Category: Media Freedom

  • SPECIAL REPORT: By Rituraj Sapkota of Māori Television

    “I have never had that fear before that I might get physically hurt,” says Patrice Allen, a Ngati Kahungunu and Newshub camera operator based in Wellington.

    “You’re going down there, you don’t know what it’s going to be like. A person from Wellington Live got beaten up.”

    Māori Television’s press gallery videographer David Graham (Taranaki Whānui and Waikato) started working as a news cameraman in Wellington in 1989. He was there for the seabed and foreshore protests, and “in the 1990s it was Moutua and Pakitore,” he recollects. “But this is the most volatile one I have seen.

    “Back then we [the media] were part of the show. They wanted us to be there. Now we are a part of the ‘axis of evil’, along with the police and government.”

    Up against your own
    “Now there are Pākehā calling you kūpapa [Māori warriors who fought on the British colonial troops side during the New Zealand Wars in the 19th century],” he says. He has just returned from filming with his phone in the crowd, and has heard protesters say things. Nasty things.

    “Stuff like ‘you should be ashamed of yourself. You should be ashamed of your whakapapa!’”

    “I just don’t engage,” says Graham. “And I am not a random man with a camera here. I actually have whakapapa back to this marae on my father’s side,” he says, referring to Pipitea Marae where Taranaki Whānui laid down Te Kahu o Raukura as a cultural protection over the surrounding land that includes the Parliament grounds.

    The protesters had lots of livestreams and many of them kept filming media camera-ops who were filming them. (Below: David Graham finds himself in one of the live feeds while a protester in the crowd heckles him.)

    A standup by Maori Television's Parliament videographer Dave Graham
    A standup by Maori Television’s Parliament videographer David Graham captured on protester’s social media grab. Image: Māori Television

    Allen feels the mamae is stronger when it comes from your own people.

    “This happened on the day of the last protests,” she says, referring to the protests in November where the crowd threw tennis balls and water bottles at the media. She was filming a timelapse of the crowd leaving when a mother-son duo walked up to her.

    “He was a big dude and he was really getting in my face. I was not feeling very safe. And I thought, ‘how can I diffuse this?’” So she asked them where they were from.

    “And they were like where are you from? What are you?”

    “Oh, Ngati Kahungunu, just over the hill in Wairarapa,” she replied. The man said something targeting not just her but also her iwi. “And that just broke my spirit,” says Allen.

    “It was one of the days I went home and cried.”

    ‘We’re the enemy now’
    “We are the enemy now,” says Allen. “And there is nothing you can do or say that will change their minds.”

    Her teammate Emma Tiller thinks the camera can be a beacon in the crowd. “As soon as you put it up, everyone knows who you are. And they hate you.”

    And even though security cover has become standard practice for all news camera-ops filming in the crowd, there are times she feels vulnerable. “It’s hard to think back to protests when we were out there. We didn’t have security with us. It didn’t even cross our minds.

    “But now who wants to risk the violence?” she says.

    “They have thrown things at the police. If they can do that to them, what can they do to us?”

    The Speaker’s balcony
    The Speaker’s balcony is empty today … a far cry from Wednesday, March 2, when it was packed with camera operators and reporters (below) as police cracked down on the occupation and cleared Parliament grounds. Image: Māori Television
    The balcony was allocated by the Speaker to media workers
    The balcony was allocated by the Speaker of the House to media workers as a safe space. David Graham (left) and Patrice Allen (third from left). Māori Television

    “The last time I had security was when I was filming in East Timor,” says Allen. It was a long time ago, she adds, and at a time and place when there were terrorists around.

    “It’s really bad because it’s made it ‘us and them’, media against protesters, and it’s not supposed to be like that.”

    ‘Difficult to turn off’
    Sam Anderson, 22, is TVNZ’s camera operator at the press gallery. “It has been difficult to turn off,” he says “ I have been there [on the Speaker’s balcony] from 9am to 6pm just streaming the whole day.

    “It’s all you are doing – copping the abuse, being yelled at, having your morality questioned.

    “I sometimes hide behind the pillars from the frontliners who can yell all day.

    “And throw that in with reading all the signs around you,” says Tiller.

    “And they yell at you. And you go home and you can’t switch it off.”

    Anti-"mainstream" media signs
    Throughout the protests, the signs have been as much anti-“mainstream” media as they have been anti-government. Image: Māori Television

    Anderson’s teammate, Sam von Keisenberg, was on that balcony on February 11 when police made many arrests. Shortly after they arrested someone at the forecourt and the crowd was yelling at the police, a lady pointed a finger at him and said “You! You are a paedophile protector!”

    “At first I was like, ‘that’s new’. But then she said it 50 times, as loud as she could, just at me.”

    He pulled his camera off the tripod. “It was getting to me”, he says. “I have children. I would never protect a paedophile.”

    His colleague asked him where he was going. “Just to punch some lady in the face,” he said under his breath. “And I walked out and just went to the bathroom.”

    Sweeping generalisations
    “Sometimes you have to take a step back,” von Keisenberg says.

    “I had never experienced hate [directed] at me before,” RNZ video journalist Angus Dreaver says. Especially this type, he says, where they think media are traitors, and they want them to know.

    “Four months ago, I was doing kids’ TV.”

    Dreaver thinks the generalisation works both ways. While the protesters see the mainstream media as a monolith and sweep them with one giant brush, “it’s important for us, conversely, not to see them that way.”

    Von Keisenberg believes there were more moderates in the crowd than extremists. “I always felt there were enough people around me,” he says. And that made him feel safe in the first week when he was filming undercover, knowing that “if things did get violent, there would be some moderate ones who would stop them”.

    He saw that in action, too. In his forays of the first week, when he joined the crowd unmasked to avoid attention. He saw a man there in his 70s wearing a mask.

    “The first thing he said to me was that he was immunocompromised, which is why he was wearing the mask.”

    “It’s fine, mate. It’s a freedom rally, do what you want,” von Keisenberg said. But another protester came up and “tried to pull his mask off and started berating him, saying he had no identity. The mob mentality started and people around the gate joined in and started giving him grief.”

    Von Keisenberg intervened. “Oi! chill out man. It’s a freedom rally, he’s free to wear a mask!”

    “A woman close by turned around and said, ‘Yeah, come on guys! leave him alone.’ And they did.”

    Mainstream media
    When people tell von Keisenberg that they don’t watch mainstream media, his follow-up is, “Well then, how do you know we are ‘lying’?”

    “They say, ‘we get our news from Facebook, which is different’. Yeah, different, because there aren’t many rules around it,” von Keisenberg says.

    “Mainstream media is held more to account than social media,” Allen says. “But they think the opposite.”

    Some of Dreaver’s acquaintances have shared his photos on Instagram, in posts that read “Mainstream media are liars”. “Bro, that’s me!”, he says.

    Trying to remain objective in the face of constant harassment is a real challenge.

    “I am almost hyper-aware of that, where I am trying to capture the mundane and relax as much as the heightened states,” he adds. “And I am trying to not let my anger affect the pictures I take or how I cover it.”

    But for camera operators, the task ends once they take the picture. “We only aim for clear sound and sharp, steady pictures,” Graham says. “The rest of the stuff is for other people to decide what to do with.”

    Anderson thinks there are differences in perspectives within newsrooms. People who have watched the protests from a distance or from their desks often take a kinder view of the protesters, he says.

    “But me and the other camera ops, we copped a lot of abuse over three weeks. We just have a more bitter taste in our mouths for this crowd.”

    The PM in ‘disguise’
    There have been the fun moments, though, Anderson admits. There have been “raves” with young people dancing on the frontlines and he found himself almost filming to the beat. And there was a protester who thought he was the prime minister in disguise.

    A Reddit thread with a screenshot of a protester’s post
    A Reddit thread with a screenshot of a protester’s post. Image: Sam Anderson screenshot

    “Now that is one theory I know is not true,” says his teammate von Keisenberg. But how does he know for sure?

    “Because I have seen both of them in the same room at the same time.”

    And von Keisenberg has had his fun moments in the crowd, too. In one instance when he was filming undercover, a woman went on the stage and started talking into the mic about electric and magnetic fields (radiation) and how crystals could block them.

    “Bullshit!” von Keisenberg turned around and shouted.

    “We are here for the mandates,” he added, not snapping out of character, and for the benefit of those around him who were listening to the woman speak.

    A potential for volence
    “The vibe changed every few days, and that was because people kept coming and going,” von Keisenberg says. “But there were always the elements who were there for whatever happened on day 23.”

    One camera op I spoke to said there had been a “potential for violence” right throughout. And when someone like Winston Peters visits the crowd and says “the mainstream media have been gaslighting you for a long time,” it gives them validation, and lends credibility to their theories.

    But for those on the ground gathering news amid a hostile crowd, it exacerbates the possibility for harm.

    Added to this potential of violence is the constant anticipation of things to come. “You have to be always prepared for when something will happen,” as Tiller puts it. “And that is exhausting.”

    Emma Tiller describes her experience of the Speaker’s balcony as, “You feel like you have to be prepared for if something is going to happen, and that is exhausting.”

    Emma Tiller on the Speaker’s balcony … “You feel like you have to be prepared for if something is going to happen, and that is exhausting.” Image: Sam James/Newshub

    “The day things turn to custard, you want to be there on the ground,” Graham said to me a few days before the police operation. “You don’t want to be at home watching it on TV.”

    And turn to custard it did; the threat of violence became reality on day 23. While the “battle” raged between the police and the protesters, the media people found themselves being targeted.

    Dreaver was in the crowd by the tent where a fire had started. “A Mainstream! We have got a Mainstream here,” a woman who spotted him started shouting.

    Brandishing a camping chair, she told him to, “get out of here! Out! Out!” The riot police were advancing behind him and he stood his ground.

    “She started hitting me on the back with it,” he said. “She didn’t have a lot of speed but it was still a metal chair.”

    “It hurt a bit,” he reckons.

    “Get out of here,” demands the woman who attacked Dreaver with a chair. “Just go” shouts a man standing beside her. Screengrab from RNZ’s video story.

    RNZ protest screengrab
    “Get out of here,” demands a woman who attacked RNZ’s Angus Dreaver with a chair. “Just go” shouts a man standing beside her. Image: RNZ screengrab from video story.

    ‘Not everyone’
    “There were some protesters who were trying to stop the violence. Even right at the end,” says Dreaver, recollecting how when some people were breaking up bits from the concrete slabs to get smaller throw-able chunks, another person tried to physically get in the way and stop them.

    “But the other guys had a metal tent pole and whacked him over the head with it.”

    Throughout the three weeks of protests, there had been repeated calls from the protesters asking the media to talk to them. On the morning of day 23 when I was filming from the Speaker’s balcony, a TV reporter had just finished a live cross into the bulletin.

    A man’s voice rang out from among the crowd, on the PA, inviting the media on the balcony to “come down and talk to real people and report the truth.” The same voice went on to berate us for wearing masks, behind which we were allegedly smiling smugly.

    Less than a minute after the initial invitation, he followed up with another call to step down so he could put a fist through the mask.

    “Why don’t you come down to talk to us? Because getting bashed with a chair was always inevitable,” says Dreaver. “It’s crazy it took so long.”

    Protesters whacked another protester with a tent pole as he tried to stop the violence. “It didn’t look as though it injured him, because the tent poles are quite light, but it looked quite gnarly,” Dreaver says.

    Protesters whack another protestor with a tent pole
    Protesters whack another protestor with a tent pole as he tries to stop the violence. Image: Screengrab from RNZ video story

    The aftermath
    Parliament’s grounds have been reclaimed. All but one street around the buildings is now open to the public. On Sunday, Te Āti Awa held a karakia to reinstall the mauri of the land. There is currently a rāhui over the Parliament grounds.

    It is time for healing. And moving on.

    “I was feeling sad last week. And then I look at Ukraine and realise there are bombs going off next to all these journalists and camera operators,” Dreaver says “I got hit with a camping chair and I am going to sit around and complain about it?”

    The effect of these protests linger though. Graham spent last Friday a week ago filming the hau kainga at Wainuiomata on high alert, and trying to keep the protesters from entering and setting up camp on their marae, as have other hapū around the capital.

    The crowd has dispersed but not vanished, and neither has their kaupapa.

    “I have seen some of their kōrero online,” Graham says. The mandates might be gone soon, but “there will be other stuff,” he reckons.

    “It’s definitely not over.”

    Rituraj Sapkota is Māori Television’s videographer in Parliament’s press gallery. Republished with permission from Te Ao Māori News.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

    Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has filed a complaint with the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor about Russian strikes on four radio and TV towers in Ukraine since March 1 that constitute a war crime.

    The strikes have prevented Ukrainian media from broadcasting. At least 32 TV channels and several dozen radio stations have been affected, reports the Paris-based global media freedom watchdog.

    Since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on February 24, it has deliberately targeted TV antennae throughout the country.

    Under international law, antennae used for broadcasting radio and TV signals cannot be regarded as legitimate military targets unless they are used by the armed forces, or are temporarily assigned to military use, or are used for both civilian and military purposes at the same time.

    RSF’s complaint demonstrates that the TV towers were civilian in nature, and that Russia deliberately targeted Ukrainian media installations because, Russia said, these installations were participating in “information attacks”.

    The complaint filed by RSF emphasises the intentional nature of these attacks, and the fact that they are being carried out on a large scale, which shows that they are part of a deliberate plan.

    “Deliberately bombarding many media installations such as television antennae constitutes a war crime and demonstrates the scale of the offensive launched by Putin against the right to news and information,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.

    Plea on crimes against media
    “These crimes are all the more serious for clearly being part of a plan, part of a policy, and for being carried out on a large scale. We call on the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor to put crimes against media and journalists at the heart of the investigation he opened on February 28.”

    The ICC’s chief prosecutor announced on February 28 that he was opening an investigation into the situation in Ukraine.

    On March 2, 39 countries that are parties to the Rome Statute (the treaty establishing the ICC) formally referred the situation in Ukraine to the prosecutor.

    These referrals allow him to begin his investigations at once, without having to seek authorisation from the court’s judges first.

    After Kyiv being fired on by the Russian armed forces for the previous week, the city’s TV tower was hit by a precision strike on March 1 that abruptly terminated broadcasting by 32 TV channels and several dozen national radio stations.

    This deliberate strike had been announced in advance by the Russian Defence Ministry. Under the guise of protecting civilians, the Defence Ministry issued a signed confession to its crimes.

    The Kyiv TV tower — which had an adjoining technical building that was destroyed by the bombardment — had no military use and was used only by civilian TV and radio stations, such as the public TV channel UA Pershiy, the privately-owned TV channel 1+1 and the TV news channel Ukraine 24.

    Broadcasts were cut short
    The viewers and listeners of these media outlets, whose broadcasts were cut short by the Russian strike, had to switch to satellite operators or go online to access their programming until broadcasting was reinstated later in the day.

    The Russian strike killed Evgeny Sakun, a cameraman working for the Kyiv Live local TV channel who was at the TV tower, and four other people.

    Since that first major attack on an essential installation for accessing news and information, Russia has attacked other TV towers.

    According to the information obtained by RSF and its local partner IMI, at least three other radio and TV towers, in Korosten, Lysychansk and Kharkiv, have been the targets of Russian strikes, and two radio antennae, in Melitopol and Kherson, stopped broadcasting after Russian soldiers took control of those cities.

    Strikes targeted the TV tower in the city of Lysychansk (in the Luhansk region, whose independence Russia has recognised) late in the morning of March 2. The radio and TV tower in the northeastern city Kharkiv was targeted by two Russian missiles shortly before 1 pm, causing its broadcast to be suspended.

    Later the same day, another strike destroyed the TV tower in the norther city of Korosten.

    These strikes against telecommunications antennae show a clear intention by the Russian armed forces to prevent the dissemination of news and information. The warning issued shortly before the attacks makes it clear that Russian military want to end what they call “information attacks”.

    This desire is confirmed by the fact that the Russian army has cut Ukrainian TV and radio signals in several cities after taking control of them. In the southern region that Russia has invaded from Crimea, the occupation forces have blocked Ukrainian TV and radio broadcasts from the telecommunication towers in the cities of Melitopol and Kherson.

    Russian ‘fake news’ law cripples media
    The equipment on these towers has been changed and they are now broadcasting the pro-Kremlin propaganda channel Russia 24.

    The satellite signal of UA Pershiy, a TV channel owned by the Ukrainian public broadcasting corporation Suspline, is meanwhile being subjected to jamming attempts by Russia, and its website was hacked on March 1.

    Meanwhile, RSF has called on the Russian authorities to immediately repeal a draconian law adopted on March 4 that makes the publication of “false” or “mendacious” information about the Russian armed forces punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

    It leaves little hope for the future of the country’s few remaining independent media outlets.

    Many leading foreign media — including the BBC, CNN, Bloomberg News, ABC, CBS News and Canada’s CBC/Radio-Canada — have decided to temporarily suspend broadcasting or news gathering in Russia since the amendment, which applies to foreign as well as Russian citizens, was signed into law by President Vladimir Putin.

    Ukraine is ranked 97th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2021 World Press Freedom Index, while Russia is ranked 150th.

    Pacific Media Watch collaborates with Reporters Without Borders.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • SPECIAL REPORT: By Giff Johnson, editor of the Marshall Islands Journal and RNZ Pacific correspondent

    Micronitor News and Printing Company founder Joe Murphy moved the goal posts of freedom of press and freedom of expression in the Marshall Islands, a country that had virtually no tradition of either, by establishing an independent newspaper that today is the longest running weekly in the Micronesia region.

    Murphy’s sharp intellect, fierce independence, vision for creating a community newspaper, bilingual language ability, and resilience in the face of adversity saw him navigate hurdles — including high tide waves that in 1979 washed printing presses out of the Micronitor building and into the street — to successfully establish a printing company and newspaper in the challenging business environment of 1970s Majuro.

    Murphy, who died at age 79 in the United States last week, was the original sceptic, who revelled in the politically incorrect.

    At 25, he arrived in the Marshall Islands capital Majuro in the mid-1960s and was dispatched by the Peace Corps to Ujelang, the atoll of the nuclear exiles from Enewetak bomb tests that was a textbook definition of the term “in the back of beyond.” A ship once a year, and no radio, TV, telephones or mail.

    Still, Joe thrived as an elementary teacher, survived food shortages and hordes of rats, endearing him to a generation of Ujelang people as an honorary member of the exiled community.

    After Ujelang, he wrapped up his two-year Peace Corps stint by taking over teaching an unruly urban centre public school class after the previous teacher walked out. He rewrote what he deemed boring curriculum and taught in military style, replete with chants in English.

    These experiences in pre-1970s Marshall Islands fuelled his desire to return. After his Peace Corps tour, some time to travel the world, and a brief return to the US, Murphy headed back to Majuro.

    No money, but a vision
    He had no money to speak of, but he had a vision and he set out to make it happen.

    “He was determined to start a newspaper written in both the English and Marshallese languages,” recalls fellow Peace Corps Volunteer Mike Malone, the co-founder with Murphy of what was initially known as Micronitor.

    Marshall Islands Journal founder and publisher Joe Murphy in the late 2010s.
    Marshall Islands Journal founder and publisher Joe Murphy in the late 2010s … “Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one.” – “I own one.” Image: Giff Johnson/RNZ

    In late 1969, they began constructing a small newspaper building, mixing concrete and laying the foundation block-by-block with the help of a few friends.

    Before the building was completed, however, they launched the Micronitor in 1970, printing from Malone’s house.

    The Micronitor would be renamed later to the Micronesian Independent for a bit before finding its identity as the Marshall Islands Journal.

    Writing in the Journal in 1999, Murphy commented: “The 30th anniversary of this publication is an event most of us who remember the humble beginnings of the Journal are surprised to see.

    “February 13, 1970 was a Friday, an unlucky day to begin an enterprise by most reckonings, and the two guys who were spearheading the operation were Irish-extract alcohol aficionados with very little or no newspaper experience.

    A worthy undertaking
    “They also, between the two of them, had practically no money, and of course should never, had they any commonsense, even attempted such a worthy undertaking.

    “But circumstances and time were on their side, and with all potential serious investors steering clear of such a dubious exercise they had the opportunity to make a great number of mistakes without an eager competitor ready and willing to capitalise on them.”

    With Murphy at the helm, it wasn’t long before the Journal earned a reputation far beyond the shores of the tiny Pacific outpost of Majuro. Murphy encouraged local writers, and spiced the newspaper with pithy comment and attacks on US Trust Territory authorities and the Congress of Micronesia.

    Joe Murphy in Majuro in the mid-1970s
    Joe Murphy in Majuro in the mid-1970s, a few years after launching the Marshall Islands Journal, which would go on to be the longest publishing weekly newspaper in the Micronesia area. Image: Giff Johnson/RNZ

    In the late 1980s and 1990s Murphy built two bars and restaurants, local-style places that appealed to Majuro residents as well as visitors. He also built the Backpacker Hotel, a modest cost accommodation that turned into a popular outpost for fisheries observers awaiting their next assignment at sea, low-budget journalists, environmentalists and assorted consultants.

    “The first thing that people think about when it comes to my father is that he is a very successful businessman here in the Marshall Islands,” said his eldest daughter Rose Murphy, who manages the company today.

    “But we need to remember him as someone who wanted to give the Republic of the Marshall Islands a voice.”

    “To say Joe was a unique person is a large understatement,” said Health Secretary and former Peace Corps Volunteer Jack Niedenthal.

    An icon with impact
    “He was an icon and had a profound impact on our country because he fostered free speech and demanded that those in our government always be held publicly accountable for their actions.”

    A plaque in his office defined his independent personality and his appreciation of the power of the press. It quoted the famous American journalist AJ Liebling: “Freedom of the press belongs to those who own one.” This was followed by a three-word comment: “I own one.” – Joe Murphy.

    “He fought for freedom of speech and fought against discrimination,” said Rose Murphy. “Regardless of race, religion, and even status, he befriended people from all parts of the world and from all walks of life.”

    In the mid-1990s, Joe Murphy created what became the justly famous motto of the Journal, the “world’s worst newspaper.” It was a reaction to the more politically correct mottos of other newspapers.

    Those three words led to wide international media exposure. In 1994, the Boston Globe conducted a survey of the world’s worst newspapers, reviewing a batch of Journals Murphy mailed.

    When the Globe reporter concluded that despite its claim, the Journal not only didn’t rank as the world’s worst newspaper it was “a first-class newspaper,” Murphy’s reaction was to say, “We must have sent you the wrong issues.”

    The Marshall Islands Journal was the subject of scrutiny by the Boston Globe to determine if publisher Joe Murphy's claim that the Journal was the "World's Worst Newspaper" was accurate.
    The Marshall Islands Journal was the subject of scrutiny by the Boston Globe to determine if publisher Joe Murphy’s claim that the Journal was the “World’s Worst Newspaper” was accurate. Image: Giff Johnson/RNZ

    Murphy knew the key to successful newspaper publishing was not how nicely or otherwise the newspaper was packaged, or if a photograph was in colour. The most important ingredient in any successful local newspaper is original content, intelligently and interestingly written.

    ‘Livened up’ the Journal
    He did more than his fair share to liven up the Journal, from the time of its launch until poor health after 2019 prevented his engagement in the newspaper.

    “My father experienced extreme hardships on Ujelang along with his adopted Marshallese family, the exiled people of Enewetak Atoll, who were moved to Ujelang to make way for US nuclear tests in the late 1940s,” said daughter Rose.

    “He shared these hardships with his children to give them the perspective of being grateful for any little thing we had. If we had a broken shoe or little food, he shared with us this story.

    “Our father, to us, is a symbol of resilience and gratitude. Be resilient in tough situations.”

    From growing up among eight children of Irish immigrant parents in the United States to the austerity of Ujelang Atoll to the early days of establishing what would become the longest publishing weekly newspaper in the Micronesia region, Murphy was indeed a symbol of resilience and independence, able to navigate tough situations with alacrity.

    One of the first editions of the Majuro newspaper Micronitor in 1970
    One of the first editions of the Majuro newspaper in 1970, then known as Micronitor. Image: Giff Johnson/RNZ

    “Democracy was able to establish a toehold, and then a firm grip, in the Western Pacific in part because of a handful of journalism pioneers who believed in the power of truth, particularly Joe Murphy on Majuro,” said veteran Pacific island journalist Floyd K Takeuchi.

    “He had the courage to challenge the powers that be, including those of the chiefly kind, to be better, and to do better.

    “People forget that for many years, the long-term future of the Marshall Islands Journal wasn’t a sure thing. With every issue of the weekly newspaper, Joe’s legacy is made firmer in the islands he so loved.”

    Murphy is survived by his wife Thelma, by children Rose, Catherine “Katty,” John, Suzanne, Margaret “Peggy,” Molly, Fintan, Sam, Charles “Kainoa,” Colleen “Naki,” Patrick “Jojo”, Sean, Sylvia Zedkaia and Deardre Korean, and by 32 grandchildren.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • By Sharon Brettkelly, co-host of RNZ’s The Detail

    After 23 days, the occupation at Aotearoa New Zealand’s Parliament was finally brought to a chaotic and violent end. The Detail talks to two reporters who were there as it all unfolded.


    Torn tents, burnt trees and a scorched lawn were all that remained on Wednesday night of the 23-day protest on Parliament grounds.

    That morning, when the operation to clear the occupation began, RNZ’s Charlotte Cook and Stuff’s Thomas Manch had arrived before daybreak.

    Even before the first clashes erupted between the police and protesters, there was a sense of tension.

    “We had some suspicion that something was going to happen,” says Manch.

    “You don’t get 500 police officers in a city without people noticing.”

    For an hour it was quiet, but the protesters seemed agitated.

    They knew something was up, too.

    Noticed some signals
    “They’d been talking about it on their channels, they’d noticed some of the signals that we’d noticed,” says Manch.

    Protest security guards were communicating on their walkie-talkies and flashing strobe lights in the faces of the reporters.

    “And then the police helicopter was in the air, that was the start of it, that was the beginning,” says Manch

    Cook watched police officers come out of the back of Parliament, march past Lambton Quay and along Stout Street. The protesters were yelling.

    “They were upset, they knew something was going to happen but what that looked like they weren’t sure”.

    RNZ's Charlotte Cook
    RNZ’s Charlotte Cook reporting from the protest at Parliament. Image: Charlotte Cook/RNZ

    There were moments when both Cook and Manch feared for their safety.

    Cook was nearly caught in the crossfire when protesters were hurling orange traffic cones at the police.

    Aggressive agitators
    Manch says aggressive agitators, who were pushed away from the frontline by other protesters, turned on him and the Stuff visual journalist filming it.

    “We were mobbed out of the protest site by a group of people who were very angry, very threatening and very aggressive.”

    It was when Cook watched people standing in front of police cars and throwing whatever objects they could find that she knew the aggression and conflict would escalate.

    The clashes continued for more than 14 hours as protesters and riot gear-clad police pushed up against each other again and again.

    Manch watched as the police made their way towards Parliament, picking up tents as they went.

    “They would advance, claim a bunch of the territory, clear it out with a forklift and then they would move again,” he says.

    Cook says the last 23 days have left her in shock.

    “It feels like such a distant memory that the Parliament forecourt and grass area were green and luscious — it was the kind of place you want to take your shoes off and rub your toes in the grass.”

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • By Vitorio Mantalean in Jakarta

    The Indonesian Independent Journalist Alliance (AJI) has condemned the hacking and disinformation attacks against the group’s general chairperson Sasmito Madrim as a serious threat to media freedom.

    In a written release, the AJI stated that the incident was a “serious threat to press freedom and the freedom of expression”.

    “This practice is a form of attack against activists and the AJI as an organisation which has struggled for freedom of expression and press freedom,” the group stated.

    “The hacking and disinformation attack against AJI chairperson Sasmito Madrim is an attempt to terrorise activists who struggle for freedom of expression and democracy”, the group said.

    The AJI stated that the hacking attack began on February 23 and targeted Madrim’s personal WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook accounts as well as his personal mobile phone number.

    All of the posted content on his Instagram account was deleted then the hacker uploaded Madrim’s private mobile number.

    Madrim’s mobile number was subsequently unable to receive phone calls or SMS messages.

    Pornographic picture hack
    On his Facebook account, Madrim’s profile photograph was replaced with a pornographic picture.

    On February 24, the AJI monitored a disinformation attack which included Madrim’s name and photograph on social media.

    The narrative being disseminated was that Madrim supported the government’s 2020 banning of the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI), supports the government’s construction of the Bener Dam in Purworejo regency and has asked the police to arrest Haris Azhar and Fatia Maulidiyanti, two activists who were criminalised by Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan.

    The AJI Indonesia asserts that these messages are false and such views have never been expressed by Madrim.

    “These three [pieces of] disinformation are clearly an attempt to play AJI Indonesia off against other civil society organisations, including to pit AJI against the residents of Wadas [Village] which is currently fighting against the exploitation of natural restores in its village,” wrote AJI.

    AJI Indonesia is asking the public not to believe the narrative of disinformation spreading on social media and to support them in fighting for press freedom, the right to freedom of expression, association, opinion and the right to information.

    Translated from the Kompas.com report by James Balowski for IndoLeft News. The original title of the article was “Kecam Peretasan Terhadap Ketumnya, AJI: Ancaman Serius Bagi Kebebasan Pers“.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • MEAA News

    The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance’s national media section committee of elected officials has condemned the suspension of 24 Papua New Guinean TV journalists who walked off the job in support of their colleague.

    They have alleged intimidation by EMTV management and political interference. The journalists may now lose their jobs.

    EMTV head of news and current affairs Sincha Dimara has been suspended for 21 days without pay over a dispute about editorial balance.

    The incident is the third time in five years that senior journalists have been suspended for reporting public interest news stories.

    MEAA’s National Media Section committee resolved: “MEAA stands in solidarity with the journalists of EMTV in Papua New Guinea and condemns the suspension without pay of news manager Sincha Dimara and notice that 24 journalists face dismissal for walking off in support of her and over on-going editorial interference by management.

    “This is an assault not only on workers’ rights but also media freedom in PNG.

    “No journalist should be economically sanctioned for alleged ‘insubordination’ involving a dispute over editorial balance or be terminated for taking industrial action in support of a colleague in this circumstance.

    Dramatic escalation
    “This dramatic escalation by EMTV comes as MEAA continues to hold on-going concerns about allegations of political interference in the editorial decision making at PNG’s only national commercial broadcaster.

    “Ms Dimara’s case, alongside those of former EMTV head of news and current affairs Neville Choi and former Lae bureau chief Scott Waide, is the third in five years of senior journalists being suspended for reporting on matters of public interest.

    “MEAA calls on EMTV executive management to reinstate Ms Dimara and her staff on full pay and guaranteed journalists’ editorial independence.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

    Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned the threats and violence against news media by protesters during the 16-day anti-covid-19 vaccine mandates occupation of Parliament grounds, and called for prosecutions of those responsible.

    The media are among favourite targets of some of the 500 or so protesters still camped in front of the Parliament building, known as the Beehive, after arriving from various parts of the country in “freedom convoys” akin to those causing chaos in parts of Canada for the past month, reports the Paris-based media freedom watchdog in a statement tonight.

    The violence against journalists trying to cover the protest had included being regularly pelted with tennis balls with such not-very-subtle insults as “terrorists” and “paedophiles” written on them, said RSF.

    “Media = Fake News” and “Media is the virus” are typical of the slogans on the countless signs outside protesters’ tents.

    Journalists who approach have also been greeted with drawings of gallows and nooses, as well as insults and threats of violence ­– to the point that most of them now have bodyguards, says Mark Stevens, head of news at Stuff, New Zealand’s leading news website.

    ‘Your days are numbered
    Stevens sounded the alarm about the attacks on journalists in an editorial published on February 11.

    “They’ve had gear smashed, been punched and belted with umbrellas,” he wrote. “Many reporters have been harassed […], including one threatened with their home being burned down.”

    The violence has not been limited to Wellington.

    In New Plymouth, an angry crowd tried to storm the offices of the local newspaper, Stuff’s Taranaki Daily News, two weeks ago, as reported by Mediawatch. Some of the protesters even managed to breach the newspaper’s secured doors and attack members of the staff.

    “After the police intervened, [conspiracy theorist] Brett Power urged the protesters to return in order to hold the editor ‘accountable for crimes’ — meaning the newspaper’s failure to report their protests in the way they wanted,” the RSF statement said.

    “The verbal and physical violence against journalists is accompanied by extremely shocking online hate messages.”

    Stuff’s chief political reporter Henry Cooke tweeted an example of the threats he had received on social media:

    Daniel Bastard, the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk, said: “The virulence of the threats against journalists by demonstrators, and the constant violence to which they have been subjected since the start of these protests are not acceptable in a democracy.”

    He called on authorities to “not allow these disgraceful acts to go unpunished. There is a danger that journalists will no longer be able to calmly cover these protests, opening the way to a flood of misinformation.”

    In a recent article, Kristin Hall, a reporter for 1News, described her dismay at discovering the level of “distaste for the press” among protesters who regarded the mainstream media as nothing more than “a bunch of liars”.

    “People have asked me why I’m not covering the protests while I’m in the middle of interviewing them,” she wrote.

    A Wellington Facebook page publisher attacked
    A Wellington Facebook page publisher attacked at the protest, as reported by 1News. Image: 1News screenshot APR

    ‘Headlocks, punches’
    Protester mistrust is no longer limited to mainstream media regarded as accomplices of a system imposing pandemic-related restrictions, as Graham Bloxham — a Wellington resident who runs the Wellington Live Community local news page on Facebook – found to his cost when he went to interview one of the protest organisers on February 18.

    “We just wanted to show people that it is peaceful … then bang. They just yelled and whacked. They were just all on me and they basically beat me and my cameraman to a pulp,” he told 1News.

    “Headlocks, punches… they were really violent.”

    A photo of a dozen Nazi war criminals being hanged at the end of the Second World War has been circulating on social media popular with the protesters for the past few days, accompanied by the comment: “Photograph of hangings at Nuremberg, Germany. Members of the media, who lied and misled the German people, were executed.” Definitely not subtle.

    Attacks against journalists have rarely or never been as virulent as this in New Zealand, which is ranked 8th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

    • Henry Cooke reported an apology from some of the protesters over the “treatment” of some journalists, but incidents have continued to be reported.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

    A national trade union in Papua New Guinea today blamed State Enterprises Minister William Duma for causing a media freedom furore at the country’s premier television broadcaster EMTV as a general election looms in June.

    The crisis has led to the suspension of the news chief and a walkout by 19 journalists and news workers last week that forced the channel to repeat its Wednesday 6pm news bulletin the following night.

    Following the walkout, EMTV interim CEO Lesieli Vete suspended the news team and reportedly hired stand-in staff after walk-in interviews.

    A former sports reporter, Dinnierose Raiko, who was promoted to EMTV sales department late last year, was said to be now acting news editor.

    The PNG Trade Union Council (PNGTUC) has appealed to Prime Minister James Marape to intervene and for head of news and current affairs Sincha Dimara — suspended for 21 days without pay for alleged “insubordination” — to be reinstated without penalty.

    Dimara is one of Papua New Guinea’s most experienced journalists with 33 years in the industry.

    She was reportedly suspended for broadcasting stories about the arrest of Australian businessman Jamie Pang, including criticism of police and criminal procedure in the case.

    ‘Blackout’ of Pang news
    The coverage centred on Pang, who had first been arrested in 2021 after police discovered an illegal firearms cache and an alleged meth lab in the Sanctuary Hotel Resort and Spa in the capital Port Moresby, where Pang was group operations manager.

    The PNGTUC accused minister Duma of “instigating the whole mess” by ordering a  “blackout [of] all news on Jamie Pang” and on the performances of state enterprises.

    “All national leaders are mandated to serve the people’s interest and must be seen to uphold and promote tenants of democracy and not otherwise,” said PNGTUC acting general secretary Anton Sekum in a statement.

    EMTV head of news and current affairs Sincha Dimara
    EMTV head of news and current affairs Sincha Dimara … suspended for “insubordination” over news judgment. Image: RSF

    “The powers vested in them to make decisions over public utilities and finance should not be used as a stick to control media freedom specifically, and for that matter, generally, violate democratic rights of people.”

    William Duma, as minister responsible for the Telikom Holdings Ltd which owns EMTV through Media Niugini Ltd, had “intimidated the management of EMTV and Telikom” by making it known that he would not approve funding to relocate EMTV studios to the Telikom Rumana Haus if EMTV published any “negative news” about Pang and any state-owned enterprises.

    The PNGTUC statement on EMTV
    The PNG Trade Union Congress statement on the EMTV controversy today. Image: APR

    Sekum said the Prime Minister would need to “confirm for public benefit” whether minister Duma’s action reflected the official position of his government.

    “This country cannot afford to be led by leaders pushing self-serving ulterior agendas any more. We need leaders serving the real interest of the people more now than any other time in our short history,” he said.

    ‘Worst ever reward’
    Sekum described the suspension of Dimara without pay “for doing her job right was the worst ever reward for diligently serving EMTV for over 33 years”.

    The PNGTUC said it had been reliably informed that there had been no bias in the Jamie Pang coverage that Dimara had been penalised for.

    “But what is of more concern to the PNGTUC as the national workers’ rights organisation and as a defender of our democracy is the fact that bad politics [has] crept into the media space to control media freedom,” he said.

    “Penalising Sincha for doing the right thing is a classic example.”

    Sekum called on the prime minister to “restore some sense into the whole affair” by ensuring that Sincha Dimara and her television crew would be reinstated to their jobs without loss of entitlements.

    “Journalists are workers and we will stand up for them until they get justice,” he said.

    Sekum also called for the sacking of the EMTV interim CEO Vete, accusing her of violating media freedom in breach of the constitution.

    The government and EMTV management made no immediate response to the PNGTUC’s claims.

    Meanwhile, Lae staff members of EMTV held a press conference tonight and reaffirmed their support for their colleagues in Port Moresby.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • COMMENTARY: EMTV’s deputy news editor Jack Lapauve Jr in Port Moresby writes in defence of the newsroom’s decision to walk out in protest over the suspension of head of news and current affairs Sincha Dimara on February 7.

    The EMTV News editorial decision to run the two stories [about the court cases involving Australian hotel businessman Jamie Pang] was based on two important points in our line of work:

    Impartiality and Objectivity.

    Impartiality cannot be achieved by the measure of words in a story, it is achieved by:

    • Avoiding bias towards one point of view
    • Avoiding omission of relevant facts
    • Avoiding misleading emphasis

    All of which are stated in the EMTV News and Current Affairs Manual 2019 in section 17.5 under standard operations of the television code.

    By running the stories, the team was accused of bias.

    We fail to see the areas of bias in our stories, especially because we presented more than one point of view in both stories.

    The information presented was based on facts and in avoiding any misleading emphasis; we delivered objective television news packages that were fully impartial in the code and conduct of journalism.

    Objective stories
    Overall, both stories were objective stories where two or more opinions were looked at closely in each story.

    To be clear, in television news objectivity is achieved by taking a rational but sceptical approach to ALL points of view.

    In this case, Jamie Pang’s arrest, conviction and charges were looked at, as well as his community and social activities:

    • Pang was arrested – Fact
    • Pang was convicted, charged and fined for having firearms and munitions in his possession – Fact
    • Pang was acquitted by a sound and proper court of justice in the PNG judicial system, from charges relating to methamphetamine – Fact
    • Being acquitted by a sound and proper court of justice in the PNG judicial system, makes Pang a free man from drug charges – Fact
    • Pang is heavily involved in social and community works – Fact
    • Pang was rearrested and detained – Fact

    All these factual points were documented in one story.

    Head of news Sincha Dimara .
    Head of news Sincha Dimara … suspended by EMTV. Image: RSF

    It is important to understand, that in objective writing, the opinion of the interviewees are their own. However, [how] it is perceived by the our viewers is up to them to weigh [up] and decide.

    Objective [news] stories are often mistaken as opinion pieces.

    They are not the same.

    An opinion piece is a commentary on one point of view.

    Journalism independence
    As journalists we cannot be servants of sectional interests. It is our duty to speak to both “saints” and “sinners”. It is our democratic right to report on the good, bad and the ugly aspects of any story.

    There are no instances of perceived impartiality in our reporting which display a lack of objectivity.

    And a lack of objectivity leaves room for personal bias which is not acceptable in the journalism code of ethics.

    The failure of the interim EMTV CEO, Lesieli Vete, to understand how a newsroom operates and a newsroom’s code of conduct led to the suspension of head of news Sincha Dimara.

    Vete’s failure to try to understand the newsroom’s points of objectivity and impartiality in the stories led to her issuing of the statement portraying the newsroom as biased and in support of meth by sympathising with Pang’s employees and friends.

    Vete’s statement served the purpose of explaining the leaked memo and portraying a bad picture of her newsroom.

    Her statement lacked objectivity and impartiality because a written standpoint of the newsroom’s reasons for airing stories in the coverage of the Pang story were not included in her statement.

    Suppression of media freedom
    Vete’s questioning of our stance on running the story, and not showing any interest in learning nor understanding the way it was put together, led to further suppression of freedom of speech; direct and daily intimidation of senior and junior staff; micromanagement of staff whereabouts and activities; and direct and indirect threats of termination on staff.

    The immense pressure to put a [news] bulletin together while being highly and closely monitored took a direct and serious toll on newsroom staff morale.

    This created conditions that were suffocating to work under. A walk off was imminent.

    We are making a stand now in solidarity against bullying and ill treatment of newsroom staff in the absence of news managers.

    This is the third time we are experiencing a suppression of our right to freedom of speech, and we want it to stop once and for all.

    After the suspension of Sincha Dimara, EMTV’s deputy news editor Jack Lapauve Jr is now the most senior news manager and he was with the walk out. He posted this commentary on his Facebook page and it is republished here with his permission.

    The empty EMTV newsroom
    The empty EMTV newsroom last Thursday … after a walkout in protest by journalists over the suspension of their head of news Sincha Dimara. Image: APN

     

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

    Papua New Guinean television station EMTV did not run its usual 6pm news bulletin last night as its journalists and news production crew in Port Moresby and countrywide walked off the job demanding their suspended head of news and current affairs, Sincha Dimara, be reinstated, reports PNG Post-Courier.

    Papua New Guineans were also denied the right to information when the newsroom team walked off with the production of the 6pm news.

    The station was forced to replay Tuesday’s news segment instead.

    Dimara was suspended last week by the EMTV management following an internal memo preventing the newsroom from running stories on currently embroiled businessman Jamie Pang.

    She was suspended without pay for 21 days on the grounds of alleged insubordination and damaging EMTV’s reputation by running stories that were sympathising with the hotelier who is currently in custody for several serious charges of criminal conduct.

    The management in a statement maintained its stand stating that “the leaked internal memo served as a caution for EMTV journalists to be sensitive when conducting interviews and to follow reporting guidelines”.

    “The memo did not in any way restrict the journalists’ freedom of press rather the memo was circulated to staff with the view to properly scrutinise the content of the news stories before they were aired that day.”

    PNG Media Council condemns suspension
    The PNG Media Council, in a statement, condemned the suspension of Dimara and called for her immediate reinstatement, saying that the council saw her suspension solely as an act of intimidation by the interim CEO and management of Media Niugini Limited.

    “Media Niugini Limited (MNL) has not learned from its past experiences of sidelining, and even terminating its heads of news, based on political directives,” the council stated.

    The president of the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA), Kora Nou, urged all media organisations in the region to “vigorously defend the editorial independence” of their newsrooms.

    Nou said both the management and newsroom executives of all media organisations had their distinct roles to play.

    He said he had reached out to the interim chief executive officer of EMTV, Lesieli Vete, to get her side of the story but had not received much feedback.

    In a statement released late last night by the newsroom staff, they said their decision to walk off their duties was because the issue could have been handled better by the interim CEO, adding that it was the third such incident involving heads of news.

    “This is the third time in a space of five years for an EMTV news manager to be suspended due to external influence,” they stated.

    On Wednesday, February 9, 2022, the national EMTV News team wrote a letter to Vete expressing concern over the suspension of Dimara. They met with both EMTV and Telikom managements who explained their decision to suspend Dimara.

    “The EMTV Newsroom would like to apologise to our viewers for not bringing you tonight’s news bulletin. We will return when the wrongs have been righted,” the statement said.

    Republished with permission from the PNG Post-Courier.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • By Tim Brown, RNZ News reporter

    The anti-mandate protests in New Zealand’s capital Wellington and around the country have also contained a strong anti-media sentiment with reporters abused and threatened.

    But one far-right activist has gone a step further and as part of a targeted attack on the media has published a graphic image of public executions of Nazi war criminals.

    The disturbing image shows a dozen Nazi war criminals being hanged following World War II.

    It has become a popular meme with the online far-right ecosphere, where it is often accompanied by a caption: “Photograph of Hangings at Nuremberg, Germany. Members of the Media, who lied and misled the German People were executed, right along with Medical Doctors and Nurses who participated in medical experiments using living people as guinea pigs”.

    Disinformation Project lead Dr Kate Hannah said the poster’s intention was clear.

    “It’s incredibly unsubtle. Even if all they do is march outside… it is still incredibly disturbing, it is still incredibly upsetting to have their work [media and health workers] targeted in such a manner.”

    But in a twist of irony — considering the fake news such far-right groups claimed to despise — only one member of the media was actually executed following the war; high-ranking Nazi politician Julius Streicher, publisher of the far-right Der Stürmer tabloid.

    And the photo in question was not even taken in Nuremberg — instead it shows executions in Kiev.

    ‘Hideous media language’
    But, errors aside, Dr Hannah said the far-right’s seizing of ill-feeling against the media was cause for concern.

    “There has been a concerted effort in these spaces over the last 18 months to frame mainstream media as agents of the state, as the ‘lying press’ which is obviously from lügenpresse which is Nazi terminology for left-wing press,” she said.

    “There’s been some hideous language used around journalists — the use of the [word] ‘presstitute’ to describe female journalists.

    “So this is very much an attempt to shift the place where people get their information from, from being say the mainstream media to fringe media outlets.”

    The ultimate goal of far-right activists was destabilising democracy, Dr Hannah said.

    Dr Gavin Ellis
    Media commentator Dr Gavin Ellis … “Some of these people won’t even be at the protest – their orchestration is behind the scenes. Image: Dru Faulkner/RNZ

    Media commentator Dr Gavin Ellis said there had been a concerted effort to target the foundations of democracy — including freedom of the press.

    It was an orchestrated rather than an organised movement, Dr Ellis said, with some of those pulling the strings doing so from a distance.

    “Some of these people won’t even be at the protest – their orchestration is behind the scenes. But they are intent on undermining the institutions of democratic government,” he said.

    Most protesters not violent
    Most protesters were not violent and were simply frustrated with the ongoing effects of the pandemic on their lives.

    But they were being harnessed by far more nefarious actors, and their anger at the media was a case of shooting the messenger, he said.

    “That’s a large part of it — that reality flies in the face of what they stand for. So they forge their own alternate reality and anything that doesn’t match that worldview that they might have is seen as not only wrong, but inherently malevolent — that the truth is something that must not be tolerated,” Dr Ellis said.

    While the anger directed at the media was unprecedented in New Zealand, he did not believe it was based on any genuine criticism of the current health or quality of the industry.

    However, he feared such tactics could have a chilling effect on the media and journalists, and reporters must continue to do their work in the face of such intimidation.

    The other aspect of using such imagery was how offensive it was to victims of Nazi persecution.

    Disgusted by poster
    Holocaust Centre of New Zealand chair Deborah Hart said she was disgusted by the poster.

    There was no comparison of the rollout of a potentially life-saving vaccine by the New Zealand government to the industrial murder of six millions Jews and millions of others by the Nazis, Hart said.

    “The Nuremberg trials where military tribunals after World War II for senior Nazis who participated in the Holocaust. To compare that to the vaccine mandates is ridiculous,” she said.

    “The intention of these two things was different; the scale was different; the policies were different; and the outcomes were profoundly different.”

    It is also worth noting that where possible Hitler withheld vaccines from populations the Nazis persecuted.

    This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

    The national news team of Papua New Guinea’s major television channel, EMTV, walked out last night in protest over a decision earlier this month to suspend head of news Sincha Dimara for alleged insubordination.

    They have condemned the political “endless intimidation” of the news service which has led to the suspension or sacking of three news managers in the past five years.

    The news team has vowed to not return until the “wrongs have been righted” by the EMTV management with Dimara, a journalist of 30 years experience, being reinstated, and acting CEO Lesieli Vete being “sidelined and investigated for putting EMTV News into disrepute”.

    In a statement signed by the “Newsroom 2022” team made public tonight, the team apologised to viewers for not broadcasting last night’s news bulletin.

    “With all that has happened in the last eight days, the EMTV News team has decided to walk off producing EMTV News for tonight, Thursday, 17th February 2022,” the statement said.

    “We, therefore demand that Ms Dimara be reinstated and for interim CEO Lesieli Vete to be sidelined and investigated for putting EMTV News into disrepute.

    “We no longer have confidence in her leadership.

    Apology to viewers
    “The EMTV Newsroom would like to apologise to our viewers for not bringing you tonight’s news bulletin. We will return when the wrongs have been righted.”

    The controversy arose over a series of news stories about Australian hotel businessman Jamie Pang and his court cases.

    According to the newsroom statement, on Monday, 7 February 2022, “a fraction of the EMTV News team was verbally notified of a decision made by EMTV management to suspend EMTV’s head of news and current affairs, Sincha Dimara for a 21-day period”.

    The statement said the decision had been based on two grounds:

    “Purported insubordination over a series of news stories relating to Jamie Pang and his associates and damaging the reputation of EMTV, which the interim CEO claims EMTV received negative comments from the public on the airing of Jamie Pang’s stories.”

    Suspended EMTV news manager Sincha Dimara
    Suspended EMTV news manager Sincha Dimara … “”We are dismayed at the extreme harsh treatment of our head of news,” say the EMTV news team. Image: EMTV News

    The news team said the issue could have been “handled better” by the interim CEO Vete who “lacked a demonstration of leadership”.

    “We are dismayed at the extreme harsh treatment of our head of news and the continuous interferences from outside the newsroom,” the statement said.

    Third suspension in five years
    “This is the third time in a space of five years for an EMTV news manager to be suspended due to external influence.”

    • Scott Waide was the first manager suspended in 2018 over a story aired during the 2018 APEC meeting.
    • Neville Choi was terminated in August 2019, also on grounds of “insubordination”.
    • And now Sincha Dimara was placed in a similar situation.

    On Wednesday, 9 February 2022, the news team wrote a letter to Vete expressing concern on the suspension of Dimara.

    According to the news team, Vete queried the letter demanding to know which staff members were involved in sending out the letter.

    The same day, Thursday, 10 February 2022, the entire news team expressed their concern in another letter with signatures from all individual members to support the call to re-instate Dimara.

    “We are certain that the manner and approach taken by the interim CEO over the suspension of Ms Dimara is not right,” said the news team.

    “We consider the grounds of suspension to be shallow, contradictory and irrelevant.

    EMTV's defence statement
    EMTV’s statement defending the suspension of its news chief by highlighting a memo “leak” on February 8. Image: EMTV website

    News reports ‘unbiased and factual’
    “The news team strongly believes that the stories that ran on the nightly news relating to Jamie Pang were unbiased and reported with facts and did not impede on any of the current laws nor did not implicate anyone.”

    On Thursday, 10 February 2022, the EMTV management team, acting CEO of Telikom – the owners of EMTV’s parent company Media Niugini Limited (MNL)  — and few senior officers met with the news team and explained their decision to suspend Dimara.

    The management team initiated an audit investigation into the situation to determine what went wrong. That investigation is still continuing.

    After that meeting, the news team wrote another letter addressed to Telikom acting CEO, Amos Tepi and copied in the chairman of Telikom, Johnson Pundari which was sent to both Tepi and Pundari yesterday – February 17.

    “The decision to suspend Dimara is wrong as it breaches the Media Code of Ethics which is to report without fear or favour,” the news team said.

    The team also said it was standing up against continuous intimidation from the interim CEO.

    ‘Endless intimidation’
    “We condemn the endless direct or indirect intimidation which includes:

    • Threats of terminating news members for not putting together a news bulletin;
    • Micromanaging daily news production by being present in the master control room during live news;
    • Forcing the news team to sign a recently drafted news manual through the HR Department; and
    • Attempts to single out individual staff and asking if they have read the news manual or finding out if they have completed a degree or diploma in their respective fields.

    Under Dimara’s leadership, EMTV News has won the award for AVN Outstanding Reporting from the Pacific category for a well-documented series, Last Man Standing, which covered the political life of a founding father of Papua New Guinea, Sir Julius Chan.

    Dimara was planning the coverage of Papua New Guinea’s 2022 National Elections and the news team insist they need her leadership.

    There was no immediate public response from the EMTV management to the news team’s walkout protest last night, nor was there any mention of the absence of the nightly bulletin on the new channel’s website.

    Several media freedom monitoring organisations have made statements with the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemning the “unacceptable political meddling” and calling for immediate reinstatement of Sincha Dimara.

    The Paris-based International Federation of Journalists also condemned Dimara’s suspension and urged the company to immediately reinstate her.  Pacific Media Watch reported on the ongoing intimidation of EMTV editorial staff.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

    Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned the “unacceptable political meddling” behind Sincha Dimara’s suspension as head of news and current affairs at EMTV News, Papua New Guinea’s main public television news channel, after three news stories annoyed a government minister.

    The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog said in a statement today she must be reinstated at once.

    After 33 years at EMTV News, Sincha Dimara was suspended for at least three weeks without pay on February 7.

    From a leaked memo from Lesieli Vete, the CEO of Media Niugini Limited (MNL), EMTV’s owner – which was finally published on February 9 – her staff learned that she had been accused of “insubordination” and “damaging the reputation of the company”.

    The “insubordination” consisted of three stories by Dimara’s news team about Australian hotel manager Jamie Pang’s legal problems in Papua New Guinea and suspicions that the police had violated criminal procedure in the case,

    Their reporting seems to have displeased Public Enterprises Minister William Duma, who — according to several accounts — was behind the decision to suspend Dimara.

    Duma is also in charge of Telikom, the state-owned telecommunications company that owns MNL, and therefore, by extension, EMTV News.

    Two days after Dimara’s suspension, the Media Council of PNG issued a statement defending her decision to broadcast the three stories.

    Dimara told RSF that she was very concerned that the suspension was “affecting the performance of my staff”.

    Deliberate intimidation
    “As Sincha Dimara’s suspension is clearly a ploy to intimidate the entire editorial staff at EMTV News, we demand her immediate reinstatement as head of news and current affairs,” said Daniel Bastard, head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk.

    Suspended EMTV news manager Sincha Dimara
    Suspended EMTV head of news Sincha Dimara … “disturbing precedents … coming just four months ahead of the June general elections.” Image: EMTV News

    “This political interference weakening diversity in news and information is all the more unacceptable for having disturbing precedents and coming just four months ahead of next June’s general elections.”

    Political and commercial pressure aimed at limiting editorial freedom at EMTV News is not new.

    Scott Waide, an EMTV News senior journalist of long standing, was suspended in November 2018 over a story suggesting that the government had misused public funds by purchasing luxury cars, as reported by Asia Pacific Report.

    The political pressure on EMTV News is such that Neville Choi was fired as head of news in 2019 on the same grounds as his successor now — for “insubordination.” He was eventually reinstated.

    Papua New Guinea is ranked 47th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

    Asia Pacific Report and Pacific Media Watch collaborate with Reporters Without Borders.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

    The Media Council of PNG has condemned the suspension of the news chief of Papua New Guinea’s major television channel, EMTV, describing the move as a “dangerous precedent … in an election year”.

    The council said the suspension of head of news and current affairs Sincha Dimara for 21 days without pay over coverage by EMTV about the rearrest of Australian hotel manager Jamie Pang last month was an an act of intimidation by the interim CEO and management of Media Niugini Ltd in the face of political influence.

    It amounted to “suppression of a free media in the country”, the council added in its statement today.

    Papua New Guinea faces a general election in June this year.

    As a warning to all media managements in PNG, the council said that a strong news service was only as strong as its head of news, with the support of the company’s management and board.

    “To resort to suspending its head of news for reasons of performing and complying to a ministerial directive based on personal or emotional reactions to social media comments about a story reeks of undue political influence, and sets a dangerous precedent as the country moves into election year,” it said.

    “[This is] a time when strong independent news assessment will be key in news coverage.”

    Reinstate Dimara call by Media Council
    The council called on EMTV’s interim CEO Lesieli Vete and the management to immediately reinstate Dimara as head of news to “protect the interest of the media industry”.

    The suspension had been at the “behest of an executive directive” from the minister responsible for EMTV to “fix the problem”. The minister was not named by the council.

    The Media Council of PNG media statement
    The Media Council of PNG media statement today. Image: APR

    For EMTV’s CEO Vete to “target her head of news in efforts to ‘fix the problem’ clearly shows that Media Niugini Ltd has not learned from its past experiences of sidelining, and even terminating, its heads of news based on political directives“.

    The council’s statement also cited four EMTV reports of the Pang coverage, which it described as well-balanced and presented:

    • Friday, January 28, 2022: “Pang acquitted”, about the legal outcome of the case against the hotelier.
    • Monday, January 31, 2022: “Pang’s staff concerned”, focused on the alleged human rights abuse surrounding the re-arrest of Pang.
    • Tuesday, February 1, 2022: “Boxers concerned for Pang”, focused on the views of boxers involved in community martial arts programmes run by Pang.
    • Wednesday, Febuary 2, 2022: “Mixed martial arts”, focused on the Mixed Martial Arts club with no mention of Pang’s association with it.

    Other PNG news media reported Pang being acquitted and the concerns of his employees over his rearrest.

    ‘Shallow’ reasons for suspension
    The council said it recognised Dimara’s news assessment over the stories and rejected EMTV management’s reasons for suspending her, describing them as “shallow”.

    EMTV’s management claimed staff were neither “restricted nor stopped from reporting unfolding stories on the detained resident”.

    It said a leaked internal memo had been the result of “alleged insubordination by staff towards verbal lawful instructions to drop stories sympathising with Pang”.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

    Suspension of the news manager of Papua New Guinea’s major television channel, EMTV, has sparked a flurry of protest from senior news personalities and independent who condemn the apparent political pressure on the broadcaster.

    Long standing and experienced news manager Sincha Dimara has reportedly been suspended over news judgement in a move that a former EMTV senior news executive  said “reeks of external influence” on the company’s top management.

    “A CEO is a buffer between staff and any external pressure. You need a heart of steel and buckets of bravery to fend off political pressure,” said independent television journalist and blogger Scott Waide.

    Waide was himself subjected to unfair suspension over airing a controversial story about then Peter O’Neill government’s purchase of luxury Maseratis for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) conference hosted in Port Moresby in 2018. He was later reinstated after an international outcry.

    The Maserati saga continues to be a controversy in PNG.

    “There is another way to correct coverage that does not ‘fit the aspirations’ of a news organisation — it’s called leadership,” said Waide in response to the Dimara suspension.

    “If the CEO is too timid and cannot protect our Papua New Guinean staff, then please resign and go home! This is not the place for you.”

    In responses shared on social media, former publisher of the PNG Post-Courier and a regional media consultant Bob Howarth, asked: “What does the Media Council have to say about political meddling in PNG’s struggling ‘free press’ …?”

    Another former news executive, Joseph Ealedona, who headed the state broadcaster NBC and was himself involved in controversies, said NBC had built its reputation and integrity for years and “has the people’s protection”.

    “It did happen to me but the people’s protest and insistence and the will of senior statesmen and political leaders to right the wrong saw me return for EMTV,” he said.

    “in my view, it is just someone trying to protect oneself and fearful of losing privileges and has no guts to say no … and listening to just one or two people.

    “I would believe that the PM [James Marape] is not happy with this this, it is at the detriment of the government if allowed to continue, especially when the NGE is around the corner [national general election is in June].

    “The freedom of the media is very important to a free democracy but we in the [media] fraternity must carry [on] with utmost respect and do nothing but expose the truth as a responsible profession.”

    Ealedona said journalists “must continue to fight against and with the might of the pen”.

    He also asked what was the stance of the Suva-based Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) in response.

     

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Kurdish journalists continue to be killed or jailed simply for reporting the news, reports Steve Sweeney.

    This post was originally published on Green Left.

  • Last year, Mexico was named the most dangerous country in the world for journalists, after Afghanistan. A recent wave of assassinations has sparked nationwide protest action, reports Tamara Pearson.

    This post was originally published on Green Left.

  • OBITUARY: By the PNG Post-Courier

    “Iron” we called him. And so he was, our iron man at Papua New Guinea’s Post-Courier in Lawes Road, Port Moresby, to the end.

    Until Wednesday, Isaac Nicholas was the steely fearless reporter who held us up front, and firmly led us from the front page as chief political reporter.

    It is not easy being a political reporter.

    PNG Post-Courier
    PNG POST-COURIER

    Few people survive the beat and the heat.

    Your name is mentioned in the halls of power.

    You are enemy first and friend second.

    Politicians either fear you or hate you.

    Wary of his beat
    Either way, Isaac Nicholas was always wary of his beat. He played the pollies with a calculated intensity like no-one did.

    He was sure fire seeking the truth and quite firm in gaining traction without compromising the essence of fair and unbiased reporting.

    He was a friend to all of them but getting under their skins, irritating them, made the Iron a trademark enemy to none.

    Some of his best friends, like the MP for Goilala [William Samb], criticised him openly when they could about his reporting but at the end of the day, he would stand up in the newsroom and declare, “the member just called me” and that was it!

    This little man from Yangoru, 52, served our newspaper and our country faithfully for the past 15 years, going places where few reporters dare, like the mountains of Goilala and the bush of Telefomin and the crocodile-infested swamps of Kerema.

    You can think of many journos from the Sepik and Isaac Nicholas was among the best.

    He was friendly, good natured and humorous.

    Green iron tins under a mango tree
    At the end of a hard day’s news hunt, our Iron would always retire under his mango tree at East Boroko. How ironic it was that his favourite cooling off was always with green iron tins under a green tree.

    His notebooks were filled with names and stories.

    There’s a box full of them on his table.

    That is his life story.

    Those of us who knew him, walked with him, talked with him, shared a buai [betel nut], shed our tears for the loss of a close friend.

    A protector of junior newshounds, a leader of senior scribes. His leadership and reporting will be missed in Papua New Guinean journalism.

    Life is such that we make friends without knowing when that friendship will pass. PNG woke up on Wednesday to the news that our iron man in news-making had breathed his last.

    From Yangoru to Manugoro, Dagua to Kagua, Vailala to Goilala, Malalaua to Salamaua, Baniara to Honiara, the name Isaac Nicholas was a trusted forte of political drama and conscience leadership.

    Without the generosity of a goodbye, without the curiosity of a farewell, we, his friends at the Post-Courier find it quite hard to fathom losing such a dear brother, news leader and best friend so suddenly.

    We remember the late Isaac and comfort Judy Nicholas and their children in this time of sadness.

    Vale Isaac, you were truly our IRON MAN!

    Tributes flow in for Isaac Nicholas
    Isaac Nicholas, 52, was a giant in the Papua New Guinean media fraternity, known for his ability to get answers from PNG’s political heavyweights on any given day, report colleagues in the PNG media industry.

    Fellow senior journalists, NBC’s Gregory Moses and Sunday Bulletin’s Clifford Faiparik remembered their friend and the light moments they shared while on the beat.

    Moses lamented: “Parliament coverage next week will not be the same.

    “I fought back tears whole day, and sat down and reminiscing all the fun and jokes we shared as colleagues and brothers.”

    Professor David Robie, who was head of the journalism programme at the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) in the 1990s, paid tribute to Nicholas as “one of the outstanding journalists in the making of our times on Uni Tavur”, the award-winning student newspaper featured in his 2004 book Mekim Nius.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • SPECIAL REPORT: By Joyce McClure in Guam

    I spent five years as the lone journalist on the remote Pacific island of Yap. During that time I was harassed, spat at, threatened with assassination and warned that I was being followed.

    The tyres on my car were slashed late one night.

    There was also pressure on the political level. The chiefs of the traditional Council of Pilung (COP) asked the state legislature to throw me out of the country as a “persona non grata” claiming that my journalism “may be disruptive to the state environment and/or to the safety and security of the state”.

    During a public hearing of the Yap state legislature in September 2021, 14 minutes of the 28-minute meeting was spent complaining about an article of mine that reported on the legislature’s initially unsuccessful attempt to impeach the governor.

    One politician then posted about me on his Facebook page, under which a member of the public posted a comment saying I should be assassinated.

    American Bill Jaynes, editor of the Kaselehlie Press in Pohnpei, one of Yap’s sister states in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), has had his share of death threats over the years, too.

    Several death threats
    “In the 15 or so years I’ve been at this desk I have had several death threats,” he said.

    “Early on in my tenure, some angry individual carved a request for me to perform an act of physical impossibility into the hood of my car which then rusted for posterity. Most of that was during the early days before I came to be trusted to view things from an FSM rather than a foreigner’s point of view and to handle things factually rather than sensationally.”

    Freedom of the press is included in both the FSM and the Yap State Constitution, but as Leilani Reklai, publisher and editor of the Island Times newspaper in Palau and president of the Palau Media Council, says: “Freedom of the press in the constitution is pretty on paper but not always a reality.”

    These incidents are shocking, but sadly are not isolated. Journalists in the Pacific face imprisonment, loss of employment and banishment from their homes.

    “While there might not be assassinations, murders, gagging, torture and ‘disappearances’ of journalists in Pacific island states, threats, censorship and a climate of self-censorship are commonplace,” professor David Robie, founding editor of Pacific Journalism Review, wrote in a 2019 article for The Conversation.

    A Fijian journalist, who asked to remain anonymous, said that after he posed questions to a politician during a public forum, the politician replied that he knew where the reporter lived. The following day, the reporter’s car was broken into.

    Soon after, the reporter was told that if he didn’t stop being critical, he would be kicked out of his job “and can go bag groceries instead” and he was evicted from his housing. The reporter believes all of these incidents stemmed from the questions he asked of the politician.

    “Within one week my life changed completely,” he said. “I do not see a future for me or any other journalist who is curious and questioning to make a career in journalism in Fiji.”

    Fiji ranked 55th in world
    According to the Reporters Without Borders’ 2021 World Press Freedom Index, Fiji is ranked as 55th out of 179.

    The index highlights the “draconian” Media Industry Development Decree, introduced in 2010 and turned into law in 2018. “Those who violate this law’s vaguely-worded provisions face up to two years in prison. The sedition laws, with penalties of up to seven years in prison, are also used to foster a climate of fear and self-censorship,” said Reporters Without Borders.

    In 2018, senior journalist Scott Waide of Papua New Guinea was suspended by EMTV after the airing of his report critical of the government for purchasing 40 luxury Maseratis and three Bentleys to drive attendees during the APEC conference.

    Reinstated after a public and media outcry, Waide stated during an interview on ABC’s Pacific Beat programme: “Increasingly, not just EMTV, but nearly every other media organisation in Papua New Guinea has been interfered with by their boards or with politicians, or various other players in society.

    “They’re doing it with impunity. It’s a trend that’s very dangerous for democracy.”

    Daniel Bastard, Asia-Pacific director of Reporters Without Borders, said the situation is complicated by how small and connected many Pacific nations are.

    “The fact is that political leaders are also economic bosses so there’s a nexus. It’s symptomatic of the small journalistic communities in the Pacific islands that need to deal with the political community to get access to information. They have to be careful when they criticise knowing the government can cut advertising, publicity, etc. There’s still a strong level of intimidation.”

    While there are particular dangers faced by local journalists, foreign reporters living in the Pacific are not safe either.

    Denied renewal of work permit
    Canadian Dan McGarry, former media director of the Vanuatu Daily Post and a resident of the island nation for nearly 20 years, was denied renewal of his work permit in 2019. The reason given was that his job should be held by a local citizen.

    But McGarry said he believed it was politically motivated due to his reporting on “Chinese influence” in the small nation. He was then denied re-entry to Vanuatu after ironically attending a forum on press freedom in Brisbane.

    Regional and international news organisations came to his defence and the court granted McGarry re-entry, but the newspaper’s appeal to have his work permit renewed is ongoing.

    I have written about some sensitive and difficult topics and like to think of myself as pretty fearless. In 2018 I wrote about illegal fishing by Chinese commercial fishing boats around the Outer Island of Fedrai. That coverage resulted in the expulsion of the fishing vessel and significant political consequences.

    I’ve written about issues in the customs and immigration processes in FSM, that were potentially jeopardising tourism to Yap, which is so important to so many people’s livelihoods, and also about a huge and controversial proposed resort that would have seen thousands and thousands of Chinese tourists flown in to that tiny island on charter flights.

    These stories matter and just because some Pacific nations are small and remote does not mean that they do not need or deserve the scrutiny of a free press.

    But eventually, the threats to my safety were too much to handle. I spent too much time looking over my shoulder, living behind locked doors and never going out alone after dark.

    In mid-2021, I moved to Guam for greater peace of mind where I am continuing to write about this largely invisible, but crucial part of the world.

    Joyce McClure is a freelance journalist based in Guam. This article was first published by The Guardian’s Pacific Project and has been republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

    Hong Kong independent media Stand News has announced it has shut down following the arrest last week of six current and former members of its team.

    The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called for the release of all journalists detained and urges democracies to react and defend what is left of the free press in the territory.

    On the morning of December 29, six current and former team members of Chinese-language news site Stand News were arrested by the police force’s National Security Department on allegations of “conspiracy to publish seditious publications”, a colonial-era crime that bears a maximum sentence of two years in prison.

    The detainees are acting chief editor Patrick Lam Shiu-tung, former chief editor Chung Pui-kuen, and four former board members: Denise Ho Wan-see, Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, Chow Tat-chi and Christine Fang Meng-sang.

    Next day, December 30, the four board members — Denise Ho Wan-see, Margaret Ng Ngoi-yee, Chow Tat-chi and Christine Fang Meng-sang — were released on a bail, while chief editors Patrick Lam Shiu-tung and Chung Pui-kuen will stay in custody until the trial.

    Simultaneously on the day of the arrests, a total of 200 police officers raided the Stand News office and searched the house of Stand News’ deputy assignment editor, Ronson Chan Long-sing.

    Chan, who is also the chair of Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA), was taken away and later released after questioning.

    Defend ‘what’s left of free press’
    “Exactly six months after the dismantling of the Next Digital group and its flagship newspaper Apple Daily, Hong Kong Chief Executive Carrie Lam once again shows her determination to terminate press freedom in the territory by eliminating Stand News in a similar fashion”, said Cédric Alviani, RSF East Asia bureau head, who called for the release of all journalists and urges democracies “to act in line with their own values and obligations and defend what’s left of the free press in Hong Kong before China’s model of information control claims another victim”.

    Stand News, an independent, non-profit, news website in Chinese founded in 2014, provided in-depth coverage of all trials related to the National Security Law, and was a nominee for the 2021 RSF Press Freedom Awards.

    In June, Chief Executive Lam also used the National Security Law as pretext to shut down Apple Daily, the territory’s largest Chinese-language opposition newspaper, and to prosecute at least 12 journalists and press freedom defenders, 10 of whom are still detained.

    In a report titled “The Great Leap Backwards of Journalism in China”, published on 7 December 2021, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) revealed the system of censorship and information control established by the Chinese regime and the global threat it poses to press freedom and democracy.

    Hong Kong, once a bastion of press freedom, has fallen from 18th place in 2002 to 80th place in the 2020 RSF World Press Freedom Index.

    The People’s Republic of China, for its part, has stagnated at 177th out of 180.

    Republished with permission. Asia Pacific Report collaborates with Reporters Without Borders.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pacific Media Watch

    The Paris-based global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned three “dictatorial regimes” — Belarus, China and Myanmar — for their role in a global surge in the jailing of journalists doing their job.

    According to the RSF annual round-up, a record number of journalists — 488, including 60 women — are currently detained worldwide, while another 65 are being held hostage.

    Meanwhile, the number of journalists killed in 2021 — 46 — is at its lowest in 20 years.

    RSF said in a statement that the number of journalists detained in connection with their work had never been this high since the watchdog began publishing its annual round-up in 1995.

    RSF logged a total of 488 journalists and media workers in prison in mid-December 2021, or 20 percent more than at the same time last year.

    This exceptional surge in arbitrary detention is due, above all, to three countries — Myanmar, where the military retook power in a coup on 1 February 2021; Belarus, which has seen a major crackdown since Alexander Lukashenko’s disputed reelection in August 2020; and Xi Jinping’s China, which is tightening its grip on Hong Kong, the special administrative region once seen as a regional model of respect for press freedom.

    RSF has also never previously registered so many female journalists in prison, with a total of 60 currently detained in connection with their work – a third (33 percent) more than at this time last year.

    China world’s biggest jailer of journalists
    China, the world’s biggest jailer of journalists for the fifth year running, is also the biggest jailer of female journalists, with 19 currently detained. They include Zhang Zhan, a 2021 RSF Press Freedom laureate, who is now critically ill.

    Belarus is currently holding more female journalists (17) than male (15). They include two reporters for the Poland-based independent Belarusian TV channel Belsat — Daria Chultsova and Katsiaryna Andreyeva — who were sentenced to two years in a prison camp for providing live coverage of an unauthorised demonstration.

    In Myanmar, of the 53 journalists and media workers detained, nine are women.

    “The extremely high number of journalists in arbitrary detention is the work of three dictatorial regimes,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.

    “It is a reflection of the reinforcement of dictatorial power worldwide, an accumulation of crises, and the lack of any scruples on the part of these regimes. It may also be the result of new geopolitical power relationships in which authoritarian regimes are not being subjected to enough pressure to curb their crackdowns.”

    Another striking feature of this year’s round-up is the fall in the number of journalists killed in connection with their work — 46 from 1 January to 1 December 2021. The year 2003 was the last time that fewer than 50 journalists were killed.

    This year’s fall is mostly due to a decline in the intensity of conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Yemen and to campaigning by press freedom organisations, including RSF, for the implementation of international and national mechanisms aimed at protecting journalists.

    Journalists deliberately targeted
    Nonetheless, despite this remarkable fall, an average of nearly one journalist a week is still being killed in connection with their work. And RSF has established that 65 percent of the journalists killed in 2021 were deliberately targeted and eliminated.

    Mexico and Afghanistan are again the two deadliest countries, with seven journalists killed in Mexico and six in Afghanistan. Yemen and India share third place, with four journalists killed in each country.

    In addition to these figures, the 2021 round-up also mentions some of the year’s most striking cases. This year’s longest prison sentence, 15 years, was handed down to both Ali Aboluhom in Saudi Arabia and Pham Chi Dung in Vietnam.

    The longest and most Kafkaesque trials are being inflicted on Amadou Vamoulké in Cameroon and Ali Anouzla in Morocco.

    The oldest detained journalists are Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong and Kayvan Samimi Behbahani in Iran, who are 74 and 73 years old.

    The French journalist Olivier Dubois was the only foreign journalist to be abducted this year. He has been held hostage in Mali since April 8.

    Since 1995, RSF has been compiling annual round-ups of violence and abuses against journalists based on precise data gathered from 1 January to 1 December of the year in question.

    “The 2021 round-up figures include professional journalists, non-professional journalists and media workers,” RSF explains.

    “We gather detailed information that allows us to affirm with certainty or a great deal of confidence that the detention, abduction, disappearance or death of each journalist was a direct result of their journalistic work. Our methodology may explain differences between our figures and those of other organisations.”

    Reporters Without Borders and Pacific Media Watch collaborate.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pacific Media Watch

    Despite its champions being honoured with a Nobel Peace Prize, press freedom has a “sword of Damocles” hanging over it, warn this year’s two laureates.

    Maria Ressa of the Philippines, co-founder of the news website Rappler, and Dmitry Muratov of Russia, editor of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta, will receive their prize in Oslo on Friday for “their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression”, reports AFP news agency.

    “So far, press freedom is under threat,” Ressa told a press briefing, when asked whether the award had improved the situation in her country, which ranks 138th in the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) press freedom index.

    The 58-year-old journalist mentioned her compatriot and former colleague, Jesus “Jess” Malabanan, a reporter for the Manila Standard Today, who was shot in the head on Wednesday.

    Malabanan, who was also a Reuters correspondent, had worked on the sensitive subject of the “war on drugs” in the Philippines.

    “It’s like having a Damocles sword hang over your head,” Ressa said.

    Toughest stories ‘at own risk’
    “Now in the Philippines, the laws are there but… you tell the toughest stories at your own risk,” she added.

    Ressa, whose website is highly critical of Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, is herself the subject of a total of seven lawsuits in her country.

    Currently on parole pending an appeal after being convicted of defamation last year, she needed to ask four courts for permission to be able to travel and collect her Nobel in person.

    Sitting beside her on Thursday, Muratov, 60, concurred with his fellow recipient’s words.

    “If we’re going to be foreign agents because of the Nobel Peace Prize, we will not get upset, no,” he told reporters when asked of the risk of being labelled as such by the Kremlin.

    “But actually… I don’t think we will get this label. We have some other risks though,” Muratov added.

    ‘Foreign agent’ label
    The “foreign agent” label is meant to apply to people or groups that receive funding from abroad and are involved in any kind of “political activity”.

    “Foreign agent” organisations must disclose sources of funding and label publications with the tag or face fines.

    Novaya Gazeta is a rare independent newspaper in a Russian media landscape that is largely under state control. It is known for its investigations into corruption and human rights abuses in Chechnya.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • By Sri Krishnamurthi for Asia-Pacific Report

    The troubled nation of Solomon Islands, whose Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare won a no-confidence vote 32 votes to 15 with two abstentions on Monday, has been downgraded from “open” to “narrow” in the people power under attack 2021 CIVICUS Monitor report.

    While the majority of Pacific countries were rated open, of most concern was the increased use of restrictive laws that blighted the whole region the report released by the international non-profit organisation CIVICUS, a global research collaboration that rates and tracks rights in 197 countries and territories.

    The People Power Under Attack 2021 report shows that civic freedoms are routinely respected in over half the countries in this region. Seven countries in the Pacific are rated “open”, the highest rating awarded by the CIVICUS Monitor.

    An open rating means people are free to form associations, demonstrate in public spaces, and share information without fear of reprisals.

    Concern in the report highlighted those civic rights are not respected across the region; Fiji, Nauru and Papua New Guinea remain in the “obstructed” category, meaning that restrictions of freedoms of expression, association and assembly have been raised by civil society in these countries.

    Restrictions relating to media freedoms, access to information and the right to protest led to the Solomon Islands downgrade. Freedom of expression is of particular concern — in early 2021 the cabinet threatened to ban Facebook over worries about posts with “inflammatory critiques of the government”.

    The government eventually backtracked after condemnation from civil society and the opposition.

    Public Emergency extended
    Freedom of assembly have been documented in the Solomon Islands. In July, the State of Public Emergency was extended for another four months in response to covid-19, even though there were only 20 reported cases in the country.

    A march in Honiara to deliver a petition to the government by people from the Malaita province was disrupted and dispersed by the police.

    Accessing information is not available to the media in the pandemic as Solomon Islands does not have freedom of information legislation. Additionally, the environment towards civil society groups is becoming more hostile in the country.

    For example, in late 2019 the office of the Prime Minister called for an investigation into a number of civil society groups after they called for the prime minister to step down.

    “Excessive restrictions on civic freedoms imposed by the government under the guise of preventing covid-19 led to the downgrade of the Solomon Islands. Constant threats to ban Facebook and attempts to vilify civil society have also resulted in the failure of the Solomon Islands to retain a top spot in our global rights rankings,” said Josef Benedict, Asia-Pacific civic space researcher at CIVICUS.

    The use of excessive restrictions against activists and critics was the leading violation in 2021 with at least seven countries having been found to have transgressed in the report.

    Asia-Pacific status in latest CIVICUS report
    Asia-Pacific status in latest CIVICUS report. Image: APR screenshot CIVICUS

    Target on Fiji journalists, activists and critics
    In Fiji, provisions relating to sedition in the Public Order (Amendment) Act 2014 have been used to target journalists, activists, and government critics, while other sections of the act have been used to arbitrarily restrict peaceful protests.

    The Fiji Trade Unions Congress (FTUC) was denied a permit to hold a rally in Suva, on International Labour Day, 1 May 2021 — no reason, written or verbal for the rejection was given.

    The use of restrictive laws is a concern across the Pacific. New criminal defamation laws passed in Vanuatu and Tonga cast a chilling blow to freedom of expression.

    In Australia, the government continues to hound whistleblowers through the courts, as seen in the case of Bernard Collaery, the lawyer of an ex-spy, who was charged with allegedly exposing Australia’s bugging of Timor-Leste.

    In 2019, Australia was downgraded by the CIVICUS Monitor due to attempts to silence whistleblowers who reveal government wrongdoing, among other concerns.

    New Zealand and Australia, which was downgraded in 2019, did not get off scot-free. The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association said the pandemic was not reason enough to quell peaceful assembly of protesters.

    Indeed, protesters to the lockdown rules were detained this year for violating covid-19 rules.

    Intimidation of Pacific activists
    Other civic rights violations highlighted by the CIVICUS Monitor include the harassment or intimidation of activists and critics across the Pacific, as documented in Fiji, Samoa and Papua New Guinea.

    Fijian surgeon Dr Jone Hawea was detained for questioning after criticising the government’s response to covid-19 in his Facebook live videos, while Papua New Guinean lawyer Laken Lepatu Aigilo was allegedly detained and assaulted by police in April 2021 after lodging an official complaint against a politician.

    “The state of civic space in the Pacific may seem relatively positive. However, over the year we have seen restrictive laws being used in several countries, including criminal defamation laws. Protests have also been denied or disrupted under the pretext of handling the pandemic, while activists have faced harassment and intimidation,” said Benedict.

    However, there have been some positive developments this year. After strong civil society pressure, Tongan authorities moved swiftly to charge the alleged murderer of leading LGBTQI+ activist Polikalepo “Poli” Kefu, after his body was found on a beach near Tongatapu, Tonga’s main island

    More than 20 organisations collaborate on the CIVICUS Monitor to provide an evidence base for action to improve civic space on all continents.

    The Monitor has posted more than 500 civic space updates in the last year, which are analysed in People Power Under Attack 2020.

    Civic space in 196 countries is categorised as either closed, repressed, obstructed, narrowed or open, based on a methodology which combines several sources of data on the freedoms of association, peaceful assembly and expression.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • By Bea Cupin in Manila

    Journalist and publisher Maria Ressa has called on tech and social media giants to practise “enlightened self-interest” amid a global call for platforms to step up in the fight against disinformation.

    “The world that you’ve created has already shown that we must change it. I continue to appeal for enlightened self-interest,” said Ressa, chief executive and founder of Rappler, in an online lecture for the Facebook and the Big Lie series.

    Ressa, a veteran journalist and Nobel Peace laureate who will be receiving the award this Friday, has been studying, reporting on, and sounding the alarm against the use of social media platforms as a means to spread lies and hate.

    The Rappler boss herself has been the subject of harassment online and of legal cases against her in the Philippines.

    Platforms like Facebook, said Ressa, give the same weight on posts, whether it is a lie or a fact, in a bid to increase user engagement.

    While it has meant more revenue for the platforms, it also means that posts that spark emotion — whether or not they are based on fact — gain the most traction online.

    Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen had earlier revealed that the algorithm for instances, puts weight on “angry” reactions more than regular likes.

    ‘Moderate the greed’
    “In the Philippines, we say ‘moderate the greed.’ [These platforms] are part of our future, that’s why we’re partners,” she explained.

    The stakes are even higher in countries like the Philippines, which will be electing a new president in May 2022.

    “Why we must fight disinformation. It weakens, and ultimately subverts, democracy, by undermining the factual basis of reality, by denying the standards of truth.”

    #FightDisinfo

    “We cannot not do anything because we in the Philippines have elections on May 9. If we do not have integrity of facts, we won’t have integrity of elections,” warned Ressa.

    Platforms, after all, are anything but clueless and helpless.

    Facebook, for instance, put more weight on “news ecosystem quality” or NEQ after employees found that election-related information were spreading on the platform in the days following the US elections in 2021.

    The NEQ, according to The New York Times, is a “secret internal ranking it assigns to news publishers based on signals about the quality of their journalism.”

    The lies asserted that the elections were rigged and that Donald Trump, then US president, was the true winner.

    The ‘big lie’ persists
    he “big lie,” as it has since been called, persists to this day.

    Ressa said she woud be asking Facebook “behind the scenes and in front,” via Rappler’s partnerships, to turn up the NEQ locally.

    Increasing the weight of the NEQ, at least in the US, meant that for a while, mainstream media accounts — The New York Times, CNN, and NPR — were more prominent on the Facebook feed than hyperpartisan pages.

    “The foundational problem is that facts and lies are treated equally, which is what has poisoned the information ecosystem,” added Ressa.

    Duterte, who won the 2016 elections by a wide margin in a plurality, is among the first national candidates to effectively use social media in a Philippine election.

    Social media hasn’t just changed how regular citizens act and candidates campaign, it has also changed sitting leaders’ tactics.

    “Leaders in the past that would take over, their first challenge is always how to unite people. Now, with social media because of the incentive schemes, we’re seeing leaders awarded if they divide,” said Ressa.

    More manipulation tools
    “Illiberal governments have gotten more tools to manipulate people,” she added. Rappler investigations later found that pro-Duterte networks used fake accounts to spread lies and disinformation well into his term as president.

    Rappler started out as a Facebook page in mid-2011 and has since grown to be among the leading news sites in the Philippines. The news organisation faces at least seven active pending cases before different courts in the Philippines.

    These are on top of online attacks over its reporting on the Duterte administration, including its bloody “war on drugs” and allegations of corruption among the President’s allies.

    Ressa and a former researcher were convicted in June 2020 for a cyber libel law that hadn’t even been legislated when the article first came out.

    Ressa is the first Filipino individual awardee of the Nobel Peace Prize and is the only woman in this year’s roster of laureates.

    Ressa won the Peace Prize alongside Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov.

    They won the prize “for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.”

    Republished from Rappler with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Reporters Without Borders

    One week ahead of the Nobel Peace Prize award ceremony, the #HoldtheLine Coalition has called on the government of the Philippines to drop all pending cases and charges against veteran journalist and Nobel laureate Maria Ressa and grant her unrestricted permission to travel to Oslo to accept this international award.

    The government of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has strongly opposed Maria Ressa’s application to travel to Oslo for the Nobel ceremony but three out of four courts have now granted her permission to fly out for the December 10 award ceremony.

    While Ressa’s legal team is almost certain that the remaining court will permit her to travel this week, the #HoldtheLine Coalition is concerned that the Philippine authorities may yet attempt to undermine Ressa’s free expression and restrict her movement.

    “The government’s relentless and retaliatory campaign against Ressa serves a sole purpose: to silence independent journalism and curtail the free flow of information in the country,” said the HTL steering committee.

    “In keeping with its public claims of support for free expression, the Philippines should overturn its opposition to Maria Ressa’s application to travel to Oslo, and drop all remaining charges against her immediately.”

    In its announcement of the prize, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said it was honouring Maria Ressa and Dmitry Muratov for their efforts to safeguard press freedom.

    The Philippines is ranked 138th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2021 World Press Freedom Index.

    Contact #HTL Steering Committee: Gypsy Guillén Kaiser (press@cpj.org); Julie Posetti (jposetti@icfj.org); and Rebecca Vincent (rvincent@rsf.org)

    The #HTL Coalition comprises more than 80 organisations around the world. This statement is issued by the #HoldTheLine Steering Committee, but it does not necessarily reflect the position of all or any individual coalition members or organisations.

    Pacific Media Watch collaborates with Reporters Without Borders.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • By Mike Tua in Honiara

    Facing angry rioters threatening them with physical attacks, Solomon Islands mainstream and freelance journalists and photographers were confronted with an unsettling reality during last week’s three days of rioting in Honiara.

    Local journalists in the country equipped with their cameras and limited protection were working solo on assignments for their newsrooms when the riots happened.

    A freelance and multimedia woman journalist, Georgina Kekea tells of the threats to attack her and her news crew by the crowd as they marched down to Vavaya Ridge road, next to City Motel in Central Honiara.

    “They threatened to shoot us with stones and swore obscenities at us. They shouted, ‘Go away with your cameras!’

    “Those that knew me personally didn’t say anything. Those that did, I assume they knew of me but do not know me personally; some might not know me at all,” says Kekea, who is president of the Media Association of Solomon Islands (MASI).

    “I don’t think any call for respect for journalists at this point would make a difference,” she told Sunday Isles.

    “Except that I am surprised that people who spoke highly of culture do not have any respect at all for culture.

    ‘Women doing our job’
    “We are women doing our job just like any other, and if that’s the way Solomon Islands men treat women in general, I am sorry for our country.

    “We are lost. Nothing will and can change unless we the people change ourselves. We will not make a difference.”

    Kekea pleads for people to simply allow the media to do their job.

    Freelance journalist Gina Kekea
    Freelance journalist Gina Kekea doing a “piece to camera” during the aftermath of the riots in Chinatown. Image: Lisa Osifelo/Freelance/SundayIsles

    “MASI condemned the recent riots that happened and called on the authorities too to respect the work of the media,” she said.

    In a media statement from the Pacific Freedom Forum (PFF), chair Bernadette Carreon also urged the authorities to protect local journalists who are delivering crucial news to the public about the protests:

    “The media should be allowed to do their job unharmed.

    “PFF is urging authorities and protesters to respect the media who are working to inform the public about the unfortunate events taking place in the city.

    “Journalists on location were attacked with tear gas, rubber bullets, and stones while protestors advanced towards the Solomon Islands Parliament house.

    “While we understand this was done to disperse protesters, said journalists were merely in the line of fire due to the nature of their job as frontliners.

    “The assault on members of the media is an assault on democracy.”

    Freelance journalist Georgina Kekea
    Freelance journalist Georgina Kekea and her freelance news crew cameraman … threatened by rioters while covering the mayhem in Honiara. Image: Lisa Osifelo/Freelance/Sunday Isles

    Rioters smashed reporter’s phone
    Sunday Isles
    online newspaper multimedia journalist Alex Dadamu also faced harassment and his phone was smashed by rioters while covering the insurrection in and around the Mokolo Building near the Mataniko Bridge, Chinatown.

    “I would say they used many hurtful abusive words towards me in the Malaita language and were too aggressive,” he says.

    “I was standing in front of Mokolo Building near the Mataniko Bridge taking pictures secretly because the crowd does not want anyone to take pictures and videos. They announced it in the first place before and during the march down to Chinatown.

    “At one point, I took a picture and then put my phone back in my pocket. Unfortunately, a member of the crowd saw me take the picture.

    “He approached me aggressively, threatening to hit me. By that time, more members of the crowd were starting to join that guy to threaten me for taking the pictures.

    “They demanded that I hand over the phone to them. I humbly said, ‘sorry,’ and handed over the phone because already my life was in danger of them beating me up.

    “I feared for my safety and I humbly handed over the phone from my pocket and they smashed in on the tarseal road.

    “There goes my phone,” says Dadamu.

    He says he and a colleague journalist from Sunday Isles (environment reporter John Houanihau) who were covering the unrest on November 24 were also affected by the tear gas targeted at the rioters.

    Many lessons learned
    When asked if he was wearing press credentials (identification card) issued by Sunday Isles, he says: “I showed them my Sunday Isles media ID card which identified me as a politics and development reporter.”

    Dadamu says he learned many lessons from the incident and hopes this will make a difference in the future.

    “Lesson learned and I don’t blame them. It is our job as reporters to assess the situation and take note of the dangers which might happen,” he says.

    “Additionally, more awareness needs to be than so that people may know and understand more about the role of media in a situation such as these.”

    In another related incident, a woman journalist from Island Sun newspaper, Mavis Nishimura Podokolo, says that when covering the scene at the Town Ground area, west of Honiara, demonstrators verbally harassed and chased her, forcing her to get out of the area.

    Mavis appealed to the public to respect the work of local media practitioners and journalists in the country — especially in times of crisis.

    “The role of journalists is to inform the public and during the ongoing crisis or riot it is pivotal,” she says.

    “The work of the journalist is very important in a democracy.”

    Mike Tua is a journalist at Sunday Isles. Republished with permission.

    SIBC radio and television journalist Simon Tavake
    SIBC radio and television journalist Simon Tavake patrolling the streets in the aftermath of the rioting in the Honiara’s Chinatown. Image: Simon Tavake/SIBC/SundayIsles

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • By Sri Krishnamurthi for Asia-Pacific Report

    Keynote speakers professor David Robie and Glenda Gloria, executive editor of Rappler, addressed “truth and justice” on the opening day of the Asian Media Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) conference in Auckland yesterday.

    Dr Robie opened the conference with his topic “Journalism education ‘truth ’ challenges in an age of growing hate, intolerance and disinformation” while Gloria spoke about the difficulties of doing investigative journalism amid this covid-19 pandemic.

    Founding director of the Pacific Media Centre, Dr Robie began with a tribute “to two extraordinary and inspirational journalists, who have shed light on dark places and given the rest of us hope”.

    The first of these was to Maria Ressa, chief executive of the Filipino investigative website Rappler, who, along with Russian editor Dimitry Muratov, was named a Nobel Peace prize laureate last month for safeguarding “freedom of expression”.

    The Norwegian Nobel Committee described them as “representatives of all journalists who stand up for this ideal in a world in which democracy and freedom of the press face increasingly adverse conditions”.

    Julie Posetti, global director of research at the International Centre for Journalists (ICJ), said the choice had been very timely and she pointed to the fact that it had been 85 years since the first working journalist had won the Nobel prize.

    German investigative editor Carl von Ossietsky won the Nobel prize for his “burning love for freedom and expression”’

    Award in jail
    Ossietsky, was incarcerated in a Nazi concentration camp at the time he won the award and later died in jail.

    As Gloria told the conference hosted at Auckland University of Technology, the Nobel prize put a “global spotlight on the extraordinary dangers that we journalists face today”.

    “You and I are no stranger to threats to media freedom – from repressive laws to libel suits to imprisonment to death threats,” she said.

    Rappler CEO Maria Ressa
    Rappler chief executive and Nobel Peace laureate Maria Ressa … safeguarding “freedom of expression”. Image: NurPhoto/Rappler/IFEX

    “To many of us in the Global South, journalism has always been considered a dangerous profession long before media watchdogs started ranking countries around the world according to the freedoms enjoyed by their press.

    “And yet, despite all that we have seen and experienced, it’s no exaggeration to say that this is the most challenging period for journalism. At stake today is our very existence, our relevance, and our ability to speak truth to power.

    “Not only are journalists under attack. Truth is under attack,” Gloria said.

    Optimism for Rappler
    She gave three reasons for the Filipino publication Rappler to be optimistic in spite of dealing with 11 lawsuits aimed at silencing the website.

    “Every crisis is an opportunity. In the last two years, we at Rappler managed to bounce back and continue holding power to account and exposing wrongdoing,” she said.

    “Part of the reason is how our ownership structure was set up. Rappler is the only journalist-owned and journalist-led media company in the Philippines. We make decisions for the public interest even if it’s bad for business.

    “Second reason to be hopeful is — for journalism to matter, the community must be a part of it. In our crisis years, our community stayed with us.

    “We realised that we had a core base of audience that, while not massive, shared the same value that we believe in, which is the public’s need for transparency and accountability on the part of those who lead and government them.

    “At Rappler, we learned that when the going gets tough, hold the line, stick to your core, and have faith in your community of readers.

    “The third reason to be hopeful is that crisis challenges our mindsets. The attacks on Rappler scared away advertisers but also compelled us to diversify our revenue stream so that today, our revenues come not just from advertising but business research, grants, membership, programmatic ads, and special projects.

    Postive net income
    “We have not paywalled our site but we have content and activities exclusive to paying subscribers. Thankfully, we are now entering our third year of positive net income,” Gloria said.

    ACMC conference
    Conference moderator Dino Cantal with Pacific Media Centre founding professor David Robie … fielding questions about covid-19 and the “disinfodemic”. Image: ACMC

    Dr Robie’s second tribute was to Max Stahl whom he described as a “courageous journalist and filmmaker who sadly died at the age of 66 from cancer”.

    From Timor-Leste, he made the controversial film footage of the 1991 Santa Cruz massacre in the capital Dili which eventually led to Timorese independence.

    Filmmaker Max Stahl
    Filmmaker Max Stahl speaking to the 20th anniversary of Pacific Journalism Review in Auckland in 2014. Image: Del Abcede/APR

    British-born Stahl returned to East Timor in 1999 and made the documentary In Cold Blood: Massacre of East Timor, for which he was decorated with the Order of Timor-Leste, the country’s highest honour and he was awarded Timor-Leste citizenship in 2019.

    “The common thread linking all four of these media communicators – Maria Ressa, Dimitry Muratov, Carl von Ossietsky and Max Stahl – has been their courageous, determined relentless pursuit of ‘truth and justice’,” Dr Robie told the virtual conference.

    “ ‘The truth’ – this supreme goal of journalists in holding power to account is hugely under threat by politicians, demagogues and charlatans peddling fake news and disinformation,” he said.

    Dr Robie spoke about covid-19 and the “disinfodemic” – described by UNESCO as “falsehoods fuelling the pandemic”, leading to civil disobedience and attacks on medical staff the world over, including in Aotearoa New Zealand.

    Violence pervaded South Pacific
    The violence had pervaded the South Pacific and was noticeable in Fiji and Papua New Guinea despite the high number of people being infected.

    Dr Robie highlighted PNG where health authorities were forced to cancel vaccinations for fear of attacks, hence the rate is incredibly low this month, sitting at 2.5 percent,

    He also addressed the infodemic and the rise of “disinformation” and the challenges it brought to the media.

    Dr Robie spoke about climate change “and the disproportionate impact this is having on our Asia-Pacific region”.

    A key component of the disinfodemic was the lack of fact-checking and as veteran Pacific journalist and consultant Bob Howarth had asked, why had the basics of fact-checking not “become part of journalism training in our universities and colleges?”.

    Dr Robie also spoke about climate change “and the disproportionate impact this is having on our Asia-Pacific region”.

    Climate ‘catastrophe’
    He outlined the challenges of climate change, preferring to call it climate “catastrophe”.

    “I am stressing the word catastrophe rather than merely change, That is because for the microstates of the Pacific it is already viewed as an impending catastrophe,” he told the conference.

    Dr Robie said he had developed several theories and models of journalism such as “talanoa journalism”, a concept developed through a Pacific approach.

    “My emphasis has been on ‘project journalism’, creating high quality coverage of issues and challenging assignments on university platforms with high standards of journalistic integrity and to foster multi-university collaboration across national boundaries.”

    The conference concludes tomorrow.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

    Journalists and journalism are waging a global struggle for survival and for “truth” against fake news and alternative facts, say two Asia-Pacific media commentators.

    “Without journalists who will tell it like it is no matter the consequences, the future will continue to be one of alternate facts and manipulated opinions,” Rappler executive editor Glenda Gloria told about 135 media scholars, journalists and researchers at the opening of the Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) in Auckland today.

    “As we’ve experienced at Rappler, the battle to save journalism cannot be fought by journalists alone, and cannot be fought from our laptops alone. The battle for truth is a battle we must share — and fight — with other groups and citizens.

    “Each time our freedoms are threatened, we should have no qualms engaging other democracy frontliners and participating in collective efforts to resist authoritarianism.”

    However, she told the virtual conference hosted at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) she believed that journalists had the motivation and enough understanding now to “stop the tide of disinformation” that fuelled the spread of authoritarianism.

    “In this environment, make no doubt: Journalism is activism,” added the award-winning investigative journalist and author who heads the digital website that has repeatedly angered Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte with its exposés.

    Another keynote speaker, Dr David Robie, founding director of the Pacific Media Centre and retired professor of Pacific journalism at AUT, condemned a “surge of global information pollution”.

    Disinformation damaging democracy
    He outlined how disinformation was damaging democracy and encouraging authoritarianism across the Pacific, singling out Fiji and Papua New Guinea for particular criticism.

    Dr Robie cited how authorities in PNG had been forced to abandon mobile health clinics and teams of health workers carrying out covid-19 vaccination and awareness programmes because of the increasingly risky attacks against them.

    Professor Felix Tan
    Professor Felix Tan … a welcome from AUT’s Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies. Image: AUT

    He said much of the content used by anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists which framed the covid-19 response as a fight between the individual and the allegedly “treacherous” state had been repackaged from US and Australia vested interests.

    Dr Robie said universities could do far more in the fight against disinformation and praised initiatives such as the RMIT fact-checking collaboration with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), The Conversation news and academia project, The Juncture journalism school website, and the new Monash University backed 360info wire news service.

    “The challenge confronting many communication programmes and journalism schools located in universities or tertiary institutions is what to do about authoritarianism, how to tackle the strain of an ever-changing health and science agenda, the deluge of disinformation and the more rapid than predicted escalation of climate catastrophe,” he said.

    “One of the answers is greater specialisation and advanced programmes rather than just relying on generalist strategies and expecting graduates to fit neatly into already configured newsroom boxes.

    “The more that universities can do to equip graduates with advanced problem-solving skills, the more adept they will be at developing advanced ways of reporting on the pandemic – and other likely pandemics of the future – contesting the merchants of disinformation and reporting on the climate crisis.”

    Dr Robie, who was awarded the 2015 AMIC Asian Communications prize, pioneered several student journalist projects in the region such as intensive coverage of the 2000 Fiji coup and the 2011 Pacific Islands Forum, and more recently the 2016-2018 Bearing Witness and 2020 Climate and Covid project in partnership with Internews.

    Journalism Nobel Peace Prize
    Glenda Gloria said her entire editorial team had been delighted when their chief executive Maria Ressa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize – along with Russian editor Dmitry Muratov. Ressa was the first Filipino Nobel laureate and “some of us started calling our office the Nobel newsroom”.

    “This immense pride that we feel isn’t just because Maria is our CEO, it is that the prize went to two journalists who have faced the toughest challenges imposed by authoritarian states,” Gloria said.

    “More than that, the Nobel prize puts a global spotlight on the extraordinary dangers that we journalists face today.

    “To many of us in the Global South, journalism has always been considered a dangerous profession long before media watchdogs started ranking countries around the world according to the freedoms enjoyed by their press.

    “And yet, despite all that we have seen and experienced, it’s no exaggeration to say that this is the most challenging period for journalism.

    “At stake today is our very existence, our relevance, and our ability to speak truth to power.”

    The conference was opened following a traditional mihi by AUT’s acting dean of the Faculty of Design and Communication Technologies, Professor Felix Tan, and ACMC president Professor Azman Azwan Azamati of Malaysia.

    Master of ceremonies duties are being shared by AUT’s Khairiah A. Rahman, the chief conference organiser, and Dino Cantal of Trinity University of Asia.

    More than 40 media and communication research papers are being presented over three days with the conference ending on Saturday afternoon.

    ACMC conference
    Some of the 135 participants at the opening day of the Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) conference in Auckland today. Image: AUT

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • The Committee to Protect Journalists press freedom 2021 video removed by Facebook, but still available on YouTube and Twitter. Video: CPJ (Hongkong crackdown at 32m:05s)

    Pacific Media Watch newsdesk

    The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Facebook to restore a video honouring the winners of the International Press Freedom Awards (IPFA) at CPJ’s annual awards ceremony held on November 18 and streamed on social media during the event.

    Less than an hour after the stream ended, Facebook notified CPJ that the video had been withheld worldwide because of a “copyright match” to a 13-second clip owned by i-Cable News, a Hong Kong-based Cantonese-language cable news channel, reports CPJ.

    CPJ emailed i-Cable Communications Limited on November 24 requesting details but received no immediate reply.

    The clip, featuring Jimmy Lai taking a bite from an apple, was taken from an advertisement for the now-shuttered Apple Daily dating from the 1990s when he founded the newspaper.

    Currently imprisoned by Chinese authorities, Lai has become a powerful symbol of press freedom as the Chinese Communist Party seeks to gain control over Hong Kong’s media and was honoured during CPJ’s award ceremony for his work.

    It is not clear if Facebook applied the action automatically, or whether i-Cable News complained in an attempt to suppress the video.

    The news group, i-Cable, signed an agreement in 2018 with China Mobile Limited, a state-owned telecommunication company, allowing China Mobile to use its content for the next 20 years.

    “It is beyond ironic that a platform which trumpets its commitment to freedom of speech should block a video celebrating journalists who risk their lives and liberty defending it,” CPJ deputy executive director Robert Mahoney said.

    “Facebook must restore the video immediately and provide a clear and timely explanation of why it was censored in the first place.”

    A lawyer at Donaldson and Callif, which vetted the IPFA video for Culture House, the production house that cut the video, told CPJ in an email that the firm was of the opinion that the clip of Lai “constitutes a fair use as used in this IPFA video”.

    The full awards video — and its comments, views and share — remains unavailable to Facebook users worldwide. The IPFA video is still available on YouTube and Twitter.

    CPJ contacted Facebook on November 19 and again on November 22 outlining CPJ’s concerns about the video’s removal but has yet to receive an explanation for the action by the company.

    CPJ has documented examples of US copyright laws being used to censor journalism globally.

    The press freedom organisation has held IPFA award ceremonies since 1991 as a way to honour at-risk journalists around the globe and highlight erosions of press freedom.

    Republished from Committee to Protect Journalists.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • COMMENT: By Graham Davis

    If anyone is wondering why the Fijian media hasn’t reported the details of my reporting on Grubsheet Feejee of the Prime Minister’s secret role in the sacking of the Solicitor-General, his alleged action in shutting down a police drug investigation into a close family member, or his Attorney-General’s alleged behaviour in inviting his female staff to give him massages in his hotel rooms on overseas trips, it is because they are terrified of the AG’s draconian 2010 Media Industry Development Decree and the very real prospect of prosecution.

    Fiji's Media Decree
    Fiji’s Media Decree and now law since 2014 … a gag on reports of national interest. Image: GS

    The following is what can happen to any Fijian news media outlet that Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum decides has breached the terms of the decree, which became legislation on the return to parliamentary rule in 2014 and has had the effect of gagging the media and preventing it from reporting stories that are genuinely in the national interest.

    As you can see, the national interest is not defined in the legislation, which means the AG effectively decides what is in the national interest.

    And if he thinks that it is not in the national interest for allegations against him and the PM to be aired in the local media, then he can use the law against any organisation that republishes my disclosures.

    Fortunately, I am beyond his reach but these stories go untold for anyone without the internet.

    [MED 22] CONTENT REGULATION:

    The content of any media service must not include material which—

    (a)is against the public interest or order;
    (b)is against national interest; or
    (c)creates communal discord.

    [MED 24] OFFENCES RELATING TO CONTENT REGULATION:

    A breach of any of the provisions in or under section 22 … by a media organisation shall constitute an offence and the media organisation shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $100,000 or in the case of a publisher or editor to a fine not exceeding $25,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 2 years or to both.

    The details of what I reported are in my Secrets and Skeletons: The Inside Story.

    But how tragic it is that accessing the work of journalists outside Fiji is the only way the Fijian people can gain information on anything remotely approaching the truth about what is really happening in their country.

    Republished with permission.


    This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.