MEDIA: FIJI SUN CONDEMNED IN SENATE OVER PHOTO Pacific Media Watch: 6 May 2000 *Link Fiji's newest daily newspaper, the Fiji Sun, has been condemned in the Senate for misrepresentation over a front-page photograph and caption depicting two senators, according to radio and press reports. Daily Post slams Fiji Sun, Fiji TV ethics World Press Freedom Day reports on Pacific Journalism Online (USP) World Press Freedom Day reports on Pacific Islands Report

FIJI: I CAN'T SACK PM, SAYS RATU MARA
Pasifik Nius/Daily Post: 6 May 2000
By Mitheleshni Gurdayal President Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara will not dismiss Prime Minister Mahenda Chaudhry's government despite mounting pressure last month from the revived Taukei Movement, his office indicated in response to questions from the Daily Post.

TIMOR LOROSAE: THE SHACKLETON-COLEMAN LETTERS
Asia Pacific Network/Joyo: 3 May 2000
Stephen Coleman, who claims to be a former Australian secret service agent, has attacked Shirley Shackleton with personal abuse in email messages through Joyo@aol.com following the AFP article with the heading WIDOW DEMANDS MURDER CHARGE AGAINST FORMER INDONESIAN MINISTER. Shackleton has asked for the correspondence to be made public.

POLITICS: CHAUDHRY SAYS FIJIAN COMMUNITY 'WILL NOT BE FOOLED'
Pasifik Nius: 30 April 2000
By Sudesh Kissun
Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry responds to the indigenous Fijian protests against his government by saying the Fijian commmunity would not be fooled, and did not want a repeat of the coup year of 1987.

POLITICS: RABUKA OF FIJI - A BIOGRAPHY OF CONTROVERSY
Asia Pacific Network: 29 April 2000
By Sanjay Ramesh
The Rabuka biography traces various stages of the controversial soldier and politician. This review gives insights and analysis of his interpretation of the events leading up to the coups of 1987, and seven years as a Prime Minister and constitution reformer.

TIMOR LOROSAE: WIDOW DEMANDS MURDER CHARGE AGAINST FORMER INDON MINISTER
Agence France Presse: 26 April 2000
The widow of one of five Australian journalists killed in East Timor 25 years ago has called for charges to be laid against a former Indonesian minister blamed for the deaths.

TIMOR LOROSAE: OPINION - ASHES TO ASHES, DUST TO DUST
Sydney Morning Herald: 26 April 2000
By Shirley Shackleton
After 25 years of pain and anguish, Shirley Shackleton has finally come face to face with an eyewitness to the murder of her journalist husband, Greg, in Balibo, East Timor.

MEDIA: REVAMPING OF DAILY POST IN FIJI READERSHIP WAR
Pacific Media Watch/The Review: April 2000 *Link
By Tamarasi Digitaki
Late last year, when Fiji's third national newspaper was launched, things were expected to heat up in the media industry. The Fiji Sun, was hailed by its creators as the newspaper that would shake up the market. But while response to the paper has been lukewarm, it has certainly achieved one thing - shaking up the market.

MEDIA: TIMORESE JOURNALISTS STILL STRIVE FOR INDEPENDENCE
Pacific Media Watch/The Melbourne Age: 22 April 2000 *Link
By Wilson da Silva
With the Indonesian military gone and independence looming, East Timor's journalists can now report freely. But it's not an easy task when your country is still a smoking ruin. Being a media baron in East Timor actually costs money. The economics of an independent media.

MEDIA: OPEN LETTER CHALLENGES DWU STALKING
Pacific Media Watch: 20 April 2000 *Link
After a long-standing campaign of stalking directed at current and former journalism staff of Papua New Guinea's Divine Word University, a disgruntled former staff member of DWU, Bill White, has sent an email to senior journalism staff of DWU, the University of the South Pacific, Queensland University and Bond University in Queensland making various allegations against DWU. Here, PMW puts these allegations in context with an open letter from Trevor Cullen, one of the targets of the attacks.

Luagalau. TVNZ

SAMOA: POLITICIANS FOUND GUILTY OF MURDER BBC: 13 April 2000 *Link Two former Samoan cabinet ministers have been found guilty of murdering a fellow politician. Dismissed Women's Affairs Minister, Leafa Vitale, 57, and ex-Communications Minister, Toi Aukuso, 68, face the death penalty for the murder of Luagalau Levaula Kamu, 44, during a political gathering in July 1999. AFP coverage Earlier links Samoa Live Samoa Observer

MEDIA: WANSOLWARA'S APRIL EDITION INDEX
Wansolwara: 13 April 2000 *Link
Print and audio reports on Pacific USPNet 2000 telecommunications, Radio Pacific's future, regional reports, Fiji's street kids, "missing" $F27,000 in student funds, media coverage, regional student sports.

EAST TIMOR: JOURNALIST'S EXPERIENCE LEADS HIM ON A CRUSADE
Mobile (Alabama) Register: 6 April 2000
By Joe Danborn
Noted freelance writer Allan Nairn hoped to prevent bloodshed in 1991 when he and another American journalist literally stepped between a line of Indonesian soldiers and a crowd of pro-democracy protesters, moments before the troops opened fire and slaughtered hundreds of the demonstrators. Nairn has returned to Indonesia at least three times since then, despite being banned from the country as a national security threat.

MEDIA: FIJI JOURNALISTS' SALARIES, FIMA UNDER SCRUTINY
Pacific Media Watch: 5 April 2000 *Link
Fiji's Assistant Information Minister Lekh Ram Vayeshnoi strongly criticises journalists' salaries and working conditions, and the collapse of the PINA affiliate Fiji Islands Media Association (FIMA) and blames media companies. He claims the starting salary of some journalists is below those of civil servants and garment workers.

MEDIA: TACKLING THE DINOSAURS OF PACIFIC JOURNALISM
Wansolwara: 3 April 2000 *Link
By David Robie
Referring to an editorial attack by Islands Business on the journalism programme at the University of the South Pacific and other recent incidents, columnist David Robie reviews the state of ethics in the Fiji media and concludes: "It is the dinosaurs of Pacific journalism who should get to grips with the basics of journalism - facts, accuracy and balance."

HUMAN RIGHTS: ABOLITION OF MANDATORY JAIL LAWS GAINS SUPPORT
Inter Press Service: 29 March 2000 *Link
By Sonny Inbaraj
A Northern Territory lobby group in Australia comprising lawyers has launched a civil disobedience campaign to highlight its opposition to mandatory sentencing laws for juveniles, which have been described as discriminatory. The members of the "Territorians for Effective Sentencing" are considering getting themselves arrested to dramatise their cause.

FIJI: COMMENTARY ON OPPOSITION, LAND AND RABUKA
Pacific Islands Report: 29 March 2000 *Link
By Sanjay Ramesh
Apart from land and media, the debate over the coups of 1987 has once again rejuvenated by the former Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, who launched his autobiography at the National Press Gallery in Canberra on March 15. The book Rabuka of Fiji -- written by Professor John Sharpham of Central Queensland University -- suggests that the President of Fiji, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, may have known about the coup beforehand. The President has been questioned in a number of previous publications and in 1992, The Daily Post of Fiji and Rabuka apologized for suggesting Mara's involvement. However, this time around, Rabuka remains steadfast in his claim..

FORESTRY: FIJI'S MAHOGANY FORESTS SET FOR THE CHOP
Scoop: 29 March 2000 *Link
By John Howard
Fiji's plans to harvest part of its matured mahogany forests, claimed to be the largest in the world and worth billions of dollars in revenue, has been attacked by Fijians saying the Government is disposing of it at bargain prices.

MEDIA: MEGAPHONE FOR THE MASSES OR MORAL SINKHOLE?
Inter Press Service: 26 March 2000 *Link
By Mark Dery
Matt Drudge is the best-known brand in the online retailing of hearsay and juicy half-truth. For many in the mainstream media, he represents the worst in online journalism. But views are polarised about cyberhype or the promise of more democratic media.

MEDIA: OUSTED ANTARA CHIEF PROTESTS AGAINST SMH Pacific Media Watch: 26 March 2000 *Link Parni Hadi, outgoing chief of Antara national news agency, has lodged a strong protest against the Australian daily the Sydney Morning Herald, which has accused Antara of spreading anti-Australia reports during the referendum process in East Timor.

MEDIA: COUNCIL ACTION COULD 'FORCE NEW LEGISLATION'
Pacific Media Watch: 26 March 2000 *Link
Fiji's Assistant Information Minister Lekh Ram Vayeshnoi claims that the Media Council has compromised its impartiality and the government will be forced to implement legilsation to address "bias".

POLITICS: THE CONFESSIONS OF A COUP LEADER
The Press (NZ): 23 March 2000 *Link
First it was President Bill Clinton. Now former Fiji coup leader Sitiveni Rabuka has a confession or two to make about other women. In Auckland, to promote his new biography, Rabuka, 51, who was ousted as prime minister last year, fronted up about his personal indiscretions: "I have admitted I'm no angel ... I have been weak in those areas," he said.

MEDIA: WAHID SACKS EDITOR AND DEMANDS 'HONEST NEWS'
Pacific Media Watch: 22 March 2000 *Link
By Lindsay Murdoch
Indonesia's President Abdurrahman Wahid has ordered a shake-up of the country's official news agency, Antara, removing its editor-in-chief and demanding it be more independent. For months last year Antara published fiercely anti-Australian stories about the role of Australian troops in East Timor which prompted complaints from Australian diplomats in Jakarta about their accuracy.

MEDIA: ISLANDS BUSINESS SWIPES CONTINUE
Pacific Journalism Online (USP): 19 March 2000 *Link
Islands Business magazine publisher Robert Keith-Reid and his colleagues continue their misinformed swipes against the journalism programme at the University of the South Pacific - and against the Cafe Pacific publisher personally.

WEST PAPUA: FINDINGS OVER 'BLOOD ON THE CROSS'
Tapol/Pacific Islands Report: 15 March 2000 *Link
"Summary and conclusions of the investigation into the events of 9 May 1996 in Western Papua, entrusted by the ICRC to an outside consultant." Photo and Pacific Journalism Review on ABC Four Corner's "Blood on the Cross" programme

INDONESIA: APOLOGISTS ARE REVISING HISTORY TO ABSOLVE JAKARTA
The Age, Melbourne: 15 March 2000 *Link
By Scott Burchill
Indonesia would not have been able to illegally occupy and terrorise East Timor for a quarter of a century without the support it received from the West, particularly Australia. The tactics employed by pro-integrationists in Australia to ensure Canberra's diplomatic collaboration with Jakarta were often crude, but they were remarkably effective.

MEDIA: ROCKET SCIENCE - HOW CORPORATE MEDIA SUBVERT DEMOCRACY
Media Channel: 15 March 2000 *Link
An outspoken critic of corporate media, Robert McChesney is also a professor of communications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Here he gives a wide-ranging account of private power, public broadcasting and how corporate media subvert democracy.

MEDIA: DEADLY DUTY - 1990s A DANGEROUS DECADE FOR JOURNALISTS
Editor and Publisher Magazine: 13 March 2000
By Joe Strupp
Many foreign editors and overseas reporters from U.S. newspapers contend that covering military skirmishes and political upheavals has become more dangerous since 1990. Most say the danger has increased because many of the conflicts involve smaller, disorganised factions that don't have the same respect for international law and the Geneva convention as those in the past.

MEDIA: THE TRUTH ABOUT JOHN LENNON AND THE MI5 FILES
The Nation: 13 March 2000 *Link
The headline in the Sunday Times of London was spectacular: Lennon Funded Terrorists and Trotskyists. It was also erroneous. ABC News and other US media presented their own garbled versions of the story. But behind the errors lies a fascinating and significant story about a renegade former intelligence officer for MI5, the British intelligence agency, named David Shayler.

MEDIA: TOP NZ BROADCASTER JOINS USP JOURNALISM
Pacific Journalism Online: 7 March 2000 *Link
Pat Craddock, a broadcaster with three decades of experience with Radio New Zealand, the BBC and in the Pacific, is joining the University of the South Pacific journalism programme.

MEDIA: PJR PUBLISHES SPECIAL EDITION ON EAST TIMOR, WEST PAPUA
Pacific Journalism Review/Pacific Media Watch: 1 March 2000 *Link
Pacific Journalism Review has published a special issue on the troubles in East Timor, West Papua and the media's responses to them. The edition also features developments in Pacific media councils, Fiji Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry's war of words with the news media, health reporting, an attempt to censor a website and other articles.

MEDIA: PNG JOURNALISTS 'MOST QUALIFIED', SAYS NEW RESEARCH
Pasifik Nius: 28 February 2000 *Link
A Papua New Guinea newspaper reports on new research survey of 12 news organisations which shows that Papua New Guinea journalists are generally older, more experienced and more qualified than their counterparts in the Fiji Islands.

MEDIA: STRIKE BEGINS AT TAHITI'S RFO RADIO, TELEVISION
Pasifik Nius: 27 February 2000 *Link
A "roving" strike has begun at French Polynesia's state-owned Reseau France Outremer (RFO, France Overseas Network) radio and television station over understaffing issues, according to the daily newspaper La Depeche de Tahiti. Journalists and technicians from the station are protesting against the implementation of a 35-hour working week, which, they claim, leaves the station unable to cover all the shifts.

POLITICS: FIJI VICE-PRESIDENT SLAMS CONSTITUTION MOVE
Pasifik Nius: 26 February 2000 *Link
Vice-president Ratu Josefa Iloilo has criticised the Fiji Islands Government for wanting to amend the Constitution so soon after its promulgation. And he says the changes are likely to stir up racial tension.

MEDIA: INDONESIAN PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS CHALLENGED
Pacific Media Watch: 22 February 2000 *Link
By Kafil Yamin
Indonesia's respected newsmagazine Tempo probably thought it was merely addressing an issue that many members of the local media had been dodging for months. But right after the popular weekly came out with an article in its Jan 31-Feb 6 issue that said the media had taken sides in covering the Christian-Muslim clashes in the Moluccas, furious complaints poured into the Tempo newsroom -- regarding the article's own alleged prejudices.

Children in West Timor camp. Timor Today

TIMOR LOROSAE: WEEKLY'S STAFF WORKS WITHOUT PAY AS PRESS STRUGGLES TO EMERGE The Freedom Forum Online: 20 February 2000 *Link By Arnold Zeitlin "People are confused and relying on rumors," says Virgilio da Silva Guterres, chief editor of East Timor's first independence-era newspaper, Lalalok (or Mirror), a photocopied weekly publication that first appeared in January. Trained in Indonesia as a mechanical engineer, Guterres was arrested in Jakarta in 1991 and jailed for two years after a demonstration protesting the Indonesian army's shooting of demonstrators at a cemetery in Dili.

HUMAN RIGHTS: HOWARD'S DISREGARD FOR OBLIGATIONS SHOCKS AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL
Amnesty International: 18 February 2000
Amnesty News Service
Prime Minister John Howard's repeated dismissal of Australian violations of international standards reveals a shocking disregard of his country's obligations, says Amnesty International. Highlighting the recent death of a 15-year-old Aboriginal boy serving a mandatory detention term, the human rights body says the Howard government has persistently refused to act on laws and practices which UN bodies have found inconsistent with Australia's human rights obligations.

MEDIA: FIJI SUN EDITORIAL BOARD RESIGNS OVER ETHICS
Pacific Media Watch: 11 February 2000 *Link
The two-member editorial board of the troubled Fiji Sun newspaper has resigned in an ethical dispute over editorial content, according to industry sources. The two journalists have confirmed that they quit in a row over a controversial editorial.

TIMOR LOROSAE: LETTERS EXPOSE THE MILITARY PLAN FOR FORCED 'EVACUATION' OF 250,000 PEOPLE
The Independent (UK): 5 February 2000
By Richard Lloyd Parry
How secret letters have shown that the Indonesian military, after accepting the likelihood of defeat in East Timor, executed a plan for an "evacuation" ­ the forced deportation of 250,000 people to Indonesian West Timor, after the vote for independence was announced in September 1999.

TIMOR LOROSAE: HOW JAKARTA'S GENERALS PLANNED THE CAMPAIGN OF TERROR
The Independent (UK): 5 February 2000
By Richard Lloyd Parry
Documents obtained by The Independent in Dili, and analysed in Jakarta by Indonesian investigators and Western diplomatic sources, provide evidence of what has long been suspected, but never proved - that, for months before the referendum on East Timor's independence in August 1999, it was being systematically undermined by Indonesia's top generals.

MEDIA: VANUATU OMBUDSMAN CONCERNED ABOUT GAGGING BID AGAINST TRADING POST OVER SHIP DISASTER NEWS
Vanuatu Trading Post/PMW: 1 February 2000 *Link
Vanuatu's Ombudsman, Hannington Alatoa, says he is concern over the attempt by the Vanuatu Government to gag the Trading Post from carrying any further news on the sinking of an island ship with the loss of 27 people on board. He is also concerned over the delay in the release of the official commission of inquiry reports on MV Latua and the Vanair Twin Otter disasters.

MEDIA: JAKARTA'S PRESS CONCEALED ARMY'S CRUCIAL ROLE IN TIMOR LOROSAE
Toward Freedom [U.S. political journal]: 48:7, January 2000
By Marianne Kearney
A week after the East Timorese voted overwhelmingly for independence and hundreds of journalists and observers fled, one thing was obvious. The violence engulfing this half-island wasn't just the work of a ragtag group of pro-Indonesian militia, but rather reflected a highly organised campaign. Although obvious to Western reporters, that fact nevertheless escaped the notice of most of Indonesia's press.
Indonesian view of Australian media coverage

TIMOR LOROSAE: CORONER FINDS INDONESIAN SOLDIERS PROBABLY SHOT DUTCH JOURNALIST
Pacific Media Watch: 28 January 2000
A coroner has concluded that a Dutch journalist, Sander Thoenes, who was killed in East Timor (Timor Lorosae) last year was probably shot by Indonesian soldiers. But he says the inquest has been hampered by a lack of witnesses from the Indonesian military.

MALUKU: WHILE ELEPHANTS FIGHT, THE PEOPLE OF MALUKU DIE
Asia Pacific-Network: 27 January 2000
By George Aditjondro
The chain of sectarian conflict in Maluku now spreading throughout Sulawesi, Kalimantan, West Nusa Tenggara and Java has been triggered and fed by a number of provocateurs paid by the Suharto family and several cronies, according to monitoring by a sociologist and two human rights organizations, KONTRAS and Komnas HAM.

Luagalau. TVNZ

JUSTICE: COVERAGE OF SAMOA'S ASSASSINATION TRIAL Samoa Live: 23 January 2000 *Link Alatise Vitale, the convicted murderer of the late Samoan Minister of Works Luagalau Levaula Kamu, has been spared the death sentence. The murder trials of his father, Leafa Vitale, and Toi Aukuso Cain, both former cabinet ministers, began on January 17 - follow the case on: Samoa Live Samoa Observer Saga of murder and corruption dismays Samoans

TIMOR LOROSAE: FIRST TETUN NEWSPAPER HITS DILI STREETS
Pacific Media Watch: 23 January 2000
By Virgilio da Silva Guterres
East Timor's first Tetun language news paper hit the streets on 18 January 2000. The weekly, titled Lalenok, was distributed free in Dili. The first editorial is scathing about the problems facing East Timor, the performance of aid agencies and the silence from political leaders.

WEST PAPUA: SOEHARTO FORCES 'BUILDING MILITIAS'
Sydney Morning Herald: 21 January 2000
By Andrew Kilvert
Human rights activists warn that military authorities and political enforcers associated with the former Soeharto regime in Indonesia appear to be building up East Timor-style militias in the contested province of West Papua.

West Irian becomes Papua

MEDIA: CRITICS' BOYCOTT OF MALAYSIAN PRO-GOVT PRESS RAISES STAKES
Inter Press Service: 20 January 2000
By Anil Netto
Stung by the Malaysian government's crackdown on a top opposition newspaper, its political critics have called for a boycott of selected pro- government media from Feb 1. The opposition-led boycott would be the second such campaign launched by opposition parties and different pressure groups since the ouster of former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim in September 1998..

POLITICS: TITEWHAI HARAWIRA EDUCATES A NATION
Scoop: 18 January 2000
By Alastair Thompson
Scoop discusses the ongoing debate over Maori Activist Titewhai Harawira's stand against New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark speaking out of turn on the Waitangi Marae and concludes that some good is coming of all the hot air.

MEDIA: FIJI TIMES APOLOGISES OVER 'FAT CATS' STORY
Pacific Media Watch: 18 January 2000
The Fiji Times, the country's largest daily newspaper and the only foreign-owned one, has apologised over a business "fat cats" story in its long-running dispute with Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry over media accuracy and professionalism.
PM sues Fiji Times

MALAYSIA: NEW CRACKDOWN AGAINST OPPOSITION UNDER WAY
Inter Press Service: 13 January 2000
The arrests on sedition charges of four people linked to Malaysia's opposition, hours after Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad left for an overseas holiday, have signalled what critics warn will be a wider crackdown soon. One of the arrested people is Karpal Singh, who is also the lead lawyer for ousted and jailed Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.

MEDIA: UNIVERSITY WINS TOP JOURNALISM AWARDS
Pasifik Nius: 12 January 2000
The University of the South Pacific journalism programme has won two honours in Australia's 1999 Ossie Awards for the best student journalism in the region - and won an award in Fiji for human rights.

BOUGAINVILLE: NEW PAPERS REVEAL AUSTRALIAN ROLE IN USE OF FORCE
Inter Press Service: 3 January 2000
By Bob Burton
Australia's role in the already shaky peace process for the Bougainville conflict in Papua New Guinea is likely to come under further challenge from independence supporters, following new revelations found in previously secret Australian government documents. They reveal that Canberra considered the use of military force to overcome landowner opposition to the development of the Bougainville copper mine.

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