David Robie
Dr David Robie is professor of journalism and director of AUT University’s Pacific Media Centre. He is a strong advocate of independent journalism at the country’s journalism schools. He is co-founder with Selwyn Manning of Pacific Scoop and manages the Pacific Media Watch media freedom project; he is also founding editor of Pacific Journalism Review research journal.
Facebook censorship on West Papua – then deafening silence
COMMENT: By David Robie
The silence from Facebook is deafening and disturbing.
At first, when I lodged my protests earlier this month to Facebook over the...
35 years on, Tahiti’s Temaru likely guest in Rainbow Warrior rewind
Flashback: Tagata Pasifika's John Pulu talks to Oscar Temaru in 2016.
By David Robie
One of the champions of the South Pacific’s nuclear-free and independence campaigners,...
From nuclear refugees to climate justice – the Rainbow Warrior legacy
SPECIAL REPORT: By David Robie, who sailed on the original Rainbow Warrior to Rongelap atoll and is author of the book Eyes of Fire.
Thirty...
Covid, culture and USP’s fight to save academic freedom
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY: By David Robie
What an irony. The 12-nation regional University of the South Pacific that prides itself on its pan-Pacific culture has...
Toxic US politics, a brutal killing and the messengers become the...
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY: By David Robie
Three cartoonists had especially poignant takes on the tragic and toxic political aftermath of martyr George Floyd’s brutal killing...
West Papua’s highway of blood – a case of destruction not...
REVIEW: By David Robie
The 4300-km Trans-Papua Highway costing some US$1.4 billion was supposed to bring “wealth, development and prosperity” to the isolated regions of...
RIMPAC 2020 maritime exercises ‘all at sea’ as virus, protests put...
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY: By David Robie
Quietly passing us by in these frenetic covid-19 coronavirus weeks as New Zealand takes a big step back to...
Pacific governments accused of using virus crisis to cover media crackdown
ANALYSIS: By David Robie of the Pacific Media Centre/Te Amokura, Auckland University of Technology
As fears grow over vulnerability to the coronavirus in parts of...
Jailing of Jakarta Six fuels virus fears over Papuan political prisoners
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY: By David Robie, convenor of Pacific Media Watch
The jailing of the Jakarta Six – five Papuans and the first Indonesian to...
Tough coronavirus controls threaten Pacific, global media freedom
Reporters Without Borders has just published its annual World Press Freedom Index ranking countries over censorship. Video: Hannah Cleaver/DW
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY: By David Robie,...
NZ lockdown – day 25: Nine new cases – community spread...
By RNZ News
Data to determine if community transmission of Covid-19 is occurring in New Zealand will be a big factor in tomorrow's decision on...
How the ‘chief covidiot’ has blocked world health unity with WHO...
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY: By David Robie, self-isolating in Auckland under New Zealand’s Covid-19 lockdown as part of a Pacific Media Watch series.
Donald Trump’s sabre-rattling...
Creeping authoritarianism in Pacific not the answer to virus pandemic
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY: By David Robie, self-isolating in Auckland under New Zealand’s Covid-19 lockdown as part of a Pacific Media Watch series.
A rather beautiful...
How Ardern’s coronavirus kindness theme can become contagious
The South African 'Don't Panic Buy' jingle. Video: ENCA/PickNSave
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY: By David Robie, self-isolating in Auckland under New Zealand’s Covid-19 lockdown as part...
Rappler challenges president’s ‘media powers’ in democracy fight back
By David Robie in Manila
Rappler, the innovative online publisher that has been at the media freedom frontline in the Philippines for the past three...
Ampatuan massacre justice aftermath with more fear of warlords, corruption
The Rappler video feed on the Ampatuan convictions last month.
For decades, the feared Ampatuan clan held sway in the impoverished province of Maguindanao in...
Radio storytelling and community empowerment in Philippines
By David Robie in Manila
Operating out of a modest three-roomed rooftop suite overlooking the local marketplace in the rice-producing Bicol township of Vinzons, a...
Iran’s great global adventurers – around the lost world in 10...
David Robie, concluding his three-part series about Iran, profiles an extraordinary pair of Tehran brothers who have been pioneering global research adventurers.
They have been...
10 reasons why tourists must visit Iran
David Robie continues his three-part series about travelling in Iran.
I stumbled on the scene by chance. Our host family in Iran’s second city Mashhad,...
Iran a hugely ‘friendly’ country behind the sabre-rattling
Iran attracts an onslaught of negative media in New Zealand and Western media. But is it fair or deserved? David Robie has spent several...
West Papua’s road to ‘independence’, following the Timorese lead?
An Al Jazeera report on the protests and rioting in Papua this week in response to the racist attack in Surabaya.
ANALYSIS: By David Robie
Indonesia’s...
Indonesia’s cover up over Papuan media freedom violations exposed
ANALYSIS: By David Robie
Indonesia recently hosted a bold public relations window-dressing expo in Auckland presenting itself as a “Pacific” nation while attempting to provide...
