Category: Media

  • COMMENTARY: By Sawsan Madina

    I watched US President Donald Trump’s joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week in utter disbelief. Not that the idea, or indeed the practice, of ethnic cleansing of Palestine is new.

    But at that press conference the mask has fallen. Recently, fascism has been on the march everywhere, but that press conference seemed to herald an age of naked fascism.

    So the Palestinians have just been “unlucky” for decades.

    “Their lives have been made hell.” Thank God for grammar’s indirect speech. Their lives have been made hell. We do not know who made their lives hell. Nothing to see here.

    Trump says of Gaza: “We’ll own it and be responsible for dismantling all of the dangerous unexploded bombs and other weapons on the site, level the site, and get rid of the destroyed buildings — level it out and create an economic development that will supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area . . . ”

    I wonder who are those lucky “people of the area” he has in mind, once those “unlucky” Palestinians have been “transferred” out of their homeland.

    Trump speaks of transforming Gaza into a magnificent “Riviera of the Middle East”. Obviously, the starved amputees of Gaza do not fit his image of the classy people he wants to see in the Riviera he wants to build, on stolen Palestinian land.

    No ethnic cleansing questions
    After the press conference, I did not hear a single question about ethnic cleansing, genocide, occupation or international law.

    Under the new fascist leaders, just like under the old ones, those words have become old-fashioned and are to be expunged from the lexicon.

    The difference has never been more striking between the meek who officially hold the title “journalist” and the brave who actually work to hold the powerful to account.

    Now, more than ever, independent journalists are a threatened species. We should treasure them, support them and protest every attempt to silence them.

    Gaza is now the prototype. We can forget international laws and international organisations. We have the bombs. You do as we wish or you will be obliterated.

    Who now dares say that the forced transfer of a population by an occupying power is a war crime under the Geneva Convention? But then again, Trump and Netanyahu are not really talking about “forced transfer”. They are talking about “voluntary transfer”.

    Once the remaining Israeli hostages have been freed, and water and food have been cut off again, those unlucky Palestinians will climb voluntarily onto the buses waiting to transport them to happiness and prosperity in Egypt and Jordan.

    Or to whatever other client state Trump manages to threaten or bribe.

    Can the International Criminal Court (ICC) command a shred of respect when Netanyahu is sharing the podium with Trump? Or indeed when Trump is at the podium?

    Dismantling the international order
    Recently, fascist leaders have been dismantling the international order by accusing its organisations and officials of being “antisemitic” or “working with terrorists”. Tomorrow they will defund and delegitimise these organisations without the need for an excuse.

    I listen to Trump speak of combatting antisemitism and deporting Hamas sympathisers and I hear, “We will combat anti-Israel views and we will deport those who protest Israel’s crimes.

    “And we will continue to conflate antisemitism and anti-Israel’s views in order to silence pro-Palestinian voices.”

    I watch Trump and Netanyahu, the former reading the thoughts of a real estate developer turned into a president’s speech and the latter grinning like a Cheshire cat — and I am gripped by fear. Not just for the Palestinians, but for all humanity.

    If we think fascism is only coming for people on a distant shore, we ought to think again.

    I watch Netanyahu repeating lies that investigative journalists have spent months debunking. Why would he care? The truth about his lies will not make it to mainstream media and the consciousness of the majority of people.

    Lies taking hold, enduring
    And the more he repeats those lies, the more they take hold and endure.

    I wonder how our political leaders will spin our allies’ new, illegal and immoral plans. For years, they have clung to the mantra of the two-state solution while Israel continued to make every effort to render this solution unfeasible.

    What will they say now? With what weasel words will they stay on the same page as our friends in the US and Israel?

    Netanyhu praises Trump for thinking outside the box. Here is an idea that Israel has spent billions on arms and propaganda to persuade people that it is dangerously outside the box.

    Instead of asking Egypt and Jordan to take the Palestinians, why not make Israel end the occupation and give Palestinians equal rights in their own homeland?

    Sawsan Madina is former head of Australia’s SBS Television. This article was first published by John Menadue’s public policy journal Pearls and Irritations and is republished with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Hawa Hunt’s detention a month ago was politically motivated, say daughter and rights groups, who also raise concerns about her treatment in jail

    Fears are mounting over the mental and physical health of a social media influencer who has been in prison in Sierra Leone for more than a month after she was arrested on live television.

    Hawa Hunt, a dual Canadian and Sierra Leonean citizen, was arrested on 22 December while starring in House of Stars, a reality TV show, for comments she made on social media about the president of Sierra Leone and the first lady in May 2023.

    Continue reading…

    This post was originally published on Human rights | The Guardian.

  • RNZ Pacific

    Marshall Islands Journal editor Giff Johnson says US President Donald Trump’s decision on aid “is an opening for anybody else who wants to fill the gap” in the Pacific.

    Trump froze all USAID for 90 days on his first day in office and is now looking to significantly reduce the size of the multi-billion dollar agency.

    The Pacific is the world’s most aid dependent region, and Terence Wood from the Australian National University Development Policy Centre told RNZ Pacific this move would hit hard.

    “The US is the Pacific’s largest aid donor and what is happening there is completely unprecedented . . .  there’s also a cruel irony that Elon Musk is the world’s wealthiest man and right now he seems to be calling the shots with decisions that are literally going to be life or death for the world’s poorest people . . .  it’s hard to wrap one’s head around,” he said.

    Marshall Islands Journal owner and editor Giff Johnson on the USAID crisis. Video: RNZ Pacific

    Wood was concerned about how the dismantling of USAID would impact the Pacific.

    “It’s not a good time to be in the world’s most aid dependent region . . .  indeed Sāmoa PM Fiame Naomi Mata’afa has already expressed concern about what might happen to funding for organisations like the World Health Organisation . . .  so everyone is watching this with considerable alarm”.

    ‘It’s hard to believe that Trump has changed his sense’
    Editor Johnson said said in an interview with RNZ Pacific last week that Trump’s shutdown of USAID was at odds with the increased engagement in the Pacific.

    He said the move did not line up with the President’s rhetoric on China, and the fact the new US compact agreements were instigated by his administration the last time he was in power.

    “So it’s hard to believe that Trump has changed his sense and I mean, he’s putting tariffs in on China, right? . . .  So that’s still very much in play,” Johnson said.

    “It’s just like amazing to me that that they’re willing to undermine relationships in the Pacific that they claim to be a very important region for them.

    “And you know, this is, I mean, certainly it’s an opening for anybody else who wants to fill the gap, I suppose, until Washington decides what it is doing.”

    USAID shutdown bug thing for Pacific
    Meanwhile, in the Cook Islands, the vice-chairperson of the Pacific energy regulators Alliance said Trump’s shutdown of USAID was a big deal for the region.

    Dean Yarrall said his organisation was planning a multi-day training course on best practices in electricity regulation, funded by the US, which had now been called off.

    He said the cancelling of the training course caught his organisation off guard.

    “We’re seeing a lot of competition between parties, the Chinese are looking to increase the influence Australia as well and the US through USAID are big supporters of the Pacific so seeing USA sort of drop away, I think that will be a big thing,” Yarrall said.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • RNZ Pacific

    Marshall Islands Journal editor Giff Johnson says US President Donald Trump’s decision on aid “is an opening for anybody else who wants to fill the gap” in the Pacific.

    Trump froze all USAID for 90 days on his first day in office and is now looking to significantly reduce the size of the multi-billion dollar agency.

    The Pacific is the world’s most aid dependent region, and Terence Wood from the Australian National University Development Policy Centre told RNZ Pacific this move would hit hard.

    “The US is the Pacific’s largest aid donor and what is happening there is completely unprecedented . . .  there’s also a cruel irony that Elon Musk is the world’s wealthiest man and right now he seems to be calling the shots with decisions that are literally going to be life or death for the world’s poorest people . . .  it’s hard to wrap one’s head around,” he said.

    Marshall Islands Journal owner and editor Giff Johnson on the USAID crisis. Video: RNZ Pacific

    Wood was concerned about how the dismantling of USAID would impact the Pacific.

    “It’s not a good time to be in the world’s most aid dependent region . . .  indeed Sāmoa PM Fiame Naomi Mata’afa has already expressed concern about what might happen to funding for organisations like the World Health Organisation . . .  so everyone is watching this with considerable alarm”.

    ‘It’s hard to believe that Trump has changed his sense’
    Editor Johnson said said in an interview with RNZ Pacific last week that Trump’s shutdown of USAID was at odds with the increased engagement in the Pacific.

    He said the move did not line up with the President’s rhetoric on China, and the fact the new US compact agreements were instigated by his administration the last time he was in power.

    “So it’s hard to believe that Trump has changed his sense and I mean, he’s putting tariffs in on China, right? . . .  So that’s still very much in play,” Johnson said.

    “It’s just like amazing to me that that they’re willing to undermine relationships in the Pacific that they claim to be a very important region for them.

    “And you know, this is, I mean, certainly it’s an opening for anybody else who wants to fill the gap, I suppose, until Washington decides what it is doing.”

    USAID shutdown bug thing for Pacific
    Meanwhile, in the Cook Islands, the vice-chairperson of the Pacific energy regulators Alliance said Trump’s shutdown of USAID was a big deal for the region.

    Dean Yarrall said his organisation was planning a multi-day training course on best practices in electricity regulation, funded by the US, which had now been called off.

    He said the cancelling of the training course caught his organisation off guard.

    “We’re seeing a lot of competition between parties, the Chinese are looking to increase the influence Australia as well and the US through USAID are big supporters of the Pacific so seeing USA sort of drop away, I think that will be a big thing,” Yarrall said.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • The Cook Islands finds itself in a precarious dance — one between the promises of foreign investments and the integrity of our own sovereignty. As the country sways between partners China and Aotearoa New Zealand, the Cook Islands News asks: “Do we continue to haka with the Taniwha, our constitutional partner, or do we dance with the dragon?”

    EDITORIAL: By Thomas Tarurongo Wynne, Cook Islands News

    Our relationship with China, forged through over two decades of diplomatic agreements, infrastructure projects and economic cooperation, demands further scrutiny. Do we continue to embrace the dragon with open arms, or do we stand wary?

    And what of the Taniwha, a relationship now bruised by the ego of the few but standing the test of time?

    If our relationship with China were a building, it would be crumbling like the very structures they have built for us. The Cook Islands Police Headquarters (2005) was meant to stand as a testament to our growing diplomatic and financial ties, but its foundations — both literal and metaphorical — have been called into question as its structure deteriorated.

    COOK ISLANDS NEWS

    Then, in 2009, the Cook Islands Courthouse followed, plagued by maintenance issues almost immediately after its completion. Our National Stadium, also built in 2009 for the Pacific Mini Games, was heralded as a great achievement, yet signs of premature wear and tear began surfacing far earlier than expected.

    Still, we continue this dance, entranced by the allure of foreign investment and large-scale projects, even as history and our fellow Pacific partners across the moana warn us of the risks.

    These structures, now symbols of our fragile dependence, stand as a metaphor for our relationship with the dragon: built with promises of strength, only to falter under closer scrutiny. And yet, we keep returning to the dance floor. These projects, rather than standing as enduring monuments to our relationship with China, serve as cautionary tales.

    And then came Te Mato Vai.

    What began as a bold and necessary vision to modernise Rarotonga’s water infrastructure became a slow and painful lesson in accountability. The involvement of China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC) saw the project mired in substandard work, legal disputes and cost overruns.

    By the time McConnell Dowell, a New Zealand firm, was brought in to fix the defects, the damage — financial and reputational — was done.

    Prime Minister Mark Brown, both as Finance Minister and now as leader, has walked an interesting line between criticism and praise.

    In 2017, he voiced concerns about the poor workmanship and assured the nation that the government would seek accountability, stating, “We are deeply concerned about the quality of work delivered by CCECC. Our people deserve better, and we will pursue all avenues to ensure accountability.”

    In 2022, he acknowledged the cost overruns but framed them as necessary lessons in securing a reliable water supply. And yet, most recently, during the December 2024 visit of China’s Executive Vice Foreign Minister Ma Zhaoxu, he declared Te Mato Vai a “commitment to a stronger, healthier, and more resilient nation. Together, we’ve delivered a project that not only meets the needs of today but safeguards the future of Rarotonga’s water supply.”

    The Cook Islands’ relationship with New Zealand has long been one of deep familial, historical and political ties — a dance with the taniwha, if you will. As a nation with free association status, we have relied on New Zealand for economic support, governance frameworks and our shared citizenship ties.

    And they have relied on our labour and expertise, which adds over a billion dollars to their economy each year. We have well-earned our discussion around citizenship and statehood, but that must come from the ground up, not from the top down.

    China has signed similar agreements across the Pacific, most notably with the Solomon Islands, weaving itself into the region’s economic and political fabric. Yet, while these partnerships promise opportunity, they also raise concerns about sovereignty, dependency and the price of such alignments, as well as the geopolitical and strategic footprint of the dragon.

    But as we reflect on the shortcomings of these partnerships, the question remains: Do we continue to place our trust in foreign powers, or do we reinvest in our own community and governance systems?

    At the end of the day, we must ask ourselves: How do we sign bold agreements on the world stage without consultation, while struggling to resolve fundamental issues at home?

    Healthcare, education, the rise in crime, mental health, disability, poverty — the list goes on and on, while our leaders are wined and dined on state visits around the globe.

    Dance with the dragon, if you so choose, but save the last dance for the voting public in 2026. In 2026, the voters will decide who leads this dance and who gets left behind.

    Republished from the Cook Islands News with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Asia Pacific Report

    Speaking about the frail, disoriented appearance of the three freed Israeli captives yesterday, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara said: “People are starving in Gaza.

    “Children are dying of malnutrition because Netanyahu has weaponised hunger and famine.”

    “Incidentally”, Bishara told Al Jazeera, “that’s why Netanyahu is sought [on a war crimes warrant] by the ICC [International Criminal Court].

    Bishara condemned the Israeli prime minister’s “crocodile tears” over the freeing of hostages Eli Sharabi, Ohad Ben Ami and Ori Levy in exchange for 183 Palestinian captives.


    Netanyahu’s ‘weaponised hunger’ in Gaza.      Video: Al Jazeera

    “Netanyahu is complaining that three individuals lost weight when the entire Gaza Strip was ‘put on a diet’, as the racists in the Israeli government said.

    “It’s beyond absurd. It’s beyond racist. The real issue is that thousands of Palestinian prisoners have been tortured in Israel’s jails.”

    Hamas ‘theatrical scenes’
    Bishara also suggested that today’s “theatrical scenes of Hamas during the exchanges would rub Netanyahu the wrong way, by proving once again that Hamas is not defeated.”

    On the other hand, Bishara said that Netanyahu “has succeeded” with the undeclared objective of the total destruction of Gaza.

    “[But] I don’t think the Israeli establishment really cares about Gaza.

    “It wishes to cut it off and push it into the sea. What it really cares about is the West Bank and the Golan Heights — they think that would secure the [Israeli] settlement for future generations.”

    He added: “Zionism is responsible for turning Israelis into occupiers, the torturers, the racists.”

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • MEDIAWATCH: By Colin Peacock, RNZ Mediawatch presenter

    By the time US President Donald Trump announced tariffs on China and Canada last Monday which could kickstart a trade war, New Zealand’s diplomats in Washington, DC, had already been deployed on another diplomatic drama.

    Republican Senator Ted Cruz had said on social media it was “difficult to treat New Zealand as a normal ally . . .  when they denigrate and punish Israeli citizens for defending themselves and their country”.

    He cited a story in the Israeli media outlet Ha’aretz, which has a reputation for independence in Israel and credibility abroad.

    But Ha’aretz had wrongly reported Israelis must declare service in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) as part of “new requirements” for visa applications.

    Winston Peters replied forcefully to Cruz on X, condemning Ha’aretz’s story as “fake news” and demanding a correction.

    Winston Peters puts Ted Cruz on notice over the misleading Ha'aretz story.
    Winston Peters puts Ted Cruz on notice over the misleading Ha’aretz story. Image: X/RNZ

    But one thing Trump’s Republicans and Winston Peters had in common last week was irritating Mexico.

    His fellow NZ First MP Shane Jones had bellowed “Send the Mexicans home” at Green MPs in Parliament.

    Winston Peters then told two of them they should be more grateful for being able to live in New Zealand.

    ‘We will not be lectured’
    On Facebook he wasn’t exactly backing down.

    “We . . .  will not be lectured on the culture and traditions of New Zealand from people who have been here for five minutes,” he added.

    While he was at it, Peters criticised media outlets for not holding other political parties to account for inflammatory comments.

    Peters was posting that as a politician — not a foreign minister, but the Mexican ambassador complained to MFAT. (It seems the so-called “Mexican standoff” was resolved over a pre-Waitangi lunch with Ambassador Bravo).

    But the next day — last Wednesday — news of another diplomatic drama broke on TVNZ’s 1News.

    “A deal that could shatter New Zealand’s close relationship with a Pacific neighbour,” presenter Simon Dallow declared, in front of a backdrop of a stern-looking Peters.

    TVNZ’s Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver reported the Cook Islands was about to sign a partnership agreement in Beijing.

    “We want clarity and at this point in time, we have none. We’ve got past arrangements, constitutional arrangements, which require constant consultation with us, and dare I say, China knows that,” Peters told 1News.

    Passports another headache
    Cook Islands’ Prime Minister Mark Brown also told Barbara Dreaver TVNZ’s revelations last month about proposed Cook Island passports had also been a headache for him.

    “We were caught by surprise when this news was broken by 1News. I thought it was a high-level diplomatic discussion with leaders to be open and frank,” he told TVNZ this week.

    “For it to be brought out into the public before we’ve had a time to inform our public, I thought was a breach of our political diplomacy.”

    Last week another Barabara Dreaver scoop on 1News brought the strained relationship with another Pacific state into the headlines:

    “Our relationship with Kiribati is at breaking point. New Zealand’s $100 million aid programme there is now on hold. The move comes after President [Taneti] Maamau pulled out of a pre-arranged meeting with Winston Peters.”

    The media ended up in the middle of the blame game over this too — but many didn’t see it coming.

    Caught in the crossfire
    “A diplomatic rift with Kiribati was on no one’s 2025 bingo card,” Stuff national affairs editor Andrea Vance wrote last weekend in the Sunday Star-Times.

    “Of all the squabbles Winston Peters was expected to have this year, no one picked it would be with an impoverished, sinking island nation,” she wrote, in terms that would surely annoy Kiribati.

    “Do you believe Kiribati is snubbing you?” RNZ Morning Report’s Corin Dann asked Peters.

    “You can come to any conclusion you like, but our job is to try and resolve this matter,” Peters replied.

    Kiribati Education Minister Alexander Teabo told RNZ Pacific there was no snub.

    He said Kiribati President Maamau — who is also the nation’s foreign minister — had been unavailable because of a long-planned and important Catholic ordination ceremony on his home island of Onotoa — though this was prior to the proposed visit from Peters.

    On Facebook — at some length — New Zealand-born Kiribati MP Ruth Cross Kwansing blamed “media manufactured drama”.

    “The New Zealand media seized the opportunity to patronise Kiribati, and the familiar whispers about Chinese influence began to circulate,” she said.

    She was more diplomatic on the 531pi Pacific Mornings radio show but insistent New Zealand had not been snubbed.

    Public dispute “regrettable’
    Peters told the same show it was “regrettable” that the dispute had been made public.

    On Newstalk ZB Peters was backed — and Kiribati portrayed as the problem.

    “If somebody is giving me $100m and they asked for a meeting, I will attend. I don’t care if it’s my mum’s birthday. Or somebody’s funeral,” Drive host Ryan Bridge told listeners.

    “It’s always very hard to pick apart these stories (by) just reading them in the media. But I have faith and confidence in Winston Peters as our foreign minister,” PR-pro Trish Shrerson opined.

    So did her fellow panellist, former Labour MP Stuart Nash.

    “He’s respected across the Pacific. He’s the consummate diplomat. If Winston says this is the story and this is what’s happening, I believe 100 percent. And I would say, go hard. Winston — represent our interests.”

    ‘Totally silly’ response
    But veteran Pacific journalist Michael Field contradicted them soon after on ZB.

    “It’s totally silly. All this talk about cancelling $104 million of aid is total pie-in-the-sky from Winston Peters,” he said.

    “Somebody’s lost their marbles on this, and the one who’s possibly on the ground looking for them is Winston Peters.

    “He didn’t need to be in Tarawa in early January at all. This is pathetic. This is like saying I was invited to my sister’s birthday party and now it’s been cancelled,” he said.

    Not a comparison you hear very often in international relations.

    In his own Substack newsletter Michael Field also insisted the row reflected poorly on New Zealand.

    “While the conspiracy around Kiribati and China has deepened, no one is noticing the still-viable Kiribati-United States treaty which prevents Kiribati atolls [from] being used as bases without Washington approval,” he added.

    Kiribati ‘hugely disrespectful’
    But TVNZ’s Barbara Dreaver said Kiribati was being “hugely disrespectful”.

    In a TVNZ analysis piece last weekend, she said New Zealand has “every right to expect better engagement than it has been getting over the past year.”

    Dreaver — who was born in and grew up in Kiribati and has family there — also criticised “the airtime and validation” Kwansing got in the media in New Zealand.

    “She supports and is part of a government that requires all journalists — should they get a visa to go there — to hand over copies of all footage/information collected,” Dreaver said.

    Kwansing hit back on Facebook, accusing Dreaver of “publishing inane drivel” and “irresponsible journalism causing stress to locals.”

    “You write like you need a good holiday somewhere happy. Please book yourself a luxury day spa ASAP,” she told TVNZ’s Pacific Affairs reporter.

    Two days later — last Tuesday — the Kiribati government made percent2CO percent2CP-R an official statement which also pointed the finger at the media.

    “Despite this media issue, the government of Kiribati remains convinced the strong bonds between Kiribati and New Zealand will enable a resolution to this unfortunate standoff,” it said.

    Copping the blame
    Another reporter who knows what it’s like to cop the blame for reporting stuff diplomats and politicians want to keep out of the news is RNZ Pacific’s senior journalist and presenter Lydia Lewis.

    Last year, Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese questioned RNZ’s ethics after she reported comments he made to the US Deputy Secretary of State at the Pacific Islands Forum in Tonga — which revealed an until-then behind closed doors plan to pay for better policing in the Pacific.

    She’s also been covering the tension with Kiribati.

    Is the heat coming on the media more these days if they candidly report diplomatic differences?

    Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific.
    TVNZ Pacific senior journalist and presenter Lydia Lewis . . . “both the public and politicians are saying the media [are] making a big deal of things.” Image: RNZ Pacific

    “There’s no study that says there are more people blaming the media. So it’s anecdotal, but definitely, both the public and politicians are saying the media (are) making a big deal of things,” Lewis told Mediawatch.

    “I would put the question back to the public as to who’s manufacturing drama. All we’re doing is reporting what’s in front of us for the public to then make their decision — and questioning it. And there were a lot of questions around this Kiribati story.”

    Lewis said it was shortly before 6pm on January 27, that selected journalists were advised of the response of our government to the cancellation of the meeting with foreign minister Peters.

    Vice-President an alternative
    But it was not mentioned that Kiribati had offered the Vice-President for a meeting, the same person that met with an Australian delegation recently.

    A response from Kiribati proved harder to get — and Lewis spoke to a senior figure in Kiribati that night who told her they knew nothing about it.

    Politicians and diplomats, naturally enough, prefer to do things behind the scenes and media exposure is a complication for them.

    But we simply wouldn’t know about the impending partnership agreement between China and the Cook Islands if TVNZ had not reported it last Monday.

    And another irony: some political figures lamenting the diplomatically disruptive impact of the media also make decidedly undiplomatic responses of their own online these days.

    “It can be revealing in the sense of where people stand. Sometimes they’re just putting out their opinions or their experience. Maybe they’ve got some sort of motive. A formal message or email we’ll take a bit more seriously. But some of the things on social media, we just take with a grain of salt,” said Lewis.

    “It is vital we all look at multiple sources. It comes back to balance and knowledge and understanding what you know about and what you don’t know about — and then asking the questions in between.”

    Big Powers and the Big Picture
    Kwansing objected to New Zealand media jumping to the conclusion China’s influence was a factor in the friction with New Zealand.

    “To dismiss the geopolitical implications with China . . .  would be naive and ignorant,” Dreaver countered.

    Michael Field pointed to an angle missing.

    “While the conspiracy around Kiribati and China has deepened, no one is noticing the still viable Kiribati-United States treaty which prevents Kiribati atolls being used as bases without Washington approval,” he wrote in his Substack.

    In the same article in which Vance called Kiribati “an impoverished, sinking island nation” she later pointed out that its location, US military ties and vast ocean territory make it strategically important.

    Questions about ‘transparency and accountability’
    “There’s a lot of people that want in on Kiribati. It has a huge exclusive economic zone,” Lewis said.

    She said communication problems and patchy connectivity are also drawbacks.

    “We do have a fuller picture now of the situation, but the overarching question that’s come out of this is around transparency and accountability.

    “We can’t hold Kiribati politicians to account like we do New Zealand government politicians.”

    “I don’t want to give Kiribati a free pass here but it’s really difficult to get a response.

    “They’re posting statements on Facebook and it really has raised some questions around the government’s commitment to transparency and accountability for all journalists . . .  committed to fair media reporting across the Pacific.”

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


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Two elected members were suspended from the KPFA Local Station Board (LSB) in a closed door session on November 16, 2024. It was a “show trial” that was not for show, not to be seen or even whispered about — a skeleton for the board’s closet, and an insult to the “free speech radio” spirit of KPFA.

    This was a Zoom session, a meeting in cyberspace; twenty two board members attended; four Pacifica National Board directors were here as observers, and there were several technicians and some others, in all, thirty people.  The accused persons were Elizabeth Milos and Steve Zeltzer.  Both were elected to this Local Station Board (LSB) by the listener-subscribers of KPFA, and this hearing should’ve been open to the public — especially since the “Protector” group had already publicized it as a campaign issue.  This closed hearing cannot rightfully be kept secret, and as a board member present at that session, I’m writing this account.

    It wasn’t funny to us who sat through it, but who knows how others may see it. There was irony, unintended humor, and an interesting cast of characters.

    We see a defendant, the indomitable Elizabeth Milos and others in action.  The session opens with Elizabeth challenging Christina Huggins, first about the audio recording.  Christina said there wasn’t going to be any audio recording; Elizabeth told her we’d then record it ourselves, which we did, or I did anyway, and from it made a transcription.  Christina said we didn’t have her permission, and Elizabeth then challenged Christina’s eligibility to chair the session.

    “The chair of the LSB is not going to be present?” said Elizabeth Milos. “So who is acting chair?”

    “I am the chair for this meeting,” replied Christina Huggins.

    “You’re not a member of the board,” Elizabeth reminded her.  “You can not–”

    And Christina muted her.  This being a Zoom meeting, the person who runs the meeting can press a mute button and silence board members.

    Elizabeth Milos unmuted herself. “You’re not a delegate. To be able to preside over this kind of –”

    Christina Huggins muted her again and said. “The chair does not have to be a delegate, per the bylaws.”

    “The ones who don’t have to be a delegate are the treasurer and the secretary, but the chair does,” Elizabeth explained, referring to Article Seven, Local Station Boards, Section 5.

    “You will be removed from the room if you do not come to order,” Christina warned.

    Steve Zeltzer spoke up “You’re not a delegate, Christina.”

    You will be removed as well. I’m the chair.  The chair does not have to be a delegate.”

    “Show us in writing where it says the chair does not have to be a delegate,” said Cheryl Davila.

    Christina Huggins overruled them and presided as the self-appointed chair.

    Christina Huggins is a leader of the “PROTECTORS” group — the “Huggins Faction” — which, on KPFA’s Local Station Board (LSB), represents the station’s power clique and management. Although Huggins was a former board member, and was again elected for a term beginning in December 2024, she was not a delegate at the time of this session.  Her group has a 2/3rds majority which enables them to set the agenda, and this was what they set for this day in November 2024.  So we see the majority putting two members of the minority on trial, a “disciplinary hearing,” Christina Huggins called it.

    Defendant Elizabeth Milos is a Chilean-American, a Spanish/English medical interpreter in her day job.  She’s also a labor and human rights activist.  Her co-defendant Steve Zeltzer is the host of Work Week Radio.  Both are affiliated with the RESCUE PACIFICA group, which advocates keeping the Pacifica network intact and preserving its seventy-five year antiwar tradition.

    The “trial” was ostensibly about an incident on July 31, 2024, where the defendants, Elizabeth Milos and Steve Zeltzer, held a speak-out in front of the KPFA studio in Berkeley.  KPFA’s Business Manager Maria Negret came out of the building and angrily confronted them.  Steve Zeltzer inadvertently touched Maria Negret’s hand — hence a charge of “assault and battery.”

    “He’s lucky he didn’t do it to me,” growled board member Fred Dodsworth, who played the role of “Prosecutor.”  Fred describes himself as “Loud and Proud,” and he certainly is loud, egotistical, and takes himself very, very seriously. Fred Dodsworth was perfectly cast for a leading role in this sort of thing. His mission was to seek justice for the supposed “victim,” Business Manager Maria Negret — who was not present.

    Steve Zeltzer and Elizabeth Milos had requested that Maria Negret be there as a witness.  And Jim Lafferty, attorney for the defendants, asked why Maria was not present at this hearing?

    “She’s not the accuser,” said Christina Huggins, the self-appointed chair.

    “But she filed a police complaint,” the defense attorney reminded the chair. “She filed a police complaint of assault and battery, which is a charge against one of these people.  And yet, she’s not relevant for today?”

    The chair seemed unable to give a satisfactory  explanation for Maria’s absence.  It appeared that Maria Negret did not wish to accuse Steve Zeltzer in a hearing where she could be cross examined.

    There was a police report, and Dodsworth flashed it on the screen.  But only the seal of the Berkeley Police Department was seen.  The contents could not be shown, because, Dodsworth told the hearing, “The actual police report stipulates that it is not for distribution.”

    Not for distribution?  Strange.  We had obtained a copy of the police report — presumably the same one mentioned by Dodsworth.  It did not even contain the name of the suspect or a description of the “assault.”

    What Dodsworth did have was a video of the July 31st incident.  But it was actually more embarrassing to Maria Negret than to Steve and Elizabeth.  In it we see Maria with her hands on her hips, aggressively yelling and scolding.  And the assault?  The video doesn’t show it, not until you slow it down to frame by frame, and finally there is a frame where for a microsecond Steve touches Maria’s hand.  That was the evidence of the supposed “assault and battery” on which Dodsworth based his case.

    “Yeah, we’ve been told this was an assault and battery,” said board member Anthony Fest.  “If this really was an assault, why didn’t you contact the DA’s office and request that they prosecute Steve Zeltzer?  Most likely because you wouldn’t want to be laughed at — a fraction of a second of inadvertent contact when the business manager was actually the initiator of the confrontation.”

    “If this is assault and battery, then every time I’ve gotten on BART at rush hour, I’ve been assaulted and battered,” said another LSB member, James McFadden. “I was most amused by the prosecutor’s comment that if Zeltzer had done that to him, he would have –, and then didn’t finish his sentence.  He would have what?  Assaulted and battered Zeltzer?”

    Undaunted, “Prosecutor” Dodsworth bravely and resolutely launched into presenting his case.  This was Fred Dodsworth’s hour upon the stage, and all eyes were on him as he spoke:

    “The evidence against Mr. Zeltzer is undeniable.  You saw it with your own eyes. . . . This was no accidental contact. This was no inadvertent brush. This was an attempt to wrest control of her body from herself.”

    And reminding us that Maria Negret is a Latina, Dodsworth added, with righteous indignation, “There’s additional significance when this action is taken against a woman of color.”

    “Excuse me,” Elizabeth Milos interrupted him. “There’s a point of order.”

    And this is where we learned that while presenting his case against Steve Zeltzer, Prosecutor Dodsworth had kicked delegate Cheryl Davila — the only black woman in this Zoom session — out of the meeting.

    “I’m talking. Shut up!” Dodsworth barked.

    The not easily silenced Elizabeth Milos spoke again, “One of our members, Cheryl Davila is not being allowed in.”

    “You’re out of order!” the self-appointed chair upheld the prosecutor.

    Prosecutor Dodsworth continued his speech, explaining that to excuse Steve Zeltzer “would be a betrayal of the values we stand for and erode that trust KPFA has built within staff and community, particularly among women and people of color.”

    Elizabeth Milos and Steve Zeltzer continued to raise their voices. “Cheryl Davila, who is a black, the only black board member of the KPFA Local Station Board, has been excluded!” Steve said.

    “You’re out of order, Mr. Zeltzer,” said the self-appointed chair.

    Eventually Cheryl Davila was readmitted to the meeting. After returning, Cheryl said: “Dodsworth has disrespected me on numerous occasions . . ., and today I was kicked out of the meeting. Wasn’t let back in for some time. I don’t even know why I was kicked out.  . . . It is a kangaroo court.  You guys make the rules, and we have to go by them.”

    Unlike courtroom dramas and other events that take place in a physical room or hall, this was a Zoom session where everyone except the speaker is muted, and laughter, gasps, jeers, boos, and applause were not heard.  But the attending board members were allowed brief comments.

    Since Dodsworth was making such an issue of respect for KPFA employees and staff, particularly those of color, Donna Carter and I reminded him of the time he wrongfully criticized KPFA journalist Frank Sterling who was arrested by the Antioch police.  Frank Sterling is a Native American; he won his case, and a financial settlement from the police.

    Pausing in his prosecution, Fred Dodsworth took time to reiterate his attack on the KPFA journalist.  “Mr. Sterling did not behave as a reporter,” said Dodsworth.  “He behaved as an activist.”

    Frank Sterling had stepped in to prevent a woman from being beaten.  Many journalists have done that in various ways. Amy Goodman, Gary Webb, Norman Solomon, among them. Frank Sterling is a journalist and he is an activist. That is very much in the KPFA tradition.

    Defense Attorney Jim Lafferty said this earlier in this session, but it fits here: “Having been a long time admirer of this radio station, to be present at this, … and to observe it taking place is truly sad to me. It has no resemblance to due process. An Alice in Wonderland trial would be an improvement… This hearing is … a shamefully obvious political move on the part of a majority of this board, to get rid of some people whose opinions annoy them.”

    The opinions of Steve Zeltzer and Elizabeth Milos were indeed annoying to the “Protector” group.  Steve told the hearing;

    “The [July 31st event] was about the monitorship of Pacifica. And this monitorship was brought about actually because members of this KPFA Station Board went to the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] and called on the FCC to take away the license of WBAI. Now I think that’s a betrayal of the interests of Pacifica.

    “They did that. They continue to support that.  And now that monitorship means that a new FCC Chairman appointed by the President Trump could immediately shut down Pacifica because it’s already under monitorship.”

    How the Trump Administration may handle the monitorship (“Consent Decree”) remains to be seen.  But there are also other threats on the horizon. Congress is currently working on bipartisan legislation to crack down on alternative media.

    Co-defendant Elizabeth Milos, the only witness of the July 31 incident present at this hearing, was charged with two offenses.  The first was: “making inaccurate statements in a public meeting about the alleged assault and battery.”

    Elizabeth Milos had publicly refuted the accusation.  And now at this hearing Elizabeth said, “The video proves the fact that it was not [Steve Zeltzer’s] intention to grab anybody.” Thus, by disputing Fred Dodsworth’s dubious version, Elizabeth had, in Dodsworth’s view, obviously committed a truly heinous offense.

    The second charge went to the heart of the matter.  Elizabeth had criticized the station’s Business Manager Maria Negret.  That is, Elizabeth had found documents showing that during a lawsuit by former Pacifica Executive Director John Vernile against the Pacifica Foundation, Maria Negret presented a deposition on behalf of the opposing side.  And Christina Huggins had shared confidential information with the opposing counsel.  That lawsuit cost KPFA $305,000.

    “I have been involved in exposing this fraud.” Elizabeth Milos told the hearing that she’d shown Maria Negret’s publicly available deposition.  “That would most likely be part of the reason why I’m being silenced,” Elizabeth said, and added, “I again object for the record that your Christina Huggins is not [currently] a delegate and also has serious conflict of interest.”

    Prosecutor Dodsworth didn’t actually dispute Elizabeth’s allegations against Maria Negret and Christina Huggins. He and Huggins only stipulated that such matters should be discussed in only closed sessions of the LSB.  Well, they had a point there.  The board should be able to discuss and resolve personnel issues in executive sessions.  Unfortunately, it’s impossible to discuss such issues with this board dominated by the offenders — the “Protector” group.  Only one point of view is allowed.

    And that leads directly to what this “trial” was really about — the role of the Local Station Board. The Rescue Pacifica group, with which Elizabeth and Steve are affiliated, assert that there are times when board members need to ask questions.  The above mentioned issues should concern the LSB.  Another example, one from January 2020: when it was discovered that property taxes hadn’t been paid on the KPFA’s studio for six years, and the Alameda County tax office was about to seize the building and auction it off to collect the unpaid taxes, it was proper for the board to be asking the station’s general manager how that happened.  In fact, according to Pacifica Bylaws, the LSB is required to do a yearly evaluation of the station’s manager, but that hasn’t been done for over seven years now. The “Protector” group, who have a board majority, have prevented those evaluations.

    The “Protector” group sees it as its job to protect the station’s management from the embarrassing questions that the Rescue Pacifica people ask. Protector Sherry Gendelman said at this hearing: “Oversight of employees is not the role of the LSB.”

    “We should not interfere with the operation or the employees at the station at any time,” Gendelman stated specifically. Which is a an interesting comment coming from the person who petitioned the FCC to investigate WBAI, the Pacifica station in New York.  Before that “Protectors” were involved in the month-long takeover of the NY station in 2019.  There certainly are problems at WBAI, but the Protectors’ “solutions” have done more to sabotage than to help the New York station.

    The differences between the two groups do seem irreconcilable.  Rescue Pacifica struggles to preserve the network and its antiwar programming, while the Protectors group supports a management clique that gives nine hours of KPFA’s airtime each week to Ian Masters, a show host who attacked Mumia Abu Jamal, and who promotes a pro-military vision for our country.  This struggle has gone on for years, with people looking to find common ground — which is hard to find.

    In the midst of this day’s turmoil, Defense Attorney Jim Lafferty, who is a former general manager of KPFK in Los Angeles, expressed a plea for unity and warned of the danger:

    “One of the reasons why I’m so utterly appalled by having to be here today is because Pacific has enemies!”  For God’s sakes, not Steve and Elizabeth!  No, our enemies. My enemies, your enemies. . . . They are, of course, those who are about to rule this country — who in Project 2025 spell out that they want to shut down this entire network. And yet, here we sit, doing what we’re doing today,” Jim Lafferty said.  “Have we all lost our minds?”

    “Well, I simply want to then say that I plead with all of us to remember that we’re comrades,” Jim Lafferty continued.  “And that we please can get back to the business that we should be at, because otherwise the bright future of this station is going to be removed from us.  In fact, the whole damn thing is going to be removed!”

    Two of  the “Protectors” broke ranks and voted against the suspension, but we don’t know who they were, because the ballots — like everything else in the meeting — were secret.  And there were two Protectors who did not attend this session.  Nevertheless, Dodsworth, Huggins and their crew still had a simple majority which found Elizabeth Milos and Steve Zeltzer “guilty” of all charges and suspended them from the LSB for eighteen months.  (To fully remove them from the board would’ve required a 2/3rds vote.)

    What we saw that November day was a power grab, rather crude and even clumsy, but nevertheless very effective. Board members elected by the listeners were removed by the majority faction.  Who’s next?  It could be anyone who raises uncomfortable issues.  It’s sad and discouraging to see this happening at KPFA 94.1 FM, which for so many years has been a source of information, music, inspiration, encouragement and sense of community.

    But what does this mean for KPFA listeners who may not take much interest in the details of board politics?

    Just this: the ones who run the show are the ones who determine the programming.  While many excellent shows remain, in recent years we’ve seen a drift towards echoing the corporate media and security state propaganda, promoting or at least soft peddling empire’s talking points.

    While following events in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and elsewhere, we need to watch and take care of what’s happening under our noses, on the air and in the cyberspace where we live, at our community radio station.

    *****
    The quotations in the above account are from a transcript of the KPFA LSB executive session of Nov 16, 2024.  It’s long, but I strongly recommend reading it.

    The post A Progressive Radio Station Purges 2 Elected Board Members first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Pacific Media Watch

    President Donald Trump has frozen billions of dollars around the world in aid projects, including more than $268 million allocated by Congress to support independent media and the free flow of information.

    Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has denounced this decision, which has plunged NGOs, media outlets, and journalists doing vital work into chaotic uncertainty — including in the Pacific.

    In a statement published on its website, RSF has called for international public and private support to commit to the “sustainability of independent media”.

    Since the new American president announced the freeze of US foreign aid on January 20, USAID (United States Agency for International Development) has been in turmoil — its website is inaccessible, its X account has been suspended, the agency’s headquarters was closed and employees told to stay home.

    South African-born American billionaire Elon Musk, an unelected official, whom Trump chose to lead the quasi-official Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has called USAID a “criminal organisation” and declared: “We’re shutting [it] down.”

    Later that day, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that he was named acting director of the agency, suggesting its operations were being moved to the State Department.

    Almost immediately after the freeze went into effect, journalistic organisations around the world — including media groups in the Pacific — that receive American aid funding started reaching out to RSF expressing confusion, chaos, and uncertainty.

    Large and smaller media NGOs affected
    The affected organisations include large international NGOs that support independent media like the International Fund for Public Interest Media and smaller, individual media outlets serving audiences living under repressive conditions in countries like Iran and Russia.

    “The American aid funding freeze is sowing chaos around the world, including in journalism. The programmes that have been frozen provide vital support to projects that strengthen media, transparency, and democracy,” said Clayton Weimers, executive director of RSF USA.

    President Donald Trump
    President Donald Trump . . . “The American aid funding freeze is sowing chaos around the world, including in journalism,” says RSF. Image: RSF

    “President Trump justified this order by charging — without evidence — that a so-called ‘foreign aid industry’ is not aligned with US interests.

    “The tragic irony is that this measure will create a vacuum that plays into the hands of propagandists and authoritarian states. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is appealing to the international public and private funders to commit to the sustainability of independent media.”

    USAID programmes support independent media in more than 30 countries, but it is difficult to assess the full extent of the harm done to the global media.

    Many organisations are hesitant to draw attention for fear of risking long-term funding or coming under political attacks.

    According to a USAID fact sheet which has since been taken offline, in 2023 the agency funded training and support for 6200 journalists, assisted 707 non-state news outlets, and supported 279 media-sector civil society organisations dedicated to strengthening independent media.

    The USAID website today
    The USAID website today . . . All USAID “direct hire” staff were reportedly put “on leave” on 7 February 2025. Image: USAID website screenshot APR

    Activities halted overnight
    The 2025 foreign aid budget included $268,376,000 allocated by Congress to support “independent media and the free flow of information”.

    All over the world, media outlets and organisations have had to halt some of their activities overnight.

    “We have articles scheduled until the end of January, but after that, if we haven’t found solutions, we won’t be able to publish anymore,” explains a journalist from a Belarusian exiled media outlet who wished to remain anonymous.

    In Cameroon, the funding freeze forced DataCameroon, a public interest media outlet based in the economic capital Douala, to put several projects on hold, including one focused on journalist safety and another covering the upcoming presidential election.

    An exiled Iranian media outlet that preferred to remain anonymous was forced to suspend collaboration with its staff for three months and slash salaries to a bare minimum to survive.

    An exiled Iranian journalist interviewed by RSF warns that the impact of the funding freeze could silence some of the last remaining free voices, creating a vacuum that Iranian state propaganda would inevitably fill.

    “Shutting us off will mean that they’ll have more power,” she says.

    USAID: the main donor for Ukrainian media
    In Ukraine, where 9 out of 10 outlets rely on subsidies and USAID is the primary donor, several local media have already announced the suspension of their activities and are searching for alternative solutions.

    “At Slidstvo.Info, 80 percent of our budget is affected,” said Anna Babinets, CEO and co-founder of this independent investigative media outlet based in Kyiv.

    The risk of this suspension is that it could open the door to other sources of funding that may seek to alter the editorial line and independence of these media.

    “Some media might be shut down or bought by businessmen or oligarchs. I think Russian money will enter the market. And government propaganda will, of course, intensify,” Babinets said.

    RSF has already witnessed the direct effects of such propaganda — a fabricated video, falsely branded with the organisation’s logo, claimed that RSF welcomed the suspension of USAID funding for Ukrainian media — a stance RSF has never endorsed.

    This is not the first instance of such disinformation.

    Finding alternatives quickly
    This situation highlights the financial fragility of the sector.

    According to Oleh Dereniuha, editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian local media outlet NikVesti, based in Mykolaiv, a city in southeast Ukraine, “The suspension of US funding is just the tip of the iceberg — a key case that illustrates the severity of the situation.”

    Since 2024, independent Ukrainian media outlets have found securing financial sustainability nearly impossible due to the decline in donors.

    As a result, even minor budget cuts could put these media outlets in a precarious position.

    A recent RSF report stressed the need to focus on the economic recovery of the independent Ukrainian media landscape, weakened by the large-scale Russian invasion of February 24, 2022, which RSF’s study estimated to be at least $96 million over three years.

    Moreover, beyond the decline in donor support in Ukraine, media outlets are also facing growing threats to their funding and economic models in other countries.

    Georgia’s Transparency of Foreign Influence Law — modelled after Russia’s legislation — has put numerous media organisations at risk. The Georgian Prime Minister welcomed the US president’s decision with approval.

    This suspension is officially expected to last only 90 days, according to the US government.

    However, some, like Katerina Abramova, communications director for leading exiled Russian media outlet Meduza, fear that the reviews of funding contracts could take much longer.

    Abramova is anticipating the risk that these funds may be permanently cut off.

    “Exiled media are even in a more fragile position than others, as we can’t monetise our audience and the crowdfunding has its limits — especially when donating to Meduza is a crime in Russia,” Abramova stressed.

    By abruptly suspending American aid, the United States has made many media outlets and journalists vulnerable, dealing a significant blow to press freedom.

    For all the media outlets interviewed by RSF, the priority is to recover and urgently find alternative funding.

    How Fijivillage News reported the USAID crackdown
    How Fijivillage News reported the USAID crackdown by the Trump administration. Image: Fijivillage News screenshot APR

    Fiji, Pacific media, aid groups reel shocked by cuts
    In Suva, Fiji, as Pacific media groups have been reeling from the shock of the aid cuts, Fijivillage News reports that hundreds of local jobs and assistance to marginalised communities are being impacted because Fiji is an AUSAID hub.

    According to an USAID staff member speaking on the condition of anonymity, Trump’s decision has affected hundreds of Fijian jobs due to USAID believing in building local capacity.

    The staff member said millions of dollars in grants for strengthening climate resilience, the healthcare system, economic growth, and digital connectivity in rural communities were now on hold.

    The staff member also said civil society organisations, especially grantees in rural areas that rely on their aid, were at risk.

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

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • A investigative journalism programme — Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) — that has pubiished exposes about the South Pacific and has not been impacted on by the “freeze” of USAID funding has hit back in an editorial calling for support of independent media.

    EDITORIAL: By the OCCRP editors

    “OCCRP is a deep state operation.
    “OCCRP is connected to the CIA.
    “OCCRP was tasked by USAID to overthrow President Donald Trump.”

    How did we end up getting this kind of attention? Old fashioned investigative journalism.

    We wrote a simple story in 2019 about how Rudy Giuliani went to Ukraine for some opposition research and ended up working with people connected to organised crime who misled him.

    Unbeknown to us, a whistleblower found the story online and added it to a complaint that was the basis of President Trump’s first impeachment. We also wrote a story about Hunter Biden‘s business partners and their ties to organised crime but that hasn’t received the same attention.

    Journalism has become a blood sport. It’s harder and harder to tell the truth without someone’s interests getting stepped on.

    OCCRP prides itself on being independent and nonpartisan. No donor has any say in our reporting, but we often find ourselves under attack for our funding.

    It’s not just political interests but organised crime, businesses, enablers, and other journalists who regularly attack us. What’s common in all of these attacks is that the truth doesn’t matter and it will not protect you.

    Few attack the facts in our reporting. Instead we’re left perplexed by how to respond to wild conspiracy theories, outright disinformation, and hyperbolic hatred.

    At the same time, we’ve lost 29 percent of our funding because of the US foreign aid freeze. This includes 82 percent of the money we give to newsrooms in our network, many of which operate in places [Pacific Media Watch: Such as in the Pacific] where no one else will support them.

    This money did not only fund groundbreaking, prize-winning collaborative journalism but it also trained young investigative reporters to expose wrongdoing. It’s money that kept journalists safe from physical and digital attacks and supported those in exile who continued to report on crooks and dictators back in their home countries.

    OCCRP now has 43 less journalists and staff to do our work.

    No attack or funding freeze will stop us from trying to fulfill our mission. Just in the past week, OCCRP and its partners revealed how Russia’s shadow fleet sources its ships, how taxes haven’t been paid on Roman Abramovich’s yachts, and how Syrian intelligence spied on journalists.

    Next week, we’ll take on another set of powerful actors to defend the public interest. And another set the week after that.

    We are determined to stay in the fight and keep reporting on organised crime and the corrupt who enable and benefit from it. But it’s getting harder and we need help.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Football star Tom Brady and rap legend Snoop Dogg will appear in a big-money Superbowl ad denouncing hatred. The ad is paid for by the Foundation to Combat Antisemitism, a group staffed by Israel lobbyists that attempts to equate opposition to Israel’s destruction of Gaza with anti-Jewish racism. The group was founded by billionaire owner of the New England Patriots, Robert Kraft, who is one of the pro-Israel Lobby’s most generous benefactors. Kraft has used his power to attempt to crush the nationwide Palestine solidarity movement on campus and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.

    The post Tom Brady And Snoop Dogg’s Super Bowl Ad Isn’t What You Think appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • In the first part of the program, Mohawk journalist Isaac White speaks to Eleanor Goldfield about being guilty of journalism. Isaac was arrested last year while covering a land claim demonstration despite clearly identifying himself as press and having credentials on his person. Isaac’s story also highlights the importance of and dangers to local and Indigenous media. As we’ve covered before on Project Censored, there’s already a dearth of local media, but add to that Indigenous local media, and this forced scarcity means that reporters like Isaac who would be connecting communities and holding local leaders to account have to find a living elsewhere, a move that affects the entire local area. In the second half of the show, my cohost Mickey Huff sits down with Dr. John Collins, a founder & editorial director at Weave News, author, and professor at St. Lawrence University to talk about the power and mandate of grassroots independent media in these times. John explains that journalism is too important to be left to the powers that be and what we need right now more than ever is news of, for and by the people. John also talks about his books and years of work on Palestine, and how Palestine is in fact not only an issue unto itself but also a lens for examining colonialism, capitalism, media, the politics of representation and more.

    The post Defending Local & Indigenous Media in an Age of Scarcity appeared first on Project Censored.


    This content originally appeared on Project Censored and was authored by Kate Horgan.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Vietnamese businesswoman Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan, an arms dealer who is on Hanoi’s wanted list for corruption, has been given top-level protection in Germany, the influential Bild newspaper reported.

    According to Bild’s exclusive report “Arms dealer Nguyen T. is the best-guarded woman in Germany,” Nhan has been in a safe house at an undisclosed location under the strict protection of German security authorities.

    “Her knowledge of secret arms deals makes her a target of foreign secret services,” the newspaper said.

    In Vietnam, Nhan – former chairwoman of a trading company called AIC – is on a police wanted list after being accused of several instances of corruption and she was sentenced in absentia in 2023 to 30 years in prison for bid rigging and bribery.

    Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan was sentenced in absentia to 30 years in prison at a trial in Vietnam on Jan. 5, 2023.
    Nguyen Thi Thanh Nhan was sentenced in absentia to 30 years in prison at a trial in Vietnam on Jan. 5, 2023.
    (Vietnam News Agency)

    However, her involvement in the murky world of international arms dealing and alleged connection with Vietnam’s incumbent prime minister is the real reason that she is at high risk of being abducted by Vietnamese agents, the German tabloid alleged.

    In 2022, Vietnamese police issued an arrest warrant for Nhan for her involvement in a medical supplies provision contract.

    Since then, Nhan has been prosecuted in five different corruption cases and convicted in four of them, all in absentia as she had already fled Vietnam, first to Japan, then the United Kingdom and Germany.

    According to Bild, the former businesswoman arrived in Frankfurt in the summer of 2023 and turned herself in to German authorities. who moved her to a safe house that was once a brothel but redeveloped by the security service into “a fortress,” with cameras and armed guards.

    The newspaper alleged that Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office had spent “millions of euros” on her hideout and protection. In return, Nhan is believed to have given German authorities information on arms deals between Russia, China and Vietnam, including details of weapon systems, supply chains, money flows and the participating companies.

    Radio Free Asia was not able to contact relevant German authorities to ask about the case.

    Extradition denied

    Israeli media previously reported on Nhan’s role as an intermediary for arms procurement from Israel to Vietnam, including surface-to-air missiles, spy satellites, drones and other weapon systems.

    There were also rumors of her involvement in negotiations between Vietnamese defense officials and their French partners, though RFA could not independently verify them.

    In recent years, Hanoi has been seeking to diversify arms sources to reduce its reliance on Moscow, its traditional partner and main supplier of weapons.

    Another German news outlet, Die Tageszeitung, or Taz, reported in August 2023 that Germany had rejected a Vietnamese extradition request for Nhan.

    The German government also warned Vietnam of “serious diplomatic consequences” should it attempt to abduct her, saying that it “will not tolerate any foreign countries’ interferences in German territory,” it reported.

    In 2017, Vietnamese agents kidnapped former oil executive Trinh Xuan Thanh in Berlin and his illegal rendition back to Vietnam caused a deep diplomatic rift between the countries. Germany expelled two Vietnamese diplomats and convicted two other people over the abduction.

    Nhan’s case also shines a spotlight on Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, who served as the Communist Party chief in Quang Ninh province from 2011 to 2015 when Nhan and her company were found guilty of rigging bidding procedures to win a contract to supply medical equipment to a hospital, causing damages worth US$2 million, the court in which she was sentenced in absentia to prison for 30 years was told at the time.

    Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh arrives at Kazan airport for a BRICS summit in Russia on Oct. 23, 2024.
    Vietnamese Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh arrives at Kazan airport for a BRICS summit in Russia on Oct. 23, 2024.
    (Ilya Pitalev/BRICS-RUSSIA2024.RU/Reuters)

    The conviction raised questions about connections between Chinh and the businesswoman.

    As the political scene in Vietnam heats up ahead of an all-important Party Congress in early 2026, Nhan’s name could resurface in discussions of her former associates’ political ambitions.

    Edited by Mike Firn.


    This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by RFA Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Hot off the newswires are shocking tales of democratic elections in Venezuela, grassroots organizations forming food cooperatives, and repatriation of migrants. What will one of the media establishment’s most demonized “authoritarian regimes” do next?

    Bloomberg approvingly quotes an opposition-supporting Venezuelan living in Chile that Venezuela’s scheduling of parliamentary and regional elections in April is a desperate attempt by President Maduro to “obtain some kind of legitimacy for the regime.”

    Not to be caught in the trap of participating in elections, US-backed far-right Venezuelan “opposition leader” María Corina Machado called for an electoral boycott.

    The post Venezuelan President Criticized For Not Being A Proper Dictator appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Asia Pacific Report

    A defiant Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa (PSNA) national chair, John Minto, has appealed to Aotearoa New Zealand to stand with the “majority of humanity” in the world and condemn genocide in Gaza.

    Minto has called on Foreign Minister Winston Peters to “ignore the bullying” from pro-Israel Texas Senator Ted Cruz and have the courage to stop welcoming Israeli solders to New Zealand.

    Peters has claimed Israeli media stories that New Zealand has stopped Israeli military visiting New Zealand are “fake news”.


    Senator Cruz had quoted Israeli daily Ha’aretz in a tweet which said “It’s difficult to treat New Zealand as a normal ally within the American alliance system, when they denigrate and punish Israeli citizens for defending themselves”.

    The Times of Israel had also reported this week that Israelis entering New Zealand were required to detail their military service.

    Senator Ted Cruz
    US Senator Ted Cruz . . . “It’s difficult to treat New Zealand as a normal ally within the American alliance system.” Image: TDB

    Minto responded in a statement saying that Peters “should not buckle” to a Trump-supporting senator who fully backed Israel’s genocide.

    “Ted Cruz believes Israel should continue defending land it has stolen from Palestinians. He supports every Israeli war crime. New Zealand must be different,” he said.

    Last September, New Zealand voted against the US at the United Nations General Assembly where the country sided with the majority of humanity — 124 votes in favour, 14 against and 43 abstentions — that ruled that Israel’s presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory was illegal and it should leave within a year.

    At the time, Peters declared: “New Zealand’s yes vote is fundamentally a signal of our strong support for international law and the need for a two-state solution.”

    ‘Different policy position’
    “The New Zealand government has a completely different policy position to the US,” said Minto.

    “That should be reflected in the actions of the New Zealand government.  We must have an immigration ban on Israeli soldiers who have served in the Israeli military since October 2023 as well as a ban on any Israeli who lives in an illegal Israeli settlement on occupied Palestinian land.”

    Minto said it was not clear what the current immigration rules were for different entry categories, but it did seem that some longer stay Israeli applicants were required to declare they had not committed human rights violations before they were allowed in.

    “That’s what the Australians are doing.  It appears ineffective at preventing Israeli troops having ‘genocide holidays’ in Australia – but it’s a start,” he said.

    “We’d like to see a broader, effective, and watertight ban on Israeli troops coming here.

    “Instead of bowing to US pressure New Zealand should be joining The Hague Group of countries, as proposed by the Palestine Forum of New Zealand, to take decisive action to prevent and punish Israeli war crimes.”

    Immigration New Zealand reports that since 7 October 2023 it had approved 809 of 944 applications received from Israeli nationals across both temporary and residence visa applications.

    Last December, Middle East Eye reported that at least two IDF soldiers had been denied entry to Australia and applicants were being required to fill out a document regarding their role in war crimes.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.


  • This content originally appeared on Laura Flanders & Friends and was authored by Laura Flanders & Friends.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • New York, January 31, 2025—A Taliban court in Kabul sentenced Sayed Rahim Saeedi, the editor and producer of the ANAR Media YouTube channel, to three years in prison on charges of disseminating anti-Taliban propaganda. He was sentenced on October 27, 2024, but those with knowledge of the case initially refrained from publicizing it out of concern for Saeedi’s safety, according to a journalist who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity due to fear of Taliban reprisal.

    “Sayed Rahim Saeedi has been sentenced to three years in prison without access to a lawyer or due process in the Taliban’s courts, while also suffering from serious health complications,” said Beh Lih Yi, CPJ’s Asia program coordinator. “Taliban authorities must immediately release Saeedi and ensure that he receives necessary medical support and treatment.”

    Saeedi has been transferred to Kabul’s central Pul-e-Charkhi prison. He is suffering from lumbar disc disease and prostate complications, the journalist source told CPJ.

    The Taliban’s General Directorate of Intelligence detained Saeedi, his son, journalist Sayed Waris Saeedi, and their camera operator, Hasib, who goes only by one name, on July 14, 2024, in Kabul and transferred them to an undisclosed location. While the younger Saeedi and Hasib were released two days later, Saeedi remained in detention.

    According to the exile-based watchdog group Afghanistan Journalists Center, Saeedi was arrested for his work criticizing the Taliban, including a screenplay he wrote about a girl denied an education by Taliban authorities.

    According to the Afghanistan Journalists Center, restrictions on the country’s media are tightening.

    Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid did not respond to CPJ’s request for comment via messaging app.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by Committee to Protect Journalists.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Sulaymaniyah, January 31, 2025—The Committee to Protect Journalists urges Iraqi Kurdish authorities to release journalist Omed Baroshky after the Duhok criminal court on Thursday sentenced him to six months in prison on charges of defamation.

    Baroshky’s lawyer, Revving Hruri, told CPJ via messaging app that the charges stem from a January 23, 2024 Facebook post in which Baroshky reported that political prisoner Mala Nazir had been kidnapped from the prison one day before his scheduled release.

    In February, after Baroshky’s reporting was circulated widely in the local media, Zirka prison authorities sued the journalist for allegedly violating of Article 2 of the Misuse of Communication Devices law.

    “We are deeply troubled by the sentencing of journalist Omed Baroshky over a Facebook post,” said Yeganeh Rezaian, CPJ’s interim MENA program coordinator, in Washington, D.C. “Iraqi Kurdish authorities must ensure that journalists are not criminalized for their reporting. We urge authorities to free Baroshky and allow him to continue his work without fear of retaliation.”

    Hruri told CPJ that they presented the court with “multiple pieces of evidence proving that he is a journalist and should be tried under the press law, which does not allow imprisonment, but the court refused.”

    Hruri said that while the court confirmed during the trial that Nazir had been transferred from the prison, “they alleged that Omed defamed the prison.”

    CPJ contacted Aram Atrushi, the director of Zirka prison, for comment, but he declined to discuss the case.

    Baroshky previously spent 18 months in jail from 2020 to 2022 under the same law over social media posts that criticized authorities in Iraqi Kurdistan. After his outlet Rast Media was raided and shut down in April 2023, he turned to Facebook as his main reporting platform.


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • A NZ-born Kiribati member of Parliament, Ruth Cross Kwansing, has tried to bring in some Pacific common sense into the diplomatic tiff between her country and Aotearoa New Zealand. Her original title on her social media posting was “A storm in a teacup: Kiribati, New Zealand and a misunderstanding over diplomacy”.

    COMMENTARY: By Ruth Cross Kwansing

    We were polarised by the United States last week, but in the same way that a windscreen wiper distracts you from the rain, our Pacific news cycle and local coconut wireless became dominated by a whirlwind of speculation after New Zealand’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters announced a review of New Zealand’s aid to Kiribati.

    This followed what was perceived as a snub by our President Taneti Maamau.

    The New Zealand media, in its typical fashion, seized the opportunity to patronise Kiribati, and the familiar whispers about Chinese influence began to circulate.

    Amidst this media manufactured drama, I found myself reflecting on “that” recent experience which offered stark contrast to the geopolitical noise.

    We had the privilege of attending the ordination of a Catholic Priest in Onotoa, where the true spirit of Kiribati was exemplified in the splendour of simplicity. Despite limited resources, the island community, representing various faiths, came together to celebrate this sacred event with unparalleled joy, hilariousness and hospitality from silent hands that blessed you with love.

    Hands that built thatched huts for us to sleep in, wove mats, cooked food, made pillows and hung bananas in maneabas to provide for guests from all over Kiribati and Nauru. Our President, himself a Protestant, had prioritised and actively participated, embodying by example, the unity and peace that Bishop Simon Mani so eloquently spoke of.

    We laughed, we cried, and we felt the spirit of our loving God.

    Spirit of harmony
    That spirit of harmony and hope we carried from recent experiences felt shaken overnight by news of New Zealand’s potential aid withdrawal. Social media in Kiribati erupted with questions and concerns, fuelled by an article claiming that New Zealand was halting aid due to President Maamau “snubbing” of Deputy Prime Minister Peters.

    Importantly: President Maamau would never in a millennium intentionally “snub” New Zealand or any foreign minister. The reality is far more nuanced.

    At the end of 2024, President Maamau announced to his Cabinet Ministers that he would delegate international bilateral engagements to Vice-President Dr Teuea Toatu or other Ministers and Ambassadors appropriately. Thereby enabling him to focus intently on domestic matters, including the workplan for our national necessities outlined in the KV20 vision and 149 deliverables of his party manifesto.

    NZ's Foreign Minister Winston Peters
    NZ’s Foreign Minister Winston Peters . . . his spat with Kiribati described as a “storm in a teacup”. Image: RNZ/Reece Baker

    While the Vice-President was prepared to receive the New Zealand delegation, it seems Minister Peters was insistent on meeting with the President himself, leading to the cancellation of his trip.

    This insistence on bypassing established protocol is not only unusual but also, well let’s just say it with as much love as possible: It’s disrespectful to Kiribati’s sovereignty.

    It is also worth noting that the Deputy Prime Minister of Australia recently visited Kiribati and engaged with the Vice-President and Cabinet Ministers without any such reluctance.

    New Zealand’s subsequent announcement of an aid review, including a potential threat to the $2 million funded RSE scheme, has understandably caused serious anxiety in Kiribati.

    Devastating impact
    The potential loss of funding for critical sectors like health, education, fisheries, economic development and climate resilience would of course have a devastating impact on our people.

    After committing $102 million between 2021-2024 these are major threats to public health where $20 million was invested in initiatives like rebuilding the Betio Hospital, training doctors, building clinics, NCD strategic planning and more, $10 million in education, $4 million in developing the fisheries sector, it’s an expansive and highly impactful list of critical support for capacity strengthening to our country.

    While New Zealand has every right to review its aid programme to Kiribati or any developing country, it is crucial that these kinds of decisions are based on genuine development processes and not used as a tool for political pressure.

    Linking Pacific aid to access to political leaders sets a questionable precedent and undermines the principles of partnership, mutual respect and “mana” that underpins the inextricably linked relationships between Pacific nations.

    The reference to potential impacts on I-Kiribati workers in New Zealand under the RSE scheme is particularly concerning. These hardworking individuals contribute significantly to the New Zealand economy in a mutually beneficial arrangement.

    We deserve to be treated with fairness and respect, not weaponised to cut at the heart of what drives our political motivations — providing for our people, who are providing for our children.

    Despite this unfortunate situation, I believe that dialogue and understanding along with truth and love will prevail.

    Greater humility needed
    In the spirit of the “effectiveness, inclusiveness, resilience, and sustainability” that upholds New Zealand’s own development principles, we should all revisit this issue with greater humility and a commitment to resolving such misunderstandings.

    As a New Zealand-born, Australian/Tuvaluan, I-Kiribati politician representing the largest constituency in Kiribati, I have zero pride or ego and will never be too proud to beg for the needs of the people I serve, who placed their faith in a government that would put them first.

    We would love to host Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters and a New Zealand government delegation in Kiribati, and we are indescribably grateful for the kinds of support provided since we gained independence in 1979. Our history stretches back even further than that, when New Zealand’s agricultural industry was nourished by phosphate from Banaba, and we continue to treasure the intertwined links between our nations.

    Let us prioritise cooperation and mutual respect over ego and political posturing. Let’s drink fresh coconuts and eat raw fish together and talk about how we can change the world by changing ourselves first.

    The “tea party” of Pacific partnership must continue to strengthen, and deepen, ESPECIALLY when challenged to overcome misunderstandings. It should always be one where Pacific voices are heard and respected lovingly, while we work towards a collective vision of health, peace and prosperity for all.

    But if development diplomacy ever fails, we’ll remember that I-Kiribati people are some of the most determined and resilient on this planet. Our ancestors navigated to these “isolated isles of the Pacific” surrounded by 3.5 million km of ocean and found “Tungaru” which means “a place of JOY”.

    We arrived in this world with nothing, and we’ll leave it with nothing, and we get to live our whole lives not feeling sorry for ourselves in this island paradise of ours, this place of joy, where we are wealthy in ways that money cannot buy.

    We will survive

    Ruth Maryanne Cross Kwansing was elected an independent member of Parliament in Kiribati in 2024. She later joined the Tobwaan Kiribati Party.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • New York, January 30, 2025—Ukrainian military officers detained three journalists for eight hours on accusations of “illegal border crossing” on January 6 in Sudzha, a Ukrainian-controlled town in Russia’s Kursk region. The journalists — Ukrainian freelance reporter Petro Chumakov, Kurt Pelda, correspondent with Swiss media group CH Media, and freelance camera operator Josef Zehnder — had army accreditation and were traveling in a military vehicle with a Ukrainian soldier who had permission from his commander to drive them to Kursk, Pelda told CPJ.

    The Sumy district court dismissed the legal proceedings against the journalists on January 15 after finding that their rights had been “grossly” violated. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense suspended Chumakov’s accreditation on January 9 “pending clarification of the circumstances of my possible unauthorized work,” Chumakov told CPJ.

    As of January 30, Chumakov had not received an update on his status. Pelda told CPJ he feared the ministry would not renew his and Zehnder’s accreditations, which expire on April 15 and July 8. 

    “Journalists accredited to cover the war in Ukraine and complying with the rules for reporting in war zones should be able to do their work without obstruction,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Ukrainian authorities must immediately reinstate the accreditation of Ukrainian journalist Petro Chumakov and commit to renewing those of Kurt Pelda and Josef Zehnder.”

    CPJ’s email requesting comment from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense’s press service did not receive a response. The ministry’s accreditation office declined to comment.

    “It goes without saying that one of the duties of a war reporter is to withhold sensitive information… I have been reporting from the Ukrainian war zone for almost three years now and not only know these rules but also abide by them. In certain circles of the Ukrainian military leadership, however, the aim is to ban independent reporters from the combat zones altogether,” Pelda said, pointing to the zoning rules that have limited reporters’ frontline access.     

    “Nobody knows where these zones are, and this gives the local commanders [and press officers] a lot of discretion,” Pelda told CPJ.

    Pelda is one of a number of foreign journalists facing Russian criminal charges for an allegedly illegal border crossing – a charge carrying a penalty of up to five years in prison – into the Kursk region last year. 


    This content originally appeared on Committee to Protect Journalists and was authored by CPJ Staff.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • The Electronic Intifada’s executive director Ali Abunimah was deported by Switzerland on Monday after spending two nights in jail.

    Abunimah described his experience in a statement he made upon arrival to Istanbul airport late Monday. He said that he was “cut off from communication with the outside world” and “not even permitted to contact my family.”

    He said that police accused him of “offending against Swiss law” but was not presented with any charges. Abunimah added that he was questioned “by Swiss defense ministry intelligence agents without the presence of my lawyer, and they again refused to allow me to contact her or my family.”

    The post Switzerland Deports Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Ever since Tel Aviv’s 1948 creation, much has been said and written about ‘Greater Israel’ – the notion Zionism’s ultimate end goal is the forcible annexation and ethnic cleansing of vast swaths of Arab lands for Jewish settlement, based on Biblical claims that this territory was promised to Jews by God. The media typically dismisses this concept as an antisemitic conspiracy theory or, at most, the fringe fantasy of a minuscule handful of Israelis.

    In reality, as The Guardian admitted in 2009, the idea of a Greater Israel has long appealed to “religious and secular right-wing nationalists” alike in Tel Aviv.

    The post ‘Conspiracy Theory’ Is Now Fact: Greater Israel Has Arrived appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • What will happen to Australia — and New Zealand — once the superpower that has been followed into endless battles, the United States, finally unravels?

    COMMENTARY: By Michelle Pini, managing editor of Independent Australia

    With President Donald Trump now into his second week in the White House, horrific fires have continued to rage across Los Angeles and the details of Elon Musk’s allegedly dodgy Twitter takeover began to emerge, the world sits anxiously by.

    The consequences of a second Trump term will reverberate globally, not only among Western nations. But given the deeply entrenched Americanisation of much of the Western world, this is about how it will navigate the after-shocks once the United States finally unravels — for unravel it surely will.

    Leading with chaos
    Now that the world’s biggest superpower and war machine has a deranged criminal at the helm — for a second time — none of us know the lengths to which Trump (and his puppet masters) will go as his fingers brush dangerously close to the nuclear codes. Will he be more emboldened?

    The signs are certainly there.

    Trump Mark II: Chaos personified
    President Donald Trump 2.0 . . . will his cruelty towards migrants and refugees escalate, matched only by his fuelling of racial division? Image: ABC News screenshot IA

    So far, Trump — who had already led the insurrection of a democratically elected government — has threatened to exit the nuclear arms pact with Russia, talked up a trade war with China and declared “all hell will break out” in the Middle East if Hamas hadn’t returned the Israeli hostages.

    Will his cruelty towards migrants and refugees escalate, matched only by his fuelling of racial division?

    This, too, appears to be already happening.

    Trump’s rants leading up to his inauguration last week had been a steady stream of crazed declarations, each one more unhinged than the last.

    He wants to buy Greenland. He wishes to overturn birthright citizenship in order to deport even more migrant children, such as  “pet-eating Haitians and “insane Hannibal Lecters” because America has been “invaded”.

    It will be interesting to see whether his planned evictions of Mexicans will include the firefighters Mexico sent to Los Angeles’ aid.

    At the same time, Trump wants to turn Canada into the 51st state, because, he said,

    “It would make a great state. And the people of Canada like it.”

    Will sexual predator Trump’s level of misogyny sink to even lower depths post Roe v Wade?

    Probably.

    Denial of catastrophic climate consequences
    And will Trump be in even further denial over the catastrophic consequences of climate change than during his last term? Even as Los Angeles grapples with a still climbing death toll of 25 lives lost, 12,000 homes, businesses and other structures destroyed and 16,425 hectares (about the size of Washington DC) wiped out so far in the latest climactic disaster?

    The fires are, of course, symptomatic of the many years of criminal negligence on global warming. But since Trump instead accused California officials of “prioritising environmental policies over public safety” while his buddy and head of government “efficiency”, Musk blamed black firefighters for the fires, it would appear so.

    Will the madman, for surely he is one, also gift even greater protections to oligarchs like Musk?

    Trump has already appointed billionaire buddies Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to:

     “…pave the way for my Administration to dismantle government bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures and restructure Federal agencies”.

    So, this too is already happening.

    All of these actions will combine to create a scenario of destruction that will see the implosion of the US as we know it, though the details are yet to emerge.

    Flawed AUKUS pact sinking quickly
    The flawed AUKUS pact sinking quickly . . . Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese with outgoing President Joe Biden, will Australia have the mettle to be bigger than Trump. Image: Independent Australia

    What happens Down Under?
    US allies — like Australia — have already been thoroughly indoctrinated by American pop culture in order to complement the many army bases they house and the defence agreements they have signed.

    Though Trump hasn’t shown any interest in making it a 52nd state, Australia has been tucked up in bed with the United States since the Cold War. Our foreign policy has hinged on this alliance, which also significantly affects Australia’s trade and economy, not to mention our entire cultural identity, mired as it is in US-style fast food dependence and reality TV. Would you like Vegemite McShaker Fries with that?

    So what will happen to Australia once the superpower we have followed into endless battles finally breaks down?

    As Dr Martin Hirst wrote in November:

    ‘Trump has promised chaos and chaos is what he’ll deliver.’

    His rise to power will embolden the rabid Far-Right in the US but will this be mirrored here? And will Australia follow the US example and this year elect our very own (admittedly scaled down) version of Trump, personified by none other than the Trump-loving Peter Dutton?

    If any of his wild announcements are to be believed, between building walls and evicting even US nationals he doesn’t like, while simultaneously making Canadians US citizens, Trump will be extremely busy.

    There will be little time even to consider Australia, let alone come to our rescue should we ever need the might of the US war machine — no matter whether it is an Albanese or sycophantic Dutton leadership.

    It is a given, however, that we would be required to honour all defence agreements should our ally demand it.

    It would be great if, as psychologists urge us to do when children act up, our leaders could simply ignore and refuse to engage with him, but it remains to be seen whether Australia will have the mettle to be bigger than Trump.

    Republished from the Independent Australia with permission.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • NBC News in Port Moresby

    Papua New Guinea’s cabinet has officially given the green light to the PNG media policy, which will soon be presented to Parliament for formal enactment.

    Minster for Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Timothy Masiu believes this policy will address ongoing concerns about sensationalism, ethical standards, and the portrayal of violence in the media.

    In an interview with NBC News in Port Moresby, Masiu outlined the urgent need for a shift in the nation’s media practices.

    “We must be more responsible in how we report and portray the issues that matter most to our country. It’s time for Papua New Guinea’s media to evolve and reflect the values that truly define us,” he said.

    “Sensational headlines, graphic images of violence, and depictions of suffering do nothing to build our national identity. They only hurt our reputation globally.”

    Minister Masiu said the policy aimed to regulate sensitive contents and shift towards “more constructive and informative” coverage.

    According to Masiu, the policy’s long-term goal was to protect the public from harmful content while empowering journalists to play a positive role in nation-building.

    “This policy isn’t about stifling press freedom. It’s about ensuring that media in Papua New Guinea serves the public good by upholding the highest standards of integrity and professionalism,” Masiu said.

    Meanwhile, the policy also acknowledged the media’s significant influence on public opinion and its role in national development.

    Masiu added that once the policy was passed into law, it would become a guiding framework for media institutions across the nation, laying the foundation for a new era of journalism in Papua New Guinea.

    Republished from NBC News.

    Persistent criticism
    Pacific Media Watch reports that the draft media policy law and consultation process have been controversial and faced persistent criticisms from journalists, the PNG Media Council (MCPNG) and Transparency international PNG.

    Version 5 of the policy is here, but it is not clear whether that is the version Masiu says is ready.

    PNG dropped 32 places to 91st out of 180 countries in the 2024 RSF World Press Freedom Index and the Paris-based world press freedom watchdog RSF called on the Marape government to withdraw the draft law in February 2023.

    Civicus references an incident last August when a PNG journalist was barred from a press briefing by the visiting Indonesian president-elect Prabowo Subianto and said this came “amid growing concern about the government’s plan to regulate the press under its so-called media development policy”.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • This article was written before The Electronic Intifada’s founding editor Ali Abunimah was arrested in Switzerland on Saturday afternoon for “speaking up for Palestine”. He has since been released and deported.

    SPECIAL REPORT: By Ali AbunimahIsrael smuggled one of its soldiers out of Cyprus, apparently fearing his detention on charges related to the genocide in Gaza, according to Dyab Abou Jahjah, the co-founder of The Hind Rajab Foundation.

    Abou Jahjah, a Belgian-Lebanese political activist and writer, told The Electronic Intifada livestream last week that his organisation was stepping up efforts all over the world to bring to justice Israeli soldiers implicated in the slaughter of tens of thousands of men, women and children over the last 15 months.

    You can watch the interview with Abou Jahjah and all of this week’s programme in the video above.


    Gaza Ceasefire Day 5. Video: The Electronic Intifada

    Speaking from Gaza, Electronic Intifada contributor Donya Abu Sitta told us how people there are coping following the ceasefire, especially those returning to devastated homes and finding the remains of loved ones.

    She shared a poem inspired by the hopes and fears of the young children she continued to teach throughout the genocide.

    Despite the ceasefire, Israel has continued to attack Palestinians in some parts of Gaza. That was among developments covered in the news brief from associate editor Nora Barrows-Friedman, along with the efforts to alleviate the dire humanitarian situation.

    Israel’s genocidal war has orphaned some 40,000 children in Gaza.

    Contributing editor Jon Elmer covered the latest ceasefire developments and the resistance operations in the period leading up to it.

    We also discussed whether US President Donald Trump will force Israel to uphold the ceasefire and what the latest indications of his approach are.

    And this writer took a critical look at Episcopal Bishop of Washington Mariann Edgar Budde.

    She has been hailed as a hero for urging Donald Trump to respect the rights of marginalised groups, as the new president sat listening to her sermon at Washington’s National Cathedral.

    But over the last 15 months, Budde has parroted Israeli atrocity propaganda justifying genocide, and has repeatedly failed to condemn former President Joe Biden’s key role in the mass slaughter and did not call on him to stop sending weapons to Israel.

    Pursuing war criminals
    In the case of the soldier in Cyprus, The Hind Rajab Foundation filed a complaint, and after initial hesitation, judicial authorities in the European Union state opened an investigation of the soldier.

    “When that was opened, the Israelis smuggled the soldier out of Cyprus,” Abou Jahjah said, calling the incident the first of its kind.

    “And when I say smuggling, I’m not exaggerating, because we have information that he was even taken by a private jet,” Abou Jahjah added.

    The foundation is named after Hind Rajab, a 6-year-old Palestinian girl who was in a car with members of her family, trying to escape the Israeli onslaught in Gaza City, when they were attacked.

    The story of Hind, trapped all alone in a car, surrounded by dead relatives, pleading over the phone for rescue, a conversation that was recorded by the Palestinian Red Crescent, is among the most poignant and brazen crimes committed during Israel’s genocide.

    According to Abou Jahjah, lawyers and activists determined to seek justice for Palestinians identified a gap in the efforts to hold Israel accountable that they could fill: pursuing individual soldiers who have in many cases posted evidence of their own crimes in Gaza on social media.

    The organisation and its growing global network of volunteers and legal professionals has been able to collect evidence on approximately 1000 Israeli soldiers which has been handed over to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

    In addition to filing cases against Israeli soldiers traveling abroad, such as the one in Cyprus, and other recent examples in Brazil, Thailand and Italy, a main focus of the foundation is individuals who hold both Israeli and another nationality.

    “Regarding the dual nationals, we are not under any restraint of time,” Abou Jahjah explained. “For example, if you’re Belgian, Belgium has jurisdiction over you.”

    Renouncing their second nationality cannot shield these soldiers, according to Abou Jahjah, because courts will take into account their citizenship at the time the alleged crime was committed.

    Abou Jahjah feels confident that with time, war criminals will be brought to justice. The organisation is also discussing expanding its work to the United States, where it may use civil litigation to hold perpetrators accountable.

    Unsurprisingly, Israel and friendly governments are pushing back against The Hind Rajab Foundation’s work, and Abou Jahjah is now living under police protection.

    “Things are kind of heavy on that level, but this will not disrupt our work,” Abou Jahjah said. “It’s kind of naive of them to think that the work of the foundation depends on a person.”

    “We have legal teams across the planet, very capable people. Our data is spread across the planet,” Abou Jahjah added. “There’s nothing they can do. This is happening.”

    Resistance report
    In his resistance report, Elmer analysed videos of operations that took place before the ceasefire, but which were only released by the Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, after it took effect.

    He also previewed Saturday, 25 January, when nearly 200 Palestinian prisoners were released in exchange for four Israeli female soldiers.

    Will Trump keep Israel to the ceasefire?
    Pressure from President Trump was key to getting Israel to agree to a ceasefire deal it had rejected for almost a year. But will his administration keep up the pressure to see it through?

    There have been mixed messages, with Trump recently telling reporters he was not sure it would hold, but also intriguingly distancing himself from Israel. “That’s not our war, it’s their war.”

    We took a look at what these comments, as well as a renewed commitment to implementing the deal expressed by Steve Witkoff, the president’s envoy, tell us about what to expect.

    As associate editor Asa Winstanley noted, “this ceasefire is not nothing.” It came about because the resistance wore down the Israeli army, and statements from Witkoff hinting that the US may even be open to talking to Hamas deserve close attention.

    ‘Largely silent’
    By her own admission, Bishop Mariann Budde has remained “largely silent” about the genocide in Gaza, except when she was pushing Israeli propaganda or engaging in vague, liberal hand-wringing about “peace” and “love” without ever clearly condemning the perpetrators of mass slaughter and starvation of Palestinians, demanding that the US stop the flow of weapons making it possible, or calling for accountability.

    This type of evasion serves no one.

    You can watch the programme on YouTube, Rumble or Twitter/X, or you can listen to it on your preferred podcast platform.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • On January 19th, TIME magazine published an astonishing article, amply confirming what dissident, anti-war academics, activists, journalists and researchers have argued for a decade. The US always intended to abandon Ukraine after setting up the country for proxy war with Russia, and never had any desire or intention to assist Kiev in defeating Moscow in the conflict, let alone achieving its maximalist aims of regaining Crimea and restoring the country’s 1991 borders. To have a major mainstream outlet finally corroborate this indubitable reality is a seismic development.

    The post It’s Official: United States Abandoning Ukraine appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • The New York Times, the so-called US “newspaper of record,” carried an opinion piece by one of its columnists promoting “military intervention” to promote “democracy” by overturning the democratically elected government of Venezuela.

    The central tenet of the NYT piece is that the moral basis for deposing the current president is clear because it claims that he stole the election, terrorizes his opponents, and brutalizes his people with no sign of letting up, much less letting go. Every other option for political change, it contends, has been attempted. Not only that, but Venezuela maintains friendly relations with “our enemies” such as China, Russia, and Iran.

    The post US Media Promotes Military Intervention In Venezuela appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Pacific Media Watch

    Among his first official acts on returning to the White House, President Donald Trump issued an executive order “restoring freedom of speech and ending federal censorship”.

    Implicit in this vaguely written document: the United States is done fighting mis- and disinformation online, reports the Paris-based global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

    Meanwhile, far from living up to the letter or spirit of his own order, Trump is fighting battles against the American news media on multiple fronts and has pardoned at least 13 individuals convicted or charged for attacking journalists in the 6 January 2021 insurrection.

    An RSF statement strongly refutes Trump’s “distorted vision of free speech, which is inherently detrimental to press freedom”.

    Trump has long been one of social media’s most prevalent spreaders of false information, and his executive order, “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship,” is the latest in a series of victories for the propagators of disinformation online.

    Bowing to pressure from Trump, Mark Zuckerberg, whose Meta platforms are already hostile to journalism, did away with fact-checking on Facebook, which the tech mogul falsely equated to censorship while throwing fact-checking journalists under the bus.

    Trump ally Elon Musk also dismantled the meagre trust and safety safeguards in place when he took over Twitter and proceeded to arbitrarily ban journalists who were critical of him from the site.

    ‘Free speech’ isn’t ‘free of facts’
    “Free speech doesn’t mean public discourse has to be free of facts. Donald Trump and his Big Tech cronies like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg are dismantling what few guardrails the internet had to protect the integrity of information,” said RSF’s USA executive director Clayton Weimers.

    “We cannot ignore the irony of Trump appointing himself the chief crusader for ‘free speech’ while he continues to personally attack press freedom — a pillar of the First Amendment — and has vowed to weaponise the federal government against expression he doesn’t like.

    “If Trump means what he says in his own executive order, he could start by dropping his lawsuits against news organisations.”

    Trump recently settled a lawsuit out of court with ABC News parent company Disney, but is still suing the Des Moines Register and its parent company Gannett for publishing a poll unfavourable to his campaign, and the Pulitzer Center board for awarding coverage of his 2016 campaign’s alleged ties with Russia.

    Trump should immediately drop both lawsuits and refrain from launching others while in office.

    After a campaign where he attacked the press on a daily basis, Trump has continued to berate the media and dismissed its legitimacy to critique him.

    During a press conference the day after he took office, Trump reproached NBC reporter Peter Alexander for questions about Trump’s blanket pardons of the January 6th riot participants, saying, “Just look at the numbers on the election.

    “We won this election in a landslide, because the American public is tired of people like you that are just one-sided, horrible people, in terms of crime.”

    An incoherent press freedom policy
    The executive order also flies in the face of his violent rhetoric against journalists.

    The order asserts that during the Biden administration, “the Federal government infringed on the constitutionally protected speech rights of American citizens across the United States in a manner that advanced the government’s preferred narrative about significant matters of public debate.”

    It goes on to state, “It is the policy of the United States to ensure that no Federal Government officer, employee, or agent engages in or facilitates any conduct that would unconstitutionally abridge the free speech of any American citizen.”

    This stated policy, laudable in a vacuum, even if made redundant by the First Amendment, is rendered meaningless by Trump’s explicit threats to weaponise the government against the media, which have recently included threats to revoke broadcast licenses in political retaliation, investigate news organizations that criticise him, and jail journalists who refuse to expose confidential sources.

    Instead, the policy appears designed to amplify disinformation, which benefits a President of the United States who has proven willing to spread disinformation that furthered his political interests on matters small and large.

    “If Trump is serious about his stated commitment to free speech, RSF suggests he begin by ensuring his own actions serve to protect the free press, rather than censoring or punishing media outlets,” the watchdog said.

    “The United States has seen a steady decline in its press freedom ranking in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index over the past decade to a current ranking of 55th out of 180 countries, with presidents from both parties presiding over this backslide.

    “While Trump is not entirely responsible for the present situation, his frequent attacks on the news media have no doubt contributed to the decline in trust in the media, which has been driven partly by partisan attitudes towards journalism.

    “Trump’s violent rhetoric can also contribute to real-life violence — assaults on journalists nearly doubled in 2024, when his campaign was at its apex, compared to 2023.”

    Pacific Media Watch collaborates with RSF.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Pacific Media Watch

    With a ceasefire in force in Gaza for a week, the Israeli army and settlers have intensified their attacks against Palestinians in the West Bank, reports Al Jazeera’s media watchdog programme The Listening Post.

    Amid the exchange of captives, images showing legions of Hamas reinforcements puncture the narratives in Israeli media.

    Presenter Richard Gizbert, a Canadian broadcaster and creator of The Listening Post series, pays tribute to Palestinian journalists and critiques the failure of Western journalists to support their colleagues under fire in Gaza.

    “None of which bodes well for the Palestinians who have survived Israel’s vengeful war on Gaza, including journalists, some of whom symbolically shed their helmets and flak jackets when the ceasefire was announced — only to put them back on when Israel’s attacks resumed,” Gizbert says.

    “More than 200 of their colleagues have been killed, many of them targeted, a number that dwarfs the journalistic casualty figures in any other conflict in modern history.

    “And there has been a noticeable lack of outcry on that from Western media outlets, a large scale failure to show solidarity.

    “Of all the crimes committed against journalists during this war, the one-side pro-Israeli narratives coming out of capitals like Washington, London and Berlin, this one should stick.

    ‘Against the odds’
    “If journalists cannot even bring themselves to defend their own, what is the point?”

    Senior Palestine analyst Tahani Mustafa of the Crisis Group says: “Palestinian journalists have been indispensable, despite all the odds against them of the Israeli onslaught, or the lack of integrity of the Western media, the complete silence over the fact that their fellow journalists on the ground in Gaza are being targeted . . . ”

    “This just feels like a pause in the killing machine.”

    Executive director of Sarah Leah Whitson of Dawn says: “If I was working in Gaza as a journalist, I would not remove my helmet or my flak jacket. I have no doubt that  Israeli military forces in Gaza will continue to gun down journalists.”

    Associate professor Dalal Iriqat of the Arab American University Palestine says: “Their target is not really Hamas but the Palestinian people, the Palestinian cause and the Palestinian rights.

    “That’s why they have been targeting media, they have been targeting anybody who tells the truth.”

    Contributors:
    Dalal Iriqat – Associate professor, Arab American University Palestine
    Daniel Levy – President, US/Middle East Project
    Tahani Mustafa – Senior Palestine analyst, Crisis Group
    Sarah Leah Whitson – Executive director, DAWN


    The Listening Post programme of 25 January 2025.   Video: Al Jazeera


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

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.