By Michael Andrew in Jakarta

International journalists and agencies have condemned the arrest of American environmental journalist Philip Jacobson, who has been detained in Palangkaraya, Central Kalimantan, for allegedly misusing his residency permit.

The reporter and editor of Mongabay, a United States-based environmental news website, was detained on Tuesday after being placed under city-arrest for more than a month while immigration officials investigated his alleged visa violations.

Arrested under Article 122 of the 2011 Immigration Law, Jacobson, 30, could be subjected to a prison sentence of up to five years and a fine of up to Rp 500 million (US$36,556) if convicted of the charges.

READ MORE: Indonesia arrests Mongabay editor

Paris-based international media freedom agency Reporters without Borders (RSF) has issued a statement denouncing the arrest as an act of intimidation.

“The Central Kalimantan immigration officials have massively overstepped their powers. We call on the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, which oversees the Directorate General of Immigration, to ensure that this journalist is immediately released in accordance with the rule of law,” the head of RSF’s Asia-Pacific desk, Daniel Bastard, said in a press release on Wednesday.

RSF said it had contacted Jacobson in Palangkaraya in early January before his arrest. Jacobson told the agency immigration officials were “carrying out an investigation” into his case and that he had done nothing more than attend a public meeting.

The director of the New Zealand-based Pacific Media Centre, Professor David Robie, called the punitive measures against Jacobson unjustifiable and unacceptable.

‘Untold damage’
“This slow detention then arrest of one of the world’s leading environmental journalists will do untold damage to Indonesia’s reputation on media issues and democracy,” he told The Jakarta Post on Thursday.

“The issue of a business visa is merely a technicality and can be solved bureaucratically. The reason why some journalists have other types of visas is because of the secretive and red-tape-mired processes applying to foreign journalists visiting the country.”

Dr Robie, covenor of the PMC’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project, said the type of journalism carried out by Jacobson and Mongabay were vital for confronting “the existential crisis of our time”.

“By arresting journalists, authorities clearly are wanting to bury their heads in the ground and refuse to face the facts and truth. Journalists like Jacobson, who has a highly respected track record as an environmental journalist, should be lauded not hounded.”

Other journalists and environmental activists have taken to social media to voice their support of Jacobson with the hashtag #freephilipjacobson circulating on Twitter.

In a tweet, Sydney-based Indonesian sustainable forests executive Aida Greenbury called Jacobson an honest, passionate and dedicated journalist.

“He has been arrested. Indonesia: we are better than this. Revealing the truth is not a crime,” she tweeted.

Important work
The Australian’s Southeast Asia correspondent Amanda Hodge tweeted that “Jacobson had done some of the most important work in Indonesia on [the] intersection of corruption [and the] environment.”

“The long-form pieces he’s written/ helped produce w @gekkoprojekt are essential reading. His arrest is deeply disturbing #freephilipjacobson.”

The Indonesian Journalists’ Safety Committee has also weighed in on the issue, calling the arrest of Jacobson an excessive measure that tarnished Indonesia’s democracy.

“The excessive actions against Jacobson call into question the government’s motives and should not reflect authorities’ allergy to criticism and oversensitivity toward his investigations on the environment for Mongabay.”

It called for Jacobson’s immediate release and for President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo to guarantee the protection of journalists working in Indonesia and “of the transparency of information and access of foreign journalists to cover in Indonesia on the basis of press freedom, freedom of information and human rights.”

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) 2019 democracy index, Indonesia’s democracy has not climbed from its position of 64th of 167 countries.

Press freedom is also languishing with Indonesia ranked 124th of 180 countries in RSF’s 2019 World Press Freedom Index, above Uganda and below Malaysia.

This article is republished from The Jakarta Post. The author, Michael Andrew, a former Pacific Media Watch contributing editor, is an intern with the Post under the ACICIS programme.

• US environmental journalist detained arbitrarily
• ‘Really touching my heart’ – Philip Jacobson

International and Pacific reporting are among the first casualties of struggling New Zealand newsrooms as they try to cut costs to make up for decreasing advertising revenue.

This was the bleak message from Dr Mel Bunce, a media academic speaking at Auckland University of Technology earlier this week.

Discussing her latest book, The Broken Estate: Journalism and Democracy in a Post-Truth World, Dr Bunce said the New Zealand media had been hit particularly hard by the immense changes brought about by social media and technology.

READ MORE: Ethics needed in computing and tech to stop ‘robber barons’, says academic

“You can see things are really quite bad here. The foundations of the media systems here are actually, compared to most countries more fragile and more vulnerable to further disruption.

“We’ve seen that in the drops in journalist numbers; in 2001 there were 2300 journalists in the census, by 2013 it had dropped down to 1500. So more than 30% of journalists have gone.”

A reader in journalism at City, University of London, Dr Bunce said a small market and the inability to exploit economies of scale was a main reason for the New Zealand media’s fragility.

A unique ownership model also meant that news outlets couldn’t adapt as well as other businesses to market disruption.

“A lot of it [New Zealand media] is owned by international financial companies who specialise in buying distressed companies which they buy to make short term profit and then sell off.

“What that means is that you’re not willing to accept losses in some parts of your business. You’re not willing to use your radio profits to subsidise your TV.”

The observation corresponds with MediaWorks’ decision to sell off its struggling TV business, a move that could further erode plurality in the media and could potentially jeopardise 500 jobs if a buyer isn’t found.

However, she said it was a lack of public funding of media that was the main reason for the dire situation.

Neglected public media

“The final reason things are so challenging is that we really have neglected public media here compared to other countries in recent years. Australia historically spends a couple of times more than us in public media, and the UK up to six times much.”

“We are almost alone among industrialised commonwealth countries in having no public broadcaster.”

In an op-ed in the New Zealand Herald earlier this week, Dr Bunce ventured the best options to create a state funded broadcaster would be to expand RNZ into a full multimedia organisation or merge it with TVNZ.

The result would be New Zealand’s version of the BBC or the ABC, both the preferred and most trusted sources of news in their respective countries.

“A newly merged, state-funded broadcaster could also include Māori Television. But it would be absolutely crucial, if that happened, to safeguard Māori Television’s unique and specific mandate (and funding) to support Māori language and culture,” she wrote.

Lack of diversity

Dr Bunce said that Māori Television added a vital counter weight to the lack of diversity which was still rampant in the mainstream media.

“We have lots of research which shows that the media continues to represent Maori and Pacific Islanders very very negatively.”

While reporting on the Pacific region continues to suffer from the changes in the media landscape, she said that local community reporting, here and abroad had been hit particularly hard.

“One big study in the US found that there are now 1300 communities that have no access to local news whatsoever and that includes 200 counties so places where serious administrative power, decision making is taking place and not scrutinised and not reported on in any way.”

These “news deserts” were concerning she said as research had shown what happens to a community when it doesn’t have news.

“We see that voter turnout goes down, people become more polarised because they tend to get their info from national sources which are more politicised, we see that there is also more corruption and less efficient government.”

‘Silver lining’

However, she said there was a silver lining from the global changes that were having such a powerful influence on journalism, one being a boom in new media research to find solutions.

More money was being spent to fund grants and studies in an effort to confront the challenges posed by the likes of Cambridge Analytica.

However, she reemphasised that more investment in public journalism was essential to mitigate the crisis.

“We have a really really compelling moment at which we should be intervening to provide more public funding for journalism.”

“It’s going to be a hard battle because I don’t know that people are aware of what it’s like to be in a place without the news, yet.”

While the data and the research showed that the media as a whole was suffering, she said the quality of journalists’ work, especially in New Zealand, was not.

“Some of the best journalism in the world is being done in New Zealand by some very talented people.”

Pacific diplomats, academics and youth leaders will gather in Auckland, New Zealand, this week to discuss security, economic development and other pressing issues shaping the region’s future.

Pacific Futures will be held on October 18 and will feature speakers from across the region, including Samoa’s Deputy Prime Minister Afioga Fiame Naomi Mata’afa, New Zealand Minister of Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio and New Zealand Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, who will be giving the keynote speech.

New Zealand Institute of International Affairs executive director Melanie Thornton said the conference would be “focussed squarely on the Pacific” with more than 80 percent of speakers from the Pacific or of Pacific heritage.

READ MORE: Tagata Pasifika: Youth lead indigenous storytelling at Moana Loloto

“This conference will be vital for understanding the new dynamics in the Pacific and what these mean for the diplomatic community, the business community, and for Pasifika and New Zealand communities everywhere,” she said.

The public is also invited to attend the conference to gain an understanding of regional challenges and the positive work that is taking place in difference Pacific countries and organisations, she said.

Pacific security will likely be at the forefront of the conference, which will take place as China galvanises support and increases its foothold in the region.

Last month, both Kiribati and the Solomon Islands switched diplomatic ties from long-time ally Taiwan to China, prompting claims that the world’s second largest economy was attempting to “buy” diplomacy in the Pacific.

However, senior lecturer of security studies at Massey University Dr Anna Powles, who will be presenting at the conference, said talks on China’s role in the Pacific would not dominate the agenda as it had done in other regional meetings in recent years.

“The conference has deliberately shifted the framing of geopolitics in the Pacific in terms of what are Pacific perspectives on security issues.”

While she said the Kiribati and Solomon’s islands developments were likely to come up, she expected a far more “nuanced conservation” where the bilateral agency of Pacific nations are acknowledged.

Another key issue which is certain to be raised is the unrest in West Papua, which has seen over 30 people killed and many thousands displaced as the Indonesia military clashed with protesters.

Dr Powles said it was important that West Papua is discussed at the conference as it is very much a regional security issue.

“What is happening in Papua is a human security issue and because it is a human security issue, it is a regional security issue for New Zealand and a number of Pacific island countries.”

“New Zealand is a signatory to the Boe Declaration which provides an expanded concept of security inclusive of human security.”

“There is a potential role for New Zealand, similar to the honest broker role New Zealand played in respect to brokering peace in Bougainville, where New Zealand can offer ‘good offices’ to support dialogue between the key actors in Papua and Indonesia.”

Vanuatu Foreign Minister’s Minister Ralph Regenvanu who will also be speaking at the conference told Pacific Media Watch he intended to raise the West Papua issue personally.

An outspoken advocate of West Papuan independence, Regenvanu commended the New Zealand government’s leadership on issues like climate change, which was robustly debated at the Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu in August.

“New Zealand is a model for what a developed country should be committing in terms of climate change,” he said.

Pacific Futures will also focus heavily on the growing influence of young people in Pacific developments with many representatives of youth organisations speaking.

Founder and CEO of Tonga Youth Leaders and Pacific Regional Representative for Commonwealth Youth Council Elizabeth V Kite said the conference will give a much-needed voice to the younger generations which are frequently excluded from decision making.

“Youth are leading the way in terms of highlighting issues such as climate change, but we are still not afforded equal say at decision making tables about our environment and future, which must change,” she said.

“If we are the ones to live out the future that is being planned today, we as young people must have a say in that and must be engaged with when these discussions and decisions are being made.”

Pacific Futures will take place at the Novotel Auckland Airport from 8am to 5pm on Friday October 18.

The true story of one of the Pacific’s great waka builders and sailors has been captured in a stirring and visually gripping documentary.

Loimata: The Sweetest Tears follows the final years of Ema Siope, a Samoan-born Kiwi who endured a tumultuous past to reconnect with her roots across the Pacific by mastering the seafaring traditions of her ancestors.

Six-feet tall and immensely strong, Siope was one of the few woman in the world who could captain and build an ocean going waka hourua – a traditional twin-hulled sailing canoe in which she completed many ocean voyages.

READ MORE: Indigenous Pacific knowledge to help save the ocean

WATCH: Loimata crowd funding video on Vimeo

Siope passed away in August this year, several years after she was diagnosed with cancer. The film starts at the time of diagnosis, following her to the rural New Zealand town of Taihape, where her parents migrated in the 1960s and then to Samoa to heal old wounds in her family’s past.

Directed by close friend Anna Marbrook, the initially self-funded film has received support from private donors, NZ On Air, and Māori Television.

However, in order to complete and screen the film in the next six months, a crowd funding campaign has been launched to raise the necessary funds.

Marbrook’s brother and co-producer, AUT screen production senior lecturer Jim Marbrook says the title of the film can be translated as “tears”.

Tears of sadness
“The title of the film is Loimata: The Sweetest Tears. Because for all of us there’s this idea that there are tears of sadness, sad moments, but also tears of reconnection,” he says.

Reconnection is certainly a crucial theme of the film, which explores the distance and separation from culture so many in the Pacific diaspora experience after migrating to New Zealand.

“You know, you move from Samoa to New Zealand in the early 60s. So you’re living that kind of world, it’s disconnected from your Samoan culture, from where you grew up. And through that disconnection, Emma kind of lost her way a little bit,” Jim Marbrook says.

After living rough on the streets, embroiled in drugs and substance abuse, Siope sought to reconnect with her native culture, eventually leading to her prodigious waka building and ocean voyages back home.

“Loimata also refers to a piece of land, family land,” Jim Marbrook says.

“It’s up in Savai’i, where Ema’s family and her grandmother come from. So it’s a very important part of the film, that return to Loimata.”

Marbrook says it is much a story about Ema’s unique qualities as it is about her personal journey.

Waka culture
“This is a story that has to be told because it’s not only a story of reconnecting. It’s a story of showing leadership qualities and joining this waka culture.”

Eventually becoming a master craftswoman and mentor, Siope was initially schooled by waka-building legend Sir Hector Busby and taught to sail by Haunui captain Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr, both of whom are involved in the Tuia 250 Commemorations.

A characteristically discreet person who preferred the background, Siope approached Anna Marbrook about the story for the film two years ago.

Jim Marbrook says this was Siope’s way of finally announcing, “I’ve got things to say.”

While the film will likely be destined for overseas film festivals, Marbrook sees it opening in New Zealand and showing on the big screen.

Called a proudly Pacific story of transformation and healing, the film uses an array of captivating shots and video techniques to capture verdant vistas of Samoa and the inner world of the New Zealand waka community.

At a time when issues like disconnection, identity and the vital importance of the Pacific are growing in prominence, this film is likely to provide a soothing balance, while honouring the life and times of great woman whose wake will be felt for years to come.

• Details of the crowdfunding campaign can be found here.
  

Social media and tech industries have been replicating the ugliest aspects of capitalism from the 1800s, according to an AUT computer science lecturer.

Associate Professor Tony Clear says that social media and tech executives are taking advantage of unregulated markets in a similar way as the wealthy industrialists or “robber barons” that exploited abundant resources and cheap labour in the 19th century.

Only now according to Dr Clear, the resources are not gold, coal or silks managed out of London or New York. Now it’s data out of Silicon Valley.

READ MORE: Bring ethics into global smart tech, warns UN cyber expert

“The world of the robber barons has come back to life again with data as the gold dust,” he says.

While the resources might have changed, he says the masses of “manipulated” people are still needed to turn the cogs and drive the profits of the giant digital machine.

“They’re manipulating us through their algorithms. The more we use their platforms, the more we give them, the more they can know about us, the more they can manipulate and control our behaviour.”

“I don’t think it’s a far deal.”

A editor and columnist for computer education magazine ACM Inroads, Dr Clear has written extensively on the flaws in the tech and computing sectors.

He says a lack of ethics throughout the industry, coupled with rampant growth and innovation have made social media platforms dangerous environments where hate – such as that which lead to the Christchurch Mosque Attack – can fester and spread rapidly.

Letter to PM

Which is why after that atrocity, he penned a letter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s office urging for a “regulatory regime” to be imposed on social media platforms in New Zealand.

While the “robber barons” comparison is not a new one, Clear believes that regulation is key to moderating the potentially dangerous whims of industry heads.

“Because these guys [social media executives] have no moral base we need to regulate the hell out of them,” he says.

Governments appear to have taken steps on this. At the May 15 “Christchurch Call” in Paris, Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron implored social media platforms to take more of a hand in regulating their content.

It’s not as simple as just asking however, as according to Dr Clear, few industry heads actually know what harmful or bigoted content looks like.

“They don’t know the difference between free speech and hate speech,” he says.

“They neatly wrap it around the US constitution and freedom of speech idea which means you can say any hateful bloody thing that you like.”

While globally Facebook deletes 66,000 posts per week which breach its own definition of hate speech, Clear argues that the platform hides behind the argument that it is not a publisher and does not need to take a strong moral position like newspapers would.

Domestic regulation

This grey area with freedom of speech is the reason some countries are regulating platforms based on their own laws.

Massey University’s Professor Paul Spoonley is an advocate of such a move. An expert on hate speech, he doesn’t think the “Christchurch Call” will make much difference. However, he praises some European countries for already taking the initiative and regulating social media platforms based on domestic law.

“See what the Germans have done which is quite successful. The ethics is not that of Facebook, it is that which has been deemed important by an individual country, in this case Germany,” he says.

Introduced in January 2018, the German law as known NetzDG puts the onus on Facebook and Twitter to differentiate between hate speech and free speech, requiring them to remove any “obviously illegal” hate speech from their sites within 24 hours or face a potential 50 million Euro fine.

As a result Facebook now has 1200 reviewers based in Essen and Berlin deleting at least 15,000 posts each month in Germany.

While regulation appears to be the most obvious tool to fix the tech sector’s ethical vacuum, there is one option that targets the root of the issue. And it starts in the universities.

Ethics in schools

Dr Clear says that young computer science students need to be exposed to more “social good” or ethics papers which can help lay down sound moral foundations on which they will build their careers.

“Its about teaching young computer scientists that there is a bigger world than what they see technically,” he says.

This comes with challenges however.

Along with other leading academics, Dr Clear wrote a paper on value-driven computer science education. It found that many students do not see a link between computer science and societal benefit as they would in careers like nursing and teaching. This also discourages more women from enrolling in computing courses.

“Many avoid taking CS classes because they do not perceive a computing career as having the power to do good and make a difference,” the paper read.

It also read that if there are papers on ethics or social good available, they are usually not introduced until the third or fourth year of studies, long after many students with such inclinations have become discouraged and dropped out of the courses.

Wellington-based computer programmer Oliver Bridgman agrees, saying he couldn’t recall many ethics papers during his studies a decade ago.

“If they were there they were optional and only made up about 5 of 200 points” he says.

He too, draws comparisons between low and mid-level computer science workers and the proletariat of old.

“In my opinion the coders on the front lines are basically your coal miners in the early 1900s except now they get paid a ton more so have to care even less.”

“So your real ethics conundrum is the money behind it all, which is almost always driven by the same capitalism.”

‘Careless’ code

Senior software developer Alex Frere expressed a similar opinion, citing such incidents as the recent Boeing 737 jet malfunction as a result of carelessly written code.

“It’s staggering really that no real code of ethics, or industry standard regulation exists across the tech sector, despite how deeply it’s rooted in modern society.”

However, he points out that there are big players addressing the ethics issue within the industry such as Robert Martin, or Uncle Bob – renowned as one of the fathers of computer science.

“Uncle Bob has coined a bullet point list called the “Programmers Oath”,” Frere says.

“It’s of a similar vein to a doctors Hippocratic Oath, or a lawyer being sworn in after passing the bar.”

While Frere couldn’t recall much ethics being taught in his university course, he hopes that more grassroots teaching along with an increased focus on societal good from an “enlightened youth” will eventually revolutionise the industry.

Industry changes

Such changes are already taking place, with Facebook reportedly introducing artificial intelligent to block and remove violent content like the video that was live streamed from the Christchurch Mosque Attack.

According to Tony Clear, these types of changes are inevitable as more end users begin to comprehend the insidious perils of technology and the price that must be paid to enjoy it.

“We’ve got a pact with the devil at the moment,” he says.

“But I think the people realise when they’re being exploited.”

Pacific media associates have paid tribute to the late Tongan Prime Minster ‘Akilisi Pohiva, who died in New Zealand earlier this week.

An enduring symbol of democracy in Tonga and the Pacific, Pohiva died at Auckland hospital after a long struggle with various health problems.

“He fought for many years for real change in the Pacific’s only kingdom against at many times daunting odds from the establishment,” said Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie.

WATCH: Prime Minister Hon. ‘Akilisi Pohiva’s history on Tagata Pasifika

“But he persevered and eventually opened the door to fundamental changes a decade ago.

Dr Robie said the former school teacher faced a new set of challenges as Prime Minister.

“While he found being in office as Prime Minister more complex and conflicted, he had an impassioned vision for such critical and existential Pacific issues such as climate change and self-determination for West Papua.”

Pohiva spoke passionately on both topics at the last Pacific Islands Forum in Tuvalu, delivering unprecedented emotional pleas to his fellow Pacific leaders to act on climate change and condemn Indonesia for its treatment of West Papua.

Friend and former editor of Taimi ‘o Tonga Kalafi Moala said his death would not have surprised many Tongans due to the long deterioration of Pohiva’s health in recent years.

“He was not a healthy man. In recent years, prostate problems, and more recently diagnosed with liver cancer.”

Nevertheless, Moala said he was saddened by the loss of a friend despite the political differences between the two over their three-decade relationship.

“[He was] very intense, and treated most things, especially political issues as ‘life and death’.”

“Because of his focused and intensive nature, he tended to be feisty at times. He liked being viewed that he was leading a revolution.”

Pohiva and Moala along with Filokalafi Akau’ola were jailed for contempt of parliament in 1996, after Moala published in Taimi ‘o Tonga details of parliamentary proceedings that Pohiva had leaked.

Their 26-day incarceration prompted Dr Robie and journalist Peter Cronau to cover the story intensely in order to raise awareness and have the “Tongan three” released from prison.

This saga was the genesis of the Pacific Media Watch project and its role as “watchdog” to support regional journalists facing adversity.

After his release, Pohiva continued campaigning for democracy, clashing with the government and monarchy before becoming the first democratically-elected Prime Minister in the country’s second democratically-elected parliament.

Moala said that despite Pohiva’s later years as Prime Minister, when he was unable to produce the things he had promised in his campaigns, his years of fighting the monarchy for the rights of Tongan people will stand out.

“People will remember him as the best opposition leader ever in Tonga, and he helped shape Tongan politics, and helped bring about the 2010 [constitutional] reforms, in partnership with King George V,” he said.

For the past three weeks a wave of violent protest has been spreading across West Papua and Indonesia.

Sparked by a racist attack on West Papuan students, the protests have featured the burning of government buildings, 6000 troops mobilised, an internet blackout, marauding militias stabbing demonstrators and at least 10 civilian deaths as the Indonesian government attempted to smother the ugly truth of its own colonial legacy.

And yet, despite these egregious human rights abuses on a Pacific people, in a region of immense significance and proximity to New Zealand, the mainstream media has largely ignored the issue.

READ MORE: Leading West Papuan independence activist arrested in Jayapura

Apart from state broadcasters TNVZ and RNZ Pacific and a solitary article by the Otago Daily Times, barely a word has been published online about West Papua. None of New Zealand’s three biggest commercial media websites have featured the unrest since it started in mid-August.

Comparatively, the Hong Kong Anti-Extradition demonstrations have been featured on the same websites 20 times in the past three weeks.

The conflict in Kashmir has featured at least 10 times.

West Papua however, much closer to home, is apparently not worth mentioning.

If human suffering is the standard by which society measures the significance of an event, then the developments in West Papua should at the very least be an interesting story.

Why then is the mainstream media so unwilling to touch it?

The question was put to RNZ Pacific journalist Johnny Blades, who told Pacific Media Watch that the current mainstream coverage has not at all reflected the seriousness of the West Papua issue.

“The protests and related unrest, and the response by Indonesian authorities, are signs of a big crisis that countries in our part of the world ought to be concerned about,” he said.

“It has implications for numerous neighbouring countries, and has the potential to destabilise a wider region.”

While the lack of coverage is startling, he acknowledged that the reasons were complicated.

“Media outlets have difficulty accessing information about Papua. Indonesia practically restricts any outside access to Papua but media outlets haven’t seemed interested enough to take up the option of engaging local Papua-based journos to work with them.”

“Perhaps the Papua issue seems too difficult to cover, and media outlets may simply be more interested in sticking with the foreign news they are used to or think will get clicks.”

West Papua itself has been embroiled in intermittent conflict since the 1960s, when Indonesia claimed the land as its province through a widely discredited UN-sanctioned referendum called “The Act of Free Choice”, or derisively referred to as “The Act of No Choice”.

However, the current unrest is unlike anything that has happened before as it has involved a growing group of ethnic Indonesians who are passionately campaigning on behalf of the Papuan cause.

Last week, eight Indonesian activists were arrested in Jakarta on charges of treason or “makar” for either raising the West Papuan flag or engaging in pro-Papua activism. They reportedly remain in prison, forced to listen non-stop to nationalist songs under some type of Orwellian psychological punishment.

But the drama is not at all confined to the Indonesian borders. Last week, police accused prominent Indonesian human rights lawyer Veronica Koman of “inciting” unrest by posting about the protest on twitter from overseas. Interpol has reportedly been contacted to help track her down.

In another report, The Coordinating Minister of Politics, Law and Security Issues Wiranto threatened England-based West Papuan Independence leader Benny Wenda, saying that he would personally arrest him if he returned to Indonesia.

Wiranto himself is an ex-army General who despite being found by the UN to have committed war crimes and human rights abuses in East Timor is responsible for managing the unrest in Papua.

Even for the layperson, this saga is madness! Earlier this week, West Papuans reported that masked motorcyclists had tossed a bag of “aggressive” pythons into their dormitory, presumably in retaliation for the protests.

If newsreaders need twists, drama, and absurd irony to keep them engaged then the West Papua story deserves to be shared more.

But even if New Zealanders aren’t necessarily interested in the developments in West Papua or are unaware of its existence or location, shouldn’t it be the media’s job to inform them?

Journalist and editor of Evening Report Selwyn Manning thought so, saying that the mainstream news media was not doing its job to foster public interest in significant events.

“The disinterest is due to the mainstream news media not meeting its fourth estate function, that is to report on issues where conflict, environmental impact, or natural disasters have yet to spark a multilateral intervention.”

But he also said that New Zealanders’ interest in certain events was dictated by government interest and involvement, a factor that in this case would certainly hinder Kiwi’s awareness of West Papua.

“Politically our governments are reticent to get involved in human rights issues occurring within Indonesian-controlled states. It is a geopolitical and diplomatic thing.”

The government certainly appears to be keeping West Papua at an incredibly long arms-length. Apart from the Foreign Ministry saying that it was “deeply concerned” about the violence and had raised the issue with Indonesia, little has been done to actively challenge the human rights violations.

Naturally, the New Zealand government wants to preserve its diplomatic relationship with a valuable and very powerful country of 260 million people with a GDP nearly the size of Australia’s.

However, New Zealand ignoring political or social developments in Indonesia is like an investor ignoring a toxic public feud between a CEO and employees in a profitable company. It’s just bad business.

But even if the government is turning its back on West Papua, the media does not need to follow suit, nor does the public.

In Papua New Guinea, the people are defying their government’s recognition of Indonesia’s sovereignty over West Papua by marching on mass for the freedom of their fellow islanders.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, political and religious groups and even UN officials are weighing in on the unrest, backing the West Papuan cause or demanding an end to the human rights abuses and for Indonesia to hold those responsible to account.

The New Zealand public can also weigh in on West Papua, but first it needs to know that it is an issue in the first place.

“A lack of understanding about West Papua and exactly where it is remains a factor,” said Johnny Blades

This needs to change. For whatever reasons or whether it is interesting news or not, New Zealanders should be given the opportunity to learn about West Papua and decide for themselves if it’s worth their concern.

The media can make that happen.

As Timor-Leste celebrates 20 years since the landmark vote that determined its independence from Indonesian rule, activists are urging the New Zealand government not to repeat mistakes from the past and not back West Papuan independence until the last minute.

West Papua Action Auckland’s Maire Leadbeater said the New Zealand government largely ignored the “shocking violence” in Indonesian-ruled Timor-Leste in favour of fostering bilateral and military ties.

“The government sort of stuck with its very quiet do nothing say little approach,” she said.

READ MORE: Timor-Leste turns 20: Colonial past feeds problems of neocolonial present

Heavily involved in the Timor-Leste independence campaign, Leadbeater said it was not until the violence and international pressure reached critical levels that the New Zealand government started to openly support the idea of an independence referendum.

Parallels have been drawn between Timor-Leste’s journey to independence and the ongoing movement in West Papua, which has culminated in violent protests and demonstrations over the past fortnight.

Protests sparked
The protests were sparked when an Indonesian militia attacked West Papuan students in Surabaya, pelting them with stones and calling them “monkeys.”

Papuan deaths and injuries have already been reported after Indonesian authorities deployed military personal to quell the demonstrations. The internet has also been shut down to prevent pro-Papuan support from spreading, prompting condemnation from rights and media groups the world over.

While the New Zealand government has stayed relatively quiet on the issue, Leadbeater said now was the time for it to speak up and condemn human rights violations rather than wait until they got worse.

“They don’t want to be left again do they, not changing until the absolute [last minute] and allowing the awful things to occur?”

Open letter
West Papua Action Auckland has written an open letter to Jacinda Ardern urging her to condemn the racism that started the protests and end the internet blackout which is hampering journalists covering the story.

The current protests are the latest developments in the West Papuan quest for independence, which has been fought since the 1960s when Indonesia claimed the former Dutch colony as its province through a widely discredited referendum.

Activist and former Green Party MP Catherine Delahunty said that the protests were a critical development in the struggle for West Papuan self-determination.

Moment for action
“This is not a moment for neighbouring countries to be silent. This is a moment that neighbouring countries should urge Indonesia to stop human rights abuses.”

While the government could not change Indonesia’s internal policy, she said Ardern should at least encourage Indonesia to allow a visit from the UN Human Rights Commission.

This would ensure the bloody process by which Timor-Leste gained its independence would not be repeated in West Papua, she said.

“I hope that East Timor is not the future for West Papua in the sense that hundreds of thousands people were murdered in the process of East Timor getting its independence.

Unspoken history
“There is still this unspoken and unrepentant history really in the sense that there has never been recognition of how bad it was.”

Indonesia invaded Timor-Leste on December 9, 1975, nine days after it declared independence from the outgoing Portuguese administration.

Known as Operasi Seroja, it was the largest military operation ever carried out by Indonesia.

It resulted in an undetermined number of Timorese casualties, with reports of Indonesian military indiscriminately killing civilians in the occupied cities.

The soldiers involved in the invasion are celebrated as heroes in Indonesia. According to news site KBR, the special forces unit involved in the invasion of Dili, the nanggala team, was honoured at the presidential palace two weeks ago for its service during the operation. 

The Indonesian media is contributing to resentment and racism toward Papuans, according to a human rights researcher and former journalist.

Andreas Harsono of Human Rights Watch Jakarta told Pacific Media Watch many Indonesian journalists either view Papuans as enemy “separatists” or deviants and their reporting tends to convey these stereotypes.

Papuan anger has erupted in widespread riots and rallies across Indonesia over the last week, after a militia attacked West Papuan students in Surabaya, pelting them with stones and calling them “monkeys”.

READ MORE: Indonesia’s political system has failed its minorities – like West Papuans, says author

Harsono, who is in New Zealand promoting his latest book Race, Islam and Power, says the manner in which the media reported the attacks created further anti-Papuan resentment which in turn sparked a backlash from the West Papuans themselves.

“The attack was reported by the media, videoed by the media, but it raised anger back home, now almost 30 cities are having rallies protesting against the use of the word monkey for this Papuan people.”

Part of the problem, he says, is that many journalists are working for military or intelligence agencies and are therefore writing to a specific agenda.

“Another bad thing that Indonesian journalists in West Papua usually do is that many of them are collaborating with Indonesian military or Indonesian police, some of them are even on the payroll of the intelligence service.”

According to Harsono, a 2010 leaked report revealed that 600 people were informing for the military and at least 200 were journalists.

“Some of them are agents on the payroll, some of them informers; they are kind of freelancers who provide information to the military.

“Also, it is quite common for intelligence officers to be stationed inside newsrooms, either in Jayapura or Manokwari.”

Harsono wrote about a case in which a police officer had been placed under cover inside the Jubi newsroom in Jayapura. Editors discovered his identity when they saw on his computer messages detailing the editorial meetings that he had sent to the local police headquarters.

Michael Andrew’s video report on Andreas Harsono at the Pacific Media Centre. Video: PMC

‘Broken journalists’
But newsrooms have also been compromised in other ways. While there are journalists who have tried to report fairly and objectively, Harsono says many have been “broken” through intimidation and attack.

“I have seen many journalists, Indonesian and Papuan whose spirits are broken in Papua because of intimidation, because of being stabbed, the police did not investigate it, they have been beaten or been arrested, or sexually harassed for female journalists.

“So that is another category; those that are already broken, they dare not to do independent reporting.”

‘Soul searching’
However, he says there are some newsrooms which are doing some “soul searching” and re-evaluating the way they’ve historically reported West Papua.

“They say that we did wrong over the last 50 years to look at Papua so black and white. They are starting to be professional as journalists and at least cover both sides if not all sides.”

Unlike much of the Indonesian media, these journalists are choosing to view the world around them through the unbiased, balanced tenets of free journalism rather than through a lens of dogmatic religion.

Harsono says this distinction is key to improving the quality of journalism and stemming the gradual erosion of Indonesia’s democracy.

Faith and profession
However, it remains one the media’s greatest challenges as many journalists – most of whom are Muslim –  struggle to differentiate between their faith and their profession.

“They tend to see others from their Sunni Islam perspective and those who in their view are not aligned with the Indonesian Ulama Council might be seen as blasphemous or deviants.”

He says this is particularly telling when reporting on West Papua, a place with an entirely different culture and set of customs than those of Islam, such as the eating of pork and women going bare-chested.

Harsono says it is crucial that journalists do not let their background or identity create bias and “pollute” the principals of unbiased journalism.

“I believe if I am a journalist, I go out from my house and I leave behind my background, my religion my nationality, my ethnic background, my social status. I’m going out there in the field reporting, interviewing, doing research as a professional journalist.”

Ongoing protests
Unfortunately, the media has not helped calm the current Papuan protests in Indonensia as people continue to rally across the archipelago, he says.

According to The Guardian, more than 1000 military have been dispatched to West Papuan cities to quell the demonstrations while internet has been cut off from parts of the region to prevent the unrest spreading.

Chairman of Indonesia’s Alliance of Independent Journalists Abdul Manan and Amnesty International Indonesia’s executive director Usman Hamid have condemned the internet block saying that it will prevent journalists from reporting on events and stop Papuans from sharing evidence of human rights abuses, reports Reuters.

The violence has already resulted in casualties with a Papuan demonstrator shot dead in a gunfight in the town of Wamena. Another man and a police officer were also injured.

In the Papuan towns of Jayapura, Timika, Sarong and Fakfak police reportedly used tear gas and fired warning shots to clear crowds after they set fire to a market and destroyed ATMs and shops. Local media report 45 people were arrested, reports The Guardian.

President Joko Widodo’s plea for Papuans to be patient and forgive the racism has done little to appease demonstrators who are demanding an end to oppression.

According to Indonesian news service Pojok Satu, the coordinator of the Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violencer (Kontras), Yati Andriyani has lambasted Jokowi’s efforts as “totally inadequate” and demanded that the President apologise for the racism and abuse Papuans have suffered.

Meanwhile, protests have spread to the Indonesian capital Jakarta, where the West Papuan flag for independence – the Morning Star – has been raised at a rally in front of the presidential palace, reports CNN Indonesia.

The small flag was flown as demonstrators were dancing and singing a song with lyrics demanding Papuan independence.

• Reports from Pojok Satu and CNN Indonesia are based on translations by James Balowski of the Indoleft News Service

Journalists across Papua New Guinea have spoken out in support of EMTV news director Neville Choi after his “unacceptable” termination from a role he had held for six years.

A public statement released on Monday listed the reasons for his termination, one of which was his refusal to bury a February 2019 story about the PNG Defence Force pay strike outside the Prime Minister’s office.

However, EMTV deputy head of news Scott Waide told Pacific Media Watch they had broadcast the news because it was balanced and the fallout had already been resolved internally.

UPDATE: EMTV news boss reinstated, PM orders inquiry

READ MORE: EMTV staff protest over sacking of ‘flawless’ news manager Neville Choi

“Neville did his job as head of news and a journalist. He took both sides of the story and we ran it on EMTV news,” said Waide.

“There was nothing conflicting about the story but the fact that he defied the orders of the acting CEO didn’t go well with the management and they issued a warning letter to him.”

Another reason for the termination was Choi’s defiance of a directive from EMTV’s board, Kumul Telikom Holdings Ltd, to fire Scott Waide himself for his coverage of the 2018 APEC summit.

The story reported New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s decision not to use the controversial government Maseratis during the summit.

While Choi refused the directive, management suspended Waide until an angry public backlash saw him reinstated.

Choi received a warning from management for his refusal to follow directives.

Flawed logic
Waide said he and the other journalists at EMTV could not understand the logic of using long resolved issues as an excuse to terminate someone.

“What management in their right mind would table something that they’ve already issued a warning letter for and resolved and then put it in a termination letter?”

While fellow journalists have rallied in support of Choi, Waide said the saga had affected the morale of the newsroom and compromised the plans and strategies that were in place.

“It has pretty much destabilised the whole EMTV newsroom and the management, but also it jeopardises our international links with organisations like Reuters, RNZ, and ABC because Neville is the main point of contact.”

Credible journalist
“Neville is a credible journalist in his own right,” he said.

“He’s set the standard in terms of his professionalism and he’s been in news management for 20 years.

“He’s not a controversial person. He’s just a very down-to-earth journalist who does his job. He’s being very loyal to EMTV and he’s built up a formidable team. They look up to him for support and leadership; to have that important element removed like that has been very upsetting for many people, not just within EMTV but outside as well.”

Waide said that other staff were intimidated by acting CEO Sheena Hughes, from Fiji, and human resources when they expressed their concerns about the termination.

“They told them if you are unhappy with this decision we will happily show you the door.”

Newsroom strike
While Meriba Tulo was made acting news director, she and the rest of the EMTV news team protested against the termination by walking off the job, forcing the broadcaster to replay the news bulletin for the first time in 30 years.

While there has not yet been a positive response from management, Waide said there were negotiations going on at various levels.

Social media has erupted with comments of support for Neville Choi and outrage over his termination.

Journalists and cameramen are being urged not to accept offers of work from EMTV to fill the void left by the striking news team.

PNG Media Union
On a Facebook comment, journalist Harlyne Joku stressed the need for a union group to represent the PNG media.

“We need to seriously consider forming a PNG journalists union to help us stand in solidarity to peacefully protest and negotiate issues affecting our colleagues, in this case the termination of EMTV news director Neville Choi,” she wrote.

“If EMTV staff protest or go on a sit in strike they can be terminated too. Let’s start by forming a journalists union.”

A Facebook post from former Post-Courier editor and chair of the PNG Media Council Alexander Rheeney called for Sheena Hughes herself to stand down and condemned the interference of the EMTV Board Kumul Telikom Holdings Ltd (KTHL) in independent news.

Commercial interference
According to former EMTV journalist Sylvester Gawi, commercial and governmental interference in the PNG media is a common occurrence.

“Journalism in PNG is no longer free. Commercial TV stations like EMTV are owned by Kumul Telikom Holdings Limited a government entity and it is nonetheless controlled by the government through the board,” he told Pacific Media Watch.

“I was asked to resign from EMTV in 2015 after I refused to do a story for one of their commercial clients.”

“I see that as much as we need commercial clients to support EMTV’s operation, the newsroom should not be expected to compromise its stance with commercial partners.”

However, he says that Choi’s termination sets a dangerous precedent and would only add to the demise of journalism in PNG.

“I believe journalism in PNG would go down the drain if we tolerate such actions like the termination of Neville Choi for standing up for his news team.”

• More EMTV News stories

The devastating loss of life and suffering from the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was commemorated in Auckland last weekend.

Organised by the Aotearoa chapter of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF), the 74th anniversary of the bombings brought activists and members of the public to the Ellen Melville Centre to remember the estimated 220,000 people who were killed in the blasts and the resulting fallout.

The evening featured a variety of musicians and speakers whose powerful words stressed the importance of a global pursuit of peace and the rejection of nuclear power and weapons.

VIEW MORE: A peaceful day remembering the horrendous fate of Nagasaki – Del Abcede

Local politician and anti-nuclear activist Richard Northey spoke of New Zealand’s historic anti-nuclear stance and its legacy resisting nuclear initiatives, such as French testing in the South Pacific in the 1960s.

However, he said nuclear power was becoming more appealing to some as an alternative energy source to emission-producing fossil fuels.

He said there was a need for the public to continue pressuring politicians to ensure that such options were not entertained.

“None of us can leave these issues just to others who seem more powerful than us. We must claim and assert power over our own future and take what action we can to achieve a peaceful, just, diverse and empathetic society locally and worldwide,” he said.

Letter of survival
WILPF member Anna Lee then recounted her first anti-nuclear protest in the 1960s in Auckland where Susumu Yoneda, a survivor of the Hiroshima bomb handed her a letter describing his harrowing experience of the blast and trying to find refuge in a razed and burning city while people were suffering in the inferno.

“All around me were wounded people. Some had their eyeballs protruded, others had their bowels burst out. Some were almost burnt to death by heat rays, showing their red flesh,” the letter read.

It finished with an emotional appeal for a total ban and elimination of nuclear weapons to prevent such horror from ever occurring again.

The destruction of the bombs was strikingly contrasted with the beauty of contemporary Nagasaki through WILPF and Pacific Media Centre member Del Abcede’s photos, taken on a trip to Japan earlier this year and on display at the event.

A recurring theme on the evening was a warning against the narrative that the dropping of the atomic bombs was justified.

Intense controversy
Since 1945, the bombs have been the subject of intense controversy and debate with the  conventional argument usually following the narrative that their use was necessary to bring about the end of the war.

This has been countered by arguments that the bombs were grossly unnecessary, that the Japanese would have surrendered regardless and that their use was to justify their enormous cost and intimidate international rivals like the Soviet Union.

Valerie Morse from Auckland Peace Action warned against the narrative that the bomb was justified, saying that such arguments could be used as an excuse to use weapons of mass destruction in the future.

Aiko Sakurai, a member of global Buddhist organisation Soka Gakkai International then spoke about the need for youth to recognise its power and responsibly to bring about global peace.

She recalled stories from her grandmother who had survived WW2 in Japan, where food was scarce and cities were ruthlessly firebombed by the American air force.

Plight of Japan
While the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks are infamous for the immediate loss of life and the horrific radiation illnesses they caused, an estimated 300,000 to 900,000 people were killed in firebombing in other parts of Japan in the months prior.

On March 9 1945, much of Tokyo was destroyed in a huge firestorm which resulted in a death toll as large, in not larger, as the first day at Hiroshima.

Sakurai declared her commitment to prevent such horror recurring through self-reflection, compassion and awareness of the precious value of each human being.

She concluded with a quote from Soka Gakkai President Dr Daisaku Ikeda: “A great human revolution in just a single individual will help achieve a change in the destiny of a nation and, further, will enable a change in the destiny of all humankind.”

The evening concluded with a candle-lit vigil. In the spirit of the Japanese custom to “send off” spirits through the lighting of fire, people were invited to light candles and place them on the ground, eventually forming a large and glowing dove – the international symbol for peace.

The occupation at Ihumātao is a spectacle of flags.

In every direction they flutter. Alongside tino rangatiratanga – the Māori flag of independence, Samoan colours fly. Next to the United Tribes of New Zealand banner a Tongan flag quivers. A Niuean flag stands tall on Te Puketaapapatanga ā Hape – the sacred Maunga. A Hawai’ian flag is draped from the shoulders of a man like a cape. And on a teenager’s black t-shirt the Morning Star, the true flag of the people of West Papua is displayed with proud impunity.

It’s the Pacific, come ashore at Ihumātao, standing alongside tangata whenua with whom past, present and future are bound through ancestral bloodlines and an ocean of perspective.

GALLERY: Guardianship photo shoot with the Ihumātao ‘protectors’ – Del Abcede

WATCH Pacific people rally behind Ihumātao occupation – Tagata Pasifika

Yet here at Ihumātao, the site of a peaceful occupation to protect sacred Māori land from development, the flags are more than symbols of national identity. Here they are united symbols of indigenous.

As one supporter was reported declaring: “This is an indigenous problem!”

Although this occupation, against a backdrop of colonial injustice, means so much for Māori in Aotearoa and indigenous across the Pacific who are facing similar battles to protect their land, it has also mustered the support of other cultural groups whose members have formed their own deep and unique connections with Māori people and culture.

Asian presence at Ihumātao
If presence – both at the occupation site and on social media – is anything to go by, one of the most ardent non-Māori supporters of the occupation is Asians Supporting Tino Rangatiratanga.

Formed in 2016 from a group of six Asian-New Zealanders, ASTR now has a chapter in both Auckland and Wellington and thousands of supporters from across the country.

The members are passionate in their support of the Mana Whenua at Ihumātao, and were part of the Asian delegation at the occupation.

Outside of protests, they organise Te Tiriti o Waitangi (The Treaty of Waitangi) workshops where other Asian migrants can learn about the Treaty and Aotearoa’s colonial history.

“We’re trying to demystify [the history] and build bridges,” says youth worker and ASTR member Mengzhu Fu.

“Pākehā try and mediate the relationship between Asians migrants and Māori,” she says.

The colonial status quo
“When they have control of those relationships they often pit migrants against Māori and that division often works in their favour to maintain the colonial status quo.

“The relationship often has to be through them but we want to bypass them and directly build those relationships.”

She also says because of language issues Asian migrants are often susceptible to the misrepresentation precipitated through the New Zealand media.

“There’s is a lot of misinformation that is translated from Pākehā media.

“A lot of our communities that are not as fluent in English will receive that media and make a perception of Māori based on Pākehā translations.”

While she was certainly exposed to those negative perceptions when she first arrived here as a child, she has since discovered that the reality is far different.

Journey of discovery
Her journey however has been her own, and like many New Zealanders, her high school years did little to expose her to much of this country’s history.

“I went to quite a prestigious public school and I only remember learning about the Treaty in fourth form and it was quite brushed over.

“We did re-enactments of the Treaty but we never learned what happened after it was signed.”

Another member of ASTR, Qian-ye Lin, agrees: “I think I only learned about the Treaty or specificity of New Zealand colonial history through my friends, like by falling into friend groups that are political and who are willing to teach me.”

Also a migrant from China, Lin says that Asian migrants are desperate to integrate into Pākehā society which means that the Māori world often falls into the shadows.

“There is this massive need to assimilate whether it is for survival or otherwise.

“That was my journey of assimilating into the Pākehā world and then realising that by doing that I’m also complicit in colonisation.”

Cultural reflections
A student at the University of Auckland, Lin says that one of the most valuable aspects of learning about New Zealand’s colonial injustices is the insights it provides her into her own culture.

“I feel that being Han Chinese and of the more privileged class I’ve definitely been quite blind to colonisation or the perspective of indigenous people because I do occupy the space of being the dominant majority in China.”

She says that ASTR’s work helps educate Asian migrants and enables them to engage meaningfully with the colonial aspects of their own ancestry.

However, both her and Fu hope the work will also permeate more into Pākehā society.

“Sometimes it’s as simple as listening. Listening to people who have been disempowered,” Fu says.

Lin agrees: “I feel like the first step is to get over your fragility, and being brave enough to admit that maybe you do occupy a dominant position.”

“It’s about taking accountability and realising that Pākehā have been privileged because of that history and there are ways that they can dismantle that as well.”

Muslim delegation
On a weekend in late July, a Muslim delegation was welcomed with a pōwhiri onto the whenua at Ihumātao.

They sat with the kaumatua (elders), listened to karakia (prayer) and waiata (songs) and were shown hospitality in accordance with the revered Māori customs of manaakitanga.

Among the delegation – which included several Islamic leaders and scholars, was Shaymaa Arif who has found that the principals of manaakitanga have an uncanny similarity to Islamic customs.

It’s the respect and inclusivity of manaakitanga, she says that is bringing Māori and New Zealand Muslims closer together.

“An understanding has really developed,” she says.

“The communities are becoming closer to each other, the gap is becoming smaller.”

A former human rights lawyer based in Kirikiriroa (Hamilton), Arif says the contact between Muslims and Māori has historically been stifled by fear based on media-driven stereotypes and intergenerational ignorance.

A bond is forming
However, in recent years the walls have started to come down and a true bond is forming, the kind that can only form between people who have shed similar tears and felt similar pain.

“There is a long trail of tears in this beautiful country which we as people from minority groups have also experienced on a different level so we understand the struggle.”

After the Christchurch mosque attacks on March 15, that understanding was galvanised into something even stronger.

“The Māori community stood with us so much. They came out and gave us that space to lean on them.”

“They literally were like ‘we understand the struggle. We’ve been through this for so many years.’”

For Arif, who has ventured up from Hamilton three times to join the occupation, the kindness and support shown to her by Māori deeply affected her youth. In her teen years she was included in kapa haka groups without question. In her university years Māori mentors coached her even through she’s not Māori. It was manaakitanga she says, that made her feel connected and welcome.

And yet now, four months after the mosque attacks, questions are being asked if that sense of public connection and unity that was touted on a national level in the aftermath of March 15 has been maintained. Has the bulk of New Zealand society moved on, and once again forgotten about its Muslim community?

Possibly, but certainly not by everyone. Arif says that every Friday evening, four months on from the attack, a group of local Māori pitch a gazebo on the park across the road from the Hamilton mosque and stand guard, while inside the worshippers pray in peace.

That, she says, is why she stands with the mana whenua at Ihumātao.

A creative “grab bag” of projects has been unveiled by the Pacific Media Centre in a showcase of collaboration across academic and communication communities.

Held at Auckland University of Technology on Friday and hosted by PMC advisory board chair Associate Professor Camille Nakhid, the PMC “Midwinter Showcase” celebrated the launch of a double edition of Pacific Journalism Review, the 2018 Bearing Witness documentary Banabans of Rabi, the Pacific Media Watch Project – The Genesis video and the new PMC Online website.

Doctoral candidate and journalist Atakohu Middleton opened the night with a karakia before pro-vice chancellor and faculty dean Professor Guy Littlefair officially launched PJR – which focuses heavily on the New Zealand mosque massacre and media dilemmas of democracy – with a powerful and poignant speech.

READ MORE: NZ mosque massacre, New Caledonia referendum and Fiji elections top PJR

Describing universities as the “critic and conscience of society”, Professor Littlefair lauded the value of the new PJR research in light of the media response to the March 15 atrocity.

He said how the privileged Pākehā narrative of New Zealand history made the violence of the attack all the more affronting for a media community consisting of mostly young, white journalists.

“This double issue of PJR that I have the privilege to launch tonight picks up on the narrative at precisely this point,” he said.

“’Dilemmas for journalists and democracy [PJR title]’ – these five words encapsulate for me the critic and conscience role of universities.

“This journal provides once again a magnificent example of the best, most relevant, most meaningful research that I as a dean could hope to see come from this wonderful faculty of ours.

“David and the team, I could not be more proud.”

The trailer for Banabans of Rabi.

Banabans of Rabi
Banabans of Rabi was then screened after an introduction by AUT screen production senior lecturer Jim Marbrook.

Marbrook, who helped produce the film, described it as a successful product of collaboration between journalism and screen production students.

He explained that film creators Blessen Tom and Hele Ikimotu had to overcome particular challenges to get to the remote Fijian island of Rabi and make the documentary.

“The philosophy of the Bearing Witness project is to go to areas that are under reported, that are quite difficult to get to; with that comes risks and complications.

“It’s kind of a pressure cooker situation to drop two students into.

“There is not a lot of power on the island, it’s isolated. Complicating that is the mix of languages; Fijian, Gilbertese and Banaban as well.

Blessen Tom then described filming on Rabi where scarcity of electricity meant that he had to be very selective with his choice of shots to conserve battery power.

Sri Krishnamuthi and Blessen Tom’s documentary about Pacific Media Watch.

PMW Project – The Genesis
Postgraduate communications student and former NZ Press Association journalist Sri Krishnamurthi introduced the Pacific Media Watch Project – The Genesis documentary which pays homage to the origins of the PMW media freedom project.

Through making the film with Blessen Tom, Krishnamurthi described learning about the project, from its creation in response to the wrongful arrest of three Tongans in the famous “contempt of Parliament” case in 1996, to its two decades since as a “watchdog of Pacific journalism.”

He stressed the value of the project and its role in the development of student journalists.

“The beauty of it is the use of student contributing editors – all of them will echo my sentiments; that this little gem which is invaluable as a guardian of Pacific journalism must be kept going for years to come.”

PMC Online
Finally, Tony Murrow of Little Island Press unveiled the new mobile friendly and robust PMC Online website, the product of almost two years of his team’s work in collaboration with the PMC.

He said the bold and colourful design reflected the vibrancy and diversity of the Pacific Media Centre.

The website is due to go live on www.pmc.aut.ac.nz in the coming days.

Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie acknowledged all those who had contributed and collaborated on the assortment of projects – including Pacific Journalism Review co-editors and collaborators Khairiah Rahman, Dr Philip Cass, Del Abcede, Nicole Gooch and Professor Wendy Bacon, whom he described as one of the best investigative journalists in Australia.

The Pacific Media Centre has a new website and it will be going live over the next week.

A project almost two years in the making, the PMC Online website features a new vibrant design along with an innovative user interface.

Social enterprise website developer Tony Murrow from Little Island Press says that although the layout and design has been updated, the main aim of the project was to modernise the platform for security and user experience.

READ MORE: AUT’s Pacific Media Watch ‘lighthouse’ role featured in freedom doco

“Unlike most websites, it fulfils a number of purposes,” he says.

A unique website for a university environment, it features a blend of news and current affairs content, including the Pacific Media Watch freedom project along with research publication.

“It’s more of a Swiss army knife approach where you’re accommodating a wide range of tools under a single unifying element,” says Murrow.

The most significant change is the new website’s mobile friendly platform, which will allow users to browse easily from their cellphones.

Better showcase
Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie says this will “enormously enhance” the user experience.

“Personally, it has irked me to see a ‘not mobile friendly’ rider on Google for a few years.”

“When PMC Online was first launched in 2010 it was a very innovative and appealing design at the time.”

“And now this new updated design on Drupal takes us into a new digital era and it is a much better showcase for the work of the Pacific Media Centre, its student media outputs and its challenging ‘critical conscience’ social justice content.”

He says the PMC Online website is used by a variety of media as a resource in the Asia-Pacific region.

Several people have contributed to the new PMC website development, including Amy Tansell, Emi Teng, Patrick Murrow and James Bristow.

Little Island Press has collaborated with the PMC on number of projects for almost a decade.

One of the most significant projects was in 2015, when 40 AUT journalism and television students worked with LIP to generate “Eyes of Fire – Thirty Years on”, an archive of contemporary environmental and climate stories to mark the 30th anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior bombing on 10 July 1985.

It is believed to be the largest single journalism project carried out a media school in New Zealand.

Little Island also collaborates with the PMC in the printing of the Pacific Journalism Review research journal that is now in its 25th year of publication.

The launch of the new website along with the publication of this year’s Pacific Journalism Review will be celebrated at the Pacific Media Centre’s Midwinter Showcase tomorrow night.

An Auckland journalist and editor is practising true community journalism by sharing the stories of the city’s most marginalised and vulnerable people.

Former Auckland University of Technology journalism student Six is editor of the K’Road Chronicle, a community newspaper capturing the essence and eccentricities of Auckland’s colourful Karangahape Road which serves as home to so many homeless.

A self-described over-qualified, under-employed journalist, Six knows the road as if it were her home. It was for a time; she spent several years living on the streets.

READ MORE: Pacific research of ‘hard’ social issues profiled in new publication

She told Pacific Media Watch this experience gave her a unique perspective to write stories about other rough sleepers for the K’Road Chronicle – some of which have been made into a popular video series through a partnership with Stuff.

“It’s about building trust when I speak with them,” she says.

“I sit alongside them. Their story is my story.”

Supportive AUT staff
While no longer homeless, Six was living on the streets during her time studying at AUT, a difficult period that she says was made easier with the support of the staff on her course.

“There was Greg Treadwell, Helen Sissons. Big respect for David Robie and his wife Del too, if it wasn’t for their support I’m not sure if I would have gotten through,” she says.

“Even the security guards, after I lost my key card and couldn’t afford to pay the $15 or whatever it was for the new one, they knew me and would let me in the building after hours.

“And they even turned a blind eye when I’d occasionally spend the night on one of the couches.”

Head of AUT’s journalism department and Six’s former lecturer, Dr Greg Treadwell, says that her homelessness would have made her studies particularly challenging.

“There were rumours that she was sleeping down on the tenth floor [at the Pacific Media Centre], but I never went down to check.

“So, if that was the level of support through inaction then I’m very happy to have provided that support.”

Social justice journalism
He says that such an experience would have bolstered her journalism with a strong sense of social justice.

“Her heart was always in the homeless community in many ways. And if there’s an advocacy journalism that’s appropriate, then the journalism that advocates for the homeless is fundamentally good journalism.

“If journalism speaks for the voiceless then the homeless have got to be the most voiceless in society.”

After graduating, Six had trouble finding work in the mainstream media, a problem that many journalism graduates are facing.

Her employment troubles led her down other avenues, and while sitting on K’Road one day she realised the wealth of stories that she could find through street locals. After pitching the idea and securing some initial funding from the K Road Business Association, the Chronicle was spawned.

Cult following
Now in its second year, the newspaper has attracted a cult following within the community and beyond.

“I can’t keep up with demand,” Six says. “I’m even getting asked for copies from AUT and the library.”

Other than sharing important stories, the paper is also providing employment for some K’Road locals who get given copies to sell themselves and keep the earnings, something that Dr Treadwell says is another reason why the Chronicle is a valuable asset for the homeless community.

He also says Six’s inability to find work in the mainstream media ultimately proved to be a service to journalism.

“I think it pushed Sister Six in the right direction,” he says.

“I personally think that the orthodoxy of mainstream newsrooms was never going to make her happy, she’s much more of an advocate than that.

“So what she’s doing now is hugely valuable and helpful for society but also probably at this stage really good for her because she’s experienced the lacking of things in life, of comfort and so on.

“She knows what it’s like.”

Gonzo journalism
A fan of American journalist Hunter S. Thompson, Six likens the type of work she does to Thompson’s Gonzo journalism, a style in which the writer becomes so involved with the subject and the subject’s world that he or she actually becomes part of the story.

Treadwell agrees.

“She’s the classic gonzo journalist in a lot of ways.

“She’s much more concerned with outcomes than process, much more interested in shining lights on injustice than necessarily following all the petty rules of the bureaucracy.

“Every city needs a sister six.”

The need for Six’s work is perhaps greater than ever. According to the Auckland Council the number of people classified as “homeless” in Auckland is 20,296. The number of people literally living without shelter day to day is 771.

Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie agrees, saying that the K’Road Chronicle came at a critical time.

Paper for the voiceless
“It was an excellent and exciting initiative to start the K’Road Chronicle – not only is homelessness a growing problem in Auckland, but until this publication started the homeless were voiceless as well,” he says.

During her time at AUT, Six filed stories on diversity for the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Scoop project.

Dr Robie says the type of diversity reporting that Six is doing is an example for all journalists.

“Journalists should be supporting the voiceless, marginalised and stigmatised far more than they do. The mainstream media are far too close to power and should be far more challenging.

“Six and her community should be congratulated for taking up the challenge – journalism that cares.”

Caring is certainly a value, among others that Six employs in her work.

Journalism values
She says that any journalist can write advertorials or sensationalist articles but it takes a special set of values to write stories about those living on the fringes of society.

Resilience, persistence, resourcefulness, pragmatism and positivity are what enables her to get through life and do the work she does.

“A journalist is nothing without values,” she says.

By Michael Andrew

West Papuan human rights defender Rosa Moiwend was in New Zealand this week, speaking about the need for more countries to challenge Indonesia on its human rights abuses in her homeland.

Her New Zealand tour featured talks in Dunedin, Christchurch, Wellington and Auckland where she discussed West Papuan resistance to expanding Indonesian military and business interests.

She told Pacific Media Watch contributing editor Michael Andrew about Indonesia’s confiscation of indigenous land for oil palm developments and its attempt to isolate West Papua from the rest of the Pacific.

“Land has been taken away from the indigenous people,” she says in this video report.

“And this massive food project is a kind of third wave of taking people’s land without permission.”

Moiwend also says there needs to be stronger media coverage.

“To get the information, maybe they are not well informed, that’s my assumption,” she says.

“Or, the second thing is, maybe they don’t have access to get into West Papua. Again, it is really important that the New Zealand government talks to the Indonesian government and asks them that they should open up to the media.”

• Tonga urged to continue support for West Papua
• More West Papua stories

A group of University of the South Pacific journalism students have returned from a week-long trip to the Solomon Islands covering communities at the forefront of climate change.

Rosalie Nongebatu, Romeka Kumari and Ben Bilua, who are also part of Wansolwara team, were selected to be a part of the project “Adapting to and mitigating effects of climate change and island sea level rise,” funded through the Internews/Earth Journalism Network (EJN) Asia-Pacific and Bay of Bengal 2019 media grants.

Wansolwara editor and trip leader Geraldine Panapasa, said it was a very successful and valuable experience for the students.

READ MORE: USP journo students head to Solomons for environmental reporting project

“The students were able to apply their journalism production skills for print, online and broadcast. Part of the field reporting training included mojo (mobile journalism) skills for short news videos,” she said.

“We visited vulnerable communities in the greater Honiara area, spoke to those at the forefront of climate change, those in resilience and adaptation projects, those suffering from the devastating impact of climate change, those in decision-making positions and the future generation.”

The students found that, unlike in Fiji, climate change does not get much exposure in the Solomon Islands. Government agencies usually supply environmental reports to the newspapers rather than journalists doing the reporting themselves.

Communities seldom visited
Because communities seldom get visits by local media or government, the students met many people who wanted to share their stories about shortages of water, depleted fish stocks and other climate change effects.

When the students visited the Lord Howe Settlement in Honiara, they found that the residents, mostly of Polynesian decent, had few food gardens and depended on the sea for their livelihood.

“Sanitation wise, they also use the sea for bathing and other ‘toilet’ business. Proper water supply, health and sanitation are clearly lacking in this community,” Panapasa said.

However, she said that many people have come to see climate change reporting as a money making opportunity and only supply information for payment.

“This, of course, would taint the credibility of their views. Would they really tell us what they’re going through or tell us what we want to hear?” Panapasa said.

Balanced and thorough coverage
However, the group ensured their coverage was both balanced and thorough and spoke to representatives across the community.

“We felt it was important to cover all aspects of the project by speaking to stakeholders – grassroots communities, UN agencies, NGOs & CSOs, government, youth etc.

“We also took into consideration the importance of providing gender balanced views on the issues we intended to cover with climate change, resilience and mitigation.”

USP Journalism coordinator Dr Shailendra Singh thanked the grant sponsors, saying that it had enabled the students to report on pressing issues through a professional experience.

“The USP journalism programme would like to thank the Earth Journalism Network for making this project possible.

“Next we will take a student team to the Cook Islands on a similar assessment.

“We look forward to our continued partnership with EJN to develop both environmental journalism and student journalists in the Pacific.”

A Pacific Media Centre collaborator has been awarded the inaugural Sean Dorney Grant for Pacific Journalism at the 2019 Walkley Mid-Year Celebration.

Vanuatu-based Australian photojournalist Ben Bohane was awarded the $10,000 grant out of 22 applicants for his ongoing work in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea.

He told Pacific Media Watch he was honoured to received the grant and hoped it would “grow interest and respect for Pacific-based journalists to better inform Australians about what is going on.”

READ MORE: Ben Bohane: China? No, let’s face the elephant in the Pacific room

WATCH: Ben Bohane responds at the mid-year Walkleys

“For too long this region has been ignored by the Australian media, not to mention global media, but now that it is on the frontline of climate change and geopolitical contest then I expect there to be more interest from now on.”

Bohane has covered the Pacific for 30 years. His work has been both acclaimed and arresting and has featured photos and interviews from all South Pacific conflicts, including West Papua and East Timor.

He has the largest personal photo archive of the South Pacific in the world and two of his portfolios have featured in Pacific Journalism Review.

While travelling and living with tribal groups in the Solomon Islands in the early 1990s, he was able to secure the first pictures of Bougainville Revolutionary Army leader Francis Ona and the only interview and pictures of Guadalcanal warlord Harold Keke.

He said that he would use the grant money to cover the upcoming Bougainville referendum on October 17.

“I plan to do a series of print stories, mainly for the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, which will highlight the background to the referendum and why Bougainville matters to Australia and the region.”

According to Dr Tess Newton Cain, an academic and the principal of TNC Pacific Consulting, who helped establish the grant, Bohane’s extensive coverage of Bougainville stood out among other grant nominees.

“His was one of several proposals that focused on Bougainville,” she said.

“Ben has been covering Bougainville for many years, including during the civil war period,”

“It was in Bougainville that he and Sean Dorney first met,” said Newton Cain.

Grant namesake Sean Dorney is an Australian journalist and foreign correspondent who has covered Papua New Guinea and the Pacific for 40 years.

The grant was sponsored in recognition of his huge contribution and the importance of getting the real stories of the Pacific and of Pacific people in front of Australian audiences, Newton Cain said.

“I hope this grant will go some way to stimulating an interest in the Australian media to tell their audiences more and better stories about the countries in their immediate region.”

Bohane said he was honoured to receive the grant in Dorney’s name.

“I can’t think of anyone who has done more to keep Australians and the rest of the Pacific informed about Pacific affairs over the past 40 years.”

“He is one of the great correspondents of our time and a pioneering spirit in the development of journalism in the Pacific, along with David Robie, Mary Louise O’Callaghan and a handful of others.”

Award recipients in other categories in the Walkley Mid-Year celebration included Oliver Gordon who won the Walkley Young Australian Journalist of the Year for his ABC investigation The Black & White Hotel: Inside Australia’s Segregated Hotel Rooms.

Another was Laura Murphy-Oates, who won the Public Service Journalism award for her SBS story exploring historical abuses against Aborigines. 

A dozen other journalists won awards for coverage ranging from the Australian African community to the gender disparity in the Australian theatre.

While many there were many journalists who came away empty handed, Newton Cain said there was other good news which came from the celebrations.

“Next to seeing the grant awarded, the best news I could hear is that an editor has said to one of the unsuccessful applicants ‘that Pacific story you pitched is an important one, we are going to do it anyway’.”

The full list can be found at the 2019 Walkley Mid-Year Celebration website.

• Michael Andrew is contributing editor of the PMC’s Pacific Media Watch project.
• Francis Ona – last rebel standing – SBS and Ben Bohane

Six years of diverse Pacific research by Auckland University of Technology staff and students has been profiled in a new publication.

Presented by the Vakatele Pacific Research Network last week, AUT Pacific Research Profiles 2012-2018 showcases more than 75 researchers and their efforts over that period.

The profiled research covers a wide array of Pacific issues from Samoan elders’ perception of ageing in New Zealand to road construction in Tonga to the incorporation of Pasifika beliefs in clinical psychology.

READ MORE: Contribution by Pacific community more than money, says academic

The research booklet, the second since the first in 2011, was commemorated at a launch night at AUT when the researchers were applauded for their hard work and valuable contribution to the Pacific community.

Coordinator of the Vakatele Pacific Research Network Tagaloatele Emeritus Professor Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop commended the academics and their families for their resilience and their selflessness.

“We’re not just doing the research to get a PhD, we’re not just doing this research to get AUT EFTS, we are doing this research for our communities and for New Zealand’s aspirations to be a culturally diverse, just and equitable nation,” she said.

The inaugural foundation Professor of Pacific Studies in AUT’s Institute of Pacific Policies, Tagaloatele was the inspiration for the publication, supervising 20 of the profiled researchers herself.

Significant growth
She said that although there was pressure to publish profiles of the research online only, she insisted that Pacific people still relished “the hard copy”.

“Pacific people like to hold a book in their hands, and ask who’s doing what?”

She said in the booklet’s introduction that there had been significant growth in Pacific research and Pacific students entering postgraduate study.

“Many researchers are exploring what I will call the hard social issues – vulnerability issues relating to educational achievement, health, livelihood security, poverty and the increases in violent and risky behaviour.

“In striving to give voice to Pacific peoples’ experience, our researchers are now engaging with and critiquing Pacific research models and knowledge construction processes.”

Community research
“This commitment to community-grounded Pacific research is yielding rich returns.”

The publication also featured the Pacific Media Centre along with director Professor David Robie, publications designer Del Abcede and research fellow Dr Sylvia Frain across a double-page spread.

Chair of the PMC Advisory Board Associate Professor Camille Nakhid was also profiled, along with her research on the experiences of African youth in New Zealand, as was Papua New Guinean doctoral candidate Stephanie Tapungu, who is affiliated with the PMC.

Tapungu is researching the relationship between journalism and public relations in her home country, where she is currently completing her field work.

The publication was launched by Equal Employment Opportunities (EEO) Commissioner Dr Saunoamaali’i Karanina Sumeo, herself a graduate from AUT.

Pacific ‘Queen’
She praised the researchers and Tagaloatele, referring to her as “the Queen”. She said that the demands of academia and society tested the will of academics, citing a Samoan adage as a metaphor for their journeys.

“E fili i le tai se agavaa – Let the sea determine the worth of this canoe.”

Michael Andrew is the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project contributing editor and a postgraduate student journalist in the School of Communication Studies.

Journalism students across Australia collaborated in an immense project to cover the weekend’s federal election.

Organised through The Junction, a website showcasing and promoting student journalism, the coverage featured in-depth stories profiling every candidate in each electorate throughout the election build up.

Seventeen universities, hundreds of students and 80 staff across the country were involved in the project.

READ MORE: Morrison leads Coalition to ‘miracle’ win, but how do they govern now?

It culminated in a live three-hour broadcast of election night on Saturday. The broadcast was produced from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology and featured political analysis, commentary from notable pundits and 31 live crosses to student reporters across the 17 universities.

It was live streamed on Facebook and broadcast on Melbourne TV station Channel 31 and relayed to Adelaide and Perth, as well as the Community Broadcasting Association of Australia’s network of radio stations.

Incredible Achievement

The Junction editor and director of the Centre for Advancing Journalism at the University of Melbourne, Dr Andrew Dodd, said the project was an incredible achievement.

“All of the people involved right around the country have just done an incredible job. It surpassed expectations,” he said.

“We’ve had all these universities working on their electorates, covering them and getting to know them really well so there is just this incredible reservoir of stories on the website.”

He said Saturday’s live broadcast was near perfect and went up against some heavy competition.

“We went head-to-head with the ABC at the time when it was the most watched channel in the country.”

Diverse voices
However, he said the project was more about adding new and diverse voices to the market place.

“I think that was evident by the kinds of faces and the voices that the broadcast included, lots of diversity, lots of young perspectives.”

He said the project’s main objective was to hone the skills of young journalists and expose them to the dynamics of the electoral system.

“Collectively, when journalism schools across Australia work together we have the biggest newsroom in the country.”

Invaluable experience
RMIT Bachelor or Communications student Jesse Burns, who was a presenter on Saturday’s live broadcast, said the experience was incredibly invaluable.

“Still being a student, there is so much to learn not simply around presenting itself, but also working with producers, technicians and graphics. I had a team of 15 people on the night working specifically with me.”

He said nerves are inevitable on such a big production but they can also be useful.

“Nervousness shows you care. So for me, I just tried to harness those feelings and I think that helped me present the best I can.

“Any opportunity like this should always be jumped at. Whether that be producing, presenting or even just updated the twitter feed, it’s all such great experience and one that will hold students in good stead going forward.”

• AUT’s Pacific Media Centre is the only New Zealand partner with The Junction,providing a portfolio of stories from the Asia-Pacific region.
• More Junction stories

Older generations are failing to address climate change and they need the world’s youth to lead the way, says United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres.

Speaking at Auckland University of Technology’s southern campus in Manukau today as part of a two-day tour of New Zealand and the Pacific, Guterres said governments have not been showing the political will to address climate change.

He described this as the defining issue of our time – “It is the biggest threat to our lives and the life of the planet and we are not winning the battle.”

READ MORE: UK declares climate change emergency 

VIEW ON VIDEO: The UN WebTV report at AUT South

He added: “Things will start to change very quickly.

“It is absolutely crucial to have the leadership of the youth.”

The youth were well represented at the talk, with groups from three local high schools and many AUT students in attendance.

Introduced by the university’s Office for Pacific Advancement (OPA) strategic director Veronica Ng Lam, who welcomed him to South Auckland – “the centre of the universe”, Guterres also said fossil fuels were being subsidised by governments and that needed to stop.

Direct subsidies
“The IMF has calculated 7.2 trillion dollars spent in direct subsidies to fossil fuels or indirect negative consequences of those subsidies,” he said.

“It is totally unacceptable that taxpayer’s money is used to spread drought, to spread heat waves, to bleach corals and to make glaciers recede.

“Taxpayer’s money must be spent in what is good for humankind, not in what is threatening humankind.”

He also spoke about the role of the internet and its capacity to both help and harm society.

“It is essential to make sure that we transform the internet into an instrument for good and not an instrument to subvert the wellbeing of society.”

RNZ’s Indira Stewart then conducted an onstage interview in which she asked what needed to change for the voices of the Pacific to be heard in the climate change debate.

While Guterres could not provide a direct answer, he acknowledged that regions like the Pacific and Africa were experiencing the most adverse effects from climate change.

Common responsibility
He said there was a common responsibility, especially of wealthy countries to reverse the destructive trends and that achieving carbon neutrality by 2050 was top priority.

Students were then invited to come forward and ask questions.

A student from Papatoetoe High School cited a recent IPCC climate report, which found that millions of species could be facing extinction as a result of climate change.

The student said that it might be too late to simply wait for the younger generations to come into power in order address climate change and save threatened species.

Guterres replied: “I’m not waiting for you to be in power, I’m waiting for you to be as noisy as possible now. To mobilise your societies, your parents, your families, your friends and to put governments under pressure.”

AUT business student and Oceania Leadership Network member Christopher Tenisio then asked how the UN would deal with countries that were not fulfilling their commitment to the 2016 Paris Climate Change Accord.

“Name and shame. We don’t have instruments to punish, so name and shame.”

‘Rehearsed’ answers
After the session, Tenisio told Asia Pacific Report he was impressed with what the Secretary-General had said, but felt that the answers seemed rehearsed.

“It’s like he already knew the questions, like he’d practised the answers.”

Executive director of OPA and pro-vice chancellor of AUT South Walter Fraser said the Secretary-General had naturally come prepared with refined responses.

“He is a career politician after all. Just about every question was deflected back to the audience.”

However, he said it was a positive experience for the students to see how the United Nations operates.

“It’s good in a sense that they get to see how the system works.”

• Guterres attended a breakfast with Climate Change Minister James Shaw and youth and environmental leaders.
• Tomorrow he will travel with Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters to a Pacific Leaders’ Meeting in Fiji.

Media freedom in Melanesia will be the focus of the next edition of Pacific Journalism Review in partnership the Melanesian Media Freedom Forum with academics and journalists invited to submit papers on the subject.

The research journal will focus on the political and socio-cultural challenges and constraints for a free press in Melanesia.

This will follow a special double edition due to be released this July.

READ MORE:Pacific media freedom and news ‘black holes’ worsen for World Press Freedom Day

PJR editor and director of the Pacific Media Centre Professor David Robie welcomed the opportunity to partner with the forum for the conference in November.

“Media freedom is tracking downwards at the moment and we need a challenging forum like this to clear the air over threats to the region,” he told Pacific Media Watch.

“Also, those courageous journalists in the region who are holding the line need to be celebrated for their work and this will be a tremendous opportunity to uphold media freedom.”

Papers can include but are not restricted to human rights journalism in Melanesia, gender and identity, environmental or climate change journalism, press freedom and the intersection between custom and indigenous knowledge in contemporary Fourth Estate practice.

Other topics
Other journalism topics will be publish as usual in themed editions of the journal.

The deadline for submissions is January 20, 2020.

Pacific Journalism Review is also encouraging presenters to take part  in the Melanesian Media Freedom Forum in Brisbane on November 11/12, 2019.

Co-organised by Griffith University and the Melanesian Media Freedom Group, the forum will give priority to presentation on media freedom in the region, but also welcomes presentations on social justice, human rights, environmental and climate change reporting in the Melanesian media.

Forum co-organiser and director of the journalism programme at Griffith University, Dr Kasun Ubayasiri said the time was right for practitioners, academics and media freedom activists to come together to discuss the changing media landscape in Melanesia.

“We are hearing about increasing threats to media freedom in Melanesia from journalists, editors and media watchers across the sub-region,” he told Pacific Media Watch.

“There seems to be a spread in authoritarian attitudes, policies and practices by governments, often presented under the pretext of ensuring ‘stability’, and the apparent increase in intensity and frequency of threats seem to align with this shift in Melanesian politics.”

Incidents reported
Pacific Media Watch has reported on recent incidents involving such threats and policies in the region:

• Last week in Papua New Guinea, which may face a change in government this week, an opposition politician warned the country’s two foreign-owned daily newspapers that the new government would “deal” to them.
• In Indonesia, the government banned foreign journalists from covering recent electoral proceedings in West Papua.

Dr Ubayasiri, who is co-editing the next edition of PJR, said a free press was vital for a robust and healthy democracy and there was no logical reason to undermine it.

He said he had worked under media restrictions and censorship in South Asia as a former journalist.

“Media freedom is an issue very close to my heart.”

Chair of the Melanesian Media Freedom Group and MMFF co-organiser Dr Tess Newton Cain said she appreciated the challenges to a free media.

Difficult circumstances
“Based on my experience of living and working in Melanesia, I am very well aware of the difficult circumstances in which journalists and media outlets are operating.”

An expert on Melanesia, Dr Newton Cain said she hoped the forum would provide senior members of the industry with an opportunity to come together and address the challenges media freedom faced throughout the region.

Scholars are invited to submit 200-300 word abstracts for conference presentations.

The forum abstracts deadline is June 20, 2019.

• Pacific Media Watch reports on World Press Freedom Day

More New Zealand journalists have been seeking ways to “prevent tragedy” through their reporting, shows new research published in Columbia Journalism Review.

The research, which analysed domestic and international coverage of last month’s Christchurch terror attacks, found that New Zealand news media preferred to focus on the victims, their relatives and the support from the community rather than the terrorist or his manifesto.

It also found that the most popular story in the week following March 15 shooting was a New Zealand Herald piece featuring “biographies of all the victims, focusing on their lives and their faith, which was shared almost 1.4 million times on Facebook”.

READ MORE: How can journalists improve diversity in the media?

“It seems, from our findings, that more journalists are stepping back from the “who, what, where, how, and why” to questions of how to prevent tragedy,” the research report said.

This contrasts with overseas coverage, especially by publications in the United Kingdom, which frequently used the terrorist’s name and discussed his ideas and manifesto.

“The Daily Mail also featured the shooter’s name in headlines, published excerpts from the forum post where he announced the shooting, and showed photographs of the weapons he would use, emblazoned with names and phrases designed to promote his cause,” the research said.

However, The New Zealand Herald was found to have mentioned the terrorist’s name in almost half of its most popular stories.

No Notoriety guidelines
The research team analysed 6337 stories in 508 national-level English-language news sources in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States, using a guidelines template developed by the No Notoriety media advocacy organisation.

“We found a mix of good and bad news for campaigns such as No Notoriety,” the researchers reported.

“We examined the stories we retrieved for compliance with seven guidelines, compiled from No Notoriety and other campaigns that seek to limit the amplification of terrorist acts through media.

“While media justice campaigns often seek out journalists as conduits of change, we also expanded our analysis to assess whether internet culture reflects journalistic choices about whether to list the name or ideology of the attacker.”

The research team coded for compliance with the following best practices:

• Don’t publish the shooter’s name.
• Don’t link to or publish the name of the forum that the shooter posted on to promote the attacks.
• Don’t link to or publish the name of the shooter’s manifesto.
• Don’t describe or detail the shooter’s ideology.
• Don’t publish or name specific memes linked to the shooter’s ideology.
• Don’t refer to the shooter as a troll or his actions as trolling.
• Follow the AP (Associated Press) guidelines for using the term “alt-right” (contain it within quotation marks or modify it with language such as “so-called” or “self-described”)

The research team authors were Jason Baumgartner, Fernando Bermejo, Emily Ndulue, Ethan Zuckerman and Joan Donovan, all members of the International Hate Observatory project hosted at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab.

Historical coverage
The research comes at a time when New Zealand media have been under scrutiny for “negative coverage” of Muslims prior to the Christchurch attacks.

A 2018 research paper in Pacific Journalism Review entitled Representations of Islam and Muslims in New Zealand Media found a clear link between Islam and terrorism in New Zealand media articles.

Of the 14349 stories featuring Islam, 90 percent also mentioned either Islamic jihad or Islamic terrorism.

The research also found many stories about Islam lacked the voice of the Muslim subject and were written in a way that created “suspicion or fear.”

The paper’s author, Khairiah Rahman, told Pacific Media Watch it was essential for journalists to engage in dialogue with their story subjects to adequately convey their voice and avoid misrepresenting them.

However, she said the New Zealand media had done excellent work covering the Muslim community since the Christchurch attacks.

“I think we’ve improved a lot since then,” she said.

“There’s been a huge wake up call.”

Diversity was a winner at AUT’s School of Communication Studies annual awards last night with several Pacific Media Centre contributors taking out top prizes.

Digital postgraduate student Sri Krishnamurthi was awarded the RNZ Pacific Prize for Asia-Pacific Journalism for his coverage of the Fijian general elections last year.

“It means a lot to me and it means a lot to Pacific people, in particular Pacific journalism,” he said.

READ MORE: How can journalists improve diversity in the media?

A strong sports news journalist working with a news agency for many years, last year was his first foray into Pacific political journalism.

He said there was a lack of awareness about the Pacific and its problems.

However, he plans to continue developing journalism in the region through doctoral studies.

“Asia-Pacific journalism is something that is very dear to my heart,” he said.

A veteran journalist from Fiji, Krishnamurthi praised Dr David Robie and the Pacific Media Centre, which he said was invaluable to AUT and to New Zealand.

Coveted award
A former postgraduate student Blessen Tom was awarded the coveted Oceania Media’s SPASIFIK Magazine Prize and the PMC Storyboard Award for diversity reporting.

Tom, who reported on a range of diversity stories lst year and also co-produced the climate change documentary Banabans of Rabi for the PMC’s Bearing Witness project, said the award came as a surprise but it felt fantastic all the same.

“To get an award for diversity reporting is amazing because I never knew I could do it, and the New Zealand media is pretty white so I’m very proud.”

Tom is now working as a junior producer for the TVNZ show Fair Go. He said he would use the experience to pursue his passion as a documentary filmmaker.

Geraldine Lopdell Prize
Perhaps the most auspicious award of the night was the new Geraldine Lopdell prize for Diversity in Communication, named after the teacher, artist and kitemaker who passed away a year ago.

She was a “captivating story teller” and a firm believer in the stories and views of Pasifika women.

The award was set up by her partner, Colin McKay, and daughters Alex and Anne Woodley, to celebrate her “life well lived” and to encourage Pasifika women to share their stories and pursue communication studies.

“We just felt that we should honour her in a way that would be appropriate,” McKay said.

“And we feel a bit of sadness and a good deal of happiness today.”

Reward for hard work
The inaugural winner of the $1200 award was Malia Latu, a master’s student whose work explores the representation of Pasifika women and talanoa journalism.

She said winning the award made all her hard work worthwhile.

“It means everything, it means to push forward and it means to never give up even when you feel like nothings there. There is always something.”

She said it was important to be vocal and to encourage Pasifika woman to speak up and share their stories, as many of them feared the judgment of others.

She also planned to continue her work and projects through doctoral studies.

Alex Woodley said that although the night was tough and full of mixed emotions, her mother, Geraldine, would have been honoured to see Malia receive the award.

“I think that mum and our whole family would be really excited that this incredible, vibrant, clever, gorgeous young woman is doing research on women in the Pacific. We are totally honoured.”

PMC director Professor David Robie said he was delighted the Lopdell family had initiated this prize and the centre was able to play a part in supporting diversity awards.

He also thanked the AUT Foundation for its support.

• New award encourages Pasifika women in communication
• Geraldine Lopdell Award criteria
• The full 2018 award winners list

An exhibition about the infamous Dawn Raids in the 1970s has opened in South Auckland, providing a window into a painful chapter of New Zealand’s history.

Called Educate to Liberate, the exhibition showcases art projects, memorabilia and photographs of a time when the police were racial profiling and harassing Pacific Islanders in a government-approved campaign.

Curator Pauline Smith told Pacific Media Watch the exhibition raises awareness and invites people to come forward to share their stories.

WATCH TAGATA PASIFIKA: Polynesian Panthers on the Dawn Raids

Polynesian Panthers Will ‘Ilolahia and Tigilau Ness speak to John Pulu and Marama T-Pole about the new exhibition. Video: Tagata Pasifika

“It gives people permission to talk about it. It’s still very painful and shameful for a lot of people,” she said.

The Dawn Raids were part of a police and immigration crackdown on illegal “overstayers” in the 1970s. Pacific Islanders were specifically targeted while overstayers of European origin were overlooked.

Police entered homes in the early hours, demanding to see passports and proof of residency. They often physically removed residents for deportation.

Smith said the raids created a lot of shame among Pacific people, many of whom are reluctant to talk about it due to social stigma.

However, some have opened up about their experiences.

South Island raids
“We had this girl in Invercargill who had a story about how they were dawn raided and the uncle was escorted on to the plane by police, so they looked like criminals.”

Social services then came and put her brother and sister in state care.

“She said her brother never recovered properly.”

Educate to Liberate was exhibited in the Southland Museum and Art Gallery, Niho o te Taniwha in Invercargill last year after the release of Smith’s award-winning children’s book, Dawn Raids.

Co-curator Ari Edgecombe of the Southland Museum said there were many sad stories of the Invercargill Dawn Raids, despite a common misconception they were not carried out in the South Island.

“That’s one of the reasons why we’re asking people to share their voice if they want to,” he said.

“We just figured that this might be the time for healing.”

Polynesian Panthers
The exhibition’s Auckland opening in Fresh Gallery Ōtara last weekend featured talks from Tigilau Ness, Will ‘Ilolahia and Reverend Alec Toleafoa of the Polynesian Panthers, an activist group formed in the 1970s in response to the raids and police discrimination.

Pacific people were being “systematically targeted” for random street checks in a police initiative called Operation Pot Black.

The Panthers distributed a legal pamphlet to Pacific communities allowing people to know their rights when being harassed by police. A copy of the pamphlet is on display at the exhibition.

They also carried out their own dawn raids on the houses of North Shore MP George Gair and the Minister of Immigration, Bill Birch, turning up at 3am with loudspeakers and spotlights and demanding to see their passports.

The police raids stopped shortly after.

Former chair of the Panthers Will ‘Ilolahia said he and other members of the group served prison sentences for their struggles with the police.

“Some of us were feeling so strong about it that we were prepared to go and do time.”

Institutional racism
A “change consultant” now, ‘Ilolahia and other Panther members visit schools and talk to students about the need to stand up for what is right.

While he said that there have been improvements in the treatment of Pacific people, institutional racism still exists in New Zealand.

“Racism is still here, basically because the system is monocultural in it’s outlook.”

He said there was a need for all New Zealanders to start recognising themselves as migrants.

“Aotearoa is a country of migrants. We’re all migrants.”

“But we’ve got a pretty good place here. That’s why we fought for it.”

The Educate to Liberate exhibition opened at the Fresh Gallery Ōtara on April 6 and runs until May 25.

Michael Andrew is the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project contributing editor.

• Forgotten Dawn Children – Pasifika student film success
• An insight into a dark time in history

Cuba will develop relationships with Pacific countries despite pressure from the United States, says a visiting advocate.

On a tour of New Zealand, Leima Martinez Freire, Asia Pacific director of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) said Cuba was in a position to offer support to Pacific nations.

The Latin American country currently provides medical aid, doctors and training programmes to Kiribati, Vanuatu and others through bilateral agreements.

READ MORE: Sope praises Fidel Castro over Cuban backing of Vanuatu independence

However, Freire told Asia Pacific Report this week that the US was attempting to dictate how these countries engaged with Cuba.

“The objective of the policies of the US is to isolate Cuba and prevent other countries from receiving Cuban help,” she said.

US blockade
The US imposed an embargo on Cuba in 1960 in response to the Cuban revolution and the nationalising of American owned oil refineries.

Known as El Bloqueo, or “The Blockade”, the embargo is still in place and prohibits trade between the two countries. It also restricts foreign subsidiaries of US companies from doing business with Cuba, making it difficult for foreign countries themselves to conduct trade.

Freire said Cuba’s relationships with Pacific countries allowed the sharing of expertise and humanitarian aid.

“We’re talking about bilateral relationships that brings in programmes that are for the benefit of the most disadvantaged people.”

Cuba also offers trading programmes for students of Pacific countries to travel to Cuba and receive full medical training.

Medical training
Thirty ni-Vanuatu doctors were trained through the programme and more would be sent to Cuba for study.

Freire said the schemes were important because they were completely funded and once trained, the doctors would return to their countries where they could serve the community.

“They don’t pay for accommodation, food, school supplies. The only commitment is to study hard and return to their communities.”

Despite the pressure from the US, Freire said she was positive Pacific countries could make their own decisions about what was best for their people.

“I’m positive and optimistic that the different countries could decide their own future for the benefit of the people.”

Cuba-China relationship
Cuba also had a strong relationship with China through which it traded in biotechnology, clean energy and received financing.

Freire, who also spoke at public meetings in Auckland and Wellington, said she hoped the relationship would enable more help to reach the Pacific.

“I know China has their interests in the Asian Pacific region, I think that together we can implement programmes for the benefit of the people,” she said.

“Probably China with the resources they have and Cuba with the knowledge we have, it could be tremendous support for the populations of the Pacific.”

Freire was visiting New Zealand and Australia on behalf of ICAP before she returned home to Cuba.

She hopes ICAP – founded 59 years ago by former President Fidel Castro – can reach as many people as it can.

She implored New Zealanders to learn more about Cuba and especially by reading content from Cuban writers, journalists and bloggers.

Correcting ‘misinformation’
“There is a lot of misinformation about what is happening in Cuba. Always try to contrast that information.”

She said the best thing was to visit Cuba to see how the society solves its own problems under the US embargo designed to cripple a socialist country.

“I think what is happening to Cuba it is common to other countries. It is the powerful countries telling small countries what they should do.

“That is what we all should denounce. Every country has the right to develop itself and be independent.”

The Cuban ambassador to New Zealand, Mario Alzugaray Rodriguez, was present at Freire’s talk in Auckland.

Michael Andrew is the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project contributing editor.

• ICAP

Muslim students at Auckland University of Technology have praised the gestures of kindness they have received from fellow students and the New Zealand community following last Friday’s terror attack in Christchurch when 50 people were massacred.

The students reflected as New Zealand was poised for a national day of mourning vigils, including a two-minute silence in solidarity across the nation after the Friday Muslim call to prayer relayed by the public broadcasters RNZ and TVNZ at 1.30pm.

Having just returned to Auckland from Christchurch where she was visiting friends and family – some of whom were wounded in the attacks – first year student Ruqaiyah Hanif said the support she had received since Friday had been overwhelming.

“Today I was coming on the train alone and I know as a Muslim we are told to stay in groups just to be safer, I had these young men approach me and they just sat with me and talked with me through the train ride,” she said.

READ MORE: Hate speech ‘gives green light’ to religion, race attacks

“It was just really nice and comforting to know that there are people that care, and they’re everywhere.”

Hanif, who is in her first year of a business degree, said that while she knows people who were killed in the attacks, the strength shown by those recovering is inspiring.

“I visited the Al Noor Mosque and the response centre and met a woman who lost her husband and she was so strong. These people are an inspiration to us.”

The Al Noor Mosque was the first of the two mosques attacked in last Friday’s shooting.

Safe and secure
Fourth year business student Samirah had also noticed the support shown at AUT, saying the measures taken by the police and campus security had made her feel safe and secure.

“I had a police officer approach me and say ‘if there is anything I need we’re around campus and we’re around the Masjid as well’.

“We’ve got prayers coming up on Friday and people have said, ‘we will form a human chain around you so we can make sure you’re safe inside.’”

The AUT Masjid has been under guard by campus security this week and police have also been regularly patrolling the area.

Doctoral student and campus security guard Omer Bin Nasir, who has been stationed outside the AUT Masjid, said that while Friday was a dark day Muslims were touched by the efforts of the public and the government.

“Last Friday was black Friday for Muslims, for New Zealand, but after that, the way the government and Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has addressed this issue, I think Muslims living in New Zealand feel much more secure, and they feel they are part of this country.”

Bin Nasir, a former television journalist from Pakistan, who is researching how domestic violence is portrayed in the New Zealand media, said he had experienced racism and bullying in this country before. The issue was resolved quickly, however, after he contacted police.

‘Country before heaven’
“This is a country before heaven,” he said. “It is so beautiful, and the people are really friendly.”

Despite the outpouring of public support in the aftermath of the massacre, other students have echoed Bin Nasan’s experience of racism in New Zealand. Some have even been subjected to abuse since Friday.

“There have more attacks on Muslims from Friday until now. My friend was attacked and my house was attacked,” said student Nora Rahimi.

“Some people realise their agenda is being spread out and they’re like, hmmm, this is acceptable now.”

Rahimi, who is studying for a Bachelor or Arts, said the accused terrorist should have been on a security watch list prior to the attack.

“Despite that I am very happy that the government is taking big steps forward to help us and the community.”

Office manager Zara Jawadi felt the same way. However, she stressed the need for ongoing education about all religions including Islam.

Get educated
“I think people should be inspired now to get out there and educate themselves, and see for themselves what our religion is all about, not just Islam but all the other religions in this country.”

Jawadi, who works for the charity New Muslim Project also said that ongoing racism, no matter the context, was not acceptable.

“Each of us has a responsibility to stand up against racism, whether it’s a small comment or a joke, don’t let that be ok anymore.”

The other students agreed that consistency was the best way to prevent further attacks. They hoped the sense of unity felt after Friday would continue.

“All this love and support we’ve been getting, we just want it to continue,” said Samirah.
“We don’t want it to end in a few weeks and everything goes back to how it was, when we stop knowing about each other and stop caring about each other.

“We want to stay as a country, unified, always.”

Michael Andrew is the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project contributing editor.

• Other mosque attack stories

Religion and race-based attacks will continue as a result of the rise of online hate speech, says a leading New Zealand academic.

Professor Paul Spoonley, pro vice-chancellor of Massey University, told Asia Pacific Report that online hate speech “provides an enabling environment which green lights racial and religious vilification”.

He was responding to a media focus on racism and Islamophobia in news media this week, following last Friday’s massacre in which 50 people were killed by a right-wing terrorist.

READ MORE: Hate speech – we need to understand the damage it does

“It provides unfiltered ideas and arguments for those who are pliable and interested. And it tells others what you have done and got away with,” said Dr Spoonley, who gave a public lecture on the topic at the National Library on Tuesday.

Prior to the Christchurch attack, the accused terrorist was active on far-right online forums that promoted anti-Islamic sentiment.

In a recent article published by the Pacific Media Centre, Dr Spoonley wrote that he had personally encountered such hate speech.

Hateful comments
“I looked at what some New Zealanders were saying online. It did not take long to discover the presence of hateful and anti-Muslim comments.

“It would be wrong to characterise these views and comments as widespread, but New Zealand was certainly not exempt from Islamophobia.”

Recent research reports similar findings. According to a 2018 Netsafe survey of adult New Zealanders, 30 percent of participants had encountered online hate speech targeting someone else while 11 percent of all participants had been personally targeted themselves.

Religion was the most common reason for the abuse, followed closely by race and ethnicity.

While the internet has enabled such abuse to be shared more effectively, some argue that hate speech is an inherent issue in New Zealand society and has been since the days of early colonisation.

“This country was founded on hate speech,” said Associate Professor Camille Nakhid, an AUT sociologist and chair of the PMC advisory board.

“I suppose they didn’t call it hate speech at the time, but the taking of Māori land, the denigration of people considered worthless, the marginalisation of their customs through laws and media, I’m still struggling to think why New Zealanders cannot see the correlation.”

Racism unchecked
A researcher of marginalised and minority groups, Dr Nakhid said the attacks such as the mosque ones in Christchurch were an inevitable result of the racism that went unchecked in New Zealand society.

“We saw the danger of hate speech on Friday. If you look at what New Zealand media personalities have said about migrants and refugees, this is what it would lead to.”

There has been a number of recent controversies involving on-air racism, most notably when Newstalk ZB’s Heather du Plessis-Allan referred to Pacific countries as leeches.

In the wake of Friday’s massacre there has been a public outcry calling for the regulation and censorship of such speech in order to prevent further race and religion-based attacks.

However, AUT professor of history Paul Moon said that while a desire for censorship was an instinctive response to hate-based events, it would not address the root cause of the problem.

“Censorship would be fruitless as a means of prevention because it addresses only a small part of the symptom, rather than the underlying cause” he said.

“The problem of socially-conditioned hatred is so much larger and more intricate than the capacity of any sort of censorship to control it.”

Isolation dangerous
While he said that there was cause to re-evaluate the limits of free speech in New Zealand, stifling speech could often create a dangerous climate of isolation.

“What the Christchurch killer’s manifesto revealed was a profound degree of ignorance, isolation, and self-loathing,” he said.

“It was precisely a lack of exchange of ideas with the wider community that contributed to such a warped and manifestly dangerous view of the world.”

While the national grief has been palpable in the days following the massacre, the majority of the public has galvanised around New Zealand’s Muslim community, offering support, laying flowers at mosques and holding vigils of solidarity.

This, said Dr Moon, was the best way to counter hate speech.

“Participation, learning, and sharing are among the best antidotes to isolation, and the sort of hatred that can ferment from such social separation.”

Michael Andrew is the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project contributing editor.