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 edits the Pacific Media Watch media freedom project and Café Pacific website ; he is also founding editor of Pacific Journalism Review research journal.
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...
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’
Long-term New Caledonian residents and indigenous Kanaks will vote on the future of their Pacific territory this Sunday—a status quo French-ruled New Caledonia, or...
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...
