David Robie
Dr David Robie is the retired professor of journalism and founding 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 Asia Pacific Report and manages the Pacific Media Watch media freedom project; he is also founding editor of Pacific Journalism Review research journal.
Two countries, two kidnappings – Port Moresby shows Jakarta how it’s...
ANALYSIS: By David Robie
Two countries. A common border. Two hostage crises. But the responses of both Asia-Pacific nations have been like chalk and cheese.
On...
Papuan cat-and-mouse over NZ pilot taken captive by ‘freedom’ rebels
BACKGROUNDER: By David Robie
Papuan independence rebels are playing a desperate game of cat and mouse with Indonesian authorities over their hostage taking last week...
Papuan journalist award-winner Victor Mambor targeted for his reports
By David Robie
When Papuan journalist Victor Mambor visited New Zealand almost nine years ago, he impressed student journalists from the Pacific Media Centre and...
David Robie: 2022 Pacific political upheavals eclipse Tongan volcano
2022 PACIFIC REVIEW: By David Robie
The Pacific year started with a ferocious eruption and global tsunami in Tonga, but by the year’s end several...
Farewell Filep Karma, the revered West Papuan leader who could have...
By David Robie
A tragic day of mourning. Thousands thronged the West Papuan funeral cortège today and tonight as the banned Morning Star led the...
Defend NZ’s ‘fragile democracy’ by tackling disinformation, says advocate
By David Robie
A human rights advocate appealed tonight for people in Aotearoa New Zealand to take personal responsibility in the fight against disinformation and...
Martial law brutality in ‘educational’ musical drama Katips touches raw...
REVIEW: By David Robie
Seven weeks ago the Philippines truth-telling martial law film Katips was basking in the limelight in the country’s national FAMAS academy...
‘Doorstops’ at the Pacific Forum – why no tough questions on...
By Asia Pacific Report editor David Robie
A lively 43sec video clip surfaced during last week’s Pacific Islands Forum in the Fiji capital of Suva...
Filipino migrants call on NZ to halt military aid to Philippines...
By David Robie
Migrants and overseas Filipinos in Aotearoa New Zealand today called on the governments of both Australia and New Zealand to halt all...
Ramos-Horta challenges Pacific’s biggest threat to media freedom – China’s gatekeepers
COMMENTARY: By David Robie
Timor-Leste, the youngest independent nation and the most fledgling press in the Asia-Pacific, has finally shown how it’s done -- with...
Gallery: Nakba Day in Auckland – protesting against Israel’s ‘ethnic cleansing’
Asia Pacific Report newsdesk
Today is Nakba Day -- "the great catastrophe". This is the day marking the ethnic cleansing of more than 750,000 Palestinians...
Philippines forgets history and sells its soul for another Marcos
COMMENTARY: By David Robie
Sadly, the Philippines has sold its soul. Thirty six years ago a People Power revolution ousted the dictator Ferdinand Marcos after...
Prasad confident ‘fed up’ Fijians will make a change in this...
By David Robie in Auckland
Opposition National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad is confident there will be a change of government in Fiji this...
Open letter to Minister Faafoi – an appeal to help 34...
OPEN LETTER: By David Robie
Kia ora Immigration Minister Kris Faafoi
It is unconscionable. A bewildering and grossly unfair crisis for 34 young Papuan students –...
‘Secret plots’, sovereignty and covid challenges face Pacific for New Year
ANALYSIS: By David Robie in Auckland
The Pacific year has closed with growing tensions over sovereignty and self-determination issues and growing stress over the ravages...
New Caledonia votes to stay with France, but it’s a hollow...
ANALYSIS: By David Robie
“Loyalist” New Caledonians handed France the decisive victory in the third and final referendum on independence it wanted in Sunday’s vote.
But...
Betrayal of Kanaky decolonisation by Paris risks return to dark days
ANALYSIS: By David Robie
After three decades of frustratingly slow progress but with a measure of quiet optimism over the decolonisation process unfolding under the...
Pressure mounts on Jakarta for dialogue, not brutal ‘war on Papua’
By David Robie
Pressure is mounting on Indonesia to back off its brutal and unsuccessful military strategy in trying to crush West Papuan resistance to...
Open season again for Indonesian military trolls and ‘fake news’ campaign...
SPECIAL REPORT: By David Robie
It is open season again for Indonesian trolls targeting Asia Pacific Report and other media with fake news and disinformation...
West Papua and other critical issues – why is NZ media...
COMMENT: By David Robie in Auckland
International reporting has hardly been a strong feature of New Zealand journalism. No New Zealand print news organisation has...
Days of Fiji ‘banana republic’ protests remembered in Bavadra reunion
By David Robie in Auckland
Bananas, balaclavas and banners … these were stock-in-trade for human rights activists of the New Zealand-based Coalition for Democracy in...
Gallery: Free Palestine rally in Auckland rejects Israeli ‘genocide’ and ‘ethnic...
Asia Pacific Report newsdesk
More than 2000 people took part in Auckland today in a demonstration for justice for Palestine and against "genocide" and "ethnic...
