APR editor
Audit finds Canberra spent $1b on offshore detention without authorisation
By Kerrie Armstrong
An independent audit has slammed the Australian Department of Immigration's running of the Nauru and Manus Island detention centres, saying department officials...
Timorese have had a Timor Sea treaty win but could still...
ANALYSIS: By Frank Brennan
Without any media fanfare, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop published a statement on 9 January 2017 announcing that Australia and Timor-Leste...
China coal plant building at crossroads amid carbon pricing reforms
China is currently building more coal plants than it needs and in doing so is misallocating capital at an unprecedented rate.
As of July 2016,...
HSBC accused of being ‘dirty banker’ financing palm oil forest destruction
This undercover footage by Greenpeace shows bulldozers destroying Indonesian rainforest. HSBC, one of the biggest banks in the world, is accused of lending millions...
Indonesia and Japan agree to step up maritime security, plan rail...
Indonesia and Japan have agreed to step up maritime security and start discussions on a major railway project to link Jakarta and Surabaya in...
‘No one can stop me’, says Duterte on possible martial law...
Al Jazeera's Jamela Alingogan reports from Manila on a game-changing president marking six months in office. Video: AJ YouTube
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has said...
Biman Prasad: COP23 presidency — facing the gravity of the task...
ANALYSIS: By Professor Biman Prasad
It has been interesting to read about Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama's intentions on COP23 (Conference of Parties 23) in...
Muslims pledge support for Catholics in new Indonesian blasphemy case
By Ryan Dagur in Jakarta
Muslim activists have joined growing calls for a hardline Muslim cleric to be charged with blasphemy for insulting Christianity.
Rizieq...
Concern growing in Indonesia over Rohingya ‘genocide’ crisis
By Ryan Dagur and Katharina R. Lestari in Jakarta
There is rising concern in majority Muslim Indonesia that the treatment being meted out to ethnic...
Vanuatu company accused of exporting kava ‘trash’ throws industry in turmoil
By Len Garae in Port Vila
The writing is on the wall for the fate of Peter Colmar’s kava exporting company, Sarami Plantation, now that...
Hela ‘no Bougainville’, says former PNG defence force chief Singirok
By Catherine Graue of Pacific Beat
As hundreds of police and soldiers begin their work in Papua New Guinea's Hela Province this week, there have...
Human rights groups protest over 500 arrests of Papuan demonstrators
Jakarta-based based human rights watchdog Institute for Policy Research and Advocacy (Elsam) and its local partner in Papua, Elsham Papua, have condemned intimidation and...
Gary Juffa: Shedding PNG blood for corporate interest – didn’t we...
OPINION: By Gary Juffa in Port Moresby
The deployment of military troops to Hela province is reminiscent of tragic events that unfolded about 28 years...
Hepi Krismas and all the best for 2017 from the Asia...
Wishing you all the best for Christmas and for 2017 from our team here at Asia Pacific Report and the Pacific Media Centre.
David Robie
Editor
Pacific...
‘We’re not losing control to “radicals”,’ says Indonesian minister
Al Jazeera's Inside Story this week features the "blasphemy" trial against Indonesia's Christian Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama and asks if the 1969 law is...
AWPA condemns the arrest of 6 KNPB members in West Papua
The Australia West Papua Association has condemned the arrest of six National Committee for West Papua (KNPB) members in Nabire, West Papua, today.
Four members...
Massive tourism development proposal for Port Vila poses urban challenge
COMMENTARY: By Bob Makin in Port Vila
“An ambitious new plan to improve Vanuatu’s aviation and tourism sectors” is relegated to second place on Radio Vanuatu News...
Brother seeks answers from Australia over NZ death at Balibo
The Death of the Balibo Five ... a Footprint Films extra including clips from the film Balibo and interviews with the film director, Robert...
PNG orders in security forces to quell Hela’s ‘gun-toting cowboys’
By MALUM NALU in Port Moresby
The Papua New Guinea government has allocated K11 million (NZ$4.9 million) for a special call-out operation involving police officers...
Out-of-date textbooks put sustainable development at risk, says report
By Kate Redman in Paris
A new study by the UNESCO Global Education Monitoring (GEM) Report shows secondary school textbooks from the 1950s until...
Arab Spring opened some media freedoms in spite of the overall...
By Pacific Media Watch
The Arab Spring opened the door to some greater freedoms in Middle East news media and some social change in spite...
PNG seabed mining an environment experiment based on ‘false hope’, say...
Nautilus Minerals has "pedalled false hope" for experimental seabed mining at the Papua New Guinea Petroleum and Mining Conference in Sydney, claims the Deep Sea...