Tribute to Elma MaUa, a Pacific journalism pioneer

By Gladys Hartson: Pacific Media Watch

Pacific Island journalists and broadcasters in New Zealand have paid tribute to veteran broadcaster and journalist Elma MaUa who has passed away after a long illness.

MaUa was one of the first Pacific Island women journalists in the NZ media industry.

Journalists and broadcasters remembered MaUa in their own way, hosting their own memorial events.

Former colleague and Pacificeyewitness website publisher Vienna Richards shared her memories.

“I first met Elma in the mid-1990s. She was doing a story on Pacific women and the issues they faced with the mainstream health system,” Richards said. “I was working in health at the time and she called me up out of the blue for an interview.”

Richards remembers thinking “this woman is on to it”. It was only after MaUa’s death on April 28 did Richards recall that it was her first experience of being interviewed by a Pacific Islands journalist - and a woman.

MaUa was known for her passion for Pacific media with her involvement with the Pacific Islands Media Association (PIMA).

Richards said: “She was a real professional, and told it like it was.”

“I will miss her and it’s a real shame we won’t have her as a mentor for the next lot of Pacific journalists and broadcasters coming through.”

Pacific Radio News newsreader Jae’d Victor, a veteran of 18 years in Pacific radio, recalled his time working with MaUa at Niu FM.

“She was a woman who had so much knowledge. She was an expert in her field, particularly in sport,”he said.

“Elma was never one to mince words!” Victor added.

“Those of our Pacific journalist/broadcasters already in the media industry, need to put their foot forward and ensure the doors are open for up and coming journalists so they can make their mark like Elma did.”

MaUa, who migrated to New Zealand in the mid-1950s from the Cook Islands, was one of the first Pacific journalists to work for Radio New Zealand in the mid-1980s.

She was sports editor for the Radio New Zealand International service that was launched in 1990.

MaUa was aged 61. She is survived by her five children.

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

Pictured: Elma MaUa and top (right front) with the Radio NZ International team. Photos: RNZI

Pacificeyewitness tribute

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, Red Cross plan war reporting seminar

Pacific Media Centre

The Pacific Media Centre, International Committee of the Red Cross and New Zealand Red Cross are jointly hosting twin special events on reporting wars at AUT University next month. They are:

4.30-6.45 pm, May 24, WA224 (AUT city conference centre): Screening of the film Balibo about the killing of six journalists in East Timor in 1975. Followed by a Q and A session with one of the film's consultants.

7.15-9pm : Reporting Wars: The Ongoing Challenges seminar, featuring a special video message from Chris Cramer of Reuters, New York, and a panel debating cutting edge issues, including the safety and protection of journalists.

The panel will include war correspondents Cameron Bennett (TVNZ), Mike McRoberts (TV3) and independent journalist Jon Stephenson. Guest speaker will be former ABC journalist Tony Maniaty, of the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism, who was at Balibo shortly before the TV journalists were killed. He is author of the recent book Shooting Balibo and was a consultant for the making of Balibo.

The seminar will be chaired by Dr Camille Nakhid of the PMC Advisory Board. It follows up two conferences on war reporting in Sydney and Wellington sponsored by the ICRC last May.

A special edition of Pacific Journalism Review will be launched at the event by Jean-Luc Metzker, head of the ICRC Delegation in the Pacific, based in Suva.

Refreshments will be served between the film screening and the seminar.

This will be a compelling event for media and communication professionals, journalism students, NGOs, and those interested in international humanitarian law - don't miss it. Open entry and free.

Register your interest with rosemarie.north@redcross.org.nz

• More information on the PMC website
• The seminar flyer
• Tony Maniaty's website
• ICRC
• NZ Red Cross
  

Media ethics high on agenda for winner of inaugural Indian Newslink scholarship

By Thakur Ranjit Singh: Pacific Media Centre

Barbara Dreaver’s Samoa “gangs and drugs” story, Voreqe Bainimarama’s controversial media decree in Fiji, and the Julian Moti saga in Australia make interesting news debates. And a common issue in the middle is media ethics.

Imogen Crispe, an Auckland University Bachelor of Arts honours graduate with a double major in philosophy and French, has a passion for ethics.

She is the inaugural recipient of the Indian Newslink Scholarship for Postgraduate Journalism. In formally receiving her award at the School of Communication Studies awards function, she acknowledged Indian Newslink for a scholarship that is seen as generous because it is an “open” one - not restricted on race, regional or other grounds.

In fact, she almost did not apply for this, assuming it was for “Indians” because of the sponsor. However, her search of the criteria for the award convinced her that she qualifies and hence should pursue her dream of becoming a journalist.

Crispe says she had an interest in writing, researching and talking to people. This was evident with blog site she used to run. While studying for philosophy at Auckland University, she developed her interest in ethics and feels strongly about ethics in media.

She sees herself as repeating the feats and travel history of her forbears. In the early 1950s, her grandparents were on overseas experience in Britain while her father was born in England to Kiwi parents.

At the age of three, her father moved over with her grandparents to New Zealand. Some three decades later, Imogen’s parents found themselves in England and saw the birth of their first daughter, Imogen Crispe in Surrey.

When she was three, her parents moved to Dubai where her father still lives and works in the construction industry. At the age of 13, she moved to New Zealand as a boarding student at Auckland Diocesan School for Girls. While away from parents since that age, she never felt lonely. This was because of her caring grandparents at Auckland and Rotorua, and uncles and aunties as well.

Imogen’s area of study and her interests go together. While initially somewhat apprehensive about whether she would enjoy journalism, her enthusiasm was quite evident and visible when she said that she made the right choice. So did the selection panel in picking somebody who is not only rooted in philosophy and ethics but also widely travelled from an early age.

As part of her one year scholarship, she is studying for the Postgraduate Diploma in Communication (Journalism). She enjoys all aspects of journalism studies such as print media, online, TV, radio and photojournalism.

The current recession has perhaps been responsible for pushing people to study who otherwise may have been in employment. This applies to her as well.

After finishing her bachelor’s degree at Auckland University, she hunted for jobs for a year but never got anything that she enjoyed doing. She started pondering about her future and it was then that her interest in writing developed with her blog site.

Her only other sibling, a younger sister is studying vertinary science in Perth at Murdoch University – coincidently named after the media mogul who owns the Fiji Times and the Post-Courier in Papua New Guinea, among others worldwide.

Photo of Imogen Crispe: Thakur Ranjit Singh

The Indian Newslink scholarship at AUT
Other School of Communication Studies scholarships

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.

PMC features in TVNZ report on tough Fiji media crackdown

Pacific Media Centre

Pacific Media Centre's David Robie featured in Barbara Dreaver's Television NZ report on the new Media Industry Development Decree 2010. Dreaver, still banned in Fiji by the military-backed government, says the regime is set to introduce tough new laws that could see journalists locked up or fined 10 times their salary if they write stories criticising the dictatorship...

David Robie, director of the Auckland University of Technology's Pacific Media Centre, knows all too well of the situation in Fiji. He lived there for years, training journalists.

"This is a very vindictive, punitive draft decree and clearly the bottom line is aimed at one news organisation in particular - The Fiji Times," says Robie.

It is virtually the only organisation that has stood up to the regime. It has been a thorn in the self-imposed government's side.

Cartoon: Malcolm Evans/Pacific Journalism Review

PMC's David Robie critiques Fiji draft media decree

Pacific Media Centre

Pacific Scoop has featured David Robie, director of the Pacific Media Centre, talking about the controversial Media Industry Development Decree being ushered in by the military-backed regime. 95bFM’s Will Pollard interviews Dr Robie on the implications for the future in Fiji - and also around the Pacific region.

Will Pollard talks to David Robie on 95bFM