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.
Indonesia’s political system has ‘failed’ its minorities – like West Papuans
Indonesian army and police gather villagers in several sub-districts in Nduga and try to force them to "admit" to accusations that they are members...
Typhoon Usman and nightmarish Christmas holiday times in Bicol
Flooding of ricefields and villager homes beside the causeway between Vinzons and Labo in Camarines Norte, Bicol region, during Typhoon Usman on 29 December...
Kanaky independence campaign rolls on … encouraged by ballot result
David Robie, who reported from New Caledonia several times during the 1980s for Islands Business magazine, The Australian, New Zealand Times and other media,...
New Caledonia vote stirs painful memories – and a hopeful future
David Robie, who reported from New Caledonia during the 1980s for Islands Business magazine, The Australian, New Zealand Times and other media, returned to...
New Caledonia blockade tension fails to mar French PM’s talks on...
By David Robie in Nouméa
French security forces moved in today to clean up the main road near an indigenous Kanak tribal area after a...
Flashback to Kanaky in the 1980s – ‘Blood on their banner’
About 175,000 New Caledonians will vote on the future of their Pacific territory this Sunday—a status quo French-ruled New Caledonia, or an independent Kanaky...
Contrasting accounts of Indonesian genocide and betrayal in West Papua
BOOK REVIEW: By David Robie
Two damning and contrasting books about Indonesian colonialism in the Pacific, both by activist participants in Europe and New Zealand,...
‘Sick joke’, threats cited in Asia-Pacific declining media freedom summit
Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Christophe Deloire talks about the global threat against journalists. Video: Café Pacific
By David Robie in Paris
When Reporters Without Borders chief...
‘Fake news’ and millennials’ lack of media judgment a challenge, says...
BRIEFING: By David Robie in Manipal, India
“Fake news” combined with a lack of critical media judgment by many in the millennial generation is a...
Free media week killings underscore crimes of impunity against journalists
The media freedom monitoring group Reporters Without Borders details how it has trained journalists in Afghanistan to be aware of double suicide bomb attacks....
More frontline research ‘by Pacific for Pacific’ plea at climate summit
Trailer for the controversial climate change documentary Anote’s Ark – former Kiribati President Anote Tong opened the first Pacific Climate Change Conference in Wellington...
Juffa blasts PNG resources ‘sell out’ but tells of Managalas hope
Rapacious logging cartels feature in PNG's Northern Province Governor Gary Juffa's speech. Video: Café Pacific
By David Robie at Te Papa
Northern Province Governor Gary Juffa...
Underestimate climate change political upheaval ‘at peril’, warns former PM
By David Robie at Te Papa
A former New Zealand prime minister has warned that climate change has the potential to force a legal and...
A timely climate media strategy to empower citizens
BOOKS: By David Robie, editor of Pacific Journalism Review
At the time of reviewing this important and timely book, Hurricane Irma had just ripped a...
Coups, globalisation and Fiji’s reset structures of ‘democracy’
BOOKS: David Robie, editor of Pacific Journalism Review
When Commodore (now rear admiral retired and an elected prime minister) Voreqe Bainimarama staged Fiji’s fourth "coup...
UN critics join global outrage over Duterte’s Rappler ‘free press’ attack
Rappler’s CEO and executive editor Maria Ressa says that the Philippine government spends a lot of effort to turn journalism into a crime which...
Tiny Timbulsloko fights back in face of Indonesia’s ‘ecological disaster’
Drone views of the village of Timbulsloko showing the scale of coastal erosion and sinking flatlands in an area that once used to be...
Indonesia’s development dilemmas – a green info gap and budget pressure
Crucial to how Indonesia's news outlets cover the environment - and its destruction - is the ownership and vested interests of the media landscape. ...
Timely strategic research spotlights killings of journalists
A trailer for the controversial Anas investigation into corruption by Ghana's judiciary. Video: AnanseGH TV
BOOKS: By David Robie
The Ghanaian investigative journalist summed up the...
Flashback to NZ’s nuclear-free law 1987: Challenging Goliath
New Zealand quietly celebrated 30 years of its official status as a “nuclear-free” country this week, marking the time when NZ Nuclear Free Zone,...
An Indonesian oasis of progressive creativity emerges in culture city
Dr Max Lane, pictured here with Faiza Mardzoeki, talks about his project to establish a community and activist library for the student city of...
Images: Papuan street art, freedom seminar pose challenge at Jakarta’s WPFD2017
Photographs by David Robie and Bernard Agapa in Jakarta
The World Press Freedom Day organisers, UNESCO and the Indonesian Press Council, marginalised the highly sensitive...
