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 Pacific Scoop and manages the Pacific Media Watch media freedom project; he is also founding editor of Pacific Journalism Review research journal.
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...
Bring ethics into global smart tech, warns UN cyber expert
SPECIAL REPORT: By David Robie in Bangkok
A leading cyber security expert has called on universities to play a more active role in implementing ethics...
Pacific media freedom and news ‘black holes’ worsen for World Press...
ANALYSIS: By David Robie, convenor of Pacific Media Watch
While Pacific countries have got off rather lightly in a major global media freedom report last...
How soldier guitars, culture and faith paved way for Bougainville’s peace
The trailer for Will Watson's documentary on Bougainville peacemaking, Soldiers Without Guns.
FILM REVIEW: By David Robie
While a gripping film about the apocalyptic Bougainville war,...
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...
