A reprieve for the newsagency Australian Associated Press (AAP) is featured today on Pacific Media Centre’s Southern Cross segment on Radio 95bFM.
An article written by student journalist Jade Bradford of Curtin University in Perth tells of how AAP is being saved. The implications of the story is discussed given that the agency was supposed to have been ceased operations later this month.
It comes as a major relief to Pacific Island nations that rely on it for balanced coverage of the region.
LISTEN: PMC’s Sri Krishnamurthi and Southern Cross on Soundcloud
On Friday, AAP announced that a consortium of philanthropists and media executives had expressed an interest in buying the AAP Newswire service. Good news for a free media in the Pacific.
“There is now a generation of journalists in Fiji who have never known what it’s like to have a truly free press,” says PMC director Professor David Robie, who is also editor of Asia Pacific Report.
In fact, it was AAP foreign correspondent based in Suva at the time, Jim Shrimpton, who broke the story of Fiji’s first coup in May 1987.
Also discussed on Southern Cross was the Papua New Guinea police investigating death threats texted to Lae city chief Neil Ellery, who has a New Zealand father, and his wife.
There is also a chat with Debate writer and programme producer James Tapp about confronting Pākehā Privilege as a white male student.
Tapp is a Bachelor of Communication Studies and Bachelor of Business conjoint student at Auckland University of Technology, majoring in international business and advertising creativity.
- Pacific Media Centre’s Southern Cross segment on 95bFM
- Pacific Media Watch reporter Sri Krishnamurthi, The Wire presenter Sherry Zhang and producer James Tapp
