Pacific journalists defend free media in latest PJR

Pacific Media Centre

Sophie Foster, assistant editor of the Fiji Times, is among leading journalists who have lambasted curbs on media freedom in the latest edition of Pacific Journalism Review.

She condemned the “growth of self-censorship” within Fiji’s media industry while revealing the findings of a recent survey of mainstream journalists.

Foster took sudden leave at the Fiji Times after a newsroom upheaval last week that saw former editor-in-chief Netani Rika resign and Sunday Times editor Fred Wesley become appointed acting chief editor.

She wrote in the “Media freedom in Oceania” edition of PJR being published by AUT University’s Pacific Media Centre tomorrow that self-censorship was already a feature of the Fiji news media.

“With journalists now coming face to face with the fact that the whole truth or freedom of expression is not being fully exercised, some are now having to consider self-censoring stories they work on – because they know that, unless they do, their stories won’t meet the censors’ approval,” she wrote.

“The fact that journalists are beginning to consider this course of action – considering going against their professional ethics and beliefs – is a telling factor and a worrying one for the future of freedom of expression in Fiji.”

According to her survey, the “vast majority” of responding journalists said they needed censorship lifted to do their job better.

The survey also found that “100 percent” of respondents did not believe the work they did was a threat to security.

“Many of the journalists who do the work they do in Fiji, do so because they believe they are in the midst of delivering a public service and a public good – one that involves them being the watchdog for the average citizen, keeping an eye on the injustices, insufficiencies, inaction and highlighting these things for the purpose of making a better Fiji,” Foster wrote.

Most of the edition commentaries were presented at the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day conference hosted by the University of Queensland in Brisbane in May.

Authors include Papua New Guinea Chief Ombudsman Chronox Manek, Pacific Freedom Forum coordinator Lisa Williams-Lahari and co-chair Susuve Laumea; Samoa Observer publisher and editor-in-chief Savea Sano Malifa, Cook Islands News managing editor and secretary/treasurer of the Pasifika Media Association (PasiMA) John Woods; Transparency Vanuatu president Marie-Noelle Ferrieux Patterson; Vois Blong Yumi Project leader Francis Herman; and Pacific Media Centre director Associate Professor David Robie.

Research papers include several about the three-month-old Media Industry Development Decree, “collaborative journalism”, the non-government organisation and civil society community and “life under censorship” in Fiji (by Shailendra Singh of the University of the South Pacific), and one article focuses on two newspaper case studies in media freedom in Tonga.

In the editorial, Associate Professor Martin Hadlow of UOQ's School of Journalism and Communication noted that the UNESCO conference “provided a platform for journalism and media professionals from the Pacific region to gather in special pre and post-conference workshops to discuss concerns and fears about repressive regimes”.

Supported by a grant from the UNESCO Office of Pacific States, this edition of PJR – now in its 16th year of publication – was jointly edited by Martin Hadlow, Marsali Mackinnon and managing editor David Robie.

PJR website
Order copies of v16(2) here
Malcolm Evans website

Charting a new course for the Fiji Times

Full text of Fiji Broadcasting Corporation news director Stanley Simpson's interview with new Fiji Times publisher Dallas Swinstead on 6 October 2010:

What is the new direction, if any, that the Fiji Times will be taking?

I want to add to the quality product we already have. This will range across all the various features that good newspapers offer. We have excellent world-wide editorial service suppliers but most of all we have a strong, professional editorial department, a department which like most others here at The Fiji Times has really been fearful of their newspaper’s survival.

As everyone knows, Mahendra Patel at Motibhai saved the day. I mention him not for a free plug but to tell you what many people do not know: he has been a board member of the Fiji Times for about 34 years. He knows enough about newspaper ethics and policies to leave new directions to the publisher - me - and I am grateful for that.

The key question everyone asks but, if they stop to think about it, everyone knows the answer to, is your question: new directions?

Yes, we are changing direction. Having watched News Ltd perish in this country, there’s no sense in committing suicide, even with a locally-owned replacement. There is no doubt that The Fiji Times cannot be antagonistic to the government, What on earth does it prove? But we will ask questions in a fair and balanced way because we will be helping to bring the people to the government.

Did Netani Rika resign because he would not go with the new direction you have set for the Fiji Times?

In a word, yes. To his eternal credit, he, in his own words “sacrificed his job” for the Fiji Times. We had several long, constructive and sensitive sessions and the ending was pretty sad for both of us. He’s like the rest of us – we are proud to be employed and we have families to look after. In time, as Fiji finds its way, he will play his part in its history because he is an intelligent and thoughtful person.

I understand you have had a meeting with the Permanent Secretary for Information [Sharon Smith-Johns] – How did the meeting go?

The meeting went well. I presented my credentials, which if I may say so, are pretty good; I said my piece and the permanent secretary said hers. I certainly understood that she was delivering the government’s line and in my short time here I already chosen to support that line. Why? Because most respected people here have spoken to me about infrastructure finally taking shape; about one nation one people, about equality from coast to coast. If you like, you can be cynical about it, but from where I stand – and I first made up my mind about this in 1979 as I left after four years in the chair at the times - the two main communities have to learn to live together EQUALLY, with equal opportunity and equal hard work.

The Fiji Sun is posing a strong challenge – how do you see the competition with the Sun?

Well, when I was last here [PMC editor: The previous Fiji Sun at the time of the 1987 Rabuka coups - no connection to the current newspaper] eventually wobbled to a stop. Now it’s going again and because of a most unequal playing field it is doing better than it might otherwise do. I’m not prepared to comment on its content or its quality.

How confident are you of pulling back government advertising to the Fiji Times?

This will depend on us proving to the people, and thus to the government that we are a newspaper with a good, strong heart and a love for Fiji. We have to help people understand that there some highly-educated soldiers walking on this path set by their leader and, given that education, they will all yearn for democratic elections when the time comes. It is, I believe, inevitable and exciting.

Pictured: New Fiji Times publisher Dallas Swinstead. Photo: Fiji Times

Stanley Simpson's report on FBCNews
On Pacific Scoop

New contributing editor joins PMW project

Pacific Media Centre

A new contributing editor for the Pacific Media Watch project has been appointed and has taken up his role this week.

Alex Perrottet, 29, is a postgraduate student working towards a Master in Communication Studies degree at AUT University. He is also a qualified lawyer and experienced aid project organiser who has carried out considerable work in the Pacific.

From Sydney, where he worked for some years as a solicitor before moving to Auckland, Perrottet is now making a career change into media.

He has a keen interest in Pacific media and he was appointed by the Pacific Media Centre to take up this new part time role. He has carried out research into the censorship regime in Fiji and is closely following issues of media freedom.

"I'm really interested in the Pacific. Having spent a bit of time there on volunteer projects, I have come to appreciate the mix of cultures that make up the Pacific Islands," he says.

"I have a real passion for writing and was writing articles even when studying and working as a lawyer back in Sydney."

Over the past 12 years, Perrottet has been involved in aid projects in indigenous Australian communities and also in Fiji, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Indonesia – and Kenya. Next January, he will be taking a group to Samoa to help rebuild homes and church buildings in a village badly damaged by last year's tsunami.

'Life-changing'
These experiences have been "life-changing" and Perrottet enjoys connecting with new people in the Pacific, hearing their stories and enabling young volunteers from Australia, New Zealand and around the region and taste the Pacific experience.

It has also enabled him to develop a deeper understanding of some different cultures and issues important to Pacific peoples that often go unreported in the Western press.

Perrottet has wide interests ranging from politics to sport, from literature and philosophy to humour and satire, music and the performing arts.

He is interested in education and has spent a lot of time coaching and mentoring school students in debating and public speaking and wider academia. His passion for volunteering has led him to coordinate youth projects, summer camps and performances for high school students.

"I was lucky enough to have the experience of speaking to around 300,000 people in Sydney in 2008 as the master of ceremonies at World Youth Day,” he says.

“ It was certainly a quick lesson in communication.”

Perrottet succeeds Josephine Latu, who has been contributing editor for the past two years. She has now completed her masters degree.

Latu recently reported on the Pacific Islands Forum in Vanuatu for Pacific Scoop.

An Alex Perrottet report - Fiji's 'painful process' could lead to better democracy
Pacific Media Watch database on DSpace - watch for the new PMC/PMW website going live soon. The old PMC website is here.

Why Samoa for new media group PacMA?

By Kalafi Moala: Pacific Media Centre

In the days immediately following the announcement of the launch of the Pacific Media Association (PacMA), the question has often been raised about why Samoa was chosen as the place to register this new organisation.

Last week on August 10, several media owners and journalists from the Pacific region met in Apia to form the new association. A new constitution was formulated and registration of an incorporated society was sought with the government of Samoa.

In addition to a new code of ethics for the organisation and its members, a set of bylaws is being currently written to guide the conduct of the affairs of the organisation.

Headed by probably the Pacific region’s most successful and experienced media owner and journalist, Samoa’s Sano Savea Malifa, the men and women that make up the organisation promise to be the embodiment of PacMA’s mission to promote and defend values of media freedom, ethics and good governance, and provide training for all media in the Pacific region.

Malifa plays a major role in the selection of Samoa as the founding ground for PacMA.

But it is more than that. Samoa hosts some of the most effective media operations in the region – be it print, broadcasting, or on-line. And these operations are not flash-in-the-pan overnight sensations.

They have paid the price in years of covering the hard yards. In the case of Malifa and his print media enterprise, he has suffered in previous years many obstacles, including countless lawsuits, physical attacks, the burning down of his press plant, and other disheartening inconveniences.

Samoa, however, has gone through its own quiet reform in so many facets of its political, economic, and social life. The result has been an environment conducive to the development of media freedom and journalistic professionalism.

The National University of Samoa is running a journalism school, and who knows what other educational development in media is ahead at this growing institution?

Free media environment
The government of Samoa has not only given the island nation comparable political and social stability, but has been largely responsible for creating a free media environment.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi has himself been a staunch supporter of media freedom. Despite having been at times scrutinised by the local media, he has been a mature and responsible leader in his response.

On the evening that marked the launch of PacMA, Tuilaepa, despite a busy schedule, and another function he needed to attend, “dropped in” and congratulated the founders of PacMA, encouraged the members in its stand for media freedom, and gave a speech that welcomed the organisation.

He was especially thrilled that the new organisation was founded and will be operating out of Samoa.

It was hard to think of too many other island nations in the Pacific that can match the welcome, the hospitality, and the media freedom environment that Samoa offers.

What makes PacMA a unique media association is that it is to be primarily driven by media owners, the journalists and media practitioners who work in the industry. Too often organisations end up being run by bureaucrats whose ties to the actual professional services provided for people are no longer there.

It is time a media association is run primarily by people who are engaged in media as part of their everyday occupation.

Another major facet of the PacMA ethos that is fundamental to its formation and ongoing practice is that of independence from the aid infrastructure in the region that often results in “funding traps” in which service organisations become entangled and unable to fulfil their mission.

Obviously, there is no organisation that can survive without funding. But PacMA has chosen to be self-funded, and allow Pacific generosity to be a sustainable provider. There will be specific projects, however, from time to time, for which the organization will seek funding assistance.

The consensus at the founding meeting was: “We will not let funding dictate our vision and mission agendas.”

So be it. PacMA wants to be independent of what has become a very dangerous trend in NGO and regional organisational operations, which is a total dependence on donor funding agencies.

PacMA has its work cut out, not only in reestablishing the traditional media association roles and responsibilities in the region, but also how to wisely facilitate the new realities of emerging new media, gender driven media initiatives, and the future of our industry rooted in the growing youth media practitioners that need all the encouragement and help they can get.

Kalafi Moala, publisher and chief executive of the Nuku'alofa-based Taimi Media Network, is deputy chair of PacMA and himself a key campaigner for media freedom Pacific-style. Photo of Savea Sano Malifa, Samoa Observer.

New Pacific media body PacMA formed at Samoa meeting
PacMA website

Inquisitive Pasifika journalist stood down from Radio 531pi

By Gladys Hartson, Pacific Media Watch

Members of the Pacific community have come out in support of a popular radio announcer after he was stood down from his weekend show Talanoa Pacific on Thursday.

According to a blog, Efeso Collins, an announcer for Radio 531pi posted a notice on Pacificeyewitness website stating he received an email from the programme director of Pacific Media Network, Pere Matai, outlining serious matters had arisen since they last spoke two weeks ago, and as a result he would be rested from presenting this weekend.

The handling of $4.8 million dollars of taxpayer’s money granted to an organization called Pacific Islands Economic Development Agency Ltd (PEDA) created huge debate amongst the listeners. (See Pacific Scoop analysis for more on this issue.)

Collins said he and many in his community wanted answers from the government and PEDA.

Collins and his colleague, host of Island time and head announcer Mary Pahi, posted blogs on the website regarding the PEDA issue expressing their difference of opinion on the matter. (See Collins’ entry) and (Pahi’s entry).

The polarised positions expressed on the website demonstrate how sensitive this issue (of PEDA receiving almost $5 million of Government funds over the next four years) has become.

“It saddens me it has come to this, and somehow I have become embroiled in this issue,” Collins added.

A masters graduate from Auckland University, he said: "If we as Pacific media are not prepared to ask the ‘hard questions’ who will? We need to stop pandering to those who control the funding”.

Pacific Media Network receives government funding.

"What kind of a message does that give our Pacific broadcasters/journalists? If you’re not nice to people of influence when you conduct an interview, they won’t continue to fund us?” he said.

Collins would not go into the details why he has been rested from the show. According to his blog he would await the outcome and would be seeking legal advice.

Pere Maitai via text said he will not be commenting on an internal staff matter.

Pacific Scoop contacted Chair of the National Pacific Radio Trust, Tino Perira, seeking clarity on why Collins was stood down from the radio station. Perira said he was aware of the issue but would not comment stating only that it is a management issue and that Radio 531pi’s management will deal with it.


Gladys Hartson is a Graduate Diploma in Journalism student at AUT University and is working with Pacific Media Watch.

More on Pacific Scoop:

Analysis: Questions over NZ Govt's funds to PEDA raise serious concerns
Govt's $4.8million package to Pacific EDA questioned

PMC director talks media freedom on JACradio

Pacific Media Centre/JACradio

Pacific Media Centre director David Robie is among a host of people interviewed at the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day conference in Brisbane earlier this month.

He talked to Lisa Machin from the JACradio team.

Genevieve Kennedy also interviewed Cherelle Jackson, editor of the Samoan newspaper Environment Weekly, on media freedom in Samoa.

Radio coverage from the conference is now available to download as podcasts. Students from the University of Queensland's School of Journalism and Communication joined international media in reporting the two-day event.

Among the stories they produced were interviews with UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova and world press freedom prize winner Monica Gonzalez.

Hear Australian investigative journalist Chris Masters discuss how freedoms are not used well and find out how audiences are dealing with the sheer volume of news available.

Tune in to JACradio to download and listen to the WPFD coverage.

PMC director calls for stronger voice against censorship

By Pacific Media Watch in Brisbane

A New Zealand media educator who headed Pacific journalism schools for a decade has called for a stronger voice against censorship from the region’s communication education sector.

“The student press and broadcasters in the Pacific universities need to be proactive in their coverage and philosophy as news media,” said associate professor David Robie, director of the Pacific Media Centre at AUT University.

“They need to protect the freedom of the press and freedom of expression in the traditions of an independent Fourth Estate while also helping Pacific nations forge a common vision.”

Speaking in one of the University of Queensland’s school of journalism and communication World Press Freedom Day lectures, Dr Robie gave a series of case studies involving censorship in the region’s journalism schools, including the George Speight failed coup in Fiji in May 2000.

The University of the South Pacific journalism school’s training website Pacific Journalism Online was closed by the university administration when martial law was declared in Fiji on May 29 and only allowed to resume again three months later providing no coup news was published.

University authorities also tried unsuccessfully to halt publication of the journalism programme newspaper Wansolwara, which published a special coup edition in June 2000.

The censorship attempts by the authorities led to international protests by media freedom bodies such as the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontières and New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

“The university failed to gag student journalism on both counts through the students’ personal courage and determination and they were later vindicated by winning several international awards for their coverage,” Dr Robie said.

He also praised the role of the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ) at the University of Technology, Sydney, for immediately establishing a “mirror” website for the USP journalism students and continuing to publish the “gagged” students’ stories, pictures and audio clips.

“Their archive continues to this day,” he said.

Dr Robie said he had surveyed a number of students who had experienced coverage of that coup and they had “developed enormously” as journalists over the past decade. The experience had equipped them well for their careers.

“A shared view of many of the students reflecting on what they had learned during the putsch is that student journalism was in many respects more independent than the mainstream commercial media driven by profit,” he said.

Asked whether journalism schools were doing enough in the present climate of Pacific censorship, Dr Robie said far more could be done to continually test the boundaries.

But he cited Wansolwara’s special “role of the media” issue last year and an edition of the Fijian Studies journal devoted to media and democracy, which were examples of strong contributions to debate.

He also cited examples of attempted censorship by authorities at the University of Papua New Guinea, but said the student journalists had remained resolute.

Pictures: Top: Dr David Robie and Dr Levi Obijiofor, of the University of Queensland, at UNESCO WPFD 2010. Middle: Vanuatu Independent deputy editor Evelyne Toa and Dr David Robie. Bottom: PNG Ombudsman Chronox Manek.

• Fiji student coup journalism archive
• Source: 6838 Pacific Media Watch
• More UNESCO conference stories on Pacific Scoop and Pacific Media Watch
  

PMC comments on Fiji media decree and regional coverage

Pacific Media Centre

The controversial Fiji draft media decree, news coverage of Samoa and Tonga and the rest of the region and journalism education have all featured in this week's commentaries from the Pacific Media Centre.

Censorship by legal camouflage (forthcoming article in the Walkley Magazine) - April

Radio NZ's Mediawatch co-host Jeremy Rose interviews PMC director Dr David Robie on the Fiji Media Industry Development Decree - April 18

Media7 panel criticises BSA over 'guns and drugs' ruling (Pacific Scoop) - April 17

Fiji fights on for a free media (article in the New Zealand Herald Online) - April 16

PMC director Dr David Robie with TVNZ's Barbara Dreaver and Media Freedom Committee chairman Tim Pankhurst in a Media7 panel on Pacific media coverage hosted by Russell Brown - April 15

Check out our news website Pacific Scoop for further updates.

Draft Fiji media decree draconian and punitive

By David Robie: Pacific Media Centre

Fiji’s draft media decree is draconian and punitive and will fail as a development communication model.

Many aspects of the draft law are deeply disturbing and the harsh proposed penalties for editors and journalists who fall foul of the proposed rules will curb any hope of a return to an independent Fourth Estate.

This will be a blow to media freedom throughout the Pacific and provide a damaging precedent for other politicians in the region keen to rein in a free press.

The draft Media Industry Development Decree 2010 provides for the establishment of a Media Industry Development Authority (MIDA) to “encourage, promote and facilitate” news media organisations and services at a “high standard” and a statutory Media Tribunal to judge complaints against media.

The new provision restricting foreign ownership to 10 percent of a media organisation and directorships to Fiji citizens who have been residing in the country for five of the past seven years, and nine of the past 12 months.

Vindictive section
This is clearly a vindictive section aimed at crippling the Fiji Times, the country’s largest and most influential newspaper, which is owned by a Murdoch subsidiary, News Limited.

The regime wants to put the newspaper out of business, or at least effectively seize control and muzzle its independent stance – seen by the military-backed government as “anti-Fiji”.

While international responses have focused on the serious impact for the Fiji Times group, it will also hit the other two dailies – the struggling Fiji Daily Post, which has 51 per cent Australian ownership, and the Fiji Sun, which has taken a more “pro-Fiji” (ie the regime) line than the Times but has some expatriate directors.

Other concerns about the draft law include:

• Too much power being vested in the ministerial-appointed director of the MIDA and chairman of the Media Tribunal. Both agencies need wider community representation and independence.

• The power to investigate suspected breaches of the decree and to search and seize documents and computer equipment (albeit with a warrant). This would stifle any investigative journalism, although there has been little of that since the 2006 coup.

• A requirement that all news reports publish a “byline” identifying the author. An opportunity for vindictive reprisals from a vengeful dictatorship.

• The power to punish media organisations guilty of an offence under the decree with a fine of up to F$500,000, and individual editors and journalists with a fine of up to $100,000 or a maximum jail term of five years. This is so intimidating that many of Fiji’s better and more experienced journalists will be tempted to leave Fiji if they can – and there has been a steady exodus of media people ever since the first two coups in 1987 – or discourage young people entering the profession.

• The power to proactively investigate a media organisation without a public complaint being filed. This opens the door to vindictive abuse in a climate of dictatorship and the singling out of media organisations that do not toe the regime line.

Better training
There is a case to be made for better engagement by media on national development issues, but this should be achieved through more journalism training and education and more support for the country’s journalism schools and training institutions, such as the University of the South Pacific.

All governments in Fiji – not just the current regime – have lambasted the media ever since independence when it suits them, but have provided precious little support for training and education for the industry.

A government cannot legislate people’s minds. Much more can be achieved by freeing up the media environment, backing off from censorship and engaging with the media in a more cooperative manner.

To get its own side of the story across, the Fiji regime should establish a national news agency like many developing countries do and let the media get on with its job of reporting unfettered in the public interest.

Codes of ethics previously administered by the self-regulatory Fiji Media Council have been incorporated into the draft decree as statutory schedules.

But it is not yet clear what future role the council would have as the authority and tribunal would overtake its powers.

While in a democracy, a media development authority could have merits – especially if it genuinely supported stronger training and education programmes – in a dictatorship it is dangerous. This smacks of blatant and insidious control.

With a decree like this in place in Fiji, who needs censorship?

Dr David Robie is an associate professor in AUT University’s School of Communication Studies and director of the Pacific Media Centre. He is a former head of journalism at the University of the South Pacific.

• Read David Robie’s Café Pacific blog comments on the controversy:
• ‘Camouflaged censorship’ in Fiji and PINA’s comment
• Ruthlessly chilling decree no way to improve Fiji media
• Full text of draft Media Industry Development Decree 2010

Development grant gives boost to Pacific Media Watch freedom project

By Lucy Mullinger: Pacific Media Centre

A Pacific media freedom monitoring project that began life campaigning for two journalists and a parliamentarian languishing in a Tongan jail almost 14 years ago has been given a boost by a $15,000 development grant.

Pacific Media Watch, founded by volunteer journalists concerned about a free media in the region, campaigned with a petition to have the “Tongan three” released from jail.

Now the project is run by AUT University’s Pacific Media Centre and it is being revitalised as a digital media freedom and development database.

The Pacific Development and Conservation Trust grant will be used to expand the regional database and community journalism resources which focus on media freedom, environmental issues, human rights and a sustainable press.

Current PMW contributing editor Josephine Latu of Tonga (pictured above interviewing) says the project gives media freedom in the region “publicity and a buzz” and professor Olaf Diegel of AUT’s Creative Industries Research Institute, which includes the Pacific Media Centre, says the grant is a “tremendous boost” for media research.

One of the founders of PMW, award-winning Sydney investigative journalist Peter Cronau, believes the grant will help the project keep up the challenge.

“In smaller communities there is a risk that political and commercial influences can have a more substantial effect on influencing the reporting of events,” he says.

Keeping democracy alive
“A group like PMW keeps an eye on such transgressions and ensures they are given the openness and oxygen that keep democracy alive.”

The PMW project was adopted by the Pacific Media Centre in 2007 and has been developed by Pacific Islands contributing editors based in AUT’s School of Communication Studies for the past three years.

PMW was originally established in 1996 at the University of Technology, Sydney, by Peter Cronau, then director of the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism, and then Papua New Guinea-based NZ journalist David Robie.

Associate Professor Robie, who is now director of the Pacific Media Centre, says this is the first external funding for the PMW project.

“The voice of a ‘free press’ in the Pacific often used to be an issue owned by cozy elite media proprietors,” says Dr Robie.

Nowadays groups such as Pacific Media Watch, Pacific Freedom Forum and Pacific Islands News Association are contributing to issues of media freedom being constantly debated around the region.

Dr Robie believes this is partly due to a perceived greater danger for journalists and the media in the region - “especially in the face of a sustained onslaught from the censors and the military regime in Fiji”.

Global media agencies
Although there are other larger global free media agencies such as the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists and Reporters Sans Frontières in Paris, Cronau believes a smaller programme such as PMW can devote more time to local issues and continue to follow-up on them long after world attention has declined.

“There is a localised corporate memory that allows the connections to be made between current events and the relevant historical background,” he says.

The catalyst which established the programme was the jailing of Taimi ‘o Tonga journalists and editors Kalafi Moala and Filokalafi ‘Akau'ola, along with pro-democracy MP in Tonga, ‘Akilisi Pohiva, for alleged contempt of Parliament in September 1996.

With help from the PMW, which organised a petition of more than 100 media signatures from the Pacific region, and other groups such as the Commonwealth Press Union, they were freed by the Supreme Court in Tonga after it had ruled that their imprisonment was unconstitutional.

Moala has been a staunch supporter of the project ever since it started and has contributed many articles on the Pacific Islands region.

He believes the PMW is a great help information-wise to Pacific peoples.

According to Moala, media organisations across the Pacific benefit from the information that comes from the Pacific Media Centre.

“I do not know what others are doing in terms of Pacific research, but what we get out of AUT is definitely superb,” he says.

Contribute submissions
The PMW and PMC also contribute submissions on media matters, such as for an independent review of the Fiji Media Council just months before martial law was declared in April 2009.

“We are also constantly working behind the scenes with journalists who are in jeopardy,” says Robie.

Contributing editor Josephine Latu says: “We try to watch for new projects or developments in the area and promote them by giving them publicity and a buzz through news coverage on our partner Pacific Scoop, as well as dispatching emails and newsletters to our subscriber list.

“We also document these developments by storing news stories, research papers, or important media reports in our database.”

Dr Robie says: “This is an important development for us and will enable the PMC to significantly improve the resources made available through the university’s PMW database and integrate it with other digital developments planned by the centre for later this year.

“The grant will help in expanding and improving our services, for instance, giving our database and website a makeover and making them more interactive with users. The grant will hopefully allow us to bring more Pacific Island people, or Pacific-interested people on board,” he says.

The centre also wants to organise other events in the future which will showcase and promote more student media work - such as the Flavorz film festival held last November, where a range of short films by Māori, Pasifika and diversity television students were shown.

The grant will be used to help Pacific people express their identity and worldview through media and to contribute to New Zealand's knowledge base, says Latu.

“Pacific media does not only mean news coverage about the region - it also involves alternative perspectives and angles of these same issues from local people.

“We also need to bring this aspect of diversity to NZ media.” she says.

'Trememdous boost'
Professor Olaf Diegel, director of the Creative Industries Research Institute at AUT, says the $15,000 development grant represents a tremendous boost to Pacific research.

“Until the creation of the Pacific Media Centre there has been relatively little true research into Pacific media. Even getting the public and government to understand both the value of Pacific media-related research, and what constitutes good media research has been a challenge,” he says.

“ It is only when tabloid worthy events - such as the coups in Fiji or Samoan tsunami occur - that we even realise that there is such a thing as Pacific media” he says.

He believes “this kind of synergy between research, industry and education” makes AUT the top institution in the field of Pacific research.

“I am convinced Pacific Media Watch will become a vital source of information on all things Pacific, and will be used extensively by the media, the government and the community.”

Is there a future for Pacific journalism? No doubt about it, says Cronau

“As long as there are those who act to inhibit free speech and the work of inquiring journalists in Pacific countries, there will be a need for Pacific Media Watch's unblinking eye.”

The Pacific Media Watch digital repository: www.pacmediawatch.aut.ac.nz
More information about PMW.
The original PMW website, hosted by a community NGO.

Pacific Media Watch wins grant to boost freedom of expression project

Pacific Media Centre: pmw2627

The Pacific Media Watch freedom of expression monitoring project at AUT University has been awarded a $15,000 development grant to expand its regional database and journalism resource.

The PMW project was adopted by AUT’s Pacific Media Centre in 2007 and has been developed by Pacific Islands contributing editors based in the School of Communication Studies for the past three years.

Previously, the project had been steered by journalists in the region working as volunteers.

A grant has now been awarded by the Pacific Development and Conservation Trust to the PMC which will enable the project to expand its educational and research role for the region and to enhance the involvement of postgraduate student journalists.

“This is an important development for us and will enable the PMC to significantly improve the resources made available through the university’s PMW database and integrate it with other digital developments planned by the centre for later this year,” says PMC director Associate Professor David Robie.

Contributing editor of the project for the past 18 months has been Josephine Latu of Tonga. She followed Taberannang Korauaba of Kiribati who worked on the project in 2007.

Other AUT postgraduate student journalists have also contributed to the text, video and audio resource, which links to the new regional news website Pacific Scoop.

Pacific Media Watch was originally established at the University of Technology, Sydney, and University of Papua New Guinea in 1996.

Background on Pacific Media Watch
The PMW database is at: www.pacmediawatch.aut.ac.nz

New Pacific media freedom group plugs the gaps

“It’s time to stand up. Journalists have human rights too,” says Lisa Williams-Lahari, founder of a new Pacific media freedom group.

By Kara Segedin: Pacific Media Centre

The Pacific’s newest media watch group wrapped up its inaugural forum in Samoa earlier this month, but has vowed that it will not be challenging the long-established Pacific Islands News Association over press freedom issues.

“We arose out of the gaps in PINA,” says founding coordinator Lisa Williams-Lahari (pictured) of the Pacific Freedom Forum.

But, rather than compete with the established parent organisation, PFF’s goal is to act as its media freedom arm.

“We’re part of the PINA family,” she says. “In July, at PINA’s forum in Vanuatu they will decide how to engage with us.”

More than 40 delegates from 12 Pacific nations gathered at the UNESCO-funded PFF meeting dubbed “Courage under fire” at Apia on May 6-8.

The forum drew up an outcomes statement, saying all Pacific people have the right to freedom of speech and access to a free media.

It identified a growing number of threats to media freedom in the region and called on governments to act on commitments to international agreements such as the Rarotonga Media Declaration of 1990 and Article 19 of the universal declaration of human rights.

Strong links
The PFF wants to build strong relationships within the region, online and with the PINA.

Williams-Lahari says as an online forum the PFF has met the needs for monitoring abuses against journalists.

It is raising the alarm on threats to media freedom, which is ultimately linked to the freedom of people.

PFF’s Project XIX was one of three Pacific media schemes approved for funding by UNESCO through the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC).

“Only a handful of Pacific Island groups got funding. This paid for the conference.”

The PFF started off small, but Williams-Lahari says it quickly developed a following among experienced journalists. It has been a busy year and the next step is to apply for NGO status.
There is also talk of a name change.

Williams-Lahari says there is an attitude among Pacific Island journalists that the abuse and threats they sometimes face are part of the job.

“It’s time to stand up. Journalists have human rights too,” she says.

“We want to let the region know it’s not on. Let leaders know that for the development and growth of Pacific countries the media needs to be part of the process.”

Right track
There were many outcomes from the forum and Williams-Lahari says they felt a lot of solidarity from members that they were all on the right track.

She has been to a number of conferences in the past, but this one was different because while the issues were serious there was a lot of laughter.

“There was a lot of wisdom and experience,” she says. It was also a chance to put faces to some well-known names.

Williams-Lahari says one criticism of PINA is that is has not engaged with Pacific Island needs in New Zealand.

The PFF want to create ties with the New Zealand-based Pacific Islands Media Association (PIMA).

“They are another slice of the Pacific, but it’s a different media industry,” she says. “We’re keen to hook up with the Pacific Island network because we’re all on the same page.”

Williams-Lahari says they want to make sure all abuses, even the ones people think are small, are reported.

The next step for the PFF is training, continued advocacy and to make sure all countries are covered, from Hawai’i to Papua New Guinea.

“Doing what we’re doing now and doing it better,” she says.

Rights and safety
Deborah Muir, programme manager of the Asia-Pacific bureau of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) in Sydney, ran two days of workshops for the PFF.

The IFJ supports journalists and their unions and works against censorship, and for the rights and safety of journalists.

Muir says IFJ got involved when the PFF asked it to help with training on monitoring and reporting on media rights.

“We were invited to provide some expertise and give it a structure”.

According to Muir, there has been a vacuum of strong advocacy and freedom of expression in the Pacific.

“A lot of the problems in the Pacific Islands are similar. Fiji is an extreme example,” she says.

“Advocacy had been insufficient and the situation in Fiji brings this home,” she says. “In my understanding, the (PFF) members are requiring a much stronger advocacy approach.”

At the forum, delegates heard first hand stories of physical abuse and intimidation.

“Fiji sets such a bad example. We’re worried that other states may adopt their tactics,” she says.

Contempt for journalists
There is overt obstruction and intimidation of journalists as power holders seek to maintain control.

In the Pacific, there are difficulties with public perception and with the media itself. Muir says contempt for journalists is a common problem across the region and members of the public may object to the way the media reports issues.

The media also has weak procedures for dealing with complaints.

“At the moment it’s early days, but members are committed to setting up a system of reporting and advocacy,” she says.

“They’ve said they didn’t want to compete with PINA but fulfil the role missed by PINA. And that’s for Pacific Islands journalists to work out.”

Muir identifies a number of things that can be done to help repair the situation.

“The first step is strong advocacy and in the long term professional development and ethics.”

It is also important to network with similar associations.

Crucial time
Phil McGrath, a spokesman for PIMA, says “it’s a crucial time for media freedom”.

“Governments in the region are undertaking massive change in the way they work. Journalists and the public have the right to be informed,” he says.

McGrath says the situation in the Pacific is very delicate and it does not help that outside media are coming in with little understanding of the complexities.

“It’s good to have local people working together.”

He says PIMA members can help with training and engaging the community in New Zealand and in their home countries.

Associate professor David Robie, director of AUT University’s Pacific Media Centre, sees the forum as an enormous step forward and he hopes the centre will work closely with the PFF.

“There was a real buzz of energy and commitment about it,” he says. “I hope it continues.”

“It was an inspiring meeting. Many journalists who have suffered abuse were there to tell their stories.”

He agrees that PINA has not been meeting its obligations on media freedom issues, but says it is still the main media organisation in the region.

Dr Robie, present at the meeting as an observer for the NZ National Commission for UNESCO, is concerned the PFF will overlap with PINA and end up competing for limited funds.

PMW monitoring
Also, the PMC at AUT has been monitoring media freedom in the Pacific through the 13-year-old Pacific Media Watch news service and database started at the University of Papua New Guinea and Australian Centre for Independent Journalism.

The current PMW contributing editor, Josephine Latu, is a journalist from Tonga.

Media freedom organisations are generally independent, but there is a risk of PFF being compromised.

“Some journalists have either business or other media interests,” he says.

“There is a danger of people pushing their own barrow.

“It’s important that the Pacific is kept in perspective – it still largely a safe place for journalists and media freedom by comparison in global terms,” he says.

“There are none of the really serious threats and assaults, kidnappings or murders that journalists face in other countries such as Burma, Iraq, or even a democracy such as the Philippines.”

Dr Robie says ongoing issues for journalists in the region include cultural and political pressures, and the ease of inducements because Pacific journalists are poorly paid and often face poor work conditions.

This remains an ongoing threat.

Kara Segedin is a Graduate Diploma in Journalism student on the AUT Asia-Pacific Journalism course.

Pacific Freedom Forum
Pacific Islands News Association
Pacific Islands Media Association
Pacific Media Watch

Fiji regime tightens grip, plans own media

By Pippa Brown: Pacific Media Centre

Fiji continues to head into a political and economic hole as Fiji’s military regime tightens its grip and communications in the country are heavily censored.

The regime now plans to begin broadcasting its own television programme in a deal with Fiji TV, and to publish a newspaper insert in the Fiji Sun, the second-largest daily.

The unanimous decision to suspend Fiji from the Pacific Islands Forum earlier this month further compounded Fiji’s woes.

The PIF responded to Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama’s failure to return Fiji to democratic governance by May 1 and name a date for elections this year.

“A regime which displays such a total disregard for basic human rights, democracy and freedom has no place in the Pacific Islands forum,” said the Forum chairman, Niue Premier Toke Talagi.

The forum will ensure that Fiji does not benefit directly from any regional cooperation initiatives, new financial or technical assistance until it returns to democratic rule.

Amnesty International is extremely concerned about the volatility of the situation. It says the human rights situation is getting worse by the day and the civilian population is living in fear as a result of draconian measures implemented by the military regime.

“What is developing is a nature of extreme fear and intimidation.

“As well as the media clampdown, the regime is now believed to be monitoring email traffic, blogs and telephone conversations,” says Pacific researcher Apolosi Bose after a trip to Fiji last month.

‘Chilling effect’
The censorship has affected the way people work and has had a “major chilling effect” on the operations of a non-government organisation whose work is critical for standing up to human rights abuses, says Bose.

Oxfam New Zealand executive director Barry Coates thinks communications have not entirely shut down.

“Technology and communications are still available through the internet. Ten percent of citizens have internet access; mainly in urban areas as a lot of rural areas still have traditional lifestyles,” says Coates.

China has an influence on Fiji and other Pacific nations.

“The influence of New Zealand and Australia is disappearing and there is a real problem with foreign policy,” he says.

China is not condemning Fijian policies and now gaining influence in the region.

The Chinese government has been accused of propping up the military regime by supplying hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, according to a Lowry Institute analyst, Fergus Hanson.

The Australian reported that although China maintains a strong relationship with Fiji and other Pacific nations, it does not want to be seen as the new international protector filling Fiji’s international relations vacuum, or writing cheques to underpin the country’s collapsing revenues.

Foreign exchange
Foreign exchange remittances sent home by Fijian peacekeepers are said to be worth millions of dollars a year to the Fijian economy.

The Chinese news agency Xinhua reported that the UN will continue to use Fiji police and soldiers in its current peacekeeping missions but will not increase the numbers in future deployments.

There are more Fijian police working under its peacekeeping mandate than soldiers, said the UN Under-Secretary-General for Political Affairs, Ly Pascoe, during a conference in New York recently.

Bruce McConchie has extensive global experience within the development area through both government aid projects and NGOs over a period of 35 years.

He says that NGOs hold a distinct advantage in aid projects.

“They are better at reaching the poorest as they operate at grassroots level and are more effective at managing micro-finance initiatives. They commit to the lengthy time frame required to make a difference,” he says.

“They are used to times of strife and operating in an environment of poor communication,” he says.

Providing the resources are still available, the lack of communication isn’t a problem. NGOs operate best on mobilising and encouraging other people.

They are not solely dependent on outside resources and work effectively with what is available in their immediate environment. Change is often not obvious for another 10 to 15 years, he says.

Squatter settlements
Oxfam’s Barry Coates says there has been an increase in squatter settlements around Suva.

Relations between New Zealand and Australia toward Fiji have cooled further after both countries snubbed an attempt by Commodore Bainimarama for a summit with Prime Ministers New Zealand John Key and Australian Kevin Rudd.

Bainimarama expressed frustration with both prime ministers and their attitude at his attempts to rid Fiji of racism and undertake electoral reform before elections in 2014.

An election this year would restore the “racist” government of former Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase, whom he disposed at gunpoint in 2006, according to The Australian.

Can Fiji sustain itself operating alone in this environment?

“The problems are enormously complex,” says Coates. It is partly due to the coup and partly due to a decline in Fiji’s economy. The textile industry is breaking down as more manufacturing is going to China.

There have been major disruptions in the sugar and tourism industries. The impact on tourism is due to the coup.

Tourists nervous
“It made people nervous about going there with the military running the country,” he says.
The sugar industry and international trade issues are due to European Union policies.

“They are protecting their own distributors.” The EU suspended its $170 million aid package to Fiji’s sugar industry, the second- largest after tourism, following the coup and says future help depends on democracy being restored.

Coates says it is difficult to see how this situation is going to play out in the long term.

“Without the restoration of democracy, the rights of minorities like the Indo-Fijians will suffer,” he says. He believes tension is building and the Fijians are suffering economically.

Pippa Brown is a Graduate Diploma in Journalism student who is on the AUT Asia-Pacific Journalism course. Photo: Pacific Media Centre.

PJR targets Fiji censorship, cross-cultural reporting

Pacific Media Centre

Censorship and the assault on human rights and freedom of expression in Fiji are featured in the latest edition of Pacific Journalism Review.

The AUT Pacific Media Centre-based publication, New Zealand's only peer-reviewed international media research journal, publishes this week a special article by an "insider" on the military regime's political and social "reforms".

The 246-page edition, themed around "Diversity, identity and the media" issues, analyses the junta that dealt an unprecedented "mortal blow" to press freedom in the South Pacific's most crucial country for regional cooperation.

The insider article, "Fragments from a Fiji coup diary", concludes that the New Zealand government needs to have "secret contacts" with the Suva regime to help investigate corruption and to help restore the country on the road towards democracy.

In other commentaries, Dr Murray Masterton analyses "culture clash" problems facing foreign correspondents and warns against "arrogance" by Western journalists when reporting the region. Television New Zealand's Sandra Kailahi examines the Pasifika media and Scoop co-editor Selwyn Manning looks at strategic directions in Asia-Pacific geopolitical reporting.

Malcolm Evans contributes a frothy profile of global political cartooning.

Research articles include demographics and independent cross-cultural reporting, media diversity and a NZ Human Rights Commission seminar, the "Asian Angst" controversy and xenophobia over Chinese migration, a Lake Taupo air space media case study, the Clydesdale report deconstructed and New Zealand women's magazines and gossip.

Bill Rosenberg provides the second of two annual New Zealand media ownership and trends surveys compiled for PJR.

"This edition provides some challenging and fresh insights into diversity reporting in New Zealand, from Fiji to Asian stereotypes," says managing editor Associate Professor David Robie.

"But it also celebrates some important achievements."

A strong reviews section includes books about the dark side of the pro-independence movement and media in Tonga, terrorism and e-policies in the Asia-Pacific region, conflict reporting, the making of a US president, editing and design in New Zealand and an extraordinary dissident Burmese political cartoonist.

* Annual subscriptions to Pacific Journalism Review (two editions a year): www.pjreview.info/subscriptions.html

Commentators condemn NZ's policies on Fiji

A neglect of perspective and lack of historical perspective in reporting Fiji’s “coup culture” means New Zealand media coverage of the Pacific country lacks insight and balance, say critics.

By Kacey Maher: Pacific Media Centre

Two New Zealand academics have called for a more critical review of the country’s policies towards Fiji. And they are not alone with this suggestion.

Prominent journalists and community people join both AUT University’s Pacific Media Centre director Dr David Robie and University of Waikato political economist Dr David Neilson in criticising media coverage of the Fiji coups and calling for changes in policy.

Associate professor Robie told Radio New Zealand’s Mediawatch programme it was vital for journalists to challenge the censorship by reporting all the “twists and turns and nuances” of the Fiji political upheaval to gain a more complete and accurate understanding of events.

“Fiji is one of our important friendly nations in the region,” he said. “Even though we pride ourselves on being part of the Pacific, in many ways the Australian media…do a far better job of covering the region.”

Dr Robie also said little attention was paid to Fiji news, especially in print, unless it had some context within New Zealand.

“If it doesn’t make the general news then it doesn’t make anything, because it doesn’t get a space in the world pages,” he told interviewer Jeremy Rose.

The following day, the New Zealand Herald reported in a front page story that Māori party co-leader Tariana Turia wanted to send a delegation to Fiji.

The article, in addition to being New Zealand-related, also featured no Fijian sources.

Underground Fijian blogs such as Intelligentsiya condemned the idea, saying such a delegation would be of little to no help.

Editorial view
As Dr Robie predicted, there were no Fiji-related articles in the world section. However, an editorial column seemed to be filling some of the reportage gaps.

“I like the op-ed article in the Herald from Tapu Misa - with thoughtful quotes from a University of the South Pacific professor,” said Maire Leadbeater, a long-time peace activist and spokesperson for the Coalition for Democracy, who also thinks New Zealand coverage of Fiji has been lacking.

The professor, Wadan Narsey, is a Fiji citizen and a frequent contributor to the Fiji Times - a key example of the types of sources Dr Robie hoped the media would seek out.

With the Auckland-based Pacific Media Center, associate professor Robie tries to right the regional wrongs as he sees them in mainstream New Zealand media.

Along with patchy Pacific coverage, Dr Robie says that too often experts from far afield in New Zealand and Australia saturate analysis and commentary.

Instead, he told Radio New Zealand, sources from USP, such as Narsey, ought to give an analysis that is closer-to-home.

Taualeo’o Stephen Stehlin, executive producer of TVNZ’s Tagata Pasifika, agreed with this assessment.

“I think the reporting of the regional voices has been sporadic with an emphasis on New Zealand and Australia,” he said. However, he says, it is a difficult situation, especially for local journalists on the ground within Fiji.

“It would be good to hear more from professor Narsey and his colleagues - but do they take a risk if they speak critically about the coup?” said Leadbeater, echoing Taualeo’o’s views.

Foreign news sources have been gagged in Fiji since April 10, leaving blogs as essentially the only uncensored media from within.

Journalists hoping to enter from the outside must first agree to a background check and sign a visa application stating that they will cover the news “fairly”.

Moral ambiguity
This has many journalists up in arms about the moral ambiguity of having to get permission from the government to cover political stories.

However, interim regime leader Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama told SkyNews: “It’s not only insightful messages that we are worried about, it’s irresponsible reporting that’s done by the media.

“That’s something we really don’t need done right now.”

Dr Robie told Radio New Zealand, there was a long history of mistrust within Fiji about foreign journalism, especially the foreign journalism that existed within its own borders.

World-wide conglomerate, Murdoch’s News Corp, owns the Fiji Times, the country’s largest newspaper.

He said there had been “major questions about the role of media, particularly print media, not being fair and balanced” in Fiji’s past.

“Over the last couple of years certainly the regime has felt that its side of the story and also the plans and objections - the People’s Charter for example - has never really been covered properly,” said Dr Robie.

“I think that’s very arguable and debatable, but this is a very widespread view.”

It was also reflected in Bainimarama’s actions towards the press.

According to Rebecca Moala, a New Zealand mother Fijian by descent, said: “I know more about how the press has been affected by the whole thing than how the people of Fiji have been affected.”

Radio New Zealand’s Jeremy Rose professed his own dissatisfaction on air: “I’ve got no feel really for how many support this coup, how many are against it.”

However, a lack of resources during this world-wide financial crisis, is a also a problem, says Scoop Media NZ co-editor Selwyn Manning.

“We at Scoop were on a roll from 2003 through to 2007 in positioning strong reportage and analysis on Pacific regional politics and geopolitics in general,” he said.

“But I cannot claim we are doing anything meaningful now, except possibly being a facilitator, or providing the means, for those journalists that have been driven underground in Fiji.”

Lifting the lid
But this could help “lift the lid on the real Fiji,” said Manning.

He explained that it was the covert journalism within Fiji and the news organisations which worked with underground media sources that would find the real stories.

“The mainstream media in New Zealand is devoid of specialist journalists who can work real contacts, real people to ascertain what is the real situation for Fijians in this most murky affair,” he said.

“There's an over reliance on official sources and neglect of attention given to those facing the consequence of the regime's actions.”

It is this neglect of attention to perspective that has Dr Neilson most disappointed with the media. Dr Neilson, a senior lecturer in labour studies, said New Zealand media fell down most in providing issues within an historical context.

He said that the situation could not be understood without at least the background of the coups that came before.

“From Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara onwards, there has been this idea of a middle way between contending power bases, that link to the two major ethnic groups of Fiji,” he said.

The late Ratu Sir Kamisese served as President of the Pacific Islands and was one of the most influential figures of the Pacific Islands Forum.

This “middle way” is the ideal balance of power between indigenous Fijians and the Indo-Fijians, explained Dr Neilson.

Lieutenant-Colonel Sitiveni Rabuka’s first two coups in 1987 were an attempt to keep the indigenous Fijians in power over the Indo-Fijian-dominated Labour Party.

The subsequent 1997 constitution – abrogated by the current President - was designed to ensure that that the indigenous would retain supreme power while also protecting the interests of the Indo-Fijians.

However, Dr Neilson said he felt increasingly pessimistic about Fiji’s future.

Maika Tabukova of the Canterbury Fiji Community is also frustrated over media coverage.

“What the media in New Zealand is doing is making the situation worse,” she said. “Only a Fijian can explain to you what is going on in Fiji.”

Photo: Pacific Media Centre.

Katherine Maher is an American student journalist on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course as part of her Study Abroad programme at AUT University.

RNZ's Mediawatch on Fiji – May 3, 2009
Intelligentsiya – 'The Hand in the President’s Glove'
Fiji's hope lies in peaceful resistance

Fiji, Tonga media least free in Pacific, says Freedom House

By Josephine Latu: Pacific Media Watch

Fiji and Tonga have the least free media among the Pacific Island states, according to Freedom House’s just released 2009 annual report on global press freedom.

Fiji was ranked 85th out of a total of 195 countries - dropping from 80th last year, while Tonga maintained its rank at 73rd.

Along with East Timor (78), they were the only countries in the region to be categorised as only “partly free”. The rest were free.

New Zealand and Palau enjoyed top status in the region, tying at 11th spot worldwide. Last year New Zealand ranked 8th and Palau at 12th.

Both were rated to have higher press freedom than Britain (27) and Australia (38).

The Freedom House ratings were calculated based on three criteria - the legal environment in which the media operates, the political influences on reporting, and the economic pressures of distributing news.

The rankings are based on information gathered about 2008.

Fourteen Pacific Island nations were included in the report and were ranked out of a total 195 countries as follows: New Zealand (11), Palau (11), Marshall Islands (21), Federated States of Micronesia (33), Australia (38), Vanuatu (43), Papua New Guinea (53), Tuvalu (53), Kiribati (59), Nauru (60), Samoa (63), Solomon Islands (66), Tonga (73), and Fiji (84).

Negative trends
The report also stated that after two decades of progress, press freedom is now in decline in almost every part of the world.

Only 17 percent of the world’s population enjoy free media in their countries, although key trends showed that threats to media freedom are evident even in established democracies.

The report stated that media freedom remained “fragile” in emerging democracies, and that authoritative governments were increasing their control over media. Also, restrictive laws and physical attacks continued to hinder press freedom around the world.

However, Freedom House reported that compared to the rest of the world, the Asia-Pacific region as a whole boasted a relatively high level of press freedom.

At the same time, it underlined that Fiji media suffered from “official pressure”, which caused its decline in ranking, and cited the deportation of two foreign national publishers and the Fiji Times held in contempt for publishing “unflattering letters about three judges”.

The recent media censorship crackdown under Fiji’s military regime is expected to pull the nation’s ranking down even further in future.

Freedom House 2009 global report media release
Freedom House 2009 report on the Pacific Media Watch database