2004 ARCHIVE:
MEDIA:
NEW SURVEY PUTS PACIFIC TRAINING, PAY UNDER SPOTLIGHT

Asia Pacific Network: 16 December 2004
Fiji journalists have less training and lack journalism qualifications compared with Papua New Guinea but are better paid, according to a new study on Pacific media. However, wages and salaries for journalists in both countries are poor with almost half of surveyed Fiji journalists being paid $10,000 a year or less and more than two-thirds of PNG journalists in the equivalent K10,000 band. A summary of the survey findings, conducted in 2001 by Auckland University of Technology senior lecturer in journalism Dr David Robie, was presented at the Australia-based Journalism Education Association (JEA) conference in Suva, Fiji, last week. The full findings have been published in Mekim Nius.

MEDIA:
NEW BOOK CHALLENGES PACIFIC DONOR MEDIA TRAINING CULTURE

Asia Pacific Network: 16 November 2004
A new book is being published that challenges the South Pacific's culture of short course media training funded by international donors. Mekim Nius also exposes media and the region's politics.
Pictured: Fiji Times publisher Tony Yianni

MEDIA:
ROSS STEVENS AND UNI TAVUR: A KIWI PUBLISHING LEGACY AMONG WANTOKS
Pacific Journalism Review: 9 November 2004
NZ journalist Ross Stevens was the founding lecturer of the Pacific's first journalism school and his legacy included Uni Tavur, a newspaper that began publishing at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1975. by David Robie

MEDIA:
FEW NZ JOURNALISTS SPEAK MAORI
Pacific Media Watch: 7 November 2004
Barely one in five New Zealand journalists can speak Maori, one of the country's two official languages, a new national survey of journalists has found. And most of them describe their fluency as merely "moderate" or "minimal", reports Pacific Journalism Review.

MEDIA:
TRIBUTE TO THE FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW
Asia-Pacific Network/Hongkong Standard: 2 November 2004
To anyone outside journalism, the level of mourning for the death-by-corporate-downsizing of the Dow Jones-owned weekly Far Eastern Economic Review magazine this past week might seem a tad excessive. But I would argue that concern for the demise of this institution - a staple of reporting on the region since shortly after World War II - is both necessary and deserved. by A. Lin Neumann

MEDIA:
THE ART OF DARKNESS - 'KURTZ' IN WEST PAPUA
Asia-Pacific Network/Spinach7: 23 October 2004
‘Kurtz is dead,’ said Mark Davis, SBS Dateline presenter, using the dead-pan, at-toned voice he occasionally wheeled out when Big Bad News had to be delivered. ‘He died of pneumonia and associated tropical ailments. He’s being buried in West Papua and he’s not coming back,’ he added, just in case I had any doubts about the terminality of the event. by Jack Strocchi

NEW ZEALAND:
TVNZ FINALLY BROADCASTS TWO STUNNING DOCUMENTARIES
Asia-Pacific Network/Scoop: 22 October 2004
Perhaps 75,000 people have already seen Someone Else's Country, Alister Barry's feature documentary telling the story of the politics of Rogernomics. It has come to be regarded as a New Zealand classic. After eight years TVNZ is finally screening it - along with In a Land of Plenty.

NEW ZEALAND:
SECOND HIKOI PHOTO ESSAY
Asia-Pacific Network/Scoop: 19 October 2004
Te Waha Nui journalist Edward Gay's pictures of the hikoi in Auckland - images of Maori, Pakeha, politicians and gang members.

NEW ZEALAND:
IN AOTEAROA, IT'S THE YEAR OF PASIFIKA
Asia-Pacific Network: 22 September 2004
'There’s no denying 2004 is the year of Pasifika in Aotearoa - and we still have three months to go. From the entertainment stage to the rugby field, from the halls of wisdom to the corridors of business, Pacific Islanders have been stamping their mark in the Land of the Long White Cloud.' by Kalafi Moala

FIJI:
ETHNIC TENSIONS AND THE RULE OF LAW
Asia-Pacific Network: 22 September 2004
The attempted coup by George Speight on 19 May 2000 and the instability and dislocation that followed had severe repercussions for the rule of law. It underscored the fragility of the concept and its susceptibility to assault by destructive forces within our society. by Ratu Joni Madraiwiwi

MEDIA:
THE KING MUST TAKE RESPONSIBILITY OVER THE POLITICAL TURMOIL
Asia-Pacific Network: 21 September 2004
Tonga’s monarch King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV must accept responsibility for his kingdom’s intense political turmoil. The South Pacific island nation has become unstable politically, socially and economically. by Kalafi Moala

MEDIA:
NZ HERALD JOURNOS REFUSE TO WORK ON SUNDAY EDITION
Pacific Media Watch: 18 September 2004
Journalists at the New Zealand Herald are refusing to work for APN's new Herald on Sunday unless the company offers new staff a collective contract. Staff on the Sunday paper, due to appear on October 3, are on individual contracts.

MEDIA:
40 JOURNOS KILLED SINCE THE START OF THE WAR IN IRAQ

Reporters Sans Frontières: 5 September 2004
At least 40 journalists and media assistants have been killed in Iraq since the war began there in March 2003. Twenty-five of them have been killed this year in the course of their work. Two French journalists are still missing.

EAST TIMOR:
THE WORLD'S YOUNGEST COUNTRY - POOR BUT HAPPY FIVE YEARS ON
BBC World: 4 September 2004
'Five years ago the people of East Timor had their first opportunity to choose their own future and a staggering 98% of registered voters turned out to cast their ballots in favour of independence. What do people have a right to expect five years after winning a Titanic struggle for independence?' - By Jonathan Head

DEVELOPMENT:
SAMOA PLANS INTERNET FOR ALL
BBC World: 24 August 2004
Samoa says it is looking to the internet as a way of developing the country. Samoa has become one of the first Pacific countries to adopt a strategy for information and communications technology.

PACIFIC:
NZ MEDIA COVERAGE OF PACIFIC UNDER FIRE
Scoop/Pacific Media Watch: 23 August 2004
New Zealand media coverage of the South Pacific has been blasted by a Fiji columnist writing in the new journalism school newspaper Te Waha Nui as being mostly about sun, sea and sandy beaches. New Zealanders deserve the truth, says former Fiji Times journalist Sudesh Kissun.

STUDENT MEDIA:
YOUNG JUNKIES REJOICE - FUSE GIVEAWAY EXPOSED

Fighting Talk blog site: 10 August 2004
"So we have a new publication targeted directly at youth, Fuse. Mind you, not one that will necessarily have more substantive stories - they aren't paying their student contributors. With five core sponsors signed up, generating $250k in instant capital, you might think there's the budget to perhaps go at least slightly professional." By Matt Nippert

TERRORISM:
TRUTH OR TALE? EXPERTS ANALYSE FAHRENHEIT 9/11
Australian Broadcasting Corporation: 26 July 2004
Since its release many critics have lined up to shoot down Michael Moore and his film. Renowned journalist, author and commentator Christopher Hitchens describes Fahrenheit 9/11 as "a sinister exercise in moral frivolity, crudely disguised as an exercise in seriousness". His debating partner, George Monbiot is one of the leaders of the anti-war push in Britain, an author and columnist in the Guardian newspaper.

FLASHBACK:
THE IRAQI MEDIA THREE MONTHS AFTER THE WAR - A NEW BUT FRAGILE FREEDOM
Reporters Sans Frontières: 22 July 2003
In this report, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) celebrates the "wind of freedom" that "has gusted through the Iraqi media" since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime. In these three months, roughly 85 newspapers and magazines have been launched, 20 once-banned internet cafés provide unrestricted access to the Internet in Erbil (Iraqi Kurdistan), and stores are selling satellite TV dishes again. But ....

WAR PROFITEERS:
CONTROVERSIAL SANDLINE COMMANDO WINS IRAQ CONTRACT

Corporate Watch: 9 June 2004
Mercenary Lieutenant-Colonel Tim Spicer, whose Sandline work in Papua New Guinea turned into a public relations and military fiasco, has now landed a plum defence contract in Iraq with another company. By Pratap Chatterjee

PACIFIC:
POLITICAL QUAKES SHAKE FRENCH PACIFIC: THE END OF AN ERA
Oceania Flash: 7 June 2004
What has happened in less than three weeks in New Caledonia and French Polynesia during May has been described as a series of "political quakes" that have rocked these two French Pacific dependencies. By Patrick Decloitre

PACIFIC:
PNG REJECTS CALL TO GIVE AUSTRALIANS IMMUNITY
Sydney Morning Herald: 4 June 2004
Demands that Australian police be immune from prosecution while helping to restore law and order in Papua New Guinea have been described as a slur on the country's legal system. The Foreign Minister, Rabbie Namaliu made the criticism of Australia's stand on the eve of talks in Port Moresby with his Australian counterpart, Alexander Downer.

MIDDLE EAST:
'TRAIL OF BLOOD' - INTERVIEW WITH JOHN PILGER
Radio Netherlands: 21 May 2004
'Nothing more vividly sums up the horrific situation in Iraq than what happened on Wednesday of this week when American helicopters attacked a wedding party in the west of Iraq killing 40 mostly women and children, a massacre. How long is the world going to stand for this? When I say the world I'm talking about civilized humanity.' - John Pilger
More torture revelations in Iraq | Alternative Iraq links

MEDIA:
'THE FIVE BIGGEST LIES BUSH TOLD US ABOUT IRAQ'
Alternet/BBC:
13 May 2004
This new Alternet book by Christopher Scheer, Lakshmi Chaudhry and Robert Scheer, is an insightful and incisive primer exposing the bullying and mendacious misinformation campaign George Bush's White House used to secure the support of Congress, the media and a majority of Americans for a preemptive invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Five biggest lies | Power of the Possible

MILITARY:
VIETNAM'S INDEPENDENCE VICTORY - DIEN BIEN PHU 50 YEARS ON
Agence France-Presse/BBC:
7 May 2004
Vietnam's struggle for independence from French colonialism culminated in one of history's epic battles - the 56-day-long siege of Dien Bien Phu.
General Vo Nguyen Giap, 92, is still telling stories of the battle
On 7 May Vietnam celebrated the 50th anniversary of a stunning victory that brought an abrupt end to French imperial rule throughout Indochina. By Tom Fawthrop AFP picture. BBC pictures | Dien Bien Phu

POLITICS:
TEN THOUSAND PLUS IN HIKOI PROTEST ON NZ PARLIAMENT OVER SEASHORE POLICY

Agencies: 5 May 2004
Between 10,000 and 20,000 mainly Maori protesters marched on Parliament in their protest hikoi march against the New Zealand government's seashore nationalisation policies in the biggest demonstration since the 1981 Springbok rugby tour. AFP picture. BBC | Scoop

MILITARY:
THE ABU GHRAIB PRISON TORTURE PHOTOS - US-STYLE 'LIBERATION' FOR IRAQ
Scoop: 3 May 2004
Some of the shocking photos that led to an investigation into conditions at Abu Ghraib prison, Iraq, now run by the US-led occupation authorities, as revealed in a controversial report broadcast by CBS on 60 Minutes.

MEDIA:
RSF NAMES TONGAN KING AS 'PRESS PREDATOR'
Pacific Media Watch: 3 May 2004
King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV has been named as one of six hereditary rulers proclaimed global 'predators of press freedom' in a new book published today by Paris-based media monitoring group Reporters Sans Frontières. The Fiji government was also criticised.

FIJI:
FUNERAL HONOURS FOR RATU MARA - FAREWELL TO THE 'FATHER' OF FIJI
BBC World: 30 April 2004
Six days of funeral events have been taking place in Fiji for the country's former leader, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara, who died at the age of 83.

MEDIA:
FORMER JOURNALISM COORDINATOR DAVID ROBIE GRADUATES PhD WITH HIS STUDENTS
Wansolwara Online: April 2004
The former coordinator of the USP journalism programme, David Robie, has been awarded a doctorate in history/politics while three of his former students - Akka Rimon (Kiribati), Lauren Robinson and Kaveeta Chand (both Fiji) - received bachelors degrees, majoring in journalism.. By Angeline Lal

MEDIA:
USP JOURNALISM'S COMING OF AGE
Wansolwara - Fourth Estate: April 2004
The University of the South Pacific’s regional journalism programme marks its 10th anniversary this year. It is a milestone worth commemorating, the decade being one of progress and achievement. Not only has the programme survived longer than some had predicted, it has produced 76 journalism graduates between 1996 and 2003. By Shailendra Singh

MEDIA:
END OF ERA FOR RUIA MAI - MAORI RADIO PIONEER
Asia Pacific Network/Ruia Mai: 7 April 2004
The head of Maori radio service Ruia Mai has paid tribute to the many staff who contributed to the production of thousands of hours of Maori language radio programming for the iwi radio network over the past eight years. The station has lost the contract for network Maori news.

BOUGAINVILLE:
AUTHOR TELLS OF WAR WOMEN'S SURIVIVAL STRUGGLE
Pacific Media Watch: 5 April 2004
Peace advocate Josephine Sirivi today talked of the personal stories of Bougainville's women survivors during a decade of civil war that inspired her into publishing a new book about the conflict. Speaking at the New Zealand launching of the book As Mothers of the Land, she said she thought of the special life stories she wanted her children to know after the conflict had devastated her homeland.

MEDIA:
NOW THE STORY REALLY BEGINS FOR MAORI TELEVISION
NZ Herald: 4 April 2004
'As our interview draws to a close, Maori Television news editor Te Anga Nathan glances at his watch. He grimaces theatrically when he sees the time. "Now I've lost 50 minutes." ' Launched with a hiss and a roar, Maori Television is now into the routine grind of producing material every day, week in and week out. By Diana McCurdy

WAR ON TERRORISM:
JOHN PILGER ON IRAQ: WE CAN WIN A PEACEFUL WORLD!
Green-Left Weekly: 31 March 2004
Let us be clear on the facts of what happened one year ago on March 20. The United States, aided by Britain and Australia, attacked a sovereign country, unprovoked, and in breach of the most basic principles of international law. By the most conservative estimates, up to 55,000 people were killed, including at least 10,000 civilians, a figure confirmed this week by Amnesty International.

WAR ON TERRORISM:
NZ'S SECURITY INTELLIGENCE SERVICE - THE CASE FOR BIG SHAKEUP AT THE TOP
Scoop: 30 March 2004
In an interview with the Listener magazine in 2003, the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security suggested new blood at the top of the SIS would be a good-thing - it would "put the SIS back on its toes perhaps". He has been accused pf prejudicing the defence of detained Algerian refugee Ahmed Zaoui. By Selwyn Manning

MEDIA:
MAORI TELEVISION'S ROCKY ROAD TO BROADCAST DAY IN NEW ZEALAND
Pacific Media Watch: 23 March 2004
Eight days out from the launch of Maori Television, New Zealanders are being asked to reserve judgment on the channel until they see it. Board chairman Wayne Walden has asked Maori and non-Maori to put aside any preconceptions they hold until next Sunday. The station, which aims to revitalise Maori language and provide a window into the Maori world, has had a rocky passage since it was first mooted in 2001.

MEDIA:
EAST TIMOR: A NEW MEDIA FOR A NEW COUNTRY
Pacific Media Watch: 20 March 2004
A Knight Fellow, Carolyn Robinson, profiles her new, 'home-grown' approach in journalism teaching in East Timor. Media outlets remain in limited number. There are just two daily newspapers with a combined circulation of 1000 copies.

TERROR:
ANALYSIS: AL-QAIDA'S SPANISH VENDETTA
Haaretz.com: 14 March 2004
"The war against Iraq will not eradicate the threat of terror but, perversely, it may bolster it." That was the comment, on the eve of the United States-led invasion of Iraq, of Spanish left-winger and crusading judge Balthazar Garzon, one of the most tireless campaigners against Al-Qaida. Progressive minds in the European Union already worry whether this tragic 3-11 killing almost 200 people might turn Spain - not yet a police state - into an Iberian mirror of a neo-conservative-driven America shorter on civil liberties and longer on social paranoia. Aljazeera on the purported Al-Qaida statement

MEDIA:
JOURNALIST JASON BROWN ON COOK IS NEWS INDUSTRY CRISIS
Asia Pacific Network: 11 March 2004
Cook Islands freelance journalist Jason Brown has described the country's news industry as being in crisis but says the timing of the government broadcast review should be viewed with suspicion. Writing in an open letter to the Cook Islands News today, Brown said any serious attempt at media reform should be transparent and accountable.

MEDIA:
AUSTRALIA'S RICHEST MAN PROFITS FROM SOLOMON ISLANDS INTERVENTION
Asia Pacific Network: 3 March 2004
As a regional power, Australia intervened in the Solomon Islands to help a "failed state" exposed to corruption, violence and the dangers of terrorism. In fact, Operation Helpim Fren (Helping Friend) has formed part of a sharp shift in foreign policy, aimed at asserting Australian commercial and strategic hegemony in the southwest Pacific. By Mike Head

MEDIA:
BRUCE JESSON WRITING FUND OFFERS NZ$3000
Asia Pacific Network: 22 February 2004
A fund aimed at fostering more in-depth journalism on New Zealand public issues has been set up by the Bruce Jesson Foundation. The fund will provide up to $3000 a year to writers aiming to produce the kind of critical and analytical journalism that appeared under Jesson's byline in Metro magazine, in books and in The Republican. The foundation is also seeking to raise additional sponsorship so it can make bigger grants in future. www.brucejesson.com

MEDIA:
DIVERSE MEDIA EMPLOYERS SNAP UP USP GRADUATES
Pacific Media Watch: 21 February 2004
A diverse range of 29 media employers in nine Pacific countries have hired journalism graduates from the University of the South Pacific, reports a new academic survey. And almost two-thirds of the 68 graduates are women. The survey was by Shailendra Singh, a former editor of The Review news magazine and an assistant lecturer at USP, and former programme coordinator David Robie, who is now senior lecturer in journalism at Auckland University of Technology's School of Communication Studies. It was presented at the UNESCO JourNet professional journalism education conference in Newcastle, Australia, this week. PowerPoint summary 380 kb pdf file

MEDIA:
CHOMSKY ON WHAT MAKES MAINSTREAM MEDIA MAINSTREAM
Zmagazine: 21 February 2004
"Part of the reason why I write about the media is because I am interested in the whole intellectual culture, and the part of it that is easiest to study is the media. It comes out every day. You can do a systematic investigation. You can compare yesterday’s version to today’s version. There is a lot of evidence about what’s played up and what isn’t and the way things are structured." - Noam Chomsky
Chomsky on what makes mainstream media mainstream
http://www.zmag.org/zmag/articles/chomoct97.htm
Albert on what makes alternative media alternative
http://www.zmag.org/whatmakesalti.htm

MEDIA
FROM CAMPUS TO NEWSROOM IN THE SOUTH PACIFIC: CREDIBLE MEDIA CAREER PATHS VERSUS 'ACADEMIC ANAEMIA'
UNESCO JourNet: 17 October 2003
David Robie's paper presentation at the UNESCO JourNet "Professional media education" conference, Newcastle, NSW, Australia, 16-19 February 2004. PowerPoint file 1 mb

MEDIA:
IRAQ COVERAGE EXPOSÉ: NOW THEY TELL US
PMW/New York Review of Books: 14 February 2004
Watching and reading all admissions about how intelligence failings over Iraq's "arsenal", one is tempted to ask, where were all the analysis before the war? Why didn't we learn more about these deceptions and concealments in the months when the administration was pressing its case for regime change-when, in short, it might have made a difference? Some maintain that the many analysts who've spoken out since the end of the war were mute before it. But that's not true.

MEDIA:
NZ HERALD EDITORIAL CRITICAL OVER TONGAN MEDIA CURBS, PACIFIC DEMOCRACY
Pacific Media Watch/NZH: 13 February 2004
"The fragile status of the Pacific media has been reinforced by a number of occurrences, including the torching of a Papua New Guinean newspaper's offices by an armed gang, and the case in which a Solomons Islands Cabinet minister demanded money with menaces from the Solomon Star. Worst of all, free speech is now being suppressed in Tonga in the crudest and most lamentable of ways."

RACE RELATIONS:
RIGHT-WING NZ MP ATTACKS WAITANGI CELEBRATIONS, SPEECHES AS 'DISGRACEFUL'
New Zealand Herald: 7 February 2004
A right-wing New Zealand MP has taken the rare step of openly attacking Maori speeches yesterday on the Treaty Grounds at Waitangi as "disgraceful", "preposterous" and lacking "nobility". In an outburst setting aside the sensitivities usually accorded the Waitangi Day commemorations and likely to intensify the race debate, Act MP Stephen Franks was highly critical of what he heard at the dawn service on the Treaty Grounds. By Audrey Young

INDONESIA:
PRESS FREEDOM AGAIN UNDER THREAT FROM POLITICIANS, BUSINESSMEN
Asia-Pacific Network/The Jakarta Post: 6 February 2004
Indonesia has been warned that press freedom is back under threat, despite the downfall of authoritarian president Soeharto six years ago. The media has come increasingly under threat with state officials and businesspeople lodging criminal and civil charges against media enterprises without taking the Press Law into account.

PAPUA:
MARK WORTH OBITUARY - A GUERILLA AND A ONE-MAN BAND
Asia-Pacific Network: 3 February 2004
Mark Worth, who has died of pneumonia at 45, was one of Australia's finest frontier cameramen. He aspired to the pantheon of great Australian documentary filmmakers and conflict cameramen - Frank Hurley, Damien Parer and Neil Davis - and his contemporary peers included Dennis O'Rourke, Bob Connelly, Mark Davis and David Brill. By Ben Bohane

MEDIA:
WAGING WAR ON THE BBC AND INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM - THE HUTTON FALLOUT
Greg Palast, GregPalast.com 31 January 2004
The Hutton Inquiry let the Blair government off the hook and trained its guns on the real enemy: independent journalism.

FIJI MILITARY:
THE UNRESOLVED ISSUES AT STAKE OVER THE COMMANDER CONTROVERSY
Asia Pacific Network: 30 January 2004
What seems a straight forward simple issue in terms of the law over the future of the commander of the Fiji Military Forces appears to be complicated. This is because there are other very sensitive unresolved issues tied around this dispute that keep cropping up over time as some key players have their say. Analysis by Jone Dakuvula

MEDIA:
THE FIRING LINE - THE 'BEST' AND 'MOST DANGEROUS' PHOTOJOURNALISM OF THE YEAR
CBC News World: 19 January 2004
The Firing Line 2003 celebrates the "best" and "most dangerous" photojournalism of the year. Includes this year's nominees and winners of the 2003 Rory Peck Award. In 1993, freelance cameraman Rory Peck was killed in the crossfire while filming a coup in Moscow.

MEDIA
DEATH OF FILM MAKER MARK WORTH SHOCKS FREE WEST PAPUA CAMPAIGNERS WITH NEW DOCO FOR BROADCAST
Asia Pacific Network: 17 January 2004
The death of Australian print, radio and film journalist Mark Worth has shocked Papuans and all those involved in the campaign to free West Papua from the brutal repression by the Indonesian military. He died in a hotel room in Sentani, West Papua, on January 15. Mark is survived by his Papuan wife Helen and baby daughter Insoraki. PMW message board updates

MEDIA
US STUDY FINDS WIDESPREAD MISPERCEPTION ON IRAQ HIGHLY RELATED TO SUPPORT FOR WAR
Asia Pacific Network: 15 January 2004
A US study, says the report "Misperceptions, The Media and The Iraq War", finds that widespread misperceptions on Iraq were highly related to support for the war. In particular, it finds that "The frequency of Americans' misperceptions varies significantly depending on their source of news." 80% of Fox (Murdoch) viewers were misled; NPR/PBS only 23%. Download report - pdf