hamas resistance fighters on 7 October 2023, Australian-German investigative journalist and researcher Antony Loewenstein published an extraordinarily timely book, The Palestine Laboratory. In it he warned that a worst-case scenario—‘long feared but never realised, is ethnic cleansing against occupied Palestinians or population transfer, forcible expulsion under the guise of national security’.
https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/article/view/1341
Research Interests:
How to Stand up to a Dictator: The Fight for our Future, By Maria Ressa. London: Penguin Random House, 2022. 301 pages. ISBN 978073559208. AS WE marched in our pink tee-shirts in solidarity with the diaspora supporting outgoing... more
How to Stand up to a Dictator: The Fight for our Future, By Maria Ressa. London: Penguin Random House, 2022. 301 pages. ISBN 978073559208.
AS WE marched in our pink tee-shirts in solidarity with the diaspora supporting outgoing Vice-President and opposition leader Leni Robredo in Auckland’s Centennial Park in the lead up to the Philippine presidential election in May 2022, the thought weighed heavily on our minds: ‘Surely, Filipinos wouldn’t elect the son of dictator Ferdinand Marcos just 38 years after his corrupt father had been ousted by People Power.’
https://doi.org/10.24135/pjr.v29i1and2.1322
AS WE marched in our pink tee-shirts in solidarity with the diaspora supporting outgoing Vice-President and opposition leader Leni Robredo in Auckland’s Centennial Park in the lead up to the Philippine presidential election in May 2022, the thought weighed heavily on our minds: ‘Surely, Filipinos wouldn’t elect the son of dictator Ferdinand Marcos just 38 years after his corrupt father had been ousted by People Power.’
https://doi.org/10.24135/pjr.v29i1and2.1322
Research Interests:
Review of Prisoner 345: My 2330 days in Guantánamo, by Sami Alhaj. Doha, Qatar: Al Jazeera Media Network, 2019. 126 pages. No ISBN. The Refugee’s Messenger: Lost Stories Retold, edited by Tarek Cherkaoui. Istanbul, Turkey: TRT World... more
Review of Prisoner 345: My 2330 days in Guantánamo, by Sami Alhaj. Doha, Qatar: Al Jazeera Media Network, 2019. 126 pages. No ISBN.
The Refugee’s Messenger: Lost Stories Retold, edited by Tarek Cherkaoui. Istanbul, Turkey: TRT World Research Centre, 2019. 192 Pages. ISBN 978-605-9984-28-7
A RECENT article in the Middle East Eye pilloried the United States lack of preparedness for the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic. Lamenting that if only the world’s richest democracy could have instead of frittering away trillions of dollars on ‘endless wars’ invested in the country’s health infrastructure, the world would be in a better place today. Washington had ‘built an entire infrastructure to counter terrorism and criminalise Muslim communities’, spending almost $6.4 trillion on pointless wars that had killed off half a million people since September 11 2011 (Hilal & Raja, 2020). Yet, which was the biggest threat – the elusive target of the so-called ‘war on terror’, or the pandemic, which killed more than 20,000 Americans and infected a further 500,000 (with numbers still rising when this edition of PJR went to press)?
The Refugee’s Messenger: Lost Stories Retold, edited by Tarek Cherkaoui. Istanbul, Turkey: TRT World Research Centre, 2019. 192 Pages. ISBN 978-605-9984-28-7
A RECENT article in the Middle East Eye pilloried the United States lack of preparedness for the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic. Lamenting that if only the world’s richest democracy could have instead of frittering away trillions of dollars on ‘endless wars’ invested in the country’s health infrastructure, the world would be in a better place today. Washington had ‘built an entire infrastructure to counter terrorism and criminalise Muslim communities’, spending almost $6.4 trillion on pointless wars that had killed off half a million people since September 11 2011 (Hilal & Raja, 2020). Yet, which was the biggest threat – the elusive target of the so-called ‘war on terror’, or the pandemic, which killed more than 20,000 Americans and infected a further 500,000 (with numbers still rising when this edition of PJR went to press)?
Research Interests:
Review of Philippine Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists. Manila: Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication and International Media Support. 2019. 45 pages. ISBN 9789718502204 A DECADE after the world’s worst atrocity... more
Review of Philippine Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists. Manila: Asian Institute of Journalism and Communication and International Media Support. 2019. 45 pages. ISBN 9789718502204
A DECADE after the world’s worst atrocity inflicted on journalists in a single event, a remarkable publishing event happened in Manila that could set a trend in the global fight against impunity for the killers of journalists. On the eve of the date marking the massacre of 58 people—including 32 journalists, a broad coalition launched a strategic blueprint for the survival of news workers. I was privileged to be present at this stellar event, the only New Zealand journalist or media academic to be invited to the launch of the Philippine Plan of Action in the Safety of Journalists (PPASJ).
A DECADE after the world’s worst atrocity inflicted on journalists in a single event, a remarkable publishing event happened in Manila that could set a trend in the global fight against impunity for the killers of journalists. On the eve of the date marking the massacre of 58 people—including 32 journalists, a broad coalition launched a strategic blueprint for the survival of news workers. I was privileged to be present at this stellar event, the only New Zealand journalist or media academic to be invited to the launch of the Philippine Plan of Action in the Safety of Journalists (PPASJ).
Research Interests:
Review of The Road: Uprising in West Papua, by John Martinkus. Carlton, Vic: Black Books Inc. 2020. 114 pages. 978-1-760-64242-6 The rugged mountainous highlands of New Guinea stretch from the Owen Stanley range in the east of the... more
Review of The Road: Uprising in West Papua, by John Martinkus. Carlton, Vic: Black Books Inc. 2020. 114 pages. 978-1-760-64242-6
The rugged mountainous highlands of New Guinea stretch from the Owen Stanley range in the east of the independent state of Papua New Guinea through the Star mountains straddling the border with Indonesian-ruled West Papua westwards through the perpetually snow-capped Puncak Jaya, at 4884m the highest peak.
The rugged mountainous highlands of New Guinea stretch from the Owen Stanley range in the east of the independent state of Papua New Guinea through the Star mountains straddling the border with Indonesian-ruled West Papua westwards through the perpetually snow-capped Puncak Jaya, at 4884m the highest peak.
Research Interests:
Papua Blood: A Photographer’s Eyewitness Account of West Papua Over 30 Years, by Peter Bang. Copenhagen, Denmark: Remote Frontlines, 2018. 248 pages. ISBN 978-87-430-0101-0 See No Evil: New Zealand’s Betrayal of the People of West... more
Papua Blood: A Photographer’s Eyewitness Account of West Papua Over 30 Years, by Peter Bang. Copenhagen, Denmark: Remote Frontlines, 2018. 248 pages. ISBN 978-87-430-0101-0
See No Evil: New Zealand’s Betrayal of the People of West Papua, by Maire Leadbeater. Dunedin, NZ: Otago University Press, 2018. 310 pages. ISBN 978-1-98-853121-2
TWO damning and contrasting books about Indonesian colonialism in the Pacific, both by activist participants in Europe and New Zealand, have recently been published. Overall, they are excellent exposés of the harsh repression of the Melanesian people of West Papua and a world that has largely turned a blind eye to to human rights violations.
See No Evil: New Zealand’s Betrayal of the People of West Papua, by Maire Leadbeater. Dunedin, NZ: Otago University Press, 2018. 310 pages. ISBN 978-1-98-853121-2
TWO damning and contrasting books about Indonesian colonialism in the Pacific, both by activist participants in Europe and New Zealand, have recently been published. Overall, they are excellent exposés of the harsh repression of the Melanesian people of West Papua and a world that has largely turned a blind eye to to human rights violations.
Research Interests:
The First Casualty: From the Front Lines of the Global War on Journalism, by Peter Greste. Sydney: Viking. 2017. 335 pages. ISBN 9780670079261. PETER GRESTE, the Australian journalist who became a thorn in the side of the harsh Egyptian... more
The First Casualty: From the Front Lines of the Global War on Journalism, by Peter Greste. Sydney: Viking. 2017. 335 pages. ISBN 9780670079261.
PETER GRESTE, the Australian journalist who became a thorn in the side of the harsh Egyptian authorities from the inside of prison cells and in a courtroom cage for 400 days, hasn’t wasted opportunities since he became the UNESCO chair of journalism and communication at the University of Queensland earlier this year. He chose World Press Freedom Day as the moment to launch a new independent body dedicated to campaigning for reporters whose ‘voices have been stifled’ by regimes around the world.
PETER GRESTE, the Australian journalist who became a thorn in the side of the harsh Egyptian authorities from the inside of prison cells and in a courtroom cage for 400 days, hasn’t wasted opportunities since he became the UNESCO chair of journalism and communication at the University of Queensland earlier this year. He chose World Press Freedom Day as the moment to launch a new independent body dedicated to campaigning for reporters whose ‘voices have been stifled’ by regimes around the world.
Research Interests:
After Charlie Hebdo: Terror, Racism and Free Speech, edited by Gavan Titley, Des Freedman, Gholam Khiabany and Aurélien Mondon. London: Zed Books. 2017. 313 pages. ISBN 9781783609383 IN OCTOBER 2016, I returned to that stunning and... more
After Charlie Hebdo: Terror, Racism and Free Speech, edited by Gavan Titley, Des Freedman, Gholam Khiabany and Aurélien Mondon. London: Zed Books. 2017. 313 pages. ISBN 9781783609383
IN OCTOBER 2016, I returned to that stunning and iconic French eighth monastery Mont St Michel, once also a post-Revolution jail for political prisoners, and was struck by the sight of a garrison of soldiers – part of the Vigipirate programme. Vigipirate has parallels with the US Homeland Security Advisor system and has now been in place in various forms for almost 26 years, since Bush’s Gulf War in 1991. Based on laws adopted in 1959 during the Algerian War of Independence, it was first suspended for a while after the Gulf War and then introduced again in 1995 after a car bomb blew up outside a Jewish school in Lyon. Vigipirate has since then gone through various phases and updates with the 1995 Paris Metro bombing, 2004 Madrid terror train attack and the 2005 London underground bombing. Official documents now designate the programme as ‘permanent’.
IN OCTOBER 2016, I returned to that stunning and iconic French eighth monastery Mont St Michel, once also a post-Revolution jail for political prisoners, and was struck by the sight of a garrison of soldiers – part of the Vigipirate programme. Vigipirate has parallels with the US Homeland Security Advisor system and has now been in place in various forms for almost 26 years, since Bush’s Gulf War in 1991. Based on laws adopted in 1959 during the Algerian War of Independence, it was first suspended for a while after the Gulf War and then introduced again in 1995 after a car bomb blew up outside a Jewish school in Lyon. Vigipirate has since then gone through various phases and updates with the 1995 Paris Metro bombing, 2004 Madrid terror train attack and the 2005 London underground bombing. Official documents now designate the programme as ‘permanent’.
Research Interests:
Book review by Shailendra Singh. Above all, David Robie’s Don’t Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific is a damning indictment of the parlous state of affairs in parts of this region. The book is also a... more
Book review by Shailendra Singh. Above all, David Robie’s Don’t Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific is a damning indictment of the parlous state of affairs in parts of this region. The book is also a telling account of the continuous failure of leadership on a fairly grand scale, with ordinary people bearing the brunt of it.
Research Interests:
David Robie's book, Eyes of Fire, tells the story of the last voyage of the original Rainbow Warrior, a Greenpeace campaign vessel bombed by French secret agents on 10 July 1985. Thirty years ago, the Rainbow Warrior and her crew were... more
David Robie's book, Eyes of Fire, tells the story of the last voyage of the original Rainbow Warrior, a Greenpeace campaign vessel bombed by French secret agents on 10 July 1985. Thirty years ago, the Rainbow Warrior and her crew were invited to help the people of Rongelap Atoll escape from their nuclear contaminated island. The events that followed still haunt the Pacific. On this Little Island microsite, we look at the legacy of this vessel, its small crew of resourceful Greenpeace activists and the Pacific Island communities they tried to help. Main article by David Robie: "Rainbow Warrior redux: French terrorism in the Pacific". Plus other video and image resources and oral histories.