Fiji media risks ending up like Chinese press, says academic

Chinese language media in New Zealand relies heavily on free content from mainland China's media and is “importing the propaganda line to Chinese-language discourse in New Zealand”.

By Steve Chae: Pacific Media Centre

Fiji’s media is at risk of becoming like the Chinese press with an authoritarian model under the censorship regime, says a New Zealand journalism academic.

“In the West, the media’s role is mainly seen as a watchdog. In Fiji, the traditionally western-style media is now under threat from a military regime that doesn’t want to accept independent news in a country that is very diverse ethnically and religion,” says Pacific Media Centre director associate professor David Robie.

“The cultural complexities in Fiji are such that many in people in the country believe there should be nation-building media.”

While the majority of the population of 940,000 are indigenous Fijian (54 percent), there is a 37 percent Indo-Fijian minority and other races. The country’s dominant religion is Methodist, but among the Indo-Fijians, a majority is Hindu without about a third Muslim.

China has growing economic and political influence in Fiji since the December 2006 coup. Fiji imposed draconian censorship on April 10.

Ranjit Singh, former publisher of Fiji Daily Post and now chief reporter of the Indian Weekender in New Zealand, says: “Fiji never had democracy but the problem arises from pushing the Western concept of democracy”.

“It’s a first world solution to a third world country,” he says.

“That does not help to understand the complexities of the Fiji issue. The issue is not black and white. It’s got shades of grey.”

Dr Robie says the Fiji media is expected by many people to help solidify national identity.

“The Chinese media has parallels with Fiji in that their journalists are also trying to find a space within the authoritarian media,” he says.

“But the New Zealand media reacts with shock and horror at the lack of plurality of ideas in these media.”

Propaganda machines
A Press article reports how the Chinese government propaganda machines work in a two-pronged strategy aimed at Chinese people at home and also abroad.

Dr Anne-Marie Brady says Chinese people in New Zealand are affected by the Chinese propaganda focused on those living overseas.

An associate professor at the University of Canterbury’s School of Political and Social Sciences, Dr Brady gave a talk on the operations of Chinese propaganda to the US Security Commission in Washington last month.

She says the Chinese language media in New Zealand relies heavily on free content from the Chinese media and is important – “especially to new migrants to New Zealand”.

This is “importing the propaganda line to Chinese-language discourse in New Zealand”.

David Soh, publisher of the Mandarin Times, says 80 percent of his readers are native speakers who are born and raised in China.

He says new migrants to New Zealand feel a sense of belonging to China but accept they are citizens of a new country.

The paper makes subscriptions to Xinhua news agency in China but also fills its pages daily with translations of New Zealand news.

Soh says he is free to report on anything he likes and will respond with criticism on things that are happening in China.

Tibet divisive
Last year’s Tibet incident was sensitive and had “quite a divisive effect” within the Chinese community, whereas the Sichuan earthquake was emotional and reached a common feeling.

He says he does not promote things that are illegal in China such as the Falun Gong practitioners but accepts they are legal in New Zealand.

Asked about Fiji, Soh says it is “a different world where law and order is not good at the moment”.

Hewitt Wang, editor of Skykiwi.com, says the media he works for is a New Zealand media and presents the opinions of Chinese community in New Zealand.

“We accept all the opinions from worldwide media - not just the Chinese media,” he says.

Ethnic community media should be publishing all views, including the Chinese propaganda.

“Propaganda depends on how you define it. I like to think of it in a positive way,” says Wang.

Dr Robie says propaganda is “uncontested information which can be plain wrong, or disinformation calculated to achieve a manipulated mindset”.

“With competing media, the truth will emerge somewhere down the track. When government imposes news values, that single view becomes propaganda,” he says.

Language ability
Virginia Chong, vice-president of the New Zealand Chinese Association, says she does not read Chinese language media in New Zealand because she has lost the language ability having been born here.

Chong says international students can become influenced by the Chinese language media here.

“Every country puts out spin and everybody has their own impression on those things,” she says.

Dr Robie says Chinese language media in New Zealand has not yet made a transition from being a media “enclave from China to culturally based media in New Zealand”.

“It will evolve in the future when Chinese media will become a lot more integrated within New Zealand society,” he says.

He also says the New Zealand mainstream media make judgments of other media through “cultural lens” and this could also be a form of propaganda.

Singh says there is biased reporting of the Fiji issue in New Zealand in that only negative stories are played.

But within the community media in New Zealand, he says he would like to “put a positive spin on Fiji”, referring to the Indian Weekender which covers Indian diaspora news, including Fiji.

He says journalists in Fiji can be better educated on how to report for Fiji.

“The political situation now can be partially blamed on the Fiji media,” he says.

Behind the story
“As journalists we really need to see the story behind the issue and investigate these things,” says Singh.

Dr Robie says: “The harm caused to Fiji is already very great.”

He blames New Zealand foreign policies for its “short sightedness” since December 2006.

“The situation in the Pacific is now quite volatile,” he says.

“New Zealand has been like a big brother to Fiji as we pride ourselves as a being part of Pacific.

We now have to report these stories better with more depth and more comprehensively,” says Dr Robie.

Steve Chae is a Graduate Diploma in Journalism student on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course at AUT University. Pictured: Pro-Chinese rally in Aotea Square, Auckland.

NZ expert tells of Chinese propaganda

Korean publisher tells of community challenges

By Steve Chae: Pacific Media Centre

A Korean community newspaper publisher says his readers are not yet ready to talk about their issues and problems openly in the media.

Newstoon is one of the many free weekly Korean community newspapers that can be picked up in Korean shops around Auckland.

Publisher Bong il Kim says participation of the Korean community and university students in the discussion about issues they have raised has been disappointing.

“As a newsmaker, this is frustrating,” he says.

Eric Song, last year’s president of Auckland University Korean Student Association (AKSA), says “there is a distinct cultural difference between Koreans who grew up most of their lives here - also called 1.5 generation Korean-Kiwis (or Kowis) - and second generation Koreans who have lost much of their Korean identity.”

“They inhabit a different world of news and value news differently,” he says.

“As a student association, it is a challenge to represent all these different groups, but we are trying.”

Korean community newspapers are all in the Korean language and this can be hard for those who have grown up here surrounded by English-based media.

'Old-fashioned'
“You can call me old-fashioned, but I still believe in seeing Korean in print to be important to our community - young or old,” says Kim.

He says: “We would like younger Koreans to communicate with the older folks more to create a family-like community.”

“However, this is not the case at the moment. There have been efforts to bridge generational differences through newspapers online and offline.”

“Participation of younger Korean students in the community media has been rather unremarkable,” he says.

Online editor of AKSA Sion Hwang says: “Our university webzine, Cladia, should represent all voices but we need more participation from students.”

The president of Korean Society of New Zealand, Shi Chung Yoo, understands why these issues are not discussed openly in the media.

“It is because Koreans are not forthcoming with news. We still tend to keep it to ourselves,” he says.

The president of Kowiana Association, Tina Hwang, thinks the Korean newspapers are targeting their parents’ generation which gives them information about what 1.5 generation Koreans are doing, but says “it lacks an informative approach to a local story”.

“If an issue was raised involving Korean person’s crime, the legal system in New Zealand should be explained to give a more plausible story,” she adds.

Kim says his newspaper aims to learn about New Zealand in its mainstream system.

Majority power
He says: “Korean media here was borne out of our need to learn about New Zealand government systems. We consider an exchange with Pākehā to be still the most important.”

This follows the power of majority in shaping the media.

He says Korean community needs to be more embedded into the New Zealand society.

“The strength of the community would grow and we would claim our rights with a stronger voice,” he says.

This is echoed by Korea Post journalist Kang Jin Lee, who says there is no authorisation for ethnic community media reporters to report on news independently.

Korea Post is a Korean community magazine and is published monthly.

As its sole reporter, she says: “We are very limited in what we can report. First, we don’t have authorisation like other media bodies to gain access to Parliament and such. Second, we don’t have resources to fund such reporting.”

Kim says: “The business has been in downturn for the past five years.”

Since September 2002, immigration from Korea has been almost blocked.

But he says it was not until 2004 when businesses providing for international students were hit the hardest.

Advertising from these Korean businesses was the sole source of revenue for the newspaper’s operation.

He says there are still 13 Korean media outlets in New Zealand, including newspapers, magazines and radio. They cover similar local New Zealand stories.

Identity crisis
He says Korean community newspapers are produced by the first generations like him.

They have spent most of their lives in Korea and have come to New Zealand with their families.
The generation of his children are part of the 1.5 Kowis.

Hwang says the issue of identity crisis for her and others like herself was what formed the Kowiana Association.

Formed in 2007, it held its first Kimchi & Marmite conference last July.

She says the aim of the organisation is to give confidence to Kowi students who have grown up in New Zealand for most of their lives.

Asked whether she wanted these issues to be brought up in Korean community media, she says "to broaden the issue will take time".

President Yoo says: “It’s hard to resolve those issues and conflicts for the Korean community at the moment and I believe the Korean media is reluctant to tackle those issues yet.”

“The association is about encouraging young Koreans to be more self-confident about who they are and what they do and we are here to give support.”

That is why the theme of this year’s conference is based on inviting guest speakers who have paved a way for fellow Koreans outside of traditional jobs such as doctors and lawyers.
It is scheduled for July 11.

“It’s about using the opportunity living in New Zealand provides and using it fully,” she says.

“It’s also about bridging the gap between different multicultural groups but also within Koreans and between different generations.”

Pictured: Bong il Kim holding copies of Newstoon, one of many Korean weekly newspapers published in Auckland. Photo: Steve Chae. Steve Chae is a Graduate Diploma in Journalism student on the AUT Asia-Pacific Journalism course.

Publisher’s book 'speaks directly' to global Tongans

By Steve Chae: Pacific Media Centre

An outspoken Tongan journalist and publisher has released a new book that speaks directly to Tongan communities in New Zealand about the dilemmas of culture and the global diaspora.

Kalafi Moala’s book, In Search of the Friendly Islands, deals with core issues of violence and a vision towards peaceful change in the Tongan communities both inside and outside of Tonga.

“The title of the book is appropriate because the Tongan communities in New Zealand are still in search of peace and there are no answers yet,” said Rev Epeli Taungapeau, of Manurewa Methodist Church, who was at the book launch at the Onehunga Community Centre last weekend.

He cited the roadside shooting of 17-year-old Halatau Naitoko by police in Auckland earlier this year as an example of violence impacting on the community.

He was concerned about the violence people see in mainstream media, saying: “Tongan communities here have to search for ways to make New Zealand a peaceful island.”

In Tonga, violence has increased related to the struggle for democracy in the only kingdom among Pacific Island countries.

Since 1989, Moala has published a bi-weekly newspaper, Taimi ‘o Tonga (Times of Tonga), criticising the monarchy and advocating democracy.

Banned paper
This was banned for a period in Tonga but Moala continued to publish the paper in Auckland since 1995. It is now based again in the Tonga capital of Nuku’alofa.

Moala has lived abroad extensively in US and New Zealand, but now lives in Tonga. He has observed the diaspora of Tongan communities and the issues they are facing, including violence.

Moala said it was important to ask why this was happening and to think about the alternatives.
He believed it came down to the “character of the man”.

He said that Tongan people’s faith in religion in the time of a “culture of transition” will see Tongan communities move towards peace.

Tongan Advisory Council chair Melino Maka said the people wanted their community media to discuss more proactively all of the issues happening inside and outside of Tonga.

He believed expanding Tongan talkback radio was important as it was the most effective way to channel people’s voices on these issues.

Moala’s book will be launched in Tonga this weekend.

Picture: Tongan broadcaster and community advocate Will 'Ilolahia (right) shares a joke at the book launch. Photo: Del Abcede.

Steve Chae is a student journalist on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course at AUT University.