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Category: Media diplomacy

  • Step up efforts to free Assange after 3 years in jail, MEAA tells Canberra

    Pacific Media Watch newdesk

    Australia must step up diplomatic efforts to encourage the US government to drop its bid to extradite Julian Assange who has now been imprisoned for three years, says the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance.

    Today marks the third anniversary of Assange’s arrest when he was dragged from the Ecuador Embassy in London on 11 April 2019 to face extradition proceedings for espionage charges laid by the US.

    The WikiLeaks founder and publisher has been held at Belmarsh Prison near London ever since, where his mental and physical health has deteriorated significantly.

    On this day, the MEAA calls on the Biden administration to drop the charges against Assange, which pose a threat to press freedom worldwide. The scope of the US charges imperils any journalist anywhere who writes about the US government.

    MEAA media federal president Karen Percy urged the Australian government to use its close ties to both the US and the UK to end the court proceedings against him and have the charges dropped to allow Assange to return home to Australia, if that is his wish.

    Assange won his initial extradition hearing in January last year, but subsequent appeals by the US government have dragged out his detention at Belmarsh.

    “Julian Assange’s work with WikiLeaks was important and in the public interest: exposing evidence of war crimes and other shameful actions by US soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Percy said.

    Assange charges an ‘affront to journalists’
    “The stories published by WikiLeaks and its mainstream media partners more than a decade ago were picked up by news outlets around the world.

    “The charges against Assange are an affront to journalists everywhere and a threat to press freedom.”

    The US government has not produced convincing evidence that the publishing of the leaked material endangered any lives or jeopardised military operations, but their lasting impact has been to embarrass and shame the United States.

    “Yet Assange faces the prospect of jail for the rest of his life if convicted of espionage charges laid by the US Department of Justice,” Percy said.

    “The case against Assange is intended to curtail free speech, criminalise journalism and frighten off any future whistleblowers and publishers with the message that they too will be punished if they step out of line.

    “The US Government must see reason and drop these charges, and the Australian Government should be doing all it can to represent the interests of an Australian citizen.”

    Assange has been a member of the MEAA since 2009 and in 2011 the WikiLeaks organisation was awarded the Walkley Award for Most Outstanding Contribution to Journalism.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Good news for Pacific regional broadcasting – bad news for locals

    SPECIAL REPORT: By Jason Brown

    Good news — an Australian parliamentary review recommends a more “expansive” media presence in the Pacific.

    Bad news — little of that expansion envisions a role for island media.

    Instead, the committee endorsed a proposal for “consultation” and the establishment of an independent “platform neutral” media corporation, versus the existing “broadcasting” organisation.

    That proposal was among several points raised at two public hearings and nine written submissions as part of Australia’s “Pacific Step Up” programme, aimed at countering the growing regional influence of China.

    Former long-time Pacific correspondent Sean Dorney last month told the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade that Australia was previously leading regional media spaces.

    “But the vacant space that was left there when Australia Network disappeared, as people have said, has really been taken over by China,” he said.

    “Throughout my time as the Pacific correspondent for the ABC, I saw this Chinese influence growing everywhere.”

    Local media delivery
    Dorney suggested local media ought to deliver news content in any future media expansion.

    “I’ll just end off by saying that, if we did boost broadcasting again, it does require greater collaboration.

    “There are excellent journalists out there in the Pacific that we could work with to create content for both of us. It’s our region, and I think we should embrace it.”

    The Strengthening Australia's Relationships in the Pacific report
    The Strengthening Australia’s Relationships in the Pacific report. Image:” APR

    Similar points were made by Free TV Australia.

    “Key to the success of the PacificAus TV initiative has been Free TV’s ability to work with our Pacific broadcast partners to ensure that the programming made available meets the needs of the Pacific communities.”

    However recommendations for local staff were not picked up in the final findings of the standing committee.

    Only “consultation” was called for.

    Relatively comprehensive
    Taking up ten of 176 pages, the report’s media section is nonetheless seen as relatively comprehensive compared with the dismantling of broadcasting capacity in recent years.

    This includes the literal dismantling of shortwave equipment in Australia despite wide protest from the Pacific region.

    Nearly three years previously, a 2019 Pacific Media Summit heard that discontinuation of the shortwave service would save Australia some $2.8 million in power costs.

    A suggestion from a delegate that that amount could be spent on $100,000 for reporters in each of 26 island states and territories was met with silence from ABC representatives at the summit.

    However, funding would be dramatically expanded if the government takes up suggestions from the submissions to the joint committee.

    Members of the Australia Asia Pacific Media Initiative (AAMPI) called for the “allocation of a total of $55-$75 million per year to ensure Australia has a fit-for-purpose, multi-platform media voice in the Asia Pacific region.”

    Overall, submissions called for greater recognition of the media in “soft power” calculation.

    Public diplomacy tool
    AAPMI member Annmaree O’Keeffe said that “international broadcasting and its potency is not recognised at government level as a public diplomacy tool.”

    Consultancy group Heriot Media and Governance cautioned against trying to use media as a policy messenger.

    “A substantial body of research internationally supports the view that audiences are likely to invest greater trust in an international media service if they perceive it to be independent of political and other vested interests.”

    Heriot also noted the loss of radio capacity, submitting that “shortwave [radio] had been the only almost uninterruptible signal when local media had been disabled by natural events or political actions.”

    ABC told the inquiry that around 830,000 Pacific Islanders access their various platforms each month.

    Off-platform, there were 1.6 million views of ABC content via social media such as YouTube.

    Jason Brown is a long-time Pacific reporter based in Aotearoa New Zealand and a contributor to Asia Pacific Report.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.