A Radio New Zealand journalist says an Indonesian government official attempted to bribe and intimidate him at last month’s 22nd Melanesian Spearhead Group leaders’ summit in Port Vila.

The Indonesian government has responded yesterday saying it would “surely look” into the claims.

RNZ journalist Kelvin Anthony was in Port Vila to cover the MSG Leaders’ Summit two weeks ago when he was offered “a gift” after an exclusive interview with Indonesia’s Ambassador to Australia, Dr Siswo Pramono.

• READ MORE:  Vanuatu – West Papua – MSG: An epic saga of messianic hope, betrayal, tragedy and resurrection
• Other West Papua in Vanuatu reports

The alleged bribe was offered between 1pm-1.10pm on Wednesday, August 23, in the carpark of the Holiday Inn Resort in Port Vila by Indonesian government representative Ardi Nuswantoro, Anthony said.

“I was offered an exclusive interview with the Indonesia’s Ambassador to Australia at the MSG meeting after being told earlier in the week by Ardi Nuswantoro that his government did not like what RNZ had published on West Papua and that it was not balanced,” he said.

“I advised the delegate that RNZ makes every effort to be balanced and fair and we want to get Indonesia’s side too, but we need the chance to speak on the record.”

After communicating face-to-face and online via WhatsApp — texts and call records seen by RNZ — Nuswantoro asked Anthony to visit the Holiday Inn Resort at 12pm for the interview on Wednesday, August 23.

Broad set of questions
“I interviewed Dr Pramono covering a broad set of questions including human rights issues in West Papua, the MSG meeting, and Jakarta’s intentions in the Pacific, which lasted over 40 minutes,” Anthony said.

“I thought I had an exclusive interview that went well for a strong story out of the meeting that touched sensitive but pertinent issues involving Indonesia, the West Papua issue, and the Pacific.”

Anthony said he was escorted out of the reception area at the end of the interview and accompanied by at least three Indonesian officials.

He said Nuswantoro, who he was liaising with to set up the interview, “asked me several times if I had a car and how I was going to get back”.

“I told them that my colleague from a local media who was with me was driving me back to town. As we walked to the car park, the same official continued to walk with me and just as we were about to approach the car, he said, ‘The Indonesian delegation would like to offer you token of appreciation’.”

“I asked him, ‘What’s that?’ He replied, ‘A small gift’.

“I asked him again, ‘But what is it?’ And he replied: ‘Money’.

‘I was shell-shocked’
“At that point I was shell-shocked because I had never experienced something like that in my career.

“I declined to accept the money and told him, ‘I cannot take money because it compromises the story and my credibility and integrity as a journalist’.”

Anthony said the Indonesian official looked visibly withdrawn at the rejection and apologised for offering money.

Due to the incident, RNZ chose at the time not to air the interview with Dr Pramono.

RNZ put the claims of bribery and intimidation to the Indonesian government.

In an email response, Jakarta’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Asia Pacific and African Affairs director general Abdul Kadir Jailani neither confirmed nor denied the claims.

“Bribery has never been our policy nor approach to journalists,” Jailani said.

“We will surely look into it,” he said.

‘I felt intimidated’
The offering of money happened while a local fixer was about five metres away “seeing everything unfold” waiting at the car, Anthony said.

“My local fixer saw and heard everything and as we drove off he said I should report on it but only when I am out of Vanuatu. I immediately communicated the incident to my superiors back in Wellington to put everything on record,” Anthony said.

The local ni-Vanuatu journalist, who was present when the alleged incident occurred, said: “I saw what was happening and knew exactly what the Indonesian guy was trying to do”.

“My advice to the RNZ journalist was to hold the story until he was out of the country because I was worried about his safety.”

RNZ has seen communications sent by the Indonesian official to the journalist, asking him when RNZ was going to publish the interview.

“I did not respond to the messages or calls. I did, however, encounter the Indonesia delegation representatives and the official who offered me the money on Thursday, August 24, at the closing reception of the MSG leaders’ meeting at the Warwick Resort Convention Centre,” Anthony said.

Official kept following him
He said the same official kept following him around and messaged him a video clip showing indigenous Papuans carrying out violent acts.

“I felt a little intimidated but I tried to stick around with the local journalists as much as I could so I could avoid the Indonesian officials coming up to me,” he said.

Another local media representative who was at the farewell function on Thursday, August 24, said they could “see the Indonesian delegate moving around the RNZ journalist continuously and following him everywhere he went”.

“It seemed obvious that one particular Indonesian delegate was pestering Kelvin and following him around,” they said.

In Indonesia’s official response to the allegations, Abdul Kadir Jailani said “we have no interest in following nor intimidating any journalists covering the Summit”.

MSG meeting coverage
RNZ was the only international media which had a journalist on the ground to cover the MSG meeting for its Pacific audience.

The MSG is an important sub-regional bloc that includes Fiji, FLNKS — the Kanak and Socialist Liberation Front, an umbrella group for pro-independence political parties in New Caledonia — Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.

The meeting had a packed agenda and the issue of full membership of the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) was a big-ticket item.

Indonesia, an associate member of the MSG, had the largest delegation at the meeting and has been on record saying it does not support or recognise the ULMWP as a representative body of the indigenous Papuans.

Dr Pramono said Jakarta views the ULMWP as a “secessionist movement” and walked out of the meeting when the movement’s representatives made interventions.

The MSG meeting concluded with leaders rejecting ULMWP’s application to become a full member of the sub-regional group.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Pacific journalism educators are worried that the global covid pandemic has threatened media development programmes in a vast region of island microstates at a time when expertise in health and climate change reporting has never been greater.

The news media industry in some countries has recognised this need and is trying to boost resources and human skills.

New Zealand, for example, earlier this year unveiled a $50 million plan to help the local media after it suffered a huge hit after the start of the pandemic last year with a massive layoff of journalists and a closure of publications, especially magazines.

• READ MORE: Pacific journalism education

One of the innovative features of a new initiative announced by Broadcasting and Media Minister Kris Faafoi, himself a former journalist with Pacific heritage from Tokelau, is a Public Interest Journalism Fund with one of its targets being to assist indigenous Māori, Pasifika and “diverse voices” journalism.

The fund will finance an ambitious Te Rito programme to train 10 Māori and five Pacific Islander journalists a year in digital, broadcast and print media in an industry partnership established under the umbrella of the Treaty of Waitangi partnership.

Other programmes in the Pacific also assist journalism development, such as the United States and Philippines-based Internews/Earth Journalism Network, which trains journalists in climate change skills and strategies and publishes their work.

Ironically, while these developments have been unfolding, Pacific journalism education has gone into retreat since the covid crisis began.

‘A cruel irony’
While New Zealand has the largest metropolitan Pacific Islands population in Oceania with more than 381,642 comprising 8.1 percent of the total 5 million (according to the 2018 census)—matched only by Fiji (890,000) and Papua New Guinea (8.8 million)—none of its six journalism schools cater specifically for Pacific Islands media students.

A decade ago, the country’s largest media school, Communication Studies at Auckland University of Technology, boasted both a Graduate Diploma in Pacific Journalism catering especially for the country’s independent Pasifika news media industry and a Pacific Media Centre (PMC) research and publication unit.

But the diploma programme was phased out four years ago and the PMC, which ran an award-winning Bearing Witness climate change journalism and documentary making programme with partners in the Pacific under a “voice of the voiceless” banner, was left in limbo by the school management this year after the founding director retired at the end of last year.

“It’s a cruel irony that at a time when Pacific journalism is at the crossroads—if not on its knees—and needs to be better understood to be helped and strengthened to face new challenges, specialised Pacific journalism and research programmes in one of the centres of excellence in the region face an uncertain future,” said Fiji journalism educator and Associate Professor Shailendra Singh. “It just feels sad and surreal.”

Dr Singh’s own institution, the Suva-based 12-nation regional University of the South Pacific has just embarked on an innovative new programme, a BA degree in communication and media with options in business and marketing.

Media analyst Dr Gavin Ellis, a former editor-in-chief of The New Zealand Herald, argued in his weekly Knightly Views column that the PMC ought to be “re-established as a stand-alone trust”.

“It should continue its original remit … It may be time, however, to find a new university or industry partner,” he added.

Urged renewed commitment
The Australia Asia Pacific Media Initiative (AAPMI) lobby and training group wrote to the AUT university’s vice-chancellor and unsuccessfully urged the institution to renew a commitment “at a time when Pacific journalism is under existential threat and Pacific programmes suffer from under funding”.

This retreat on campuses has contrasted with renewed energy by the New Zealand media industry to boost Māori and Pacific journalism to provide better cultural “balance” in the legacy media.

In July, the new $55 million Public Interest Journalism Fund over three years unveiled its first cycle of grants for stories examining a wide range of community issues—such as an in-depth revisiting of a documentary, Inside Child Poverty, made a decade earlier with considerable impact.

The fund also provided $2.4 million for the setting up of Te Rito, the first comprehensive kaihautū, or journalism cadetship scheme for Māori, Pacific and “other communities traditionally under-represented in media”.

A significant feature of this scheme is the unprecedented collaboration between Māori Television, a state-funded public broadcaster; Pacific Media Network (PMN); Newshub-Discovery Channel; and New Zealand Media and Entertainment (NZME), the country’s largest print and oneline publisher.

PMN chief executive Don Mann welcomed the collaboration, saying it aligned with his organisation’s mandate to help train a “pipeline of excellent Pacific broadcasters and multimedia journalists”.

He added: “Te Rito provides sustainability in provision of best-practice Pasifika multilingual journalism but, more importantly, it allows the network to play our part in rectifying the significant under-representation and imbalance within the journalism sector on behalf of the Pasifika community.”

Critical shortage
Māori Television head of news and current affairs Wena Harawira echoed this view, saying the partnership would address the critical shortage of te reo Māori speaking journalists.

“It’s incredibly important that New Zealand’s journalism landscape is rich with Māori stories created by Māori, in te reo Māori, for everyone,” she said.

Te reo Māori is one of New Zealand’s three official languages – the others being English and sign language. But while Māori make up 16.5 percent of the population, only 4 percent of the country speaks te reo fluently, although its popularity is growing fast.

News media carried advertisements this month to recruit a Te Rito project manager who would be given “a unique opportunity to shape the future of journalism” in New Zealand.

Educators hope that universities take the cue and renew their earlier support for diversity journalism.

First published by In-Depth News (IDN), the flagship agency of the nonprofit International Press Syndicate. This is published as a collaboration between IDN and Asia Pacific Report. The writer, Dr David Robie, is editor of Asia Pacific Report, founding editor of Pacific Journalism Review and former director of the Pacific Media Centre.

Solomon Islands’ environmental authorities have highlighted the need to protect the forests from logging following a recent report on new distributional sightings of the blue-faced parrotfinch, or Erythrura trichroa.

The bird revealed its existence on Malaita and Makira islands and the report, published in the Wilson Journal of Ornithology on 4 August 2020, was based on fieldwork done between 2015 and 2018 by a team from the Department of Biology at the University of New Mexico in the United States.

The report expands the known distribution of the species beyond Kolombangara and Guadalcanal, two of the Solomon Islands where it had previously been recorded, and signals the need to protect the country’s rainforests from the threats of commercial logging.

• READ MORE: Read more Earth Journalism Network articles at Pasifika Enviro News

Jenna McCullough, one of the scientists involved in the study, said she hoped this information could contribute to an increased understanding of the evolutionary history and diversity of avian life on the Solomon Island archipelago.

Lead author Lucas DeCicco said he hoped the report would provide information that local communities could use to bolster efforts to conserve land for future generations.

“Many areas of the Solomon Islands are under threat from mining and forestry development, including areas on Malaita and Makira where we found blue-faced parrotfinches,” said DeCicco from the University of Kansas.

However, logging operations has been allowed by the very landowners who had allowed the scientists to study the bird on their land in Malaita Province.

When people do not see a large enough payout from conservation, they are willing to switch to something that is more economically lucrative, hence the support for mining, researchers say.

“Now they have switched to logging,” noted one of the report’s local co-authors, Dr Edgar Pollard.

There is currently a logging operation in Hahorarumu Uru conservation area on Malaita where the parrotfinch was sighted and studied in 2015 that puts its population at risk.

Providing validation
Dr Pollard said such scientific research verified and supported the need to protect these areas by showing there were still new species and important findings to be discovered.

It is very difficult to secure support for conservation work if there is no scientific evidence of the existence of biodiversity or different species, he said.

“So, we encourage our young people to engage in scientific studies, and a strength of this particular study was the collaboration of local and international scientists, which I believe is critical,” Dr Pollard added.

“Hopefully in the future we will be able to see more local scientists leading such studies.”

Dr Pollard founded the Mai-Maasina Green Belt (MMGB), which is focused on establishing the necessary infrastructure and supporting research and training activities to encourage rural communities to adopt a green approach to development.

“I want to also note that though these findings may be new to the world of science, they are not new to the local peoples that have stewardship over these species,” he said.

The vital role of birds
Birds are important for the environment as they are the key dispersers of seeds and pollinators for plants.

“Therefore, in a country with high deforestation we must look after our birds who play an important role in helping our forests recover,” said Dr Pollard.

Josef Hurutarau, deputy director of conservation at the Ministry of Environment, Climate Change, Disaster Management and Meteorology (MECDM), said the report provided useful information given the need to understand the conservation status of the Solomon Islands’ flora and fauna.

“In conservation programs at the national level, it is our aim to know exactly the distribution and population of species, especially those that are endemic, threatened and near extinction in the Solomon Islands,” Hurutarau said.

Given limited resources and capacity within the government, Hurutarau said the ministry was working to improve its database of such endemic birds and set baselines to help direct its efforts and priorities.

In the case of Malaita and Makira, the MECDM now considers them among the country’s key biodiversity areas (KBAs), and Hurutarau said the ministry wanted to ensure effective conservation programmes were initiated.

The MECDM is also anticipating donor funding will become available to put toward a project for targeted areas, such as terrestrial-integrated forests, to be declared under the Protected Areas Act 2010.

“This would really help maintain key habitats and forest areas for these species and protect them from threats from logging and subsistence farming,” said Hurutarau.

“We will continue to encourage the efforts of researchers who can contribute to understanding our flora and fauna,” he added.

A need for new research
The first resident commissioner of the British Solomon Islands Protectorate, C.M. Woodford, first found and collected the blue-faced parrotfinch on Guadalcanal Island in 1887. Then, in 1969, the species was found on other islands within the geographic Solomon Islands – first on Bougainville in 1969 and then on Kolombangara in 1974.

Despite this rich history of exploration focused on the archipelago’s birds, the authors of the recent report said knowledge of the avifauna native to the Solomon Islands was poor.

The scientists engaged in the study were from the University of Kansas, the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, Honolulu, and the University of New Mexico. They partnered with Ecological Solutions Solomon Islands and local guides from Na’ara village on Makira and Waisisi on Malaita.

Biological surveys were conducted on Malaita in 2015 and Makira in 2018.

McCullough said the results of the study suggest there are limited genetic differences between the different parrotfinch populations across the Solomon Islands.

“Other studies have shown that there is genetic differentiation across island populations in many bird species, so this is notable for the lack of genetic differences.”

Much of the research McCullough’s larger lab group has been doing is to compare patterns of genetic similarity or differences of island birds across the Solomon Islands and greater Melanesia.

DeCicco said the report also presents the first information regarding the molecular relationships among the Solomon Island population of this species.

“Our discovery of two new populations of Blue-faced Parrotfinches highlights the need for continued biodiversity work in the region for both conservation and research,” DeCicco noted.

Priestley Habru is a Solomon Islands environmental journalist and contributor to Earth Journalism Network. This article is republished under a Creative Commons licence.

Fiji’s Suva foreshore has been under “enormous” pressure from decades of destructive practices with little to no public awareness about the various afflictions, says prominent academic professor Vijay Naidu.

The problems have been exacerbated by no sustained public awareness campaign, absence of environmental issues in Pacific news media coverage and lack of leadership, Professor Naidu said.

Professor Naidu made the comment while delivering his keynote address at a two-day workshop this week organised by the University of the South Pacific’s journalism programme and the Earth Journalism Network (EJN).

• READ MORE: InfoPacific – the geojournalism project

The workshop looked at the causes and impacts of pollution in the Suva bay area and possible solutions.

“I have observed over 60 years massive changes to our foreshore including reclamation, destruction of mangrove forests, sewerage and solid waste, and the epidemic of plastic pollution,” he said.

“Fisheries in Suva Bay have been depleted enormously, and it is not safe to consume shell fish, or ‘kaikoso‘, collected here. Very sadly, there has hardly any systematic ‘fight back’!

“The public who use the water around the Suva Bay area for fishing have little or no idea about the state of the lagoon and what needs to be done to preserve such a wonderful resource for the people of Suva.

‘Need a penicillin injection’
“Some years ago, USP reported that if you fell in the waters of Suva harbour and Laucala Bay, you’d need a penicillin injection.”

The former head of the University of the South Pacific’s School of Government, Development and International Affairs was speaking as the chief guest at an environmental journalism workshop.

Professor Naidu said there was a need for greater collaboration between journalists and scientists to bring attention to these issues and to “help us begin the fightback”.

He commended the EJN for providing crucial support to Pacific journalists in the form of grants and training for stronger environmental reporting.

“The workshop is a great example of how scientists and journalists can work together for the greater good,” Professor Naidu said.

Such partnerships should make the public become more aware of the issues regarding the marine environment, and lead to stronger calls for change, Professor Naidu said.

Sheldon Chanel is the training editor for Wansolwara, USP Journalism’s student training newspaper and online publication. USP Journalism works in partnership with the Pacific Media Centre.

“Climate change may be slower but its momentum is enormous.” – Stuart Chape, Acting Director-General, South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SPREP).

Does anyone remember Greta Thunberg, the young Swedish environmentalist who caused a worldwide climate change stir – particularly among the neoliberal believers – but was voted Time magazine Person of the Year 2019 for her actions before the coronavirus pandemic struck?

It all seems so long ago now that we have a new age of covid-19, but wait, her pleas last year in front of the United Nations served as a warning as does the call from Stuart Chape, Acting Director-General of SREP, late in June 2020 that climate change is still a stark reality – especially for the Pacific.

The momentum for climate change might have slowed, but it still looms larger than life as economies open up again producing greenhouse gases.

READ MORE: InfoPacific – the geojournalism project

As Stephanie Sageo-Tapungu, a doctorate candidate from the seaside town of Madang in Papua New Guinea, says:

“The sea levels are still rising, and the climate is unpredictable now, so we cannot be really sure or predict ‘like this is what is going to happen’.

“The sea levels are going really high; parts of the islands are under the sea and I’ve seen that firsthand because it is happening in my Madang province.”

Sageo-Tapungu adds: “Having a closed economy and other activities did a lot of good when it comes to climate change, but I think it put a lot of strain on people and that can lead to a lot of social problems such as the crime rate going up.”

Illegal logging
Laurens Ikinia, a West Papuan masters student, studying in Aotearoa New Zealand, says that while covid-19 has slowed climate change, his major concern is the illegal logging going on back home in his Indonesian-ruled province.

“A year ago, the governors of his province were invited to attend events held in Florencia, the capital of Caquetá department in the Colombian Amazon, for the civil society, indigenous and local communities, national governments, and international donors for the 2019 annual meeting of the Governors’ Climate and Forests (GCF) Task Force,”  Ikinia says.

“We have forests that are the second-largest producers of oxygen in the world.

“However, I would say because they have been given special autonomy to logging with regulations – and it is still happening in West Papua – so you have to say authorities are not really committed to the climate change agreements,” he says.

“In terms of covid-19 we don’t really know the outcomes or the impacts it has had on climate change because it is just too early to see any reports done on it even though you are aware that covid-19 would bring some good results of in terms of carbon dioxide sinks.

“But when it comes to the economy, from reports I’ve heard in recent days people are being affected by this pandemic and the local communities, unfortunately, cannot survive without help from the government,” he says.

However, SREP’s climate change advisor Espen Ronneberg maintains work is ongoing to address the issues which were thrashed out at the Conference of Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP23) in Bonn, Germany.

Pledge to phase out coal
Countries pledged to phase out the use of coal and bring global temperatures down by 1.5 degrees centigrade.

Chaired by Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, the summit offered high hopes of gaining solutions and agreements.

However, the Nationally Determined Contributions (countries) (NDCs) continued working against the smaller fragile nations.

Ronneberg says work is still needed, and is going at present in spite of no face-to-face meetings, and technical support is being done remotely – or in some cases where there is in-country expertise (like consultants) they are able to assist SPREP which also faced  challenges to get equipment shipped.

He adds that covid-19 has demonstrated a new global phenomenon which has impacted not just on climate change but on social and environmental structures.

“Dramatically so – this has impacted on economic, social, and environmental scales/levels, and is what we have been saying about climate change for decades,” he says.

“Even though the most conservative estimates anticipate historic declines in carbon emissions this year because of the pandemic, the atmosphere continues to be loading up on too much carbon,” he says.

Claims backed up by lab reports
Ronneberg backs up his claims from lab reports such as that in Hawai’i.

“Atmospheric observations and measurements from labs such as that in Hawaii are observing that we are not seeing dramatic reductions in road transport emissions, nor from electricity generation, only flights and some maritime. Recall, the atmosphere takes quite some time to react to emissions – it’s a fairly turbid system, and gases can linger for many years as well,” he says.

Andrea Ma’ahanua, a Solomon Islander and the education chairperson at the University of the South Pacific (USP) Students Association in Fiji, says she personally believes that covid-19 has impacted on climate change initiatives in her country in various ways.

“Climate change initiative proposals would have to be put on hold due to the current COVID-19 situation.  Due to travel restrictions, expatriates with technical knowledge in this area cannot travel into the country to help facilitate climate change initiatives,” she says.

“Furthermore, movement of locals has been restricted due to the imposed lockdown and in addition, funding initially allocated to climate change initiatives would most likely be diverted to covid-19 related initiatives and activities,

“That is evidently a priority under current circumstances. Therefore, this would result in the decline in climate change initiatives within the country.”

The world’s dependency on each other had greatly impacted on people she went on to say.

Rapid covid-19 spread
“The rapid spread of covid-19 around the world and its impact on our way of life, social structures and economies indicate how globalisation has created interdependency between world states,” she says.

“This global phenomenon has altered our way of life in terms of loss of jobs, a decline in economic activities and restrictions on people’s freedom of movement.

“All activities have ultimately come to a standstill or been changed accordingly to align with current covid-19 regulations.

“This is apparent in the Solomon Islands, where government revenue has substantially decreased as a result of the decline in economic activities.  Furthermore, locals struggle to support their families under the current situation and there has been a noticeable movement of people from urban areas to rural villages in face of this economic hardships,” she says.

“In regard to the re-opening of borders to keep climate change down, I personally believe governments should continue to impose movement restrictions.”

In order to keep the Solomon Islands economy afloat, the government must allow technical staff specialised in the field of climate change or other key economic areas to enter the country, she believes.

And, yes, she thinks climate change has been pushed into the background by covid-19.

Less focus on climate
“I personally observed less focus on climate change initiatives in the Solomon Islands under the of covid-19 situation.  More and more stories being published in the Solomon Islands in previous months have been centred on covid-19 regulations and the state of emergency [SOE].

“In previous meetings, climate change was regarded as the utmost priority on the discussion table.  However, given the covid-19 phenomenon, there has been a major shift of government attention toward covid-19 preventative measures.  This means that climate change would be viewed as the last item of priority on the discussion table,” she says.

However, Richard Clark, who is the Special Assistant to the President (David Panuelo) and Public Information Officer for the Federated States of Micronesia, says climate change initiatives have continued to grow but at a slower pace.

“An example of continuing accomplishments is that in July 2020, President David Panuelo signed Public Law 21-76 which formally prohibited the importation of styrofoam and one-time-use plastic bags,” he says.

“However, the nations’ Blue Prosperity Micronesia programme – which intends to protect 30 percent of the nation’s marine resources – has delayed its scientific expedition until 2021.”

The Federated States of Micronesia is less dependent on air travel and therefore affected less in climate change pollution from that source, as they are from shipping, he says.

“The short answer is that air travel makes up an an incredibly small footprint in global greenhouse emissions. The global shipping industry – on which the FSM is reliant – and the energy sector at large make up the overwhelming majority of emissions,” he says.

Covid-free daily life remains
“As the FSM remains covid-19 free, daily life and structures remain largely the same. However, the pandemic has crippled the tourism sector with approximately 70 percent of formal employees in the sector either unemployed or at significantly reduced hours,” he says of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic globally on daily life.

“The FSM’s largest sources of revenue are through fisheries and through the Compact of Free Association, so from a purely government perspective the economic impacts have not been felt as hard – yet,” he says

“The price of tuna has decreased substantially, which will affect the Pacific region’s fisheries revenues in the next fiscal year. The nation projects a substantial economic decline,” he says.

However, Clark has an opinion too to offer those who would weigh up re-opening the economy as opposed to staying covid-19 safe as a way to keep climate change down?

“The covid-19 pandemic doesn’t play a significant role in fixing the world’s issues with climate change.

“President Panuelo is of the view that economies can die and be revived but human beings cannot be.

“The broader public opinion in the FSM is that the nation ought to keep its borders closed until a vaccine is prepared, but the focus there is on human health. environmental health, by contrast, has not yet arrived in the discussions in either the National Covid-19 Task Force or in the president’s meetings with his Cabinet,” he says.

Backward step? – yes and no
And has he seen evidence of climate change initiatives taking a backward step in the face of covid-19?

“In some respects, yes – and in some respects, no,” he says.

“In the answer of yes: covid-19 has delayed the construction and implementation of the integrated coconut processing facility in Tonoas, Chuuk, which beyond adding significant economic growth to the nation as arguably its most promising development opportunity, would also power Tonoas with sustainable energy,” he says.

“In the answer no: in July 2020 the nation prohibited the importation of styrofoam and one-time-use plastic bags; other climate change related initiatives remain ongoing.”

So, while Pacific countries remained constrained by covid-19, their ambitions to curb climate change remains a very large factor at the back of their minds.

This is the third of a series of articles by the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch as part of an environmental project funded by the Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN) Asia-Pacific initiative.

The day began with a video, showing a disparate collection of arresting images – the drowned Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira, camera in hand and a huge smile on his face.

Mugshots of two captured French DGSE secret agents – a fake honeymooning pair jailed for manslaughter, but later spirited off to Hao atoll and freedom.

Sun-drenched tropical beaches and a ship with a gaping hull, sinking into the frigid Auckland Harbour on a winter’s night.

READ MORE: 35 years on, Tahiti’s Oscar Temaru guest in Rainbow Warrior rewind

Newspaper headlines expressing disbelief that something like this could happen in peaceful New Zealand.

It is fitting that the discussion began with such an array of images. The bombing of the Rainbow Warrior on 10 July 1985 is one episode in a large and complex geopolitical story – a story that isn’t over yet.

A panel of academics, journalists and activists, each with a connection to the bombing, met via webinar this morning to discuss and mark the 35th anniversary this month.

Suing French government
Organised by H-France, the panel featured figured such as Oscar Temaru, five times president of French Polynesia who is in the process of suing the French government, and Dr David Robie, a New Zealand journalist who was on board the Rainbow Warrior on its final 11 week Pacific voyage to the Marshall Islands and then to New Zealand.

Other speakers were Ena Manuireva, an Auckland University of Technology academic and PhD candidate who is from Mangareva, one of the French Polynesian islands most affected by the French nuclear tests where the Rainbow Warrior intended to protest before its sinking; Stephanie Mills, a former Greenpeace Pacific nuclear test ban campaigner and NZ board chair; and Rebecca Priestley, a history associate professor from Victoria University in Wellington who has specialised in New Zealand’s relationship to nuclear issues.

The webinar was moderated by Dr Roxanne Panchasi, an associate history professor from Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, who specialises in French studies.

The event was preceded by a mihi in Te Reo Māori by Dr Hirini Kaa of the University of Auckland, and a karakia in Tahitian by Ena Manuireva.

In keeping with the discussion’s examination of the effects of colonialism, moderator Dr Panchasi acknowledged the colonised nature of British Columbia, where she was speaking from.

“I am a settler and an uninvited guest on this territory,” she said.

The relevance of the Rainbow Warrior and its connected issues to the current age was a common touchstone among the speakers. Although the sinking of the ship occurred 35 years ago, it still represents issues that have significant impacts on the peoples and nations of the Pacific.

Not least of these are the effects of nuclear testing in French Polynesia.

Nuclear health troubles
Oscar Temaru spoke on how French testing of atomic weapons in his country doesn’t feel so long ago.

“That was 35 years ago?” he said, speaking from his office in Faa’a. “Time flies!”

France conducted 193 tests in French Polynesia between 1966 and 1996, resulting in the contamination of the food and water sources of many people across the islands. Birth defects were common and families were forced to move islands in the hope of providing a healthier future for their children.

To this day, rates of thyroid cancer are disproportionately high, and the disfiguring scars of thyroid removal surgery can be seen on many women.

“I bury people nearly every day, dying from different types of cancer,” Temaru said. “I just wonder sometimes what sin we did to the French.”

Temaru said that nuclear issues and those of French Polynesian sovereignty are interlinked. “The two issues are tied – nuclear testing and our freedom.”

In 2018, he took the French government to the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, seeking justice for “all the people who died from the consequences of nuclear colonialism”.

Legal troubles
Since then, he has been embroiled in a number of legal troubles leveled at him by the French government, such as a six-month suspended jail sentence and a US$50,000 fine for alleged corruption.

Last month, he embarked on a two-week hunger strike after a French prosecutor ordered the seizure of US$108,000 from him.

Despite these difficulties, Temaru remained upbeat about the future during the webinar. “We need the new generation to take up the flag and go forward,” he said. “Māohi lives matter!”

When the Rainbow Warrior, a 40m trawler owned by Greenpeace, was bombed by French DGSE agents in Auckland Harbour, causing the death of photographer Fernando Pereira, it had set its sights on French Polynesia.

The crew were planning to sail to Moruroa Atoll to protest continued tests.

“The campaign against nuclear testing was in Greenpeace’s DNA,” said former Greenpeace campaigner Stephanie Mills. At the time of the attack, Mills was a reporter for The New Zealand Herald.

But she stressed that the sinking of the Rainbow Warrior was not a discrete, encapsulated event. “People are still dying. They need assistance. There’s still a job to do.”

Birth defects, cancers
Auckland-based researcher Ena Manuireva was born on Mangareva, one of the islands most affected by French testing on Moruroa Atoll. He spoke about how his family was affected by the tests, with a sister born with birth defects and other relatives developing cancer. His mother saw the mushroom cloud from the first blast, in 1967.

“My mum was poisoned,” said Manuireva. “She had her lips bleeding from the fallout.”

Manuireva said that the story was not over for the people of Mangareva, and that they needed to be aware of the ongoing effects of the nuclear blasts.

“People are still dying,” he said. “You see a lot of babies in the cemetery. Mothers and grandmothers feel the effects of chemo and having to take their pills.”

Manuireva said that the people of his island were unwilling to recognise the effects of the tests.

“They feel like they were duped,” he said. Authorities on the island such as the Catholic Church and the French administration assured the locals that the tests would be clean and that there was nothing to worry about, and Manuireva believes that the shame of believing the lies dissuades Mangarevans from talking about these issues.

“We need to make them aware of what’s happened because it’s their history.”

Humanitarian story
New Zealand journalist and academic Dr David Robie, a journalism professor and director of the Pacific Media Centre at AUT, said that media coverage of the attack in New Zealand often neglected to mention the broader issues at play, focusing instead on the espionage intrigue of the DGSE agents.

“I wanted to tell the story from a humanitarian view,” he told the panel.

Dr Robie was onboard the Rainbow Warrior for 11 weeks prior to the bombing, accompanying the crew as they helped residents of the US nuclear test-affected Rongelap Atoll in the Marshall Islands find refuge on Mejato and travelling to New Zealand via Kiribati and Vanuatu.

Helping move the Rongelap refugees was “one of the most momentous and moving experiences I’ve had in my life as a journalist”, he said. He wrote about the experience in his environmental book Eyes of Fire, published in several countries.

Victoria University of Wellington history professor Dr Rebecca Priestley spoke of the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior as confirming New Zealand’s nuclear-free stance.

“The bombing was really the last straw,” she said. In 1984, the Lange-lead Labour government had won on a platform of establishing a nuclear-free zone in the South Pacific.

After tensions with the United States for barring entry of potentially nuclear warships to New Zealand harbours, New Zealand was already in a tense position. The attack caused public outrage and people doubled down on the decision to back nuclear-free.

Evidence-based approach
Priestley spoke about how New Zealand led the world by using an evidence-based decision making approach, and that 2020 and the world-changing crises of covid-19 may ask a similar commitment.

“It was a crazy time in New Zealand and the Pacific’s history,” she said, “and it’s a crazy time now.”

French testing on Moruroa Atoll ended in 1996. Stephanie Mills was at the island with Greenpeace during some of the last tests in 1995. She said that she felt no fear because she knew she had public support behind her, evidenced by a recent petition against the tests that had gathered five million signatures.

“We were tear gassed and boarded. A few of us were taken and disappeared for several days. I wasn’t afraid, because I knew about the five million signatures.”

The change to the regime of nuclear tests in the Pacific was a victory for the people of the region, and Mills said that Greenpeace did not claim credit.

“It was a million acts of courage – an example of change from the bottom up.” She said that remembering the Rainbow Warrior was not just about nuclear issues – “It’s about people having the agency to make change.”

However, new issues assail the Pacific as people living on low-lying islands are some of the first to be affected by the ever-increasing effects of global climate change. This, along with the fact that thousands of people in the Pacific are still affected by the effects of the fallout, means that the Rainbow Warrior remains an important symbol.

Independence a fundamental issue
“The fundamental issue is the self-determination of indigenous peoples across the Pacific,” said Dr Robie. The Rainbow Warrior and its Greenpeace crew, along with their solidarity with independence movements across the Pacific, are inextricable from the issue of indigenous sovereignty.

He invoked the memory of Vanuatu’s founding prime minister Father Walter Lini who said the Pacific could not be truly free until the Māohi people of Tahiti, Kanaks of New Caledonia and West Papuans were also free.

Dr Robie reported that he had noticed a “gap in history” in his students in a “living history” journalism project in 2015, wherein they were not aware of the geopolitical backdrop of the Rainbow Warrior attack. He and Manuireva expressed the desire that this retrospective is the beginning of a series to discuss and raise awareness of related Pacific issues.

While the webinar was concerned with how the event will be remembered into the future, there was also an air of memorial to it. Several of the speakers paid tribute to fallen figures connected to the Rainbow Warrior story.

Chief among these was Fernando Pereira, the sole casualty of the 1985 bombing. “I’d like to acknowledge Fernando Pereira,” said Mills. “He wasn’t just a crew member and photographer. He was a friend to many people.”

Steve Sawyer, the Greenpeace campaigner for the Rongelap mission, was also remembered. Sawyer died almost exactly a year ago, on July 31, 2019, of lung cancer.

Matthew Scott is a student journalist on the Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies programme at Auckland University of Technology. He also reports at Te Waha Nui.

This is the second of a series of articles by the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch as part of an environmental project funded by the Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN) Asia-Pacific initiative.

• Nuclear-free New Zealand resources
• Eyes of Fire resource page for Rainbow Warrior
• Earth Journalism Network Infonews

By Sri Krishnamurthi, reporting for the Pacific Media Centre

“Our journey to a bluer Pacific as we navigate through covid-19, we’ve all experienced the impact of covid-19 one way or another, our region has not been spared the adverse effects of covid-19. The focus here is to look at how are we maintaining the collective momentum in terms of protecting and conserving our ocean, emphasise ocean because our ocean speaks of who we are in this region, our ocean speaks of our joint identity, our entity, our shared ecosystem, our shared resources in the Pacific” – Kosi Latu, Director-General, South Pacific Regional Environmental Programme (SREP)

Unspoilt beaches, palm trees swaying in a zephyr of a breeze and the gentle sunlight dancing on the turquoise blue sea as the lapping waves shimmer on the breakwater make one imagine a Pacific paradise unspoiled.

But, that is until the best sounds come screeching like a broken record as it grates and gnaws away at the once-booming $4.2 billion Pacific tourism industry.

Tourism throughout the Pacific has been brought to its knees by the covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, throwing thousands out of work and fearful about the future.

READ MORE: InfoPacific – the geojournalism project

While Fiji and the Cook Islands have been desperately trying get their economies going with a Pacific bubble with New Zealand and Australia that has not come into fruition – and isn’t likely to any time soon.

Neighbouring New Zealand and Australia are concerned about the pandemic taking hold in the Big Blue that is the Pacific Ocean.

The Pacific Islands experienced a 6.6 percent increase of tourists in 2019 and the region welcomed 2.2 million visitors to the end of the year. Before covid struck, a boom year was predicted for 2020.

Over the short to medium term, visitor arrivals by air to the Pacific islands countries are predicted to grow by an average of 3.3 percent and expected to reach 2.7 million in 2024, according to the South Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO).

Established in 1983 as the Tourism Council of the South Pacific, the SPTO is the mandated organisation representing tourism in the region. Its 20 government members are American Samoa, Cook Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, French Polynesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, Niue, Papua New Guinea, Rapa Nui, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Timor Leste, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna, and Taiwan.

In addition to government members, the South Pacific Tourism Organisation enlists a private sector membership base.

Pacific quick to close borders
However, the tourism markets of Cook Islands, Fiji, Palau, Tahiti, Tonga, Samoa and Vanuatu were quick to close their borders to prevent covid-19 entering their countries.

Emerging tourism markets such as Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Tonga are also closed to mass arrivals.

The lockdown has had a major effect with job losses, right throughout and in its March, Pacific Insight the ANZ predicted that Fiji now stands to lose nearly 602,000 visitors by air this year (a whopping drop of 67 percent). This translates into a F$1.4 billion loss in tourism receipts.

Vanuatu’s economy is expected to decline (down by 13.5 percent), as are Samoa (-18.7 percent), Cook Islands (-60.4 percent) and Tonga (-7.9 percent)

When you consider that tourism contributes to almost 46 percent to Fiji’s gross domestic product – about F$2.1 billion (A$1.4 billion) according to the June ANZ Pacific Insight – and it employs more than 150,000 people in various industries it is devastating.

Last year alone, Fiji had 894,000 visitors. The bulk of its tourists came from nearby Australia (41 percent) and New Zealand (23 percent), which like many countries around the world have banned international travel.

Asian Development Bank estimates for this year are that Cook Islands, Fiji, Palau, Samoa and Vanuatu will experience negative or no economic growth.

Heavily dependent on tourism
“Economies such as Fiji, the Maldives and Tonga are heavily dependent on tourism, with shares of tourism in total exports reaching 52 percent, 84 percent or 47 percent respectively,” the ADB report says.

“In many Asia and Pacific countries, more than three in four workers in the tourism sector are informal jobs, leaving them especially vulnerable to the negative impacts of the covid-19 crisis.

“Informal sector jobs are characterised by a lack of basic protection, including social protection coverage.”

Economic growth in the Solomon Islands is expected to slow by 1.5 percent in 2020, and Vanuatu’s economy to contract from 2.8 percent in 2019 to minus 1.0 percent in 2020, according to the ADB.

“The COVID-19 pandemic will severely hit tourism, with the South Pacific economies the most affected. Growth and fiscal outcomes will be undermined in the Cook Islands, Samoa, and Tonga,” says the ADB.

“The Cook Islands’ economy is expected to contract from 5.3 percent in 2019 to -2.2 percent in 2020 due to a collapse in tourist arrivals. Growth is forecast to recover in 2021 to 1.0 percent. Samoa’s economy is expected to contract from 3.5 percent in 2019 to -3.0 percent, before slightly rebounding to 0.8 percent in 2021.

“Tonga, where economic growth was 3.0 percent in 2019, will see zero growth in 2020 due partly to a plunge in visitor arrivals. Growth will likely reach 2.5 percent in 2021, buoyed by tourism,” the same dire predictions state according to the report.

Regional unity is needed
“The ocean is our shared resource and our shared responsibility, a regional unity is required, covid-19 has exacerbated our vulnerabilities as individual economies and as a region where timely health public and border protections have protected our people from the worst of covid-19,” says Dame Meg Taylor, current secretary-general of the Pacific Forum and Ocean Pacific and Ocean Pacific Commissioner.

“Today the focus of all national economies is to revive their economy activity and production in our Island nations with many already facing the grim reality of recession.

“Covid-19 has also presented with us with a valuable opportunity, an opportunity to link global recovery efforts with the goals of the Paris Agreement and the 2030 agenda for sustainable development we must act differently,” she says.

She adds that with collaboration and co-operation, things could be achieved in the Pacific both in terms of tackling climate change and sustainable eco-tourism.

“With strong regional co-operation and collaboration, we can and will achieve our priorities an example of this is the Pacific regional human pathway and forum leaders priorities particularly those of those of climate action and ocean governance.

“It allows the forum to strengthen its hand by acting differently, strengthen its strategic approach, and coherence and collective approach across three separate but related multilateral action such as the COP-26, the second United Nations conference and COP-15 on diversity,” she says.

It is up to the forum nations to find solutions.

‘We must act differently’
“It is time to act differently and innovatively, we must act differently, creatively and constructively to make our Ocean bluer,” Dame Meg says.

Meanwhile, Umiich Sengibau, Minister of Natural Resources, Environment and Tourism of Palau, and a past chairman of SREP who will chair Our Ocean 2020 conference in December has spoken about the difficulties that his country has faced in the starkness of the pandemic.

“Palau has been fortunate to be one of the few countries in the world to be free of coronavirus global lockdowns that have helped keep our people safe,” he says.

“As in many other places in the world, commercial flights have been suspended and borders are closed but it has also reduced our tourism revenue, over 40 percent of our GDP to zero.”

He was not sugar-coating the truth about his country’s economic plight.

“This matters because our tourism economy and ocean protection go hand-in-hand,” he says.

“When life under our pristine waters thrive that is how we attract visitors to dive in and see it for themselves. Tourism and protection are part of the same sustainable economy, and one is undermined then so is the other.”

Imperative to protect the ocean
Truer words could not be said.

“Palau recognises the importance of sustainable eco-tourism to support employment, livelihoods and ultimately sustainable development. This is why it is imperative that we protect the ocean.

And he spoke about the exclusive zone surrounding the island state.

“This year we began the implementation phase of the Palau, 80 percent of our exclusive zone some 500 sq km is now a “no-take” area. We know such protected areas foster great marine diversity, strengthen resilience to climate impact and provide respite to fish stocks.

“Everyone benefits from a healthy ocean.”

But not so in Fiji which has seen its tourism industry collapse with locals returning to subsistence farming as seen on the reports that proclaim the demise of the tourist industry.

Tourism accounts for 46 percent of GDP and many who work within the sector and associated industries are now jobless.

Key industy shut down
“Tourism in Fiji contributes 46 percent to GDP directly and was the highest foreign exchange earner at $2 billion plus a year,” says Fantasha Lockington, chief executive officer for the Fiji Hotel and Tourism Association (FHTA) based in Suva.

“It is also the key industry with the biggest multiplier effects throughout the 333 islands that make up the Fiji Islands. The closing of the borders therefore effectively shut down the country’s biggest employment sector.

“We estimate that around 110,000 tourism employed staff (directly) have been put on leave without pay, terminated (with little or no benefits) or made redundant (with payouts per contractual requirements),” she says.

“Fiji has no backstop for wage earner or salary support mechanisms. Instead, the government allows workers to access small amounts of their superannuation funds.

“Many of the larger resorts provided food support or a living allowance to assist their workers – the large majority of whom come directly from the communities and villages the hotels and resorts are located near and from whom the land is leased,” she explains.

“Fijian workers need their jobs back – the next three months will be the most challenging for them as they do their best to return to their communities and villages and get into subsistence farming to ensure they can feed their families,” she says.

Whether it is time for Fiji to invest in eco-tourism has grown along with concerns around climate change and the environment?

Great record of ‘being concerned’
“Fiji has had a great record of being more concerned about climate change and the environment.

“But we do not do enough to walk this talk. Large numbers of tourism operators practice environmental sustainability, implement recycling and energy renewal practices out of necessity and cost-consciousness (being off the main island grids and trying to ensure they protect their untouched and serene isolated locations).

“These are not recognised by the government in any way or often enough. Instead, the tourism industry is the only industry that is charged the Environment Climate Adaptation Levy (ECAL) – which is 10 percent.

“We have consistently requested that ECAL be reduced and spread to other industries that impact on the environment (mining, excavations and extractions of any kind, transport) or to allow environmental sustainability practitioners to get a credit back to both incentivise and change behaviour for the long term,” she sums up.

Then there is the vexed question of the Cook Islands which has tried desperately to twist New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s arm.

Businessman Tata Crocombe who had shut his three resorts in the Cook Islands, losing 200 staff, was a little more pragmatic when he said “New Zealand produces 70 percent of the visitors to the Cook Islands and so it is our call and major market – and vital that we reopen to New Zealand visitors.

“More and more tourism operators are becoming involved in ecotourism and I expect this trend to continue into the future.

Making properties more eco-friendly
“There are a number of initiatives that the various hotels, resorts and accommodated is have taken to make their properties more eco-friendly. There are a number of tours that have focused on ecotourism such as lagoon cruises, turtle snorkelling tours, cycling tours et cetera. In addition, more and more restaurants are incorporating organic fresh Island produce in their menus.

“The growth in eco-tourism reflects the growth in ecologically thinking in the population more generally because human beings as a species need to learn to live in harmony with our environment in nature.

“We have been instrumental in the creation and preservation of marine sanctuaries in front of all of our three resorts which of become major visitor attractions,” he says.

Of importance to the Cook Islands is the economy, as well as safety of the people, says Jonathan Milne, editor of the Cook Islands News.

“At present, the New Zealand government is effectively blockading the Cook Islands, it’s economy and its people. It’s painful for people here to realise that the country regarded as our closest friend, our closest relative, would do that to us – and we pray they reconsider very soon before the economy of this proud little Pacific paradise collapses entirely,” he says.

“Tourism is 10 percent of the NZ economy. In the Cook Islands, with all the multipliers spreading its impact through retail and hospitality, it’s nearly 90 percent of our GDP. But equally important, the connected heritage of our nations, the shared constitutional history, the fact that we remain a realm country and our people are New Zealand citizens – these are ties that New Zealand leaders cannot in good conscience ignore.

“The Cook Islands is not competing with Queensland and Rotorua; some people want to go skiing, some want to go to the beach – they are complementary. We need to work together to strengthen the New Zealand dollar through strengthening our intrinsically inter-linked economies,” Milne adds.

Both economy and safety needed
The Cook Islands needs both the economy and the safety of the people, he says.

“We need both; they can’t be separated. With New Zealand’s assistance, our health and community systems are well-prepared to deal with covid. But we also need the support of our Pacific family, especially in New Zealand, to help reopen our economy.

“It’s all very well-staying safe from covid, the greater danger now is that we can’t pay for food and electricity. And the answer isn’t aid – it’s trade, it’s tourism, it’s getting our resorts and restaurants running.

“You know what they say – teach a man to fish. Well, we know how to fish, but we need tourists to enjoy what we have to offer. I can vouch for the yellowfin tuna, fresh off the boat,” Milne says.

It was a similar scenario in Vanuatu with 10,000 jobs lost.

“Tourism has been decimated here,” Liz Pechan from The Havannah Vanuatu, a five-star resort on the island of Efate, told the ABC.

“I was shocked for a little while, I think I was a bit dumbfounded: like how can this happen, how can the world just stop?”

Majority of hotels have no bookings
Like the vast majority of hotels, Pechan currently has no bookings, and more than 30 staff have already been let go.

Rising sea levels and climate change underscore the problems covid-19 has brought to the blue Pacific Ocean shores.

And while the economy is predicted to come right in a year or two, it will be mainly through sustainable eco-tourism that does not do anything to allay the fears of climate change.

This is the first of a series of articles by the Pacific Media Centre as part of an environmental project funded by the Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN) Asia-Pacific initiative.

The covid-19 coronavirus pandemic has brought numerous challenges to the way journalists report and has limited the stories they’re able to tell, forcing many of them to drop coverage of issues like the environment in order to focus on the public health crisis.

But for Jakarta-based Kantor Berita Radio (KBR), the first independent national radio news agency in Indonesia, the pandemic was an opportunity to make its climate change coverage more relevant.

Using a mix of live radio talk shows and videos, innovative outreach and personal stories, KBR is helping raise awareness about climate change by looking at how it intersects with covid-19.

READ MORE: Radio story telling and community empowerment in the Philippines

Before the coronavirus outbreak, the station had developed a project called “What’s In It For Me?” Supported by a grant from Internews’ Earth Journalism Network, the project was designed to explore the different ways climate change affects people’s daily lives.

The goal was to build public engagement through storytelling, in the hope of triggering a wider debate about climate issues between the public and policy-makers.

That plan could have been derailed when covid-19 took center stage, but KBR quickly moved to explore how concerns about the virus also related to climate change, producing content on topics such as energy use and forest fires that were both timely and relevant.

Three talk shows
Between May and June, the station produced three talk shows.

• “How to use energy wisely during the covid-19 pandemic.” (May 15) This show explored the links between energy consumption and climate change and discussed ways in which people could use energy more wisely at home to keep electricity bills down.
• “Anticipating a water crisis in Indonesia.” (May 22) With all the hand washing required during a pandemic, water use has gone up, but access to clean and adequate water supplies remains a huge problem in many parts of the country. The discussion during this show revolved around the reasons for the scarcity as well as environmental justice issues, and allowed speakers to share solutions.
• “Forest fires and the dry season in the midst of covid-19” (June 12) The third talk show, looked at how covid-19 heightens the challenge of combating Indonesia’s perennial land and forest fires and could exacerbate health problems related to the blazes. Speakers outlined the public health links between covid-19 and forest fires and discussed what’s being done and what more is needed to address the problem.

The key challenge for KBR has been ensuring the content is relevant to its audience. But Ardhi Rosyadi, an editor and producer at KBR, says they’ve tried to overcome this by bringing in diverse speakers – including experts, government officials, activists and community leaders – who can clearly explain the issues at both a national and local level.

“We believe that diversity of speakers is crucial because our audience is also diverse,” said Rosyadi. “Our radio talkshow is broadcasting in 34 provinces and each area is experiencing climate change in different ways. And for us, it’s important to make our audience feel connected with the topic, because we want them to feel that it’s also important and eventually take part and do something.”

Expanding to video, growing engagement
The talk shows have all been broadcast live as part of KBR’s flagship program Ruang Publik, which means Public Space in Bahasa Indonesia. To reach new and younger audiences they have  also converted them to podcasts that can be shared online and through mobile apps, such as Spotify.

KBR also worked to grow its audience by recording videos of its talk shows and streaming them live on Facebook. The pandemic has now motivated KBR to carry out its shows primarily through online videos, said Citra Parstuti, KBR’s editor-in-chief.

Content is prerecorded and rebroadcast on YouTube and other social media platforms, with most newsroom teams able to broadcast from home and production carried out in the studio.

Transition to YouTube
KBR has already seen the fruits of its efforts. During a typical one-hour radio talk show they might get between three and six questions (sent through call-ins or text messages). The transition to YouTube has seen this number jump, with 30 questions/comments offered in the third show on June 12, said Parstuti.

“What can we do as society? Because last year, we experienced land burning for five months and it was devastating for us. It will be harder for us in the middle of [the] corona pandemic like now,” read a comment from a viewer on YouTube during that June 12 show.

“From the comments and questions that we received throughout the talk show, we have a sense that the audience understands that we are living in the midst of climate crisis, by looking at their own backyards,” Prastuti wrote in a recent report on the project.

“We believe that this is a good start to inform and educate public to understand climate crisis. Through our talk shows, we are showing that the impacts are real and happening now.”

In coordination with the talk shows, KBR also invites bloggers to listen to the live shows and then write blog posts as part of a writing competition drawing on insights and data shared during the discussion.

Prastuti said they have chosen to target the blogger community because bloggers have the ability to continue the conversation and share information in a more practical way on their own platforms and among their audience. The three winners selected have all been women.

“Our radio talk shows play an important role to give ‘ammunition’ to their writings and also lights further curiosity to dig out for more information,” Prastuti wrote in her report. “The writing competition is a way to find new champions who care, understand and can campaign on climate change issues.”

Short audio spots
As a final effort to extend its content as widely as possible, KBR has taken some of the best quotes from speakers and created short audio spots that it broadcasts up to five times a day in the week following the talk shows.

KBR says it is an attempt to reach listeners after the broadcast is over in a shorter, more straightforward way.

The station’s creative new approaches are already brightening up climate change coverage, and it intends to broadcast more YouTube videos and plans to mainstream environmental topics into the station’s regular shows.

Eventually, KBR plans to host talks shows outside of the studio with live audiences, one that it hopes will have grown bigger despite, or perhaps because of, the pandemic.

The Pacific Media Centre is a partner of Internews’ Earth Environment Network.

In an innovative new development, Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN) will partner with the Pacific Media Centre on a “climate and covid” project to help improve and enhance the quality of environmental and reporting in the Pacific region.

In a move that could signal future partnerships with New Zealand Pasifika groups, the 12,000-member organisation working in 180 countries is fast growing in response to the need for more in-depth sustainable development and environmental reporting.

“Building on EJN’s work in the Asia and the Pacific Region, the EJN Asia-Pacific project aims to improve the quantity and quality of environmental coverage in the region, thereby contributing to the capacity among local and regional actors to promote greater accountability and sustainable development in relation to the environment and climate in Asia and the Pacific,” says Imelda Abaño, who is content coordinator Philippines and Pacific content coordinator for EJN’s Asia-Pacific project.

READ MORE: InfoPacific – the geojournalism project

“We wanted to build and achieve this with the Pacific Media Centre and the Pacific Media Watch freedom project.

“Under the remit of our EJN Asia-Pacific project, we’re open to partnership with New Zealand-Pacific groups and any media and journalists network groups that provide environmental news and information to communities in the Pacific Island and Asian countries,” she says.

Significant step forward
Professor David Robie, director of Auckland University of Technology’s PMC, welcomes the NZ$10,000 partnership grant, saying: “This joint ‘Climate and Covid-19’ project is a significant step forward in our Asia-Pacific collaboration projects.

“The Pacific Media Centre has had long-standing initiatives with journalists and journalism schools, especially at the University of the South Pacific, such as the Bearing Witness climate change project and Pacific Media Watch.

“But now we’re delighted to be teaming up with Internews-Earth Journalism Network (EJN), one of the leaders in environmental and climate justice reportage to provide some well-researched articles and multimedia for our diverse Pacific communities across the region.

“We will gain much too from their expertise and experience,” he says.

With many media companies across the globe the impact on climate change reporting, environmental reporting, and covid-19 coronavirus pandemic reporting is being heavily felt.

“In our present situation, media outlets have fewer resources and less time to report on environmental issues,” Abaño says.

“The editors are not assigning journalists to travel and report directly from the communities who are facing the brunt of sea level rise or displaced due to hydropower development and are reliant on press releases and politicians’ speeches for their stories.”

Worldwide attention on wet market risks
However, if there is a silver lining to the covid-19 pandemic, it is that it has drawn worldwide attention to the Chinese wet markets.

“It has helped to draw worldwide attention to wildlife trade and prompted China to ban wildlife markets and use of pangolin in medicines,” Abaño says.

“It has also generated media coverage that examines the tight links between human, animal and environmental health, such as the clean air many cities are experiencing during the lockdown period, how countries can ‘build back better’ and adopt more sustainable development measures, and covid-19’s implications on the world’s struggle with climate change,” the award-winning journalist says.

She was asked by Pacific Media Watch for her opinion on what was perceived to be the predominant threats to climate change, environmental, and covid-19 reportage in the Asia-Pacific region.

“The Internews’ tagline is ‘Information Saves Lives’ and at EJN we believe that timely, accurate and actionable information from trusted sources is crucial for people making important life decisions to address climate change and other environmental threats as well as covid-19,” she says.

“Environmental threats like climate change, biodiversity loss, energy transition, are often considered “slow moving” crises (unlike the covid-19 pandemic) that do not generate as much public interest until they lead to a disaster,” says Abaño.

Abaño has been covering climate change, energy, agriculture, biodiversity and other environmental issues for more than 18 years. She is also founding president of the Philippine Network of Environmental Journalists says.

Among Pacific journalists involved in EJN is Priestley Habru, content coordinator for the Solomon Islands. He is responsible for helping implement EJN activities and projects in the region.

Habru also currently writes and edits news with specific interests on the environment, health and gender issues.

Disinformation an environmental threat
“Environmental issues are also often technical by nature and the knowledge on these issues is still evolving,” says Amy Sim, EJN Asia-Pacific programme manager.

“Disinformation and misinformation is another threat to environmental reporting. With rumours and falsehood being peddled so casually and widely on social media as well as mainstream news, it is critical for science-based environmental reporting to find ways to rise above the noise and distractions and reach the general public.

“There is always a need for more, higher-quality reporting about the environment, more so during a pandemic,” she says.

EJN for its part is working on developing those much-needed skills sets and training for data journalists and investigative reporting.

“We have webinars focused on coronavirus and climate change; tools to help fact-check and combat misinformation; tools to report remotely and reach new audiences, for instance through engagement or podcasting; financial support, both for individual journalists and media outlets as a whole; safety tips and psychological support; and access to new research and experts,” Sim says.

“It has always been Internews-Earth Journalism Network’s goal to empower and support journalists from developing countries, including those in the Pacific Region, to cover the environment effectively.”

EJN started working in the Pacific in 2017. In that year, climate change and oceans reporting training began with Pacific journalists and the Pacific Environmental Geo-journalism website, Infopacific, was launched.

Pacific environmental network
In 2018, EJN helped establish the Pacific Environment Journalists Network through a sub-grant, and organised a training workshop with local journalists and experts at the Pacific Media Summit in Tonga.

Then last year to the present day, EJN has partnered with the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) and Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) on several climate change workshops for journalists in the Pacific.

EJN has also supported the Climate Change Reporting Project of journalism students of the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji.

“Through this project, selected journalist students travelled to the Solomon Islands to interact with climate vulnerable communities and report first hand on how they are coping with and adapting to climate change. Their stories have been published as a special report by Wansolwara and other Pacific media,” says Abaño.

“This project will bring another batch of students to the Cook Islands later this year to do another round of climate change reporting,” she says.

EJN has also delivered a mobile journalism training to more than 200 journalism students of the USP and this year, they looking to intensify their work in the Pacific region.

“We will partner with USP again on an environmental journalism training workshop for journalism students,” she says.

EJN story grants
EJN has also awarded story grants to six journalists following a competitive call for story pitches opened to Pacific journalists.

Those six Pacific Journalists are Stanley Simpson, Sheldon Chanel, Luke Rawalai (Fiji), Benjamin Kedoga (PNG), Alfred Evapitu and Charles Piringi (Solomon Islands).

They are also looking at partnering with PINA this year for a biodiversity reporting workshop for journalists in the Pacific as well as for the management and content production for the Infopacific website.

These projects are in addition to the annual region-wide story grants, organisation grants and fellowship opportunities available to individual or group of journalists across the Asia and Pacific region.

• Watch for PMC’s Climate and Covid-19 Pacific Project stories

Six South Pacific journalists have been awarded grants by the Internews’ Earth Journalism Network (EJN) to strengthen environmental reporting in the region, reports Internews.

The awardees include three Fiji journalists – Mai TV journalist and chief executive Stanley Simpson, who hosts the investigative current affairs programme Simpson@Eight, Sheldon Chanel and Luke Rawalai.

Both Simpson, founding editor of Wansolwara and who has hosted three Fiji television programmes and has wide media experience, and Chanel are past graduates of the University of the South Pacific journalism programme.

READ MORE: The PMC’s Bearing Witness climate project

Charley Piringy and Alfred Evapitu of the Solomon Islands and Benjamin Kedoga make up the six.

They have received story grants to explore the importance of mangrove ecosystems for bay conservation, the impacts of logging on biodiversity, the problems with capturing undersized fish, the displacement of marine life due to sea level rise, challenges faced by climate migrants, and the illegal export of endangered and protected tree species.

Eleven other grants have been awarded as part of EJN’s Asia-Pacific project and will cover reporting projects in Bhutan, China, Indonesia, India and Vietnam.

Their investigations are wide-ranging, seeking to expose issues such as the environmental impacts of mega hydropower projects, the pollution and resultant health risks posed by reckless disposal of hazardous industrial waste, and how a lack of regulation and transparency combined with geopolitics are undermining efforts to tackle air pollution and its health consequences.

Second batch of grants
This is EJN Asia-Pacific’s second batch of investigative story grantees in 2020, and follows a round of grants awarded to a further five journalists from India, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Cook Islands.

Those grants were awarded at the beginning of this year and the reporters are currently working on their stories, despite travel restrictions during the covid-19 pandemic.

As a result, some grantees have not been able to conduct field reporting as planned, and have been focusing on online research and phone interviews instead. EJN staff are working closely with them to provide the flexibility and support they need.

The Pacific grantees:

The Asia-Pacific grantees:

Reported as part of the Pacific Media Centre’s partnership with the Earth Journalism Network.