Pacific Media Watch
Guam’s news blackout: Since when are our journalists being ‘info rationed’?
On World Press Freedom Day, Mar-Vic Cagurangan, editor and publisher of the Pacific Island Times, questions Guam's information management of the media amid the...
Pacific Beat: How Pacific governments use coronavirus crisis to curb media
By Radio Australia
There have been very few new covid-19 cases confirmed in the Pacific this week.
The total number of reported cases since March stands...
RSF challenges Fiji over general’s ‘stifle criticism’ views on virus
The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned an op-ed by a pro-government military commander in Fiji last week defending curbs on freedom of...
‘If you don’t want to die, don’t come to Papua’, warns...
By Gemma Holliani Cahya in Jakarta
When the first covid-19 coronavirus pandemic cases were detected in Indonesia, one doctor at least knew right away that...
Fiji media industry faces challenges over coronavirus disruption
By Apenisa Waqairadovu in Suva
The covid-19 coronovirus pandemic is increasingly disrupting countless industries across the world with a growing global economic crisis.
However, for the media...
TAPOL denounces sentences handed to Jakarta Six, calls for their release
Pacific Media Watch
The Indonesian human rights advocacy group TAPOL has denounced the sentencing by the district court of Central Jakarta which found six political...
Jakarta court finds 6 activists guilty of treason for holding Papuan...
By Galih Gumelar in Jakarta
A panel of judges at the Central Jakarta District Court have found six activists guilty of committing treasonous acts for...
‘Don’t blame the messenger,’ warns UN over media virus crackdowns
Pacific Media Watch
The United Nations rights chief has condemned countries using the coronavirus crisis as an excuse to arrest journalists and restrict information, insisting...
Media Council calls for ‘transparency’ over coronavirus – PNG media tested
Pacific Media Watch
The PNG Media Council has called on Papua New Guinea's Joint Task Force National Operations Centre-19 to maintain "transparency and accountability" in...
Virus stress raises Pasifika community worries on illnesses, domestic violence
By Sri Krishnamurthi, contributing editor of the Pacific Media Watch
When Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced extending the New Zealand lockdown to past ANZAC weekend,...
MEAA welcomes making Facebook and Google pay for media content
Pacific Media Watch
Moves to make digital platforms begin to compensate media organisations for the content they have been using for free will go some...
Pacific coronavirus: NZ’s big decision, j-schools and media closures
Pacific Media Watch
Into the fourth week of lockdown in New Zealand, and today's weekly Pacific Media Centre Southern Cross radio programme covers what...
Hong Kong police arrest Next Digital founder Jimmy Lai among 14...
Pacific Media Watch
The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Hong Kong authorities to drop all charges against Jimmy Lai, founder and chair of...
RSF condemns Indonesia over using Covid-19 to ‘silence’ state criticism
Pacific Media Watch
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is alarmed to learn that Indonesia’s police have been ordered to combat not only disinformation about the coronavirus...
IFJ criticises pay cuts for Timorese journalists in ‘frontline’ virus work
By Raimundos Oki in Dili
Journalists in Timor-Leste are facing pay cuts amid the Covid-19 coronavirus pandemic.
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has joined its...
‘Jakarta Six’ trial to continue online after court rejects postponement
By Lani Diana Wijaya in Jakarta
The trial of six Papuan activists will be held online or long-distance amid the enforcement of large scale social...
Conflict watchdog warns Jakarta is fuelling tension in Papua over virus
Pacific Media Watch
The Covid-19 coronavirus is “exacerbating tensions” in Indonesia’s West Papua region and exposing the “shortcomings” of Jakarta government policy, warns a conflict...
Three Papuan police officers killed in ‘misunderstanding’ clash with military
By Benny Mawel in Jayapura
Three officers from the Mamberamo Raya Police force have died while two others sustained wounds following a reported clash with...
Police Minister Kramer blasts two journalists in virus reporting row
Pacific Media Watch
Papua New Guinea’s Police Minister Bryan Kramer has published an extraordinary attack on two leading journalists over their reporting of the Covid-19...
OPM proposes West Papua ceasefire to help contain spread of Covid-19
By Agung Sandy Lesmana and Ria Rizki Nirmala Sari in Jayapura
The Free Papua Organisation (OPM) has offered a ceasefire in the independence struggle against...
Southern Cross covers host of issues in fast-moving Covid-19 time
Pacific Media Watch
From the second week of lockdown in New Zealand, to Covid-19 in the Pacific and an "authoritarianism creep" by governments in the...
Campus journalist ‘forced’ to apologise for criticising Duterte over virus online
By Samantha Bagayas in Manila
A campus journalist from the University of the East (UE) in the Philippines was allegedly forced to issue a public...