Young people not interested in journalism careers, say Pacific media veterans

By Gladys Hartson, Pacific Media Watch

Most young Pacific people do not see journalism as a bona fide career path, according to three Pacific Island journalists who are in New Zealand this week as part of an inaugural exchange programme sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT).

At a panel discussion held at the University of Auckland Centre for Pacific Studies on Friday, Samoa Observer editor Mata’afa Keni Lesa said that while the challenges faced by island media are “multiple [and] too many to name”, the lack of training, resources, and manpower were key problems.

This also becomes an issue when recruiting new journalists into the newspaper.

“We get some young people coming through with some training – not top of the line training… But still, we train so many people [on the job] but as soon as the next job opportunity shows up, they’re gone,” he said.

Lesa has a small staff of less than ten people.

“We try work hard with what we got”, he added.

From the Cook Islands News daily paper, Nerys Case, a political journalist originally from the UK, said she has seen a “massive loss of population” in Rarotonga, especially as young people leave the country for better job opportunities overseas.

Cook Island News currently only employs three reporters, she said.

“There seems to be no interest from the young people to become journalists. It’s not seen as attractive”.

Similarly, Matangi Tonga Online photojournalist Linny Folau said that although there is a journalism training programme in Tonga that targets high school leavers for certificate and diploma qualifications, the number of enrolments are low.

“Maybe they think it’s too demanding… Some go through the programme and get the knowledge but after working in the industry, they don’t like it,” she said.

New Zealand Pacific media

Meanwhile, award winning journalist from the New Zealand Herald Vaimoana Tapaleao said there is a real lack of Pacific journalists in mainstream media in New Zealand.

As a result, “huge expectations” are placed on the few Pacific staff in mainstream to cover and be knowledgeable about all things Pacific.

Tapaleao encouraged more young Pacific people to pursue a career in journalism, in order to fill this gap and bring more Pacific –relevant stories into the mainstream.

“When you walk into our office, you can tell straight away there’s only one islander, and the only other Polynesian I know is the Maori Affairs reporter,” she said.

Participants discussed the possibilities of having more opportunities for NZ-based Pacific journalists to spend time with their colleagues in the islands, as part of an ongoing exchange programme.

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

Pacific journalists visit PMC on MFAT exchange

Pacific Media Centre

Two Pacific journalists, along with representatives from the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) met with the Pacific Media Centre team on Thursday June 24th to build networks and get familiarised with the centre's activities.

Editor of the Samoa Observer Mata'afa Keni Lesa and Cook Islands News political journalist Nerys Chase were accompanied by senior diplomat and director of the Auckland MFAT office Warwick Hawker and senior policy officer for the Pacific Division Helen Tunnah.

Matangi Tonga photojournalist Linny Folau could not make it due to illness.

Over a light brunch, the visitors were shown a promo video about the centre produced by former AUT communications students John Pulu and Sophie Johnson, followed by a Powerpoint presentation by Pacific Media Watch contributing editor Josephine Latu outlining the work of the organization. This covered a range of PMC projects in journalism training, research and news production.

Highlights included the twice-annual Pacific Journalism Review academic journal published by the centre, the new Graduate Diploma in Pacific Journalism programme to begin at AUT next year, the on-going Pacific Media Watch project, and the increasingly popular student-driven news website Pacific Scoop, a joint venture with independent media organization Scoop.

Reliance on international collaboration and networking with universities and associates in the region was also highlighted. Discussions about media developments followed.

Present at the meeting were PMC Asia Pacific Editor and Pacific Scoop co-editor Selwyn Manning, PMW contributing editor Josephine Latu, PMW reporter Gladys Hartson-Shingles, post-graduate student Tupouseini Taumoepeau, and former Fiji Post publisher and MA student Thakur Ranjit Singh. AUT Pasifika student advisor Isabella Rasch also attended briefly with a student.

In the photo (fromt left): MA student and Fiji political commentator Thakur Ranjit Singh, Cook Islands News political journalist Nerys Case, Samoa Observer editor Mata'afa Keni Lesa, PMW reporter Gladys Hartson, PMW contributing editor Josephine Latu, AUT post-graduate student Tupouseini Taumoepeau, Pacific Scoop editor Selwyn Manning and MFAT senior policy officer, Pacific Division Helen Tunnah.

Pacific journalists to visit PMC this week

Pacific Media Watch

Three Pacific journalists from Samoa, Tonga and the Cook Islands will be visiting the Pacific Media Centre this Thursday as part of a week-long exchange programme sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, focussing on policy and social issues as well as political journalism in the Pacific region.

The visiting journalists include Samoa Observer editor Mata'afa Keni Lesa, who is also the Samoa correspondent for Reuters, AFP and the Associated Press; Matangi Tonga Online photojournalist Linny Folau, who covered key stories such as the MV Princess Ashika sinking and Royal Commission of Inquiry hearings in Tonga; and Cook Island News political reporter Nerys Case, who has held a number of senior editorial positions in various magazine publications in the UK.

The journalists will also be visiting other established media organizations such as TVNZ and Spasifik magazine as part of their tour.

For more information on their PMC meeting (Thursday, June 24, 10am -12pm, AUT Tower WT002): See a flyer

Veteran media freedom champions speak out for uncompromised Pacific news

By David Robie in Apia: Pacific Media Centre

Veteran champions of a free Pacific media spoke out strongly in defence of an uncompromising public watchdog role for the region's news organisations at an Article 19 seminar in Samoa this week.

Savea Sano Malifa, editor-in-chief of the Samoa Observer, spoke of his lifelong pursuit of the “hidden stories” at the UNESCO-sponsored seminar, which had a “courage under fire” theme.

“When I started out as a journalist, I realised that I didn’t care much about the everyday, obvious news,” he said.

“Especially the ones that were being deliberately hidden in order that they remained so for a very long time.

“That was the stuff that kept up the pressure to dig deeper.”

Netani Rika, editor-in-chief of the Fiji Times, whose newspaper led the challenge against unprecedented draconian censorship by the military regime after the abrogation of the 1997 constitution at Easter by publishing blank spaces in retaliation against the gag, called for more training of media workers “under fire”.

“How do we build their courage? Simply, by not backing down,” he said.

“It is vital indeed it’s our duty – to ensure that journalists continue to make every attempt to cover the issues that matter to the people, even if the stories we write do not portray our rulers in a good light.”

Move Pacnews
Kalafi Moala, publisher of both the Taimi ‘o Tonga and Tonga Chronicle and who was unconstitutionally jailed for contempt of Parliament in 1996, called on the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) to move out of Fiji and shift its regional news service Pacnews in protest.

“They should get out of Fiji so that they can function independently,” he said.

“We don’t believe they should remain silent. In terms of media freedom, journalists in the Pacific are looking for fresh leadership.”

Russell Hunter, expelled by the Fiji regime while he was publisher of the Fiji Sun in February 2008, also called for Pacnews to move out of Fiji.

“It is appalling that a body that has consistently stood up for media freedom for a quarter of a century or more should have maintained its operations in a censure environment one minute longer than it needed to,” said Hunter, who is now development editor of the Samoa Observer.

Savea Malifa also warned young journalists to defend their independence and not fall foul to the Pacific free “beer and food” culture.

In our small societies, the urge for compromise is compelling. Many journalists succumb to it. They are invited to their governments’ cocktail parties, they accept free beer and food, and they lose sight of the ethics.”

Marc Neil-Jones, publisher of the Vanuatu Daily Post, said his paper constantly challenged assaults, intimidation and bullying by authorities by publicly exposing such behaviour.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) Asia-Pacific bureau’s Deborah Muir and Kalafi Moala were lead trainers for the seminar, organised by the recently formed Pacific Freedom Forum (PFF).

PINA failure
The forum’s facilitator, Lisa Williams-Lahari, a longtime Pacific women’s advocate now based at Otago University, steered the programme – a regional response to the failure of PINA in recent months to respond with timely campaigns to defend the region from assaults on media freedom.

The seminar conducted two days of freedom of speech and expression mobilisation and practical training exercises under the Article 19 umbrella – from the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. The programme was designed to monitor the region’s media more stringently.

A final day of strategic mapping for the forum’s future, leading to the two-yearly PINA convention in Vanuatu in mid-July followed.

The forum issued a final communiqué today outlining its action plan and declaration, including working towards becoming registered as a non-government organisation.

The network also plans to work with other regional organisations with similar objectives such as the IFJ, Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) Regional Media Centre, AUT University Pacific Media Centre and its Pacific Media Watch project, University of the South Pacific regional journalism programme and the National University of Samoa journalism programme.

The forum explored a regional strategy to have a strong presence at the University of Queensland-hosted World Media Freedom Day event in Brisbane, Australia, next May 1-4.

Picture: Taimi Media Network publisher (left), Fiji Times editor-in-chief Netani Rika and Vanuatu Daily Post publisher Marc Neil-Jones. Photo: David Robie.

• Dr David Robie is director of the Pacific Media Centre. He was present at the “Courage under fire” media seminar with the assistance of the NZ National Commission for UNESCO.

Samoa 'Courage under fire' seminar final communiqué
Pragmatic approach to Fiji censorship

Pacific reporter fights off smear campaign

By Lucy Mullinger: Pacific Media Centre

World Press Freedom day was celebrated around the globe this weekend while one of New Zealand's top reporters has been fending off a nasty smear campaign over a controversial report about gangs and guns in Samoa.

The Samoan government has threatened legal action against Television New Zealand and Pacific affairs reporter Barbara Dreaver because of her report on April 6 which highlighted the issue of guns being smuggled into the Pacific country.

Gangs are accused of being involved and also as drug dealers.

Samoan authorities claim there is no “gang culture” in the country. Dreaver is accused of bribing young Samoan men with alcohol to get a fabricated story about the gangs.

Dreaver denies the claims. She says no legal action or complaint has been filed through the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA) – and she vows to fight it if it does.

Dreaver stands by her story, saying: “There are a lot of people working on TVNZ stories and I would never be allowed to film something that was untrue”.

Her network recently publicly issued a sworn affidavit by her rejecting the allegations, and she adds: “I have proof and their argument would never stand up in court.”

The regional media freedom conference is being held in Samoa this week and the director of the Pacific Media Centre, Associate Professor David Robie, will be attending and expects the controversy to be debated.

Hot topic
“The issue will be a hot topic. I hope that it will be conducted fairly and professionally,” he says.

A Samoa Observer article written by an anonymous reporter on April 26 said: “Whether Dreaver and TVNZ agree, the truth is that as anyone who has lived in this country for many years will vouch, there is no such thing as a gang culture in Samoa”.

The Sunday Samoan refers to Dreaver’s story as “a sickening documentary”.

The reporter goes on to refer to a scene with young men “brandishing guns” as a “despicable scene” where Dreaver is alleged to have misled them to believe they were in a Hollywood film.

Dreaver denies this and says: “The boys had a lot of marijuana on them and Samoa has strict rules about carrying joints, of course they are going to deny being involved.”

The reporter continues: “The images are so disgusting you feel like running outside and bury[ing] your head in the mud.”

This time the reporter does not completely rule out the fact there are problems in Samoa: “We admit there are drugs-and-guns-related problems here but then every country has them”.

Dr Robie describes an unsigned editorial in the Sunday Samoan on April 20 that personally "threatens" Dreaver as one of the worst personal attacks on a journalist he has seen in some time.

He defends Dreaver, saying: “She is one of the leading roving Pacific correspondents in the region” He believes she is unmatched in New Zealand television and has been “a role model to many journalists”.

Strong support
An ex-colleague and friend of Dreaver, Sandra Kailahi, is a producer and presenter on the new digital channel TVNZ7 who agrees with Dr Robie.

She has known Dreaver for many years after attending the same journalism school in 1990 and says: “I don’t believe Barbara would deliberately mislead anyone.”

Editor of Spasifik magazine Peter Rees used to work for the Samoa Observer. He notes Dreaver has written columns for Spasifik in the past and says: “Her determination to expose NZ audiences to Pacific issues through her role on One News is to be commended”.

He says there is gang activity in Samoa “but not at the levels that people are led to believe”.

In Dreaver’s story, he believes that gangs are not the same in Samoa as they are in New Zealand.

“It is more to do with unemployed and bored youth in the urbanised areas of the capital Apia.”

Rees believes there is a problem in Samoa but it involves “ice” or harder drugs, rather than marijuana. It is an example of a problem that is more serious than the “youth gang reports”.

Sandra Kailahi believes Samoa is a great place to visit and wasn’t aware of the gang issue until the story.

“But in all honesty, I am not surprised given its strong ties and links to New Zealand, Samoa and America”.

Stopping place
She admits Samoa is not the only place where drugs are an issue as Tonga was used by many gangs as a stopping place.

“In one big case many years ago, drugs were hidden in root crops like yams bound for NZ”.

When asked why Samoan authorities and many news people reject the accusations of gangs in their country, Kailahi says: “A story like this can alter peoples’ perception of an ideal South Pacific destination and that translates in hard cash or lack of it”.

She also believes it might also be “about not being fakama” and the people felt shamed.

Samoan resident Annette Wazhia lives near Apia and says she is “very angry” about the allegations of gangs in Samoa.

“I haven't seen or heard of gangs in Samoa. It is a very safe place”.

She is one of the local people who believe the story is not true and is “saddened” by the story.

A Pacific Island representative who is not from Samoa but has visited the country many times agrees that Samoa is a safe place but believes there is some criminal activity.

“The motive is more to do with getting cash rather than competing for ‘turf’ which is quite an urban attitude,” said the representative, who declined to be named.

Frowned upon
The representative says that strong family ties in Samoa, community and church networks “frown upon gangs” and it would make it difficult for gangs such as exist in Western countries to take hold.

“If the gang culture does exist at all, it would not be ‘paraded’ as we find here in Auckland with patches because the networks will root it out very quickly”.

However, “wayward kids have been sent home by their families from US and NZ to get away from the gang environment”.

The same representative believes that Dreaver's story “lacked credibility because she got taken in by a group of kids who conned her into thinking they were ‘bigger’ than they really were”.

This person adds: “There could be guns being moved from American Samoa to Samoa … but I don't think that it is large enough to warrant trade.”

If the Samoan government does bring an action against TVNZ, Dreaver says: “I don't mind healthy debate but these accusations are defamatory and are a character assassination against me”.

Dreaver and her team at TVNZ will “fight it all the way”.

Lucy Mullinger is a Graduate Diploma in Journalism student on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course at AUT University. She photographed the Samoan scene image ... "tarnished ideal destination".

Another piece of Barbara Dreaver's puzzle
Barbara Dreaver: The evil side of journalism
Barbara Dreaver affidavit on Pacific Media Watch
Jason Brown on the Samoan Observer 'shoot the messenger' threat
NZ drug trade fuels Samoa gun smuggling [video]

Kaumatua challenges media on culture at Samoan leader's book launch

By Josephine Latu: Pacific Media Centre

Ngai Tahu academic and kaumatua Sir Tipene O’Regan has called on the media to play a stronger role in keeping traditional culture alive at the New Zealand launch of a new Samoan book at the weekend.

The Samoan Head of State, Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Ta’isi, was hosted at AUT University for the launch of the book including contributions by him and 14 other Samoan intellectuals - Su’esu’e Manogi: In search of fragrance: Tui Atua Tupua Tamasese Ta’isi and the Samoan indigenous reference.

Sir Tipene, Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Māori) at the University of Canterbury, said news organisations should encourage a conversation about cultural issues.

He said the only way for an indigenous culture to “control its own evolution” was by “thinking and talking about it”.

Sir Tipene also challenged the media’s tendency to “celebrate car crashes and conflict” rather than academic work.

“It’s a big call for the media, even if it does no more than to honour the process of reflective scholarship,” he said.

The publication by the Centre for Samoan Studies, National University of Samoa, features 18 reflective chapters by Tui Atua - a literary contribution rarely seen from a Head of State - on subjects ranging from Samoan metaphors, customs and mythology to bio-ethics and legal theory.

Marking both an academic and strongly cultural event, the launch was conducted in Samoan, Māori and English. It was packed with a large tangata whenua, Pasifika and palagi audience, including Samoan Deputy Prime Minister Misa Telefoni; New Zealand MPs; AUT Vice-Chancellor Derek McCormack; Dr Pare Keiha, the Tumuaki of Te Ara Poutama; and the director of AUT's Office of Pasifika Advancement, Pauline Winter.

Auckland is the world mecca of Pacific migrants - 14 percent of New Zealand’s 265,000 Pacific Islanders live there, with half of the country's Pasifika population being ethnic Samoans.

The themes of the book are “universal”, said Sir Tipene, who is an old friend of Tui Atua from university days.

Presenting a review of the book, he talked about keeping traditional culture alive by reinventing and adapting it in the face of modernisation, a subject relevant for all Pacific cultures, including Māori.

“The challenge is … how do you apply the old lessons in new ways? If our cultures are simply the replication of what our ancestors did, then we are fit only for museums,” he said.

This theme is also reflected in the book’s title.

The book’s chief editor, Tamasailau Suaalii-Sauni, said: “The title is a metaphor for searching for those things that are best in our culture and trying to hold to them today and for future generations.”

Pictures: Top - Sir Tipene O'Regan speaking at the book launch. Above - Tui Atua is presented with a copy of his book. Photos by Alan Koon.

Alan Ah Mua review in the Samoa Observer
Su’esu’e Manogi at South Pacific Books