New York, July 11, 2024—More than 60 media and civil society organizations have signed an open letter urging Israel to give journalists independent access to Gaza.
The organizations—which include the Associated Press, Agence France-Presse, BBC, CNN, The Guardian, The New York Times, and The Washington Post—point out that no independent media access to Gaza has been permitted since the start of the war, increasing the pressure on domestic journalists, and creating a space for mis- and disinformation to flourish.
“More than 100 journalists have been killed since the start of the war and those who remain are working in conditions of extreme deprivation. The result is that information from Gaza is becoming harder and harder to obtain and that the reporting which does get through is subject to repeated questions over its veracity,” the organizations say in the letter, which was coordinated by the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The letter comes ahead of a planned visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the United States, where he is set to meet with U.S. President Joe Biden and address the U.S. Congress on July 24.
CPJ CEO Jodie Ginsberg noted: “President Netanyahu describes Israel as a democracy. His actions with regard to the media tell a different story. International, Israeli, and Palestinian journalists from outside Gaza should be given independent access to Gaza so they can judge for themselves what is happening in this war—rather than being spoon-fed with a handful of organized tours by the Israeli military.”
In addition to news outlets, the signatories—who span more than 26 countries—include professional groups and organizations dedicated to defending press freedom.
About the Committee to Protect Journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists is an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide. We defend the right of journalists to report the news safely and without fear of reprisal.
Read the full letter below
We, the undersigned, request that Israeli authorities end immediately the restrictions on foreign media entering Gaza and grant independent access to international news organizations seeking to access the territory.
Nine months into the war, international reporters are still being denied access to Gaza except for rare and escorted trips arranged by the Israeli military. This effective ban on foreign reporting has placed an impossible and unreasonable burden on local reporters to document a war through which they are living. More than 100 journalists have been killed since the start of the war and those who remain are working in conditions of extreme deprivation. The result is that information from Gaza is becoming harder and harder to obtain and that the reporting which does get through is subject to repeated questions over its veracity.
We fully understand the inherent risks in reporting from war zones. These are risks that many of our organizations have taken over decades in order to investigate, document developments as they occur, and understand the impacts of wars the world over.
A free and independent press is the cornerstone of democracy. We ask that Israel uphold its commitments to press freedom by providing foreign media with immediate, independent access to Gaza, and that Israel abides by its international obligations to protect journalists as civilians.
Signatories
ABC News, United States
Agence France-Presse, France
Alternative Press Syndicate, Lebanon
Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism
Asian American Journalists Association, United States
Associated Press, United States
Association for International Broadcasting, United Kingdom
Association of Foreign Press Correspondents, United States
Bangladeshi Journalists in International Media, Bangladesh
BBC News, United Kingdom
Bianet, Turkey
Bloomberg News, United States
CBS News, United States
CNN Worldwide, United States
Community Media Forum Europe, Belgium
CTV News, Canada
Daily Maverick, South Africa
Daraj, Lebanon
Denik Referendum, Czech Republic
European Broadcasting Union, Switzerland
European Federation of Journalists
Financial Times, United Kingdom
Forbidden Stories, France
fotosintesi.info, Italy
Free Press Unlimited, The Netherlands
Global Investigative Journalism Network
Global Reporting Centre, Canada
International Association of Women in Radio and Television
International Center for Journalists, United States
International Fund for Public Interest Media
International News Safety Institute, United Kingdom
ITN, United Kingdom
Le Mauricien, Mauritius
McLatchy, United States
Media Development Center, Tunisia
Media Diversity Institute, United Kingdom
National Association of Hispanic Journalists, United States
National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, The Philippines
NBC News, United States
Nieman Foundation for Journalism, Harvard University, United States
NPR, United States
Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project
Premium Times, Nigeria
Prospect Magazine, United Kingdom
Public Media Alliance
Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, United States
Rory Peck Trust, United Kingdom
RTÉ News & Current Affairs, Ireland
Rural Media Network, Pakistan
Sky News, United Kingdom
SMN24Media, Sri Lanka
Somali Media Women Association, Somalia
Sveriges Radio, Sweden
The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, United Kingdom
The Guardian, United Kingdom
The Irish Times, Ireland
The New York Times, United States
The Washington Post, United States
Twala, Algeria
Vocento, Spain
VRT News, Belgium
Wattan Media Network, Palestine
World Association for Christian Communication
World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), Germany
Professor Vijay Naidu’s speech celebrating the launch of the 30th anniversary edition of Pacific Journalism Review at the Pacific International Media Conference in Suva, Fiji, on 4 July 2024. Dr Naidu is adjunct professor in the disciplines of development studies and governance in the School of Law and Social Sciences at the University of the South Pacific.
I join our chief quests and others to commend and congratulate Dr Shailendra Singh, the head of USP Journalism, and his team for the organisation of the 2024 Pacific International Media Conference.
This evening, we are also gathered to celebrate the 30th birthday of Pacific Journalism Review/Te Koakoa.
PACIFIC MEDIA CONFERENCE 4-6 JULY 2024
At the outset, I would like to warmly congratulate and thank PJR designer Del Abcede for the cover design of 30th anniversary issue as well as the striking photoessay she has done with David Robie.
Hearty congratulations too to founding editor Dr David Robie and current editor Dr Philip Cass for compiling the edition.
The publicity blurb about the launch states:
“USP Journalism is proud to celebrate this milestone with a journal that has been a beacon of media excellence and a crucial partner in fostering journalistic integrity in the Pacific.”
This is a most apt description of the journal, and what it has fostered over three decades.
Dr Lee Duffield and others have written comprehensively on the editorials and articles covered by the Pacific Journalism Review.
The 30th anniversary of Pacific Journalism Review edition. Image: PJR
The editorial in the 30th anniversary double edition manifests this focus — “Will journalism survive?”, by David Robie
The launch of the 30th anniversary edition of Pacific Journalist Review. . . . Professor Vijay Naidu (from left), Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister Dr Biman Prasad, founding PJR editor Dr David Robie, Papua New Guinea Minister for Communications and Information Technology Timothy Masiu, Associate Professor Shailendra Bahadur Singh and current PJR editor Dr Philip Cass. Image: PMN News/Justin Latif
Unfolding genocide
Mainstream media, except for Al Jazeera, have collectively failed to provide honest accounts of the unfolding genocide in Gaza, as well as settler violence, and killings in the West Bank. International media stand condemned for its complicity in the gross human rights violations in Palestine.
The media have been caught out by the scores of reports directly sent from Gaza of the bombings, maiming and murder of mainly women, children and babies, and the turning into rubble of the world’s largest open-air prison.
Pacific Journalism Review designer Del Abcede . . praised over her design work. Image: Khairiah A. Rahman/APMN
The widespread protests the world over by ordinary citizens and university students clearly show that the media is not trusted.
Can the media survive? Indeed!
These are not the best of times for the media.
“At the time when we celebrated the second decade of the journal’s critical inquiry at Auckland University of Technology with a conference in 2014, our theme was ‘Political journalism in the Asia Pacific’, and our mood about the mediascape in the region was far more positive than it is today,” writes David.
“Three years later, we marked the 10th anniversary of the Pacific Media Centre, with a conference and a rather gloomier ‘Journalism under duress’ slogan.”
The editorial continues:
“Gaza has become not just a metaphor for a terrible state of dystopia in parts of in the world, it has also become an existential test for journalists — do we stand up for peace and justice and the right of a people to survive under the threat of ethnic cleansing and against genocide, or do we do nothing and remain silent in the face of genocide being carried out with impunity in front of our very eyes? The answer is simple surely.
“And it is about saving journalism, our credibility and our humanity as journalists.” (emphasis added).
USP’s Professor Vijay Naidu and Dr Claire Slatter, chair of DAWN . . . launching the 30th edition of PJR. Image: Del Abcede/APMN
Contemporary issues
Besides the editorial, the 30th anniversary edition continues the PJR tradition of addressing contemporary issues head on with 11 research articles, 2 commentaries, 7 book reviews, a photo-essay, 2 obituaries of Australia’s John Pilger and West Papua’s Arnold Ap, and 4 frontline pieces. A truly substantial double issue of the journal.
The USP notice on this 30th anniversary launch says “30 years and going strong”. Sounds like the Johnny Walker whisky advertisement, “still going strong”. This is an admirable achievement as well as in PJR’s future.
It is in contrast to the NZ Journalism Review (University of Canterbury), for example, which survived only for nine years.
Founded at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1994 by David Robie, PJR was published there for four years and at the University of the South Pacific for a further four years, then at Auckland University of Technology for 18 years before finally being hosted since 2021 at its present home, Asia Pacific Media Network.
According to Dr Robie, Pacific Journalism Review has received many good wishes for its birthday. Some of these are published in this journal. For a final message in the editorial, he recalled AUT’s senior journalism lecturer Greg Treadwell who wrote in 2020:
“‘Many Aotearoa New Zealand researchers found their publishing feet because PJR was dedicated to the region and interested in their work. PJR is central to journalism studies, and so to journalism and journalism education, in this country and further abroad. Long may that continue’.
“In answer to our editorial title: Yes, journalism will survive, and it will thrive through new and innovative niche forms, if democracy is to survive.
“Ra whānau Pacific Journalism Review!
“Pacific Journalism Review . . . 30 years going strong” – the birthday cake at Pacfic Media 2024. Image: Del Abcede/APMN
Steadfast commitment
I have two quick remaining things to do: Professor Wadan Narsey’s congratulatory message, and a book presentation.
Professor Narsey pays tribute to David Robie for his steadfast commitment to Pacific journalism and congratulates him for the New Zealand honour bestowed on him in the King’s Birthday honours. He is very thankful that David published 37 of his articles on a range of issues during the dark days of censorship in Fiji under the Bainimarama and Sayeed-Khaiyum dictatorship.
I wish to present a copy of the recently published Epeli Hau’ofa: His Life and Legacy to Professor David Robie and Del Abcede to express Claire Slatter and my profound appreciation of the massive amount of work they have done to keep PJR alive and well.
It is my pleasure to launch the 30th anniversary edition of PJR.
‘Far more than a research journal’
In response, Dr Robie noted that PJR had published more than 1100 research articles over its three decades and it was the largest single Pacific media research repository but it had always been “far more than a research journal”.
“As an independent publication, it has given strong support to investigative journalism, sociopolitical journalism, political economy of the media, photojournalism and political cartooning — they have all been strongly reflected in the character of the journal,” he said.
“It has also been a champion of journalism practice-as-research methodologies and strategies, as reflected especially in its Frontline section, pioneered by retired Australian professor and investigative journalist Wendy Bacon.
“Keeping to our tradition of cutting edge and contemporary content, this anniversary edition raises several challenging issues such as Julian Assange and Gaza.”
He thanked current editor Philip Cass for his efforts — “he was among the earliest contributors when we began in Papua New Guinea” — and the current team, assistant editor Khairiah A. Rahman, Nicole Gooch, extraordinary mentors Wendy Bacon and Chris Nash, APMN chair Heather Devere, Adam Brown, Nik Naidu and Gavin Ellis.
Griffith University’s Professor Mark Pearson, a former editor of Australian Journalism Review and long a PJR board member . . . presented on media law at the conference. Image: Screenshot Del Abcede/APMN
He also paid tribute to many who have contributed to the journal through peer reviewing and the editorial board over many years — such as Dr Lee Duffield and professor Mark Pearson of Griffith University, who was also editor of Australian Journalism Review for many years and was an inspiration to PJR — “and he is right here with us at the conference.”
Among others have been the Fiji conference convenor, USP’s associate professor Shailendra Singh, and professor Trevor Cullen of Edith Cowan University, who is chair of next year’s World Journalism Education Association conference in Perth.
Dr Robie also singled out designer Del Abcede for special tribute for her hard work carrying the load of producing the journal for many years “and keeping me sane — the question is am I keeping her sane? Anyway, neither I nor Philip would be standing here without her input.”
The Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN) team at Pacific Media 2024 . . . PJR assistant editor Khairiah A. Rahman, PJR designer Del Abcede, PJR editor Dr Philip Cass, Dr Adam Brown, PJR founding editor Dr David Robie, and Whanau Community Hub co-coordinator Rach Mario. Whānau Hub’s Nik Naidu was also at the conference but is not in the photo. Image: Khairiah A. Rahman/APMN
Several media outlets reported on July 8 that Congress MP and Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi had visited a flood relief camp in Assam’s Fulertal and heard the grievances of the affected people.
News agencies ANI and PTI published reports with images of Rahul Gandhi at a camp surrounded by some people.
ANI captioned the image as “Congress leader Rahul Gandhi visits flood-affected victims at relief camp in Fulertal (X/@INCIndia).” PTI in its report alluded to a tweet by Rahul Gandhi where he extended his support towards victims of the Assam floods, and wrote that Gandhi had visited a flood-relief camp at Fulertal in the Cachar district of Assam.
Congress MP K C Venugopal also tweeted the same images of Rahul Gandhi inside a camp and wrote that Gandhi had visited flood victims in Assam. (Archive)
Accompanied Lok Sabha LOP Sh. @RahulGandhi ji as he met flood victims in Assam and visited Manipuri refugee camps in Assam and Manipur.
The Assam flood is an annual phenomenon, killing hundreds and destroying the livelihoods of lakhs of citizens. It is truly shocking that the… pic.twitter.com/lpaK01imwB
Since ANI had cited the Indian National Congress’s X handle as its source for the photo, we looked for the same and came across the concerned tweet.
It contained the images used in the media reports. However, @INCIndia wrote in the tweet: “Leader of Opposition Shri @RahulGandhi met refugees of Manipur violence at a relief camp in Assam.
Phulertal, Assam”
नेता विपक्ष श्री @RahulGandhi ने असम में मौजूद राहत शिविर में मणिपुर हिंसा के शरणार्थियों से मुलाकात की।
There is no mention of flood victims in the tweet.
A video with the same visuals was also shared on Rahul Gandhi’s official Instagram page. The caption mentioned: “Dear people of Manipur, I come to you as your brother. I will do everything I can to bring back peace to all your lives. Mohabbat will lead us to a solution – I’m sure of it.”
The woman seen in the images used in the reports is visible in the thumbnail as well as in the video proper.
We spoke to a journalist of a national English daily based in Cachar district. He told Alt News, “There is no flood relief camp in Fulertal. Rahul Gandhi visited two camps here, both inhabited by refugees from adjoining Manipur district. The photo that has been used by many outlets is from one of these camps in Lakhipur block.”
To sum up, the reports that Congress leader Rahul Gandhi visited Assam flood victims at a relief camp in Cachar district are false. Photos from his visit to a relief camp for victims of Manipur violence were falsely used by media outlets.
Incidentally, a team of Assam Pradesh Congress Committee led by president Bhupen Borah had submitted a memorandum to Rahul Gandhi on July 8 urging him to take up the issue of Assam floods in Parliament. This was tweeted from Assam Congress’s official X handle, but there was no mention of Gandhi meeting flood victims.
A team of APCC, led by President Shri @BhupenKBorah submitted a memorandum to Hon’ble LoP Shri @RahulGandhi Ji urging him to take up the issue of the perennial flood of Assam in Parliament.
There has been devastating damage to embankments, roads, bridges & Assam needs immediate… pic.twitter.com/lxcnNBtoEN
Rahul Gandhi, too, tweeted about this. This is the tweet PTI mentioned in its report. However, there was no mention of him meeting the flood-hit people.
The U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency shook the halls of Congress on June 18 with news of a possible arms deal with Taiwan valued at US$360 million. This deal includes more than 1,000 units of two types of suicide drones, including the Switchblade 300.
Criticism of the deal came swiftly from several prominent Taiwanese figures. Julian Kuo, formerly a legislator and now a political commentator, voiced serious concerns, suggesting that the Switchblade 300, which he claims were previously “cracked by Russia during the Russo-Ukrainian war,” were being sold to Taiwan at an inflated price – five times higher than the market rate. According to Kuo, other nations have shunned this model for the same reasons.
Echoing Kuo’s skepticism, Shuai Hua-Ming, another well-known political commentator, bluntly labeled the drone “trash.” Further adding to the critical chorus, retired Taiwanese General Li Cheng-chieh lamented the treatment by the U.S. of Taiwan, using the Taiwanese dialect term “plate” to describe Taiwan as easily deceived and exploited.
These remarks quickly found their way into Chinese media. Outlets like Phoenix and Tencent, along with several influential Chinese social media users, spread the commentators’ doubts widely, intensifying the scrutiny and debate over the proposed arms sale.
Several Taiwanese political commentators stated that the recent batch of U.S. arm sales to the country were both expensive and useless, with Chinese media outlets soon repeating the claims. (Screenshots/Youtube, Weibo and Phoenix)
But AFCL found that this criticism is not supported by sufficient evidence.
Taiwan in ‘critical need’ of drones
Taiwan is in critical need of thousands of such drones in order to hold off the People’s Liberation Army’s airborne and amphibious invasion forces that would be supported by thousands of their loitering drones, said Richard Fisher, an expert on China’s military at the International Assessment and Strategy Center.
Confronting the PLA with a variety of drones to complicate their defensive requirements was a good strategy for Taiwan; the Switchblades 300 may get through when others do not, he added.
While Taiwan could theoretically arm itself by buying thousands of cheap Chinese-made drones as weapons for a fraction of the cost, the software of these weapons could very well be controlled by the PLA, Fisher told AFCL.
Different situation in Taiwan
There have been reports with mixed views on the effectiveness of the Switchblade 300 used by Ukraine, many noting that Russia’s ability to inhibit the drone’s navigation system has led Ukraine to gradually reduce its use of them.
But Tony Hu, a former U.S. Department of Defense official, believes that the situation in Taiwan and Ukraine is different, adding that the use of the Switchblade 300 is more suitable for Taiwan’s environment.
This is because the drones would first be deployed over water in the event of any invasion of Taiwan, said Hu.
Unlike in Ukraine, PLA troops would not have room to hide or buildings in which to take cover in such circumstances, Hu added.
In response to criticism of the proposed sale, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said in a press release on June 24 that the drones were important tools in waging asymmetric warfare, and the two models procured by Taiwan were employed by the U.S. military’s active service.
Are the drones overpriced?
The price of the Switchblade 300 is debatable, with different sources citing different numbers.
But Hu believes that such numbers are “meaningless” because Taiwan is purchasing not only the drones but also the training and spare parts needed to use them.
Hu noted that the actual sales price would be determined only after talks between the U.S. and Taiwan, adding that some of the political commentators’ statements were “nonsense” made by people without any actual experience in arm sales.
Below is a basic outline of the different stages of cost evaluation in U.S. Foreign Military Sales.
A basic outline of the different stages of cost evaluation in U.S. Foreign Military Sales (Photo provided by Tony Hu)
A U.S. State Department official told AFCL that the U.S. government works closely with its foreign partners, including Taiwan, to tailor foreign military sales to their specific needs.
Because these weapons are new to Taiwan, the sale involves not only the requirements for the armament system itself, but also the associated components and services that Taiwan needs to successfully introduce and maintain the system, the official added.
Orders for the Switchblade 300
The claim that other nations have shunned the Switchblade 300 is also false.
France and one more U.S. ally placed orders for the Switchblade 300 in 2023, with systems scheduled to be delivered by July 2024, the Switchblade’s manufacturing company, AeroVironment, said in a press release. The military outlet Army Recognition also reported the orders.
Translated by Shen Ke. Edited by Shen Ke and Taejun Kang.
Asia Fact Check Lab (AFCL) was established to counter disinformation in today’s complex media environment. We publish fact-checks, media-watches and in-depth reports that aim to sharpen and deepen our readers’ understanding of current affairs and public issues. If you like our content, you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and X.
This content originally appeared on Radio Free Asia and was authored by By Zhuang Jing for Asia Fact Check Lab.
Transcript: *This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos. Mike Papantonio: Look, the corporate media is complicit in all of this. Corporate media, they know what’s going on. They’ve known what’s going on, but this is their guy. They thought they could make it through one more cycle. If […]
Last month, the Jimmy Dore Show invited investigative reporter Ben Swann to speak to the myriad facts and evidence uncovered that point to the Israeli government and Israeli intelligence having known well in advance of the planned 7 October Hamas attack and welcoming it. It should be an explosive news piece if not for the self-censorship of the US legacy media. Swann, thankfully, has put together a 7-part series on this with his team at Truth in Media.
Nonetheless, aside from the otherwise splendid investigative reporting by Swann, the interview raised a question: Why is a legitimate Palestinian resistance against Israeli occupation (the borders are sealed to Gaza and the seas are closed to Palestinian fishermen) and oppression described by Swann as an “horrible and evil thing”?
Is not the Israeli slow-motion genocide (since 7 October it has been accelerated), occupation, racism, discrimination, and oppression not the “horrible and evil thing”? Is the horrible and evil theft of historical Palestine by European Jews not the cause of Palestinian resistance? Is it not, per se, horrible and evil to deride a legitimate resistance against the evil of Zionism?
Complicitly, the Whitehouse blamed Hamas, as did Canada’s government. Government officials in the US, Canada, and Europe spoke the same lame phrase, “Israel has a right to defend itself,” as if the slaughter being carried out by a world military power against a starving population could be construed as some kind of defense. Israel, the world’s most frequently cited violator of international law, a racist state, an occupation state built through violence and slow-motion genocide is being acknowledged as having the right to defend its criminality. This is preposterous; there is no right of an occupation regime to defend its occupation. Palestine, however, has a right to resist occupation!
Frequent guest of the Dore Show, comedian Kurt Metzger realizes the situation that Israel forces the Palestinians to live under: a “concentration camp.” The Palestinians in Gaza are presented with a choice to either live on bended knee or to resist.
However, Swann would double down on his vitriol against the Hamas resistance saying: “The Hamas attacks were violent and brutal.” The language is leading and unnecessary. Attacks by their very nature are usually violent and brutal. But why are these adjectives not applied to the violent and brutal Israeli occupation by Swann?
If there wer no occupation of historical Palestine, if there were not millions of Palestinians living outside their homeland as refugees, if Palestinians were not being systematically humiliated by Israelis, if Palestinians were not being weeded out of existence by Israelis, if Palestinians were thrown the crumb of the decency to live peacefully alongside their racist usurpers in their historical homeland, would not the rise of a resistance have been obviated?
A progressivist principle should hold that: The oppressor bears responsibility for all casualties because without the oppression, there would be no need for resistance. Ergo, criticism of the resistance of Hamas is unprincipled.
As the show’s cast rummaged over whether Israel was now carrying out a genocide, Jimmy Dore felt it necessary to describe Hamas as a terrorist organization. Hello! There are likeliest over a 100,000 Palestinians slaughtered resulting from this bogus intelligence failure, so who are the terrorists?
Ed Herman, the first author of the acclaimed media analysis, Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, noted:
For decades it has been the standard practice of the U.S. mainstream media to designate Palestinian attacks on Israelis as acts of “terrorism,” whereas acts of Israeli violence against Palestinians are described as “retaliation” and “counter-terror.” This linguistic asymmetry has been based entirely on political bias. Virtually all definitions of terrorism, if applied on a nonpolitical basis, would find a wide array of Israeli operations and acts of violence straightforward terrorism. (p 119)
The commonly bandied about death toll of 30 something thousand Palestinians is atrocious, but serious voices point to a serious undercount.
On 5 July 2024, the Lancetran its numbers: “Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.”
Ralph Nader had written months earlier: “From accounts of people on the ground, videos and photographs of deadly episode after episode, plus the resultant mortalities from blocking or smashing the crucial necessities of life, a more likely estimate, in my appraisal, is that at least 200,000 Palestinians must have perished by now and the toll is accelerating by the hour.” [emphasis added]
This time, it appears that Zionist connivance has blown up in the connivers faces and the faces of the supporters of Zionism in western governments.
Former US Marine intelligence officer Scott Ritter sourced inactive Israeli generals: “Israel can’t win this war. Not only Israel can’t win this war, Israel is losing this war.”
Would an outcome where Zionist occupation, oppression, racism, genocide is defeated be a horrible and evil thing?
A former newspaper editor believes the journalism profession in Papua New Guinea and other Pacific Island countries is in crisis.
Team leader of the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS)/ABC International Development (ABCID) Alexander Rheeney spoke of this issue at the 2024 Pacific International Media Conference in Fiji last week.
Reflecting on his role as a former editor of both the PNG Post-Courier newspaper in Papua New Guinea and the Samoa Observer, Rheeney said a lot of challenges were facing journalists in PNG, especially over the quality of reporting and gender-based violence
Pacific Journalism Review founding editor Dr David Robie speaking at the launch of the 30th anniversary edition of the journal at the 2024 Pacific International Media Conference in Suva, Fiji, last week. View NBC video clip. Image: NBC News screenshot/APR
He said the harassment mainly affected female journalists in newsrooms around the Pacific and Papua New Guinea was no exception.
Rheeney’s concern now is to find solutions to these challenges.
Rheeney told the NBC that every newsroom had its own challenges, and the 2024 Pacific International Media Conference was a great forum that brought journalists past, and present, including media academics and experts together to share and find answers to these problems.
He said the proposed PNG media policy was seen as a threat and challenge for some.
Many journalists and media houses were questioning what this policy might do to affect their way of reporting.
Papua New Guinea’s Information Communication and Technology Minister Timothy Masiu, whose ministry was spearheading this media policy, was also part of the conference and he spoke positively about the policy.
Minister Masiu said that the draft policy was to elevate the media profession in PNG and called for the development of media self-regulation in the country without government’s direct intervention.
The draft policy also was intended to strike a balance between the media’s ongoing role on transparency and accountability on the one hand, and the dissemination of development information on the other hand.
Getting the shot . . . journalists taking photographs at last week’s 2024 Pacific International Media Conference in Suva, Fiji. Image: David Robie/APR
A former newspaper editor believes the journalism profession in Papua New Guinea and other Pacific Island countries is in crisis.
Team leader of the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS)/ABC International Development (ABCID) Alexander Rheeney spoke of this issue at the 2024 Pacific International Media Conference in Fiji last week.
Reflecting on his role as a former editor of both the PNG Post-Courier newspaper in Papua New Guinea and the Samoa Observer, Rheeney said a lot of challenges were facing journalists in PNG, especially over the quality of reporting and gender-based violence
Pacific Journalism Review founding editor Dr David Robie speaking at the launch of the 30th anniversary edition of the journal at the 2024 Pacific International Media Conference in Suva, Fiji, last week. View NBC video clip. Image: NBC News screenshot/APR
He said the harassment mainly affected female journalists in newsrooms around the Pacific and Papua New Guinea was no exception.
Rheeney’s concern now is to find solutions to these challenges.
Rheeney told the NBC that every newsroom had its own challenges, and the 2024 Pacific International Media Conference was a great forum that brought journalists past, and present, including media academics and experts together to share and find answers to these problems.
He said the proposed PNG media policy was seen as a threat and challenge for some.
Many journalists and media houses were questioning what this policy might do to affect their way of reporting.
Papua New Guinea’s Information Communication and Technology Minister Timothy Masiu, whose ministry was spearheading this media policy, was also part of the conference and he spoke positively about the policy.
Minister Masiu said that the draft policy was to elevate the media profession in PNG and called for the development of media self-regulation in the country without government’s direct intervention.
The draft policy also was intended to strike a balance between the media’s ongoing role on transparency and accountability on the one hand, and the dissemination of development information on the other hand.
Getting the shot . . . journalists taking photographs at last week’s 2024 Pacific International Media Conference in Suva, Fiji. Image: David Robie/APR
MOSCOW — American, British and Canadian troops in NATO’s forward bases in Poland, Latvia, and Lithuania are being told to prepare for deployment to the Ukraine next year. They are also being warned to expect to fight under heavy Russian artillery, missile, guided bomb, and drone strikes.
This message is also intended to slip into the hands of Russian military intelligence and find its way to the Kremlin. There, Moscow sources believe, the intelligence is interpreted as provocation — part of the US and NATO scheme to escalate NATO attacks in the Black Sea and deep into Russian territory, in order to encourage Russian counter-attacks against NATO targets, triggering thereby Article Five of the NATO Treaty and collective NATO force intervention to follow.
Additionally, Russian sources interpret the intelligence as confirming that the US will not allow capitulation and replacement of Vladimir Zelensky and his regime in Kiev — so no denazification, which is one of the two main objectives of the Special Military Operation. Also, no peace terms will be countenanced short of Russian withdrawal from Crimea and the four regions of Novorossiya, and the military defeat of the Russian Army. So, no demilitarization, the second of Russia’s long-term security objectives.
The immediate General Staff response has been to devise “soft” measures to combat the US, UK and other NATO airborne electronic warfare units which are providing guidance, targeting, launch timing and flight manoeuvre of Storm Shadow and ATACMS missiles, as well as coordination of Ukrainian aerial and naval drone strikes. The Russian command has also unleashed a new round of missile attacks against Ukrainian airfields – Voznesensk and Mirgorod – where the bombers launching long-range Storm Shadow cruise missiles are based, and where the NATO-supplied F-16s are planned for deployment in a few weeks’ time.
Under growing domestic pressure to counter attacks as damaging to civilians as the Sevastopol beach strike of June 23, President Vladimir Putin has been making a sequence of statements of calculated ambiguity, if not of strategic deception. One interpretation of this by security analysts in Moscow is that the president is avoiding the provocation trap, creating instead a record of peace terms he is offering, confident they will be dismissed in Kiev, Brussels, London, and Washington. This is to reserve Russian freedom of action for now, reverse the blame later on.
On Friday, in Putin’s remarks to the press after meeting at the Kremlin with Hungary’s Prime Minister Victor Orban – currently the rotational president of the European Union Council – Putin repeated his peace terms offer and his expectation of their rejection: “We remain open for a discussion on a political and diplomatic settlement. However, the opposite side only makes clear its reluctance to resolve this issue in this manner. Ukraine’s sponsors continue using this country and its people as a ram, making it a victim in the confrontation with Russia.”
“We outlined our peace initiative quite recently at my meeting with the senior officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. We believe that its implementation would make it possible to end hostilities and begin negotiations. Moreover, this should not just be a truce or a temporary ceasefire, nor should it be a pause that the Kiev regime could use to recover its losses, regroup and rearm. Russia advocates a full and final end to the conflict. The conditions for that, as I have already said, are set out in my speech at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. We are talking about the complete withdrawal of all Ukrainian troops from the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and from the Zaporozhye and Kherson regions. There are other conditions as well.”
Putin is not alone in the war staff – the Stavka – in suspecting provocation by the Americans and British while they prepare for escalation to direct war. Also, the Stavka recognizes this was Stalin’s problem interpreting intelligence from Tokyo and Berlin, especially Richard Sorge’s cables from December 1940 through the early days of June 1941, warning of Hitler’s preparations to invade across the Soviet border.
Moscow sources are sure that avoiding Stalin’s catastrophic misjudgement of Hitler’s timing is a priority of Putin’s and of the General Staff. Misjudging the timing of the US coup in Kiev of February 21, 2014, almost cost the loss of Sevastopol and Crimea; misjudging the readiness of Ukrainian forces at Hostemel on February 24, 2022, cost the lives of at least 300 Russian paratroopers, failed at triggering regime change in Kiev, and doomed the peace negotiations in Istanbul of March 30.
“We told you so” is not a refrain the Kremlin is hearing now from the General Staff for the first time.
Putin’s reluctance to act is criticized in Moscow as the pace of the Ukrainian missile and drone raids increases. “I know for a fact that General Staff fully anticipated NATO’s involvement from the start and contingency planning has been done accordingly,” reported the US-based military analyst Andrei Martyanov on July 3. “It was clear from the first day of SMO [Special Military Operation] not now. The only issue was how Russia will approach escalation and the gradual involvement of NATO until it becomes clear that it is between combined West and Russia.”
“What happened to no NATO, and de-Nazification?” a military source asks. “The Americans, Ukrainians, British have been escalating and the president has been temporizing in response,” he answers. “I don’t believe Orban is just making overtures in Hungary’s interests either. He’s an emissary for Trump’s end-the-war plan”.
The source is referring to Orban’s boostering for Trump’s election in November. “You can criticize [Trump] for many reasons,” Orban has said, “but the best foreign policy of the recent several decades belongs to him. He did not initiate any new war, he treated nicely the North Koreans, and Russia and even the Chinese … and if he would have been the president at the moment of the Russian invasion [of Ukraine], it would be not possible to do that by the Russians. Trump is the man who can save the Western world.”
No other NATO member but Orban, the US ambassador said in Budapest last week, “not a single one — that similarly, overtly and tirelessly, campaigns for a specific candidate in an election in the United States of America, seemingly convinced that, no matter what, it only helps Hungary, or at least helps him personally.”
Moscow sources suspect Orban told Putin he is Trump’s go-between on terms for ending the war in the Ukraine. Orban openly hinted at this himself, telling the press after their meeting “we will not achieve peace without diplomacy, without channels of communication.” As Trump’s channel, Orban then repeated Trump’s recent claims that he will end the war the day after he wins the election on November 5. “I wanted to know what the shortest road to end the war is. I wanted to hear Mr President’s opinion on three important questions, and I heard his opinion. What does he think about the current peace initiatives? What does he think about a ceasefire and peace talks, and in what succession can they be carried out? And the third thing that interested me was Mr President’s vision of Europe after the war.”
For analysis of Trump’s claims and the staff plan he authorized for release in April, click to read this.
For Orban’s repeat version of what he claims to be doing, and his omission of everything which has transpired before he arrived on the scene by “secret message”, “under the carpet”, and “surprise”, watch this interview with the owner of a Swiss German magazine.
“Next surprise on Monday morning”, Orban told his Weltwoche interviewer. “You will see – follow the path”. This was no surprise in Moscow because Orban had told Putin he was planning to fly to Beijing to meet President Xi Jinping, and the Russian milbloggers were briefed hours before the western propaganda agencies, Reuters, Deutsche Welle, and the Voice of America picked up the story. The first Moscow report on Sunday evening commented that Orban is performing “cynical antics”. “Orban is advertising his trip to Moscow. Tomorrow morning [Monday July 8] Orban is waiting in Beijing, where negotiations are expected with Comrade Xi Jinping.”
There is no Russian military confidence in Trump’s proposals, or in Orban’s version of them, or in the Russian oligarchs also presenting themselves to the Kremlin as go-betweens. Instead, there is suspicion that Trump and his intermediaries are attempting to hoodwink the Kremlin with a repeat of the “October surprise” with Iran of Ronald Reagan’s first election campaign in 1980.
To support their case for reciprocal measures, the General Staff are making sure the military bloggers in Moscow report each day on the escalation of frequency, range, and damage of Ukrainian raids, directed by manned aircraft and drones directed from the Black Sea by the US and the UK.
The map shows Ukrainian (AFU) strikes by air-fired missile, aerial and naval drones over July 5 and 6, as well their launch points west of the current line of contact, and Russian air defence interceptions. “At night, Ukrainian formations again attacked the oil infrastructure with drones in the Krasnodar Krai [Territory] off the coast of the Sea of Azov. Several settlements were hit. The work of the air defence was noted in Yeysk, Pavlovskaya, Leningradskaya. The drones were shot down by 51 air defence divisions, but some of the debris from the warheads fell on to the territory of power facilities, but did not cause serious damage.”
“However, this is the second day in a row when the enemy is attacking the coastal zones of the Sea of Azov. Yesterday, Primorsko-Akhtarsk became the target of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in the direction of which 20 drones were launched. Almost all of them were shot down by air defence calculations and units of the 4th Army. However, one UAV hit a local [power] substation, which caused problems with electric lighting. After that, the Ukrainian Armed Forces struck again: this time three Neptune anti-ship missiles were launched from the territory of the Zaporozhye region, which are increasingly being observed along the entire line of contact, starting from Belgorod and ending with Crimea. Two missiles were shot down by air defence units; one went off course and hit a residential building, which injured civilians. A little later, seven Ukrainian drones were shot down between Rostov-on-Don and Bataisk. The ultimate objective remains unclear: this could be oil depots, or maybe the drones were flying further in the direction of the Morozovsk airfield. And there was trouble in Crimea yesterday [July 5]. During the day, missile and unmanned drones were introduced at least 5-6 times, and in most cases due to deception missile launches and false targets. However, at one point, a Ukrainian Su-24M bomber launched two Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which were shot down near Tarkhankut and south of Yevpatoria by MiG-31 fighters of the Russian Aerospace Forces.”
The milbloggers leave no doubt that the USAF Global Hawk (RQ-4B) electronic war drone has returned to Black Sea airspace from its new base in Romania to direct the new Ukrainian raids.
Zvinchuk’s Rybar has also reposted a report on NATO preparations for basing NATO ground forces, manned aircraft, and drones on Romanian territory, as well as for repairing HIMARS and other artillery units salvaged from the Ukrainian battlefield, in order to return them to action.
For a list of the eight forward battlegroups NATO is preparing for direct NATO war against Russia, click to read.
On the fareastern front which Russia shares with China, Vzglyad has just published a warning that “NATO is approaching Russia’s borders from the other side.” The author, Gevorg Mirzoyan, is a regular writer for the semi-official security medium Vzglyad and an academic at the state Finance University in Moscow.
Source: https://vz.ru/
Days after the publication, a Ukrainian military publication reported the first ever Chinese Army deployment in Belarus for exercises described as “anti-terrorist training”. NATO is approaching Russia’s borders from the other side By Gevorg Mirzayan July 4, 2024
The NATO bloc will become a global one in the medium term, the experts say. They are referring to the possible advance of the alliance in the Pacific region – directly at the borders of China and the Far Eastern borders of Russia. How will this happen and how can it affect relations between Russia and China?
The leadership of the North Atlantic Alliance has announced its readiness to participate more actively in East Asian affairs. This is ostensibly a response to China’s actions.
Firstly, because of its cooperation with Russia. “The growing rapprochement between Russia and its authoritarian friends in Asia makes our work with friends in the Indo-Pacific region even more important,” says NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. Western states are looking for the culprits in this – and find them in the person of the Chinese comrades, who, they say, have provided Russia with everything necessary to confront the “civilized world.”
Secondly, because China’s actions allegedly threaten the security of Europe. “Publicly, President Xi pretends that he avoids the conflict in Ukraine in order to avoid sanctions and maintain trade relations. However, in fact, China supports the largest military conflict in Europe since World War II, while wishing to maintain good relations with the West,” continues Stoltenberg.
In China, of course, they deny all the accusations. “NATO is a product of the Cold War and the largest military force in the world. Instead of denigrating China and attacking it with all sorts of statements, NATO should realize the role that the alliance has played in the Ukrainian crisis,” said the Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lin Jian (right). According to him, China is neither the initiator nor a party to the Ukrainian crisis. “I advise the parties concerned to stop shifting responsibility and sowing discord, to refrain from adding fuel to the fire and provoking an inter-bloc confrontation. And instead do something useful for a political solution to the crisis,” the diplomat explained.
Moreover, the Chinese claim NATO has no place in East Asia, if only because the organization will bring with it only conflicts and wars. “All countries of the Asia-Pacific region are committed to promoting peace and development. Americans need to respect this commitment and also work for peace and development, and not bring block confrontation and conflict with them to the region,” the Chinese Embassy in Washington has said in a statement.
However, the Americans seem to ignore these accusations. The arrival of NATO in East Asia has already been resolved for them — it will be implemented under whatever administration comes next. And the statement about China’s partisan involvement in the Ukrainian crisis is just an excuse, as well as a rhetorical device in order to put pressure on the European countries and convince/force them to support the expansion of NATO to the Far East.
“The fact is that Europe is trying to avoid genuine participation in the military confrontation with China. And it motivates this by the fact that the confrontation with Russia is already difficult enough. Europe is ready to support the United States verbally, but at the same time it is not even ready to allocate money for the fareast confrontation, not to mention sending the military to the shores of China,” Vadim Trukhachev, associate professor at the Russian State University, explains to Vzglyad.
“The Americans are really creating a global planetary player or a police organization out of NATO. And they’re not shy about talking about it – to argue that not only American bases, but also European and other bases should restrain China. All this has already been implemented in the form of small missions, and now the Americans are pushing the topic of creating NATO rapid reaction forces. Now these troops consist of 30,000 people, but they want to increase them to 300,000,” Andrei Klintsevich, head of the Center for the Study of Military and Political Conflicts, explains to Vzglyad.
Left to right: Gevorg Mirzayan of the Finance University; Vadim Trukhachev of the Russian State University for the Humanities; and Andrei Klintsevich, Trukhachev’s assesment of Orban’s “peacemaking” mission can be read here.
Such international forces, Polish, German, French and Italian, would operate outside national command and control. “That is, at any moment, the NATO general picks up the phone and, on instructions from Washington, issues a directive to certain units without the approval of their national parliaments. And the troops are flying away to carry out the multinational task,” Klintsevich continues.
Europe’s sluggish resistance to the prospects of such a deployment is the last problem on the way to the Far Eastern expansion of the alliance. Moreover, there are already enough countries in the Far East which are ready to support the arrival of NATO in the region.
Australia, Japan, New Zealand and South Korea are seen as the key partners of the alliance here. Countries that are very much afraid of China’s growth. Which are much more dependent on the United States than India, and will attend the NATO summit in Washington. According to US Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell, the Indo-Pacific region is “now more connected to Europe than ever before.”
Finally, the United States has already made certain preparations – for example, the AUKUS bloc (consisting of Australia, United Kingdom, and the United States), which was conceived precisely as a weapon to deter the PRC. “The AUKUS bloc is likely to expand – additional countries will be included, most likely Japan and South Korea. And then this bloc will sign some kind of unification agreement with NATO, after which the alliance will become a global one,” Klintsevich explains.
Australian Prime Minister Albanese meeting NATO Secretary-General Stoltenberg at the NATO summit of July 2023. For the Australian version of joining NATO’s war in the Uklraine, click to read: https://www.afr.com/ NATO’s version of the Australian role in NATO: https://www.nato.int/
China understands the high probability of NATO’s arrival, as well as the fact that they will have to change their policy somewhat. Militarily, Beijing is, of course, ready. “The Chinese have already turned on their full military-industrial machine. They are laying down aircraft carriers in series, creating hypersonic weapons, building bases on landfill artificial islands in areas that they would like to control. The Chinese have imposed an arms race on the Americans – and this process will continue even without NATO moving there,” says Klintsevich.
But Chinese foreign policy will have to be modified. More recently, Beijing used the Ukrainian crisis to score international points. And not only through their peace initiatives.
For example, the Chinese accuse NATO of “nuclear blackmail” (based on Stoltenberg’s statements about the possible deployment of nuclear weapons in Europe). Thus, Beijing not only plays the role of a peacemaker, but also appears to be a kind of spokesman for the opinions of the Global South – non-nuclear countries which look with fear at the games of their nuclear colleagues. Such a position will also help the Chinese to divert the world’s attention somewhat from their own build-up of the nuclear arsenal (to which Beijing, not being a signatory to any START, has every right).
We are now talking about a confrontation already in the traditionally Chinese sphere of influence. Not on other people’s shores, but on their own. Which can be defended only with the support of Moscow – resource, infrastructure, political, and all other forms of support.
“This reduces the Chinese room for manoeuvre – it will be more difficult for them to push us into discounts on hydrocarbons and other aspects of Sino-Russian economic cooperation. The realization of a real confrontation with America will force them to build relations with us in a slightly different way. Just because, one by one, we are all just being pushed around,” Klintsevich sums up.
As a result, NATO’s expansion into the Far East could lead to what expansion in Europe has led to already. To bring together and unite the opponents of the United States.
The original of the lead image was this cartoon of August 1939, showing Hitler wrestling with the Russian bear. This was a comment on the non-aggression pact agreed between Hitler and Stalin and signed on August 25, 1939, by foreign ministers Joachim von Ribbentrop and Vyacheslav Molotov. It was known officially as the Treaty of Non-Aggression between Germany and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. On December 17, 2021, Putin authorized the Russian Foreign Ministry to present to Biden the Treaty between the United States of America and the Russian Federation on Security Guarantees. Biden dismissed it without negotiations.
Here is the speech by Papua New Guinea’s Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Timothy Masiu, at the 2024 Pacific International Media Conference dinner at the Holiday Inn, Suva, on July 4:
I thank the School of Journalism of the University of the South Pacific (USP) for the invitation to address this august gathering.
Commendations also to the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) and the Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN) for jointly hosting this conference – the first of its kind in our region in two decades!
It is also worth noting that this conference has attracted an Emmy Award-winning television news producer from the United States, an award-winning journalism academic and author based in Hong Kong, a member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, a finalist in the 2017 Pulitzer Prize, and a renowned investigative journalist from New Zealand.
Mix this with our own blend of regional journalists, scholars and like-minded professionals, this is truly an international event.
Commendation to our local organisers and the regional and international stakeholders for putting together what promises to be three days of robust and exciting interactions and discussions on the status of media in our region.
This will also go a long way in proposing practical and tangible improvements for the industry.
My good friend and the Deputy Prime Minister of Fiji, the Honourable Manoa Kamikamica, has already set the tone for our conference with his powerful speech at this morning’s opening ceremony. (In fact, we can claim the DPM to also be Papua New Guinean as he spent time there before entering politics!).
We support and are happy with this government of Fiji for repealing the media laws that went against media freedom in Fiji in the recent past.
In PNG, given our very diverse society with over 1000 tribes and over 800 languages and huge geography, correct and factful information is also very, very critical.
Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Finance Professor Biman Prasad and Timothy Masiu, PNG’s Minister for Information and Communications Technology, at the conference dinner. Image: Wansolwara
Our theme “Navigating Challenges and Shaping Futures in Pacific Media Research and Practice” couldn’t be more appropriate at this time.
If anything, it reminds us all of the critical role that the media continues to play in shaping public discourse and catalysing action on issues affecting our Pacific.
We are also reminded of the power of the media to inform, educate, and mobilize community participation in our development agenda.
IT is in the context that I pause to ask this pertinent question: How is the media being developed and used as a tool to protect and preserve our Pacific Identity?
I ask this question because of outside influences on our media in the region.
I should know, as I have somewhat traversed this journey already – from being a broadcaster and journalist myself – to being a member of the board of the largest public broadcaster in the region (National Broadcasting Corporation) – to being the Minister for ICT for PNG.
From where I sit right now, I am observing our Pacific region increasingly being used as the backyard for geopolitical reasons.
It is quite disturbing for me to see our regional media being targeted by the more developed nations as a tool to drive their geopolitical agenda.
As a result, I see a steady influence on our culture, our way of life, and ultimately the gradual erosion of our Pacific values and systems.
In the media industry, some of these geopolitical influences are being redesigned and re-cultured through elaborate and attractive funding themes like improving “transparency” and “accountability”.
This is not the way forward for a truly independent and authentic Pacific media.
The way we as a Pacific develop our media industry must reflect our original and authentic value systems.
Just like our forefathers navigated the unchartered seas – relying mostly on hard-gained knowledge and skills – we too must chart our own course in our media development.
Our media objectives and practices should reflect all levels of our unique Pacific Way of life, focusing on issues like climate change, environmental preservation, the protection and preservation of our fast-fading languages and traditions, and our political landscape.
We must not let our authentic ways be lost or overshadowed by outside influences or agendas. We must control WHAT we write, HOW we write it, and WHY we write.
Don’t get me wrong – we welcome and appreciate the support of our development partners – but we must be free to navigate our own destiny.
If anything, I compel you to give your media funding to build our regional capabilities and capacities to address climate change issues, early warning systems, and support us to fight misinformation, disinformation, and fake news on social media.
I don’t know how the other Pacific Island countries are faring but my Department of ICT has built a social media management desk to monitor these ever-increasing menaces on Facebook, Tik Tok, Instagram and other online platforms.
This is another area of concern for me, especially for my future generations.
Draft National Media Development Policy of PNG Please allow me to make a few remarks on the Draft National Media Development Policy of PNG that my ministry has initiated.
As its name entails, it is a homegrown policy that aims to properly address many glaring media issues in our country.
In its current fifth draft version, the draft policy aims to promote media self-regulation; improve government media capacity; roll-out media infrastructure for all; and diversify content and quota usage for national interest.
These policy objectives were derived from an extensive nationwide consultation process of online surveys, workshops and one-on-one interviews with government agencies and media industry stakeholders and the public.
To elevate media professionalism in PNG, the policy calls for the development of media self-regulation in the country without direct government intervention.
The draft policy also intend to strike a balance between the media’s ongoing role on transparency and accountability on the one hand, and the dissemination of developmental information, on the other hand.
It is not in any way an attempt by the Marape/Rosso government to restrict the media in PNG. Nothing can be further from the truth.
In fact, the media in PNG presently enjoys unprecedented freedom and ability to report as they deem appropriate.
Our leaders are constantly being put on the spotlight, and while we don’t necessarily agree with many of their daily reports, we will not suddenly move to restrict the media in PNG in any form.
Rather, we are more interested in having information on health, education, agriculture, law and order, and other societal and economic information, reaching more of our local and remote communities across the country.
It is in this context that specific provision within the draft policy calls for the mobilisation – particularly the government media – to disseminate more developmental information that is targeted towards our population at the rural and district levels.
I have brought a bigger team to Suva to also listen and gauge the views of our Pacific colleagues on this draft policy.
The fifth version is publicly available on our Department of ICT website and we will certainly welcome any critique or feedback from you all.
Before I conclude, let me also briefly highlight another intervention I made late last year as part of my Ministry’s overall “Smart Pacific; One Voice” initiative.
After an absence for several years, I invited our Pacific ICT Ministers to a meeting in Port Moresby in late 2023.
At the end of this defining summit, we signed the Pacific ICT Ministers’ Lagatoi Declaration.
For a first-time regional ICT Ministers’ meeting, it was well-attended. Deputy Prime Minister Manoa also graced us with his presence with other Pacific Ministers, including Australia and New Zealand.
This declaration is a call-to-arms for our regional ministers to meet regularly to discuss the challenges and opportunities posed by the all-important ICT sector.
Our next meeting is in New Caledonia in 2025.
In much the same vein, I was appointed the special envoy to the Pacific by the Asia-Pacific Institute for Broadcasting Development (AIBD) in Mauritius in 2023.
Since then, I have continuously advocated for the Pacific to be more coordinated and unified, so we can be better heard.
I have been quite bemused by the fact that the Pacific does not have its own regional offices for such well-meaning agencies like AIBD to promote our own unique media issues.
More often than not, we are either thrown into the “Asia-Pacific’ or “Oceania” groupings and as result, our media and wider ICT interests and aspirations get drowned by our more influential friends and donors.
We must dictate what our broadcasting (and wider media) development agenda should be. We live in our Region and better understand the “Our Pacific Way” of doing things.
Let me conclude by reiterating my firm belief that the Pacific needs a hard reset of our media strategies.
This means re-discovering our original values to guide our methods and practices within the media industry.
We must be unified in our efforts navigate the challenges ahead, and to reshape the future of media in the Pacific.
We must ensure it reflects our authentic ways and serves the needs of our Pacific people.
Pacific Journalism Review has challenged journalists to take a courageous and humanitarian stand over Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza in its latest edition with several articles about the state of news media credibility and the shocking death toll of Palestinian reporters.
It has also taken a stand in support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange who was set free in a US federal court in Saipan and returned to Australia the day before copies of the journal arrived back from the printers.
In the editorial provocatively entitled “Will journalism survive?”, founding editor Dr David Robie wrote: “Gaza has become not just a metaphor for a terrible state of dystopia in parts of the world, it has also become an existential test for journalists — do we stand up for peace and justice and the right of a people to survive under the threat of ethnic cleansing and against genocide, or do we do nothing and remain silent in the face of genocide being carried out with impunity in front of our very eyes?
“The answer is simple surely.”
Launching the 30th anniversary edition, adjunct USP professor Vijay Naidu paid tribute to the long-term “commitment of PJR to justice and human rights” and noted USP’s contribution through hosting the journal for five years and also continued support from conference convenor associate professor Shailendra Singh.
Papua New Guinea’s Communication Minister Timothy Masiu also launched at the PJR event a new book, Waves of Change: Media, Peace, and Development in the Pacific, edited by Professor Biman Prasad (who is also Deputy Prime Minister of Fiji), Dr Singh and Dr Amit Sarwal.
The PJR editors, Dr Philip Cass and Dr Robie, said the profession of journalism had since the covid pandemic been under grave threat and the journal outlined challenges facing the Pacific region.
The cover of the 30th anniversary edition of Pacific Journalism Review. Image: PJR
Among contributing writers, Jonathan Cook, examines the consequences of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) legal cases over Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories, and Assange’s last-ditch appeal to prevent the United States extraditing him so that he could be locked away for the rest of his life.
Both cases pose globe-spanning threats to basic freedoms, writes Cook.
New Zealand writer Jeremy Rose offers a “Kiwi journalist’s response” to Israel’s war on journalism, noting that while global reports have tended to focus on the “horrendous and rapid” climb of civilian casualties to more than 38,000 — especially women and children — Gaza has also claimed the “worst death rate of journalists” in any war.
The journalist death toll has topped 158.
Independent journalist Mick Hall offers a compelling research indictment of the role of Western legacy media institutions, arguing that they too are in the metaphorical dock along with Israel in South Africa’s genocide case in the ICC.
PJR designer Del Abcede with Rosa Moiwend at the PJR celebrations. Image: David Robie/APMN
He also cites evidence of the wider credibility implications for mainstream media in the Oceania region.
Among other articles in this edition of PJR, a team led by RMIT’s Dr Alexandra Wake, president of the Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (Jeraa), has critiqued the use of fact check systems, arguing these are vital tool boxes for journalists.
The edition also includes articles about the Kanaky New Caledonia decolonisation crisis reportage, three USP Frontline case study reports on political journalism, the social media ecology of an influencer group in Fiji, and a photo essay by Del Abcede on Palestinian protests and media in Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.
Book reviews include the Reuters Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions 2024, Journalists and Confidential Sources,The Palestine Laboratory and Return to Volcano Town.
The PJR began publication at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1994.
Celebrating the 30th anniversary of Pacific Journalism Review with a birthday cake . . . Professor Vijay Naidu (from left), Fiji Deputy Prime Minister Professor Biman Prasad, founding PJR editor Dr David Robie, PNG Communications Minister Timothy Masiu, conference convenor and PJR editorial board member Associate Professor Shailendra Singh, and current PJR editor Dr Philip Cass. Image: Joe Yaya/Islands Business
If the pen is mightier than the sword, then an army of journalists has assembled in Fiji’s capital to discuss the state and future of the industry in the region.
The three-day Pacific Media Conference 2024 on July 4-6 is organised and hosted by the University of the South Pacific, in collaboration with the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) and Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN), with more than 50 speakers from 11 countries.
A keynote speaker and veteran journalist Dr David Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report, says the conference is crucial.
“It’s quite a trailblazer in many respects, because this is probably the first conference of its kind where it’s blended industry journalists all around the region, plus media academics that have been analysing and critiquing the media and so on.
“So to have this joining forces like this . . . it’s really quite a momentous conference.”
Dr Robie is a distinguished author, journalist and media educator and was recognised last month as a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) for his contribution to journalism and education in New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region for more than 50 years.
Speaking to William Terite on Radio 531pi’s Pacific Mornings, Dr Robie said the conference was a way to bolster solidarity to others in the industry and address common challenges.
“In many Pacific countries a lot of their fledgling institutions, and essentially, politicians, have no understanding of media generally, and have a tendency to crack down on media when they have half a chance.
“So it’s partly to get a much better image of journalism and how important journalism is in democracy and development in many countries in the Pacific.”
Journalists at the Pacific Media Conference 2024 in Suva. Image: PMN News/Justin Latif
Turning the page for media The conference theme is “Navigating challenges and shaping futures in Pacific media research and practice”.
In April last year, Fiji revoked media laws that restricted media content. PMN chief-of-news Justin Latif is attending the conference, and said Fijian media were in celebration-mode, saying “democracy has returned to Fiji”.
“They talked about how such a conference had happened under previous regimes, basically the police and army would have had a presence there and would have been just noting names and checking up that nothing was said that was anti-government.”
Latif said regional journalists showed a deep sense of purpose and drive.
“People do see their roles as a calling, and so often are willing to take less pay and harder conditions,” he said.
“They see their job as building their nation and being part of helping strengthen the country, and so it’s probably quite different if you were to get a group of journalists together in New Zealand, they probably wouldn’t have quite the same sense of that kind of fervour for the role in terms of what it can mean for the country.”
The Pacific Journalism Review, a journal examining media issues and communication in the region, celebrated its 30-year anniversary. It has published hundreds of peer-reviewed articles and is regularly cited by scholars.
Asia Pacific Report editor Dr David Robie (left) with Fiji Deputy Prime Minister Professor Biman Prasad at the launch of the 30th anniversary edition of Pacific Journalism Review at the 2024 Pacific Media Conference in Fiji. Image: Del Abcede/APMN
Global tussle for Pacific attention The United States is one of the main funders of the conference, and there are representatives from some Asia-Pacific countries such as Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan.
Latif said China’s involvement in Pacific media was openly questioned by the US deputy chief of mission, John Gregory.
“He gave a very detailed breakdown of all the ways that China are influencing elections: using Facebook to spread misinformation to try and basically encourage the three Pacific nations who still support or maintain diplomatic ties with Taiwan, how they’re trying to influence those nations to have a regime change, and it was quite shocking information about the lengths that China is going to, or that the State Department believed China is going to.”
The United States in putting investment into journalism in the Pacific, said Latif, sending 13 journalists from Fiji to the US for exchanges.
“There is a clear US agenda here about wanting the media to be strengthened and to be supported so that they can have a strong foothold in the Pacific, because the influence of China is definitely being felt.”
A bold, future vision for Pacific media Dr Robie has described the current state of news media in the Pacific as “precarious”, and warned some nations can be susceptible to “geopolitics and the influences of other countries”.
“We’ve got China trying to encourage media organisations to be very much under an authoritarian wing, taking journalists across to China . . . but now we’re getting a lot more competition from Australia and the US and so on, upping the game, putting more money into training, influencing, whereas for many years they didn’t care too much about the media in the region.
“Journalists very often feel like they’re the meat in the sandwich in the competition between many countries, and it’s not good for the region generally.”
Dr Robie has worked across the Pacific, including five years as head of journalism at the University of Papua New Guinea, and then as the coordinator of the journalism programme at USP.
He encouraged Pacific media to continue upholding democratic values while holding leaders to account.
“Most media organisations in the Pacific are quite small and vulnerable in the sense that they’ve got small teams, limited resources, and it’s always a struggle, to be honest, and things are probably the toughest they’ve been for a while.
“Pacific countries and media need to stand up tall and strong themselves, be very clear about what they want and to stand up for it, and not be overshadowed by the influence of major countries.”
Pacific Journalism Review founder Dr David Robie says PJR has published more than 1100 research articles over its three decades of existence and is the largest single Pacific media research repository.
But it has always been “far more than a research journal”, he added at the launch of the 30th anniversary edition at the Pacific International Media Conference in Fiji yesterday.
Speaking in response to The University of the South Pacific’s adjunct professor in development studies and governance Vijay Naidu who launched the edition, he spoke of the innovative and cutting edge style of PJR.
APMN’s Dr David Robie talks about Pacific Journalism Review at the launch of the 30th anniversary edition in Suva. Image: NBC News/APMN screenshot
“As an independent publication, it has given strong support to investigative journalism, sociopolitical journalism, political economy of the media, photojournalism and political cartooning — they have all been strongly reflected in the character of the journal,” he said.
“It has also been a champion of journalism practice-as-research methodologies and strategies, as reflected especially in its Frontline section, pioneered by retired Australian professor and investigative journalist Wendy Bacon.
He thanked current editor Philip Cass for his efforts — “he was among the earliest contributors when we began in Papua New Guinea” — and the current team, assistant editor Khairiah A. Rahman, Nicole Gooch, “extraordinary mentors” Wendy Bacon and Dr Chris Nash, APMN chair Dr Heather Devere, Dr Adam Brown, Nik Naidu and Dr Gavin Ellis.
Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister Professor Biman Prasad, PNG Information and Communcations Technology Minister Timothy Masiu, USP’s Associate Professor Shailendra Singh and Dr Amil Sarwal at the PJR launch – the new Pacific media book “Waves of Change” was also launched. Image: NBC News/APMN screenshot
Paid tribute to many
He also paid tribute to many who have contributed to the journal through peer reviewing and the editorial board over many years — such as Dr Lee Duffield and Professor Mark Pearson of Griffith University, who was also editor of Australian Journalism Review for many years and was an inspiration to PJR — “and he is right here with us at the conference.”
Among others have been the Fiji conference convenor, USP’s associate professor Shailendra Singh, and professor Trevor Cullen of Edith Cowan University, who is chair of next year’s World Journalism Education Association conference in Perth.
Dr Robie also singled out designer Del Abcede for special tribute for her hard work carrying the load of producing the journal for many years “and keeping me sane — the question is am I keeping her sane? Anyway, neither I nor Philip would be standing here without her input.”
Meanwhile, New Zealand media analyst and commentator Dr Gavin Ellis mentioned the Pacific Journalism Review milestone in his weekly Knightly Views column:
This month marks the 30th anniversary of Pacific Journalism Review, the journal founded and championed by journalist and university professor David Robie. PJR has provided a unique bridge between academics and practitioners in the study of media and journalism in our part of the world.
The journal is now edited by Dr Philip Cass, although Robie continues to be directly involved as associate editor and editorial manager. The latest edition (which they co-edited) explores links between journalists in the South Pacific with the conflict in Gaza, together with analysis of the wider role of media in coverage of the plight of Palestinians.
A special 30th anniversary printed double issue is being launched at the Pacific International Media Conference in Fiji. The online edition of PJR is now available here.
Sustaining a publication like Pacific Journalism Review is no easy feat, and it is a tribute to Robie, Cass and others associated with the journal that it is entering its fourth decade strongly and with challenging content.
A major conference on the state and future of Pacific media is taking place this week in Fiji.
Dr David Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report and deputy chair of Asia Pacific Media Network, joins #PacificMornings to discuss the event and reflect on his work covering Asia-Pacific current affairs and research for more than four decades.
Pacific Journalism Review, which Dr Robie founded at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1994, celebrated 30 years of publishing at the conference tonight.
Other Pacific Mornings items on 4 July 2024: The health sector is reporting frustration at unchanging mortality rates for babies and mothers in New Zealand. PMMRC chairperson John Tait joined #PacificMornings to discuss further.
Labour Deputy Leader Carmel Sepuloni joined #PacificMornings to discuss the political news of the week.
We are one week into a month of military training exercises held in Hawai’i, known as RIMPAC.
Twenty-nine countries and 25,000 personnel are taking part, including New Zealand. Hawai’ian academic and Pacific studies lecturer Emalani Case joined #PacificMornings to discuss further.
Republished with from Pacific Media Network’s Radio 531pi.
Dakar, July 3, 2024—The Burkinabe authorities must do everything possible to find and ensure the safety of missing journalists Serge Atiana Oulon, Kalifara Séré, and Adama Bayala, and refrain from censoring the media, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.
At least three Burkinabe journalists in the capital, Ouagadougou, have separately disappeared under suspicious circumstances in June.
In mid-June, the national media regulator High Council for Communication (CSC) temporarily suspended three media outlets:
the “7 Infos” program on privately owned television channel BF1
privately owned bimonthly newspaper L’Événement
French-language global broadcaster TV5 Monde
Since the transitional president, Ibrahim Traoré, took power in a military coup in 2022, CPJ has documented a deterioration of press freedom in Burkina Faso, including suspensions of media outlets, expulsions of foreign correspondents, and efforts to conscript critical journalists.
“The Burkinabe authorities must do everything possible to find and ensure the safety of journalists Adama Bayala, Serge Atiana Oulon, and Kalifara Séré, and guarantee that media professionals in Burkina Faso can work free of censorship for their critical coverage,” said Angela Quintal, head of CPJ’s Africa program, in New York. “The climate of fear in which journalists live in Burkina Faso undermines the public’s ability to be informed and understand how they are being governed at a time of rising insecurity across the country.”
The missing journalists are:
Adama Bayala, a columnist who frequently appeared on the BF1 program “Presse Echos,” was last seen leaving his university office in his car on the afternoon of June 28. A person close to Bayala, who spoke to CPJ anonymously for security reasons, said Bayala was ill, received regular medical treatment, and had to follow a strict diet. That person said the journalist’s car remains missing.
Unidentified men wearing civilian clothes in unmarked vehicles took the publishing director of L’Événement, Serge Atiana Oulon, from his home and seized his computer and two phones the morning of June 24, according to statements by the outlet and Professional Media Organizations of Burkina Faso (OPM).
The incident came after the CSC on June 19 ordered a one-month suspension of L’Événement’s online publication and distribution—including its social media—following Oulon’s report about a December 2022 investigation into alleged embezzlement of funds intended for the army’s civilian auxiliaries. L’Événement announced in a June 20 Facebook statement that it would challenge the decision in court.
Traoré criticized L’Evènement’s embezzlement investigation in a February 2023 interview with national TV broadcaster RTB, saying the outlet either did not have “the right information” or was acting in “bad faith” and that the report had installed a “climate of mistrust” between soldiers and army volunteers.
Kalifara Séré, a commentator for BF1, has not been seen since leaving CSC offices on the evening of June 18, according to a person familiar with the case and a family member of Séré, who both spoke to CPJ on the condition of anonymity, citing security concerns.
Those sources told CPJ that Séré went to the CSC after the regulator suspended the BF1 program “7 Infos” for two weeks for rebroadcasting Séré’s June 16 on-air comments questioning the authenticity of images of Traoré broadcast by RTB, according to the regulator’s June 19 decision and a statement by BF1.
Police questioned Séré earlier on June 18 at the regional police station in the Wemtenga area of Ouagadougou about a defamation complaint by Désiré Nezien, director of the National Blood Transfusion Centre (CNTS), in connection to those June 16 comments.
Gildas Ouédraogo, director of communications for the CSC, told CPJ by messaging app that he was working to get authorization to answer questions.
CPJ’s calls and messages to government spokesperson Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo did not receive any replies. CPJ’s calls to the publicly listed number of the CNTS, the national police, and the gendarmerie were unanswered.
A new study has found that there’s something definitely off about YouTube’s video recommendation algorithm, and left-leaning videos get recommended far less than videos from right-leaning creators. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more. Transcript: *This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos. Mike Papantonio: A new study’s found that there’s something definitely […]
Anyone who has tried to rebrand broccoli as “little trees” knows the struggle of getting children to eat the cruciferous veggie.
But actress Kristen Bell, who shares two daughters with husband Dax Shepard, might have just figured out a new way to get kids (and adults) to eat their veggies, including broccoli.
Hello Bello
The actress, 43, grew up following a vegetarian diet and her mother, a nurse, emphasized the importance of learning about nutrition to maintain a balanced diet.
“I think it’s important to make eating not just conscious, but fun, and I think it’s important to pay attention to where your food is from and what food is going into your body,” Bell previously toldPeople.
Based on this principle, Bell has developed a number of strategies throughout the years to help keep her family well-nourished, even the picky eaters.
Packing balanced lunches
Bell believes in packing balanced and nutritious lunches for her children, Lincoln and Delta, but with a little wiggle room for snacks that keep things fun.
“I do put snacks in my kids’ lunches—I put some chocolate in there every now and again—potato chips—everything in moderation, their food should not be a burden,” Bell toldGood Morning America.
Pexels/RomanOdintsov
Bell’s approach includes both treats and healthy options to keep her children satisfied and healthy throughout the day. To ensure that their lunches are not just nutritious but also enjoyable, Bell packs whole foods such as avocados, red bell peppers, and recently, BLTs, which her daughters have been requesting.
“I am trying to keep them happy by giving them food that tastes good, while encouraging them to eat healthy,” Bell said.
By including a mix of healthy foods and occasional treats, Bell ensures that her children look forward to their meals without feeling deprived.
One of Bell’s most innovative tricks for getting her family to eat more vegetables, especially broccoli, involves a simple yet effective recipe. Bell shared this tip on Instagram, revealing her “major secret” to making broccoli delicious.
This Saves Lives
“Can I tell you a major secret to get people to eat broccoli?” Bell said in the Instagram story. “Steam your broccoli, right? That’s pretty normal.”
Bell then adds salt, which is where the “normal” ends. The broccoli gets seasoned with a hefty dose of crushed pretzels and Parmesan cheese. This combination transforms the plain vegetable into a tasty dish that even the pickiest eaters will enjoy.
“Game over, everyone will eat it,” Bell said. “It’s delicious.”
Of course, the Parmesan cheese does not have to be made with dairy as many plant-based Parms are now on the market. Also, Bell shared a vegan version of the recipe that uses nutritional yeast and lemon juice as an umami-packed substitute for Parmesan cheese.
Polina Tankilevitch/Pexels
This trick not only enhances the flavor of the broccoli but also adds a satisfying crunch, making it a hit with her family, including the adults.
Sometimes, getting kids to eat their veggies is easier than convincing them to put down the sugary drinks—which have well-documented adverse health effects.
To address the high sugar content in children’s beverages, Bell recently became a brand partner and investor in Plezi Nutrition, a company co-founded by former First Lady Michelle Obama.
Plezi
Plezi produces a line of children’s carbonated fruit drinks with zero added sugar, designed to offer a healthier alternative to traditional sugary beverages.
“I wasn’t finding anything that satisfied me as a mom that I was comfortable giving them,” Bell told Good Morning America. She was particularly concerned about the American Heart Association’s statistic that kids consume 53 pounds of added sugar per year.
Plezi drinks contain 75 percent less sugar than leading brands and include added fiber and vitamin C. “She shares our deeply held vision of doing whatever we can to help parents raise a healthier generation of kids,” Obama said about Bell joining Plezi.
“She’s passionate, genuine, and funny, too—I can’t think of a better partner to help us reach even more parents, kids, and families,” Obama said.
Bell’s daughters quickly became fans of Plezi drinks, with the tropical fruit punch flavors being especially popular among their classmates. “There were so many missing within the first 48 hours I had to have a sit down—apparently there is a black market trade on the playground,” Bell joked about the drinks.
This post was originally published on VegNews.com.
New York, July 2, 2024—Myanmar authorities should release journalist Htet Aung, and allow members of the press to do their jobs without fear of legal reprisal or imprisonment, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.
On June 28, a court in Sittwe, capital of Myanmar’s Rakhine State, sentenced Htet Aung, a reporter with the Development Media Group (DMG) news agency, to five years in prison with hard labor. His sentence was in connection with a report the outlet published on August 25, 2023, under the headline “Calls for justice on sixth anniversary of Muslim genocide in Arakan State,” according to the news agency, a DVB social media post, and DMG editor-in-chief Aung Marm Oo, who communicated with CPJ via text message.
Htet Aung was convicted of abetting terrorism under Section 52(a) of the country’s Anti-Terrorism Law. The journalist’s initial indictment was for defamation under Section 65 of the Telecommunications Law, but the charge was changed to abetting terrorism on December 1.
DMG office security guard Soe Win Aung was handed the same sentence as Htet Aung, according to the news report and Aung Marm Oo. Both were also held on a charge of allegedly stealing a motorcycle, the same sources said.
In a public statement reviewed by CPJ, DMG said it “strongly condemns the regime’s unjust imprisonment” of Htet Aung and Soe Win Aung.
“The 5-year sentencing of Development Media Group reporter Htet Aung on bogus terrorism charges is Myanmar’s latest outrage against the free press and should be immediately reversed,” said Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative. “Myanmar’s junta must stop harassing and jailing journalists for merely doing their jobs by reporting the news.”
After his October arrest, Htet Aung was held in pre-trial detention at Sittwe’s No. 1 Police Station, where he was denied visitation, according to the news agency’s report and Aung Marm Oo. Htet Aung was initially arrested while taking photos of soldiers making donations to Buddhist monks during a religious festival in Sittwe.
Hours later, soldiers, police, and special branch officials raided the Development Media Group’s bureau; confiscated cameras, computers, documents, financial records, and cash, and sealed off the building. The agency’s staff went underground to avoid arrest, according to Aung Marm Oo, who has been in hiding since 2019 after being charged under Myanmar’s Unlawful Association Act, which can result in up to five years’ imprisonment and fines.
Development Media Group specializes in news from Rakhine State, where in 2017, an army operation drove more than half a million Muslim Rohingyas to flee to neighboring Bangladesh in what the United Nations called a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”
CPJ’s email to the Myanmar Ministry of Information did not receive a response.
Julian Assange of WikiLeaks fame is now back in the country of his birth, having endured conditions of captivity ranging from cramped digs in London’s Ecuadorian embassy to the maximum-security facilities of Belmarsh Prison. His return to Australia after striking a plea deal with the US Department of Justice sees him in a state with some of the most onerous secrecy provisions of any in the Western world.
As of January 2023, according to the Attorney-General’s Department, the Australian Commonwealth had 11 general secrecy offences in Part 5.6 of the Criminal Code, 542 specific secrecy offences across 178 Commonwealth laws and 296 non-disclosure duties spanning 107 Commonwealth laws criminalising unauthorised disclosure of information by current and former employees of the Commonwealth.
In November 2023, the Albanese Government agreed to 11 recommendations advanced by the final report of the review of secrecy provisions. While aspiring to thin back the excessive overgrowth of secrecy, old habits die hard. Suggested protections regarding press freedom and individuals providing information to Royal Commissions will hardly instil confidence.
With that background, it is unsurprising that Assange’s return, while delighting his family, supporters and free press advocates, has stirred the seething resentment of the national security establishment, Fourth Estate crawlers, and any number of journalistic sellouts. Damn it all, such attitudes seem to say: he transformed journalism, stole away our self-censorship, exposed readers to the original classified text, and let the public decide for itself how to react to disclosures revealing the abuse of power. Minimal editorialising; maximum textual interpretation through the eyes of the universal citizenry, a terrifying prospect for those in government.
Given that the Australian press establishment is distastefully comfortable with politicians – the national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, for instance, has a central reporting bureau in Canberra’s Parliament House – Assange’s return has brought much agitation. The Canberra press corps earn their crust in a perversely symbiotic, and often uncritical relationship, with the political establishment that furnishes them with rationed morsels of information. The last thing they want is an active Assange scuppering such a neat understanding, a radical transparency warrior keenly upsetting conventions of hypocrisy long respected.
Let’s wade through the venom. Press gallery scribbler Phillip Coorey of the Australian Financial Review proved provincially ignorant, his mind ill-temperedly confused about WikiLeaks. “I have never been able to make up my mind about Assange.” Given that his profession benefits from leaks, whistleblowing and the exposure of abuses, one wonders what he is doing in it. Assange has, after all, been convicted under the US Espionage Act of 1917 for engaging in that very activity, a matter that should give Coorey pause for outrage.
For the veteran journalist, another parallel was more appropriate, something rather distant from any notions of public interest journalism that had effectively been criminalised by the US Republic. “The release of Julian Assange has closer parallels to that of David Hicks 17 years ago, who like Assange, was deemed to have broken American law while not in that country, and which eventually involved a US president cutting a favour for an Australian prime minister.”
The case of Hicks remains a ghastly reminder of Australian diplomatic and legal cowardice. Coorey is only right to assume that both cases feature tormented flights of fancy by the US imperium keen on breaking a few skulls in their quest to make the world safe for Washington. The military commissions, of which Hicks was a victim, were created during the madly named Global War on Terror pursuant to presidential military order. Intended to try non-US citizens suspected of terrorism held at the Guantánamo Bay detention facility, they were farcical exercises of executive power, a fact pointed out by the US Supreme Court in 2006. It took Congressional authorisation via the Military Commissions Act in 2009 to spare them.
Coorey’s colleague and international editor of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, Peter Hartcher, was similarly uninterested in what Assange exposed, babbling about the publisher’s return as the moment “Assangeism came into plain view”. He had no stomach for “the cult” which seemed to have infected Canberra’s cold weather. He also wondered whether Assange could constructively “use his global celebrity status to campaign for public interest journalism and human rights”. To do so – and here, teacher’s pet of the political establishment, beater of the war drum for the United States – Assange would have to “fundamentally” alter “his ways to advance the cause”.
All this was a prelude for Hartcher to take the hatchet to the journalistic exploits of a man more decorated with journalism awards that many in the Canberra gallery combined. The claim that he is “a journalist is hotly contested by actual journalists.” Despite the US government conceding that the disclosures by WikiLeaks had not resulted in harm to US sources, “there were many other victims of Assange’s project.” The returned publisher was only in Australia “on probation”, a signal reminder that the media establishment will be attempting to badger him into treacherous conformity.
Even this language was too mild for another Australian hack, Michael Ware, who had previously worked for Time Magazine and CNN. With pathological inventiveness, he thought Assange “a traitor in the sense that, during a time of war, when we had American, British and Australian troops in the field, under fire, Julian Assange published troves of unredacted documents”. Never mind truth to power; in Ware’s world, veracity is subordinate to it, even in an illegal war. What he calls “methods” and “methodology” cannot be exposed.
Such gutter journalism has its necessary cognate in gutter politics. All regard information was threatening unless appropriately handled, its more potent effects for change stilled. Leader of the opposition in the Senate, Simon Birmingham, found it “completely unnecessary and totally inappropriate for Julian Assange to be greeted like some homecoming hero by the Australian Prime Minister.” Chorusing with hacks Coorey, Hartcher and Ware, Birmingham bleated about the publication by Assange of half a million documents “without having read them, curated them, checked to see if there was anything that could be damaging or risking the lives of others there.” Keep the distortions flying, Senator.
Dennis Richardson, former domestic intelligence chief and revolving door specialist (public servant becomes private profiteer with ease in Canberra), similarly found it inexplicable that the PM contacted Assange with a note of congratulation, or even showed any public interest in his release from a system that was killing him. “I can think of no other reason why a prime minister would ring Assange on his return to Australia except for purposes relating to politics,” moaned Richardson to the Guardian Australia.
For Richardson, Assange had been legitimately convicted, even if it was achieved via that most notorious of mechanisms, the plea deal. The inconvenient aside that Assange had been spied upon by CIA sponsored operatives, considered a possible object of abduction, rendition or assassination never clouds his uncluttered mind.
Sharp eyes will be trained on Assange in Australia, however long he wishes to stay. He is in the bosom of the Five Eyes Alliance, permanently threatened by the prospect of recall and renewed interest by Washington. And there are dozens of journalists, indifferent to the dangers the entire effort against the publisher augurs for their own craft, wishing that to be the case.
Global Voices interviews veteran author, journalist and educator David Robie who discussed the state of Pacific media, journalism education, and the role of the press in addressing decolonisation and the climate crisis.
INTERVIEW:By Mong Palatino in Manila
Professor David Robie is among this year’s New Zealand Order of Merit awardees and was on the King’s Birthday Honours list earlier this month for his “services to journalism and Asia-Pacific media education.”
His career in journalism has spanned five decades. He was the founding editor of the Pacific Journalism Review journal in 1994 and in 1996 he established the Pacific Media Watch, a media rights watchdog group.
He was head of the journalism department at the University of Papua New Guinea from 1993–1997 and at the University of the South Pacific from 1998–2002. While teaching at Auckland University of Technology, he founded the Pacific Media Centre in 2007.
In 2015, he was given the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) Asian Communication Award in Dubai. Global Voices interviewed him about the challenges faced by journalists in the Pacific and his career. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
MONG PALATINO (MP): What are the main challenges faced by the media in the region?
DAVID ROBIE (DR): Corruption, viability, and credibility — the corruption among politicians and influence on journalists, the viability of weak business models and small media enterprises, and weakening credibility. After many years of developing a reasonably independent Pacific media in many countries in the region with courageous and independent journalists in leadership roles, many media groups are becoming susceptible to growing geopolitical rivalry between powerful players in the region, particularly China, which is steadily increasing its influence on the region’s media — especially in Solomon Islands — not just in development aid.
However, the United States, Australia and France are also stepping up their Pacific media and journalism training influences in the region as part of “Indo-Pacific” strategies that are really all about countering Chinese influence.
Indonesia is also becoming an influence in the media in the region, for other reasons. Jakarta is in the middle of a massive “hearts and minds” strategy in the Pacific, mainly through the media and diplomacy, in an attempt to blunt the widespread “people’s” sentiment in support of West Papuan aspirations for self-determination and eventual independence.
MP: What should be prioritised in improving journalism education in the region?
DR: The university-based journalism schools, such as at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji, are best placed to improve foundation journalism skills and education, and also to encourage life-long learning for journalists. More funding would be more beneficial channelled through the universities for more advanced courses, and not just through short-course industry training. I can say that because I have been through the mill both ways — 50 years as a journalist starting off in the “school of hard knocks” in many countries, including almost 30 years running journalism courses and pioneering several award-winning student journalist publications. However, it is important to retain media independence and not allow funding NGOs to dictate policies.
MP: How can Pacific journalists best fulfill their role in highlighting Pacific stories, especially the impact of the climate crisis?
DR: The best strategy is collaboration with international partners that have resources and expertise in climate crisis, such as the Earth Journalism Network to give a global stage for their issues and concerns. When I was still running the Pacific Media Centre, we had a high profile Pacific climate journalism Bearing Witness project where students made many successful multimedia reports and award-winning commentaries. An example is this one on YouTube: Banabans of Rabi: A Story of Survival
MP: What should the international community focus on when reporting about the Pacific?
DR: It is important for media to monitor the Indo-Pacific rivalries, but to also keep them in perspective — so-called ”security” is nowhere as important to Pacific countries as it is to its Western neighbours and China. It is important for the international community to keep an eye on the ball about what is important to the Pacific, which is ‘development’ and ‘climate crisis’ and why China has an edge in some countries at the moment.
Australia and, to a lesser extent, New Zealand have dropped the ball in recent years, and are tying to regain lost ground, but concentrating too much on “security”. Listen to the Pacific voices.
There should be more international reporting about the “hidden stories” of the Pacific such as the unresolved decolonisation issues — Kanaky New Caledonia, “French” Polynesia (Mā’ohi Nui), both from France; and West Papua from Indonesia. West Papua, in particular, is virtually ignored by Western media in spite of the ongoing serious human rights violations. This is unconscionable.
Mong Palatino is regional editor of Global Voices for Southeast Asia. An activist and former two-term member of the Philippine House of Representatives, he has been blogging since 2004 at mongster’s nest. @mongsterRepublished with permission.
This content originally appeared on Asia Pacific Report and was authored by Pacific Media Watch.
Berlin, June 28, 2024 — North Macedonian authorities must swiftly and thoroughly investigate the online harassment and violent threats sent to journalist Lepa Dzhundeva, bring the perpetrators to justice, and ensure her safety, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Friday.
Dzhundeva, a reporter for privately owned channel TV 24, has received dozens of social media messages with nationalistic slurs, sexist and misogynistic comments, and threats of sexual and physical violence since June 3, 2024, according to a statement by the independent trade group Association of Journalists of Macedonia and the journalist, who spoke with CPJ.
The threats began after Bogdan Ilievski, a columnist for news website Off.net, published an eight-second video excerpt of Dzhundeva’s June 3 interview with a Greek member of parliament on his Facebook page and his outlet posted the same excerpt on its website critical of Dzhundeva for using the country’s internationally acknowledged name—North Macedonia. CPJ’s social media messages to Ilievski did not receive a reply.
“North Macedonia authorities should swiftly and thoroughly investigate the threats received by journalist Lepa Dzhundeva and bring the perpetrators to justice,” said Attila Mong, CPJ’s Europe representative. “Threatening a journalist because of her coverage is completely unacceptable, and police must show they take Dzhundeva’s situation seriously and ensure her safety.”
The Association of Journalists of Macedonia filed a criminal complaint with the police on behalf of Dzhundeva but has not received an update as of June 28, 2024, the association’s senior researcher Milan Spirovski told CPJ.
The North Macedonia name dispute was a long-standing disagreement between Greece and its northern neighbor after the collapse of Yugoslavia in the 1990s, when the newly independent Balkan state called itself the Republic of Macedonia—the name Greece also claimed for its own northern region. After years of talks and many protests, Greece and Macedonia settled on the formal name of the Republic of North Macedonia in 2018; however, the name continues to be controversial.
The Association of Journalists of Macedonia and the trade group Independent Union of Journalists and Media Workers condemned the threats against Dzhundeva’s safety in a June 12 statement and called on Ilievski to publicly apologize for framing Dzhundeva with “a very clear intention to expose her in a negative context.”
Six regional press freedom groups operating in the Western Balkans asked the North Macedonia Ministry of Internal Affairs, which oversees the police, to “take immediate and decisive action against those responsible for the threats” in a June 7 statement.
CPJ emailed questions to the press department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs but received no responses.
No matter what age we are, there’s still nothing like sleeping in on a Saturday morning and enjoying a big bowl of cereal in bed while watching cartoons. Back then, our favorites were sugary, marshmallow-loaded Lucky Charms and Pokémon. Today, it’s peach and blueberry muesli … and Pokémon. Either way, what could be better than this throwback combo of vegan breakfast and cartoons? Vegan breakfast and vegan cartoons.
Are there any vegan cartoon characters?
VegNews editors have been hard at work, diligently compiling a list of our favorite vegan and should-be-vegan characters from our favorite cartoons, past and present. We’ve taken into consideration landmark episodes, character relationships, and settings, and believe these compassionate characters would make (or already are) some of the best vegans on TV.
14 vegan cartoon characters
Below is a list of 14 characters we think are vegan or should be vegan. Grab the popcorn!
1 Apu from ‘The Simpsons’
Perhaps one of the first and best-known confirmed vegan cartoon characters on the air, Apu was living a compassionate lifestyle way back in 1990. The Kwik-E-Mart owner and operator famously switched out his hot dogs with tofu dogs without anyone noticing—and had an instrumental hand in helping Lisa Simpson on the path to full-fledged vegetarianism. Apu was removed from The Simpsons following the controversy surrounding the voice actor Hank Azaria, who, despite providing the voice of the Indian character, is not of Indian descent himself. And though Apu no longer graces our screens, his impact on TV history can’t be ignored.
2 Bobby Hill from ‘King of the Hill’
Hear me out here. Despite his family’s propane-fueled propensity for pork and other barbecue-ables, consider that King of the Hill character Bobby is a gentle, compassionate soul who was never weighed down by society’s annoying ideas about masculinity (remember his rose gardening stint?). He wanted to move to New York to attend college, where we like to imagine he’d stop by Washington Square Park in between classes for a helping of dosas from the city’s famed, all-vegan NY Dosas. Plus, he did go vegetarian for an episode to impress a girl.
3 Velma from ‘Scooby-Doo’
Though Shaggy was the confirmed vegetarian of the group, our girl Velma from Scooby-Doo was the brains of the operations and would likely have made the smart choice of going plant-based and cruelty-free. Sparse veg options in the ‘60s and life as a nomad likely hindered her from finding her footing as a vegan, but we like to think that hearty helpings of beta-carotene-rich Moroccan carrots and parsnips would satisfy her veggie cravings.
4 Draculaura from ‘Monster High’
We’re going to be honest: we’re not exactly familiar with the esteemed work of Draculaura. But the 1,600-year-old Monster High star rightfully deserves recognition as one of the very few outspoken vegan cartoon characters out there. Plus, she’s a vampire—talk about going against the grain! Draculaura eschews blood in favor of fruits, vegetables, and “a ton of iron supplements.” Word is still out on her stance on garlic.
A video posted by JakePerson (@thisisjake1) on Nov 27, 2015 at 10:55pm PST
5 The Beets from ‘Doug’
We never got confirmation on the eating habits of Doug Funnie’s favorite rock and roll band, but the legendary Liverpoolers gave the world the treasure that is “Killer Tofu.” And that has to count for something (we also wanted to work in a Patty Just Mayonnaise joke here but you get the picture).
6 Heffer from ‘Rocko’s Modern Life’
Though he was perhaps Nickelodeon’s most famed glutton, if Rocko’s Modern Life character Heffer were around today, he would be vegan. Think about it—he loved junk food and suffered at least one heart attack because of it. Now, with the array of better-for-you junky vegan food, Heffer would be able to enjoy fast-food burgers, pizza, and meatball subs, all without animal products.
7,8, 9 Dil, Chuckie, and Susie from ‘Rugrats’
All of the Rugrats would by now be millennials—a group instrumental in driving today’s push toward more vegan options. But why this trio specifically? Dil was the youngest, and in All Grown Up, was shown to be a more creative, unconventional thinker. Chuckie was a sweet, sensitive soul who held a funeral for his pillbug companion animal Melville, while Susie was a champion of justice and frequently stood up for the defenseless against the tyrannical cookie-chomping Angelica and her henchwomen Cynthia and Fluffy. All of these character traits lay the groundwork for some seriously compassionate adults.
10 Pac-Man from ‘Pac-Man’
Pac-Man worked day in and day out to provide Pac-Dots and Power Pellets for his wife Pepper and their child Pac-Baby. There’s no way these life-sustaining pixels were animal-derived, right? And yes, he also ate ghosts, but that was in self-defense.
11 Eliza from ‘The Wild Thornberrys’
No person in his or her right mind who could talk to animals would eat them or their secretions, especially Eliza from The Wild Thornberrys. The middle change of the iconic Thornberry family traveled around the world befriending animals, so by now, she’d certainly be a vegan conservationist. There’s no doubt.
12 Popeye from ‘Popeye’
A rootin’-tootin’ sailor man in his 90s with a perpetual scowl may not be the first thing that comes to mind when you think of a vegan, but Popeye laid the groundwork for plant-based protein consumption way back in 1929. Beef? No thanks. Chicken? Pass. Fish? You’d think, with all his time at sea, but no! Popeye knew he’d be strong to the finish if he just ate his spinach. Chock full of iron, fiber, protein, and vitamins K, A, and C (and perhaps lightly dressed in heart-healthy “olive oyl”), we’d all do good to follow the sailor’s example by pulling out a rusty can of the green stuff from of our shirt collars, stuffing it in a pipe, and smoke-eating it with gumption … or just try this recipe for three cheese-spinach lasagna. Either or.
13 Pearl from ‘Steven Universe’
Like the other Crystal Gems on StevenUniverse, level-headed brainiac Pearl doesn’t need food to sustain her alien body, but she is different in that she’s actually downright grossed out by the simple act of eating. In fact, just about the only thing we see her consume is tea—and we’re willing to bet she’s not adding honey or milk, either.
14 Jessica Cruz from ‘Justice League vs. The Fatal Five’
One of the Green Lanterns in the DC Universe, Jessica Cruz is not just a member of the Justice League, but a bona fide vegan—and she’s the real deal. Throughout her different iterations, Jessica has been portrayed as a pacifist, a staunch environmentalist, and she even operates out of Portland, OR … you can’t get more vegan than that.
This post was originally published on VegNews.com.
America’s Lawyer E103: This year’s presidential election is going to be decided by voters that are now being called “DOUBLE HATERS” – which means they can’t stand the thought of voting for Biden OR Trump. We’ll explain what this means for the race. Scientific studies have shown for decades that chemical hair relaxers were causing […]
The federal government has classified marijuana as one of the most dangerous drugs in the country, alongside heroin and LSD. Also, President Biden has officially signed legislation that says TikTok either has to be sold or be shut down within the next 12 months. Mike Papantonio & Farron Cousins discuss more. Transcript: *This transcript was generated by a third-party […]
Berlin, June 26, 2024 – The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly condemns the Russian foreign ministry’s Tuesday decisionto block access to 81 European media outlets in Russia in response to the EU’s recent ban on four pro-Kremlin media outlets.
“Russian authorities’ blocking of 81 European media outlets betrays their deep-seated fear of truthful reporting,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in New York. “Moscow must immediately stop restricting Russians’ access to information and cease its attempts to stifle the flow of news that deviates from the official line.”
The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ statement included 81 media outlets from 25 of the 27 EU member countries, excluding Croatia and Luxembourg,U.S. Congress-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) reported. Among those listed were television and radio companies, newspapers, magazines, and online media including Germany’s Der Spiegel and Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, France’s Le Monde and Libération, Spain’s El País, Italy’s La Stampa and La Repubblica, the Agence France-Presse news agency, Politico and several other media outlets.
“The Russian Federation has repeatedly warned at various levels that politically motivated harassment of domestic journalists and unjustified bans on Russian media in the EU will not go unanswered,” the foreign ministry’s June 25 statement said, adding that the targeted media were spreading “false information” about Russia’s war in Ukraine.
On May 17, the European Union announced it would suspend the “broadcasting activities” of the state-run RIA Novosti news agency, the pro-government newspapers Izvestia and Rossiyskaya Gazeta, and the Prague-based news website Voice of Europe, saying that those outlets were “under the permanent direct or indirect control of the leadership of the Russian Federation, and have been essential and instrumental in bringing forward and supporting Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.” The decision went into effect on June 25.
After Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the EU banned Russian state-controlled media outlets Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik on similar grounds and Russian authorities have forced a number of foreign journalists to leave the country either by revoking their accreditation or refusing to renew their visas.
On June 26, Russia’s foreign ministry responded to Austria’s recent decision to revoke the accreditation of Arina Davidyan, the Vienna-based head of the Russian state news agency TASS, by ordering Carola Schneider, head of the Moscow bureau of Austrian public broadcaster ORF, to “hand over her accreditation” and leave Russia “in the near future.”
CPJ emailed the Russian Foreign Ministry for comment on the media bans, but did not receive any response.