Three cartoonists had especially poignant takes on the tragic and toxic political aftermath of martyr George Floyd’s brutal killing under the knee of a white American policeman in Minneapolis last week.

The Boston Globe’s Christopher Weyant featured a split frame contrasting a red-capped “Make America Great Again” and a Covid Is A Hoax tee-short dangling his face mask while declaring: “You’re violating my freedom – I can’t breathe”.

On the other side of the frame is the accused policeman with his knee on Floyd’s neck as he gasps: “You’re violating my freedom … I … can’t breathe!”

READ MORE: US press freedom tracker records more than 300 incidents against journalists in the George Floyd protests

An unnamed Greek cartoonist shared by Elena Akrita showed the Statue of Liberty bearing the flame of freedom while extinguishing a life with a jackboot.

At the other end of the globe, in the South Pacific, New Zealand Herald’s Rod Emmerson depicted President Trump holding aloft a petrol can in his right hand instead of the Bible. In the background is the legend: In God We Trust: In Trump We Just Shake Our Heads.

His speech bubble says: “I’m completely out of my depth, and I’m not afraid to prove it.”

The disturbing week led the Herald to play on the infamous callousness of Emperor Nero as Rome burned with a digital update in its editorial: “Trump tweets while his country burns.” (The online version of the heading was much milder).

‘Darkest time for America’
“City and police officials are now more diverse than ever, yet America’s racial problems are deep-seated and there is a palpable impatience with incremental change,” lamented the Herald.

“It is probably the darkest time for America since 1968 when, amid the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy were assassinated, riots rocked the country, and Richard Nixon was elected.”

Amid the chaos, the savage treatment being meted out to the messengers was also unprecedented, with many media freedom watchdogs and news organisations condemning the attacks on reporters.

Among the most dramatic incidents was the arrest and handcuffing of a CNN news correspondent and his crew in Minneapolis – captured live on television – with the black reporter pleading what he had done to “deserve” being detained. It was an outrageous violation of human rights and the US First Amendment.

CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez and his crew were freed an hour later with a police apology but the harm had been done right in front of a global audience.

As he told a journalism colleague, his mother and grandmother were watching as the police manhandled him. And because he hadn’t been charged with anything there was no record of where he had been taken.

Paris-based global media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemned this and many other attacks in the strongest possible terms and called for immediate measures to protect journalists.

Trump’s ‘demonisation’ of media
It also blamed President Trump for his “demonisation” of the media for the attacks.

“Protests in at least 30 cities across the US following the police killing of George Floyd have resulted in violent attacks from police and protesters alike against journalists,” RSF stated. “Dozens of incidents have been reported so far, ranging from threats to serious physical assaults.”

At the time of a public statement on June 1, RSF said at least 68 incidents had been documented of attacks by police and protesters on media. Since then the US Press Freedom Tracker has recorded at least 300 incidents against journalists, including 44 attacks, 19 arrests, 17 case of damaged equipment and four examples of searched or seized equipment.

“They have been shot by rubber bullets and pepper balls, exposed to tear gas and pepper spray, beaten, threatened and intimidated and had their news vehicles vandalised, simply for doing their jobs,” said RSF.

“President Trump’s demonisation of the media for years has now come to fruition, with both the police and protesters targeting clearly identified journalists with violence and arrests,” said RSF’s secretary-general Christophe Deloire.

“It has long been obvious that this demonisation would lead to physical violence. RSF has warned about the consequences of this blatant hostility towards the media, and we are now witnessing an unprecedented outbreak of violence against journalists in the US.

“RSF calls on all US authorities to ensure the full protection of journalists and honor the country’s founding principles in respecting press freedom.”

Among serious attacks
Among the most serious attacks cited by RSF and circulated by Pacific Media Watch:

• “In Minneapolis, Linda Tirado, was left permanently blind in one eye after being struck by what she believes was a rubber bullet fired by police officers as she photographed protests.
• “In Pittsburgh, Ian Smith – a photojournalist for KDKA TV – posted to Twitter that he had been “attacked by protestors downtown by the arena. They stomped and kicked me. I’m bruised and bloody but alive. My camera was destroyed. Another group of protesters pulled me out and saved my life.”
• “In Phoenix, CBS reporter Briana Whitney was tackled live on air as a protester made a grab for her microphone.
• “In Washington, D.C., Fox News reporter Leland Vittert and his crew were punched, hit by projectiles, and chased by protesters who had gathered outside the White House.
• “In Minneapolis, Australian 9News US correspondent Tim Arvier was detained by police at gunpoint.”

In some “fresh horrors” reported by the independent Australian media website Crikey:

• “Austin police have shot three protesters with “less lethal” ammunition. These protesters included a pregnant woman, who was shot in the abdomen, and a man currently in critical condition.
• “Seattle police deployed pepper spray and fireworks on a crowd in what ended up looking like a war zone. Arkansas police were filmed doing much to the same to kneeling protesters.
• “Military helicopters were filmed by a New York Times journalist flying low enough around DC to kick up dust and break tree branches.”

Down Under rallies
Crikey also reported that “on the home front”, the ABC had reported that NSW police were investigating an officer after he was filmed “kicking the legs out of an Indigenous teenager”.

“The news comes as Nine reports that over a thousand people marched in Sydney last night ahead of even more protests this weekend, while CNN lists a number of other solidarity protests across countries, including New Zealand, England, Mexico, Syria and more.

“Just remember to wear your covid-19 masks, comrades!”

However, the week has ended with some media good news after the covid-19 shakedown and huge loss of jobs in both Australia and New Zealand – AAP Newswire has been saved at the 11th hour with a promised buy-out by a group of investors and philanthropists headed by former News Corp chief executive Peter Tonagh. Between 75 and 90 jobs may be saved as a result.

As the Australian media union MEAA says, the proposed purchase is a “crucial recognition” of the role AAP plays in the Australian – and Pacific – media ecosystem.

• RSF and 13 other groups call on US governors and mayors to ensure safety of journalists

Alert level two looked like alert level “zero” today after more than a month of lockdown in Auckland when I caught a local bus into downtown.

There were people in every facet of business smiling and frowning just like Auckland in the old pre-covid days.

The barber shops, coffee shops, takeaways were busy as people returned to their normal routines of keeping their businesses open.

What was disappointing, however, was there was no social distancing on the bus – or elsewhere, even though the bus signs said a maximum of 39 people.

Was I taking a risk? I suppose I was but that is the price you pay when you’re a journalist.

Did anyone on the bus feel threatened? No, a few had face masks on … even fewer people were wearing gloves.

Scent of a hairdo
I could smell the scent of the woman in front of me with her hairdo, which was fragrant and pleasant – so much for keeping your distance.

There were others on the bus, like a woman who sat across from me looking really busy as she answered her phone.

The others looked busy too as we picked up passengers on the way to Newmarket where young men and women would alight. And again there was no social distancing.

Whether they were girlfriends and boyfriends, I wouldn’t know but the sheer joy of seeing each other was something to behold after such a long time of being locked away.

Westfields at Newmarket was open, and it seemed that nothing new had happened. Again I was aghast at the no social distancing.

It was appalling to say the least. It was like the shackles had been taken off and people had come out to play on a sunny day.

Onehunga was busy as the mall returned to business, you couldn’t get a place to park your car, which was a far cry from level 4 or even level 3.

Thai pie and coffee
The joy of having a chicken and mushroom pie and a coffee made by the Thai couple down the road before I caught the bus was palpable. Finally, I could return to something normal – even though it was bad for me.

As were the kids at the playground in Onehunga, I saw from the bus. They were going down the slide after lockdown, and their joy was unbridled.

I stopped off at AUT University – where I study. It was closed with a QR barcode on the door which I didn’t bother to try.

Next was a trip to High Street, it seemed nothing had changed, just as busy as ever.

Auckland, had returned to normal it seemed. Covid-19 has been banished …or has it?

Story and pictures by Sri Krishnamurthi

Covid L2 ... or L zero?

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Quietly passing us by in these frenetic covid-19 coronavirus weeks as New Zealand takes a big step back to “normality” tomorrow – but it should be a step forwards for a “reset” – is the fate of those hugely wasteful and pointless war games: RIMPAC.

Thankfully RIMPAC 2020 has at least been postponed until August 17-31, a casualty of the pandemic. But they should be dropped all together.

The biggest war games in the world and sponsored by the US Navy, the 27th Rim of the Pacific will be an “at sea only” mock showdown without the usual land and air forces involved.

READ MORE: Al Jazeera coronavirus live updates – China’s Jilin in lockdown after virus cluster

Ironically, this year’s theme is “capable, adaptive, partners”.

Defending RIMPAC, the US Navy claims the exercise is designed to foster and sustain cooperative relationships, “critical to ensuring the safety of sea lanes and security in support of a free and open Indo-Pacific region”.

Admiral John Aquilino, Commander, US Pacific Fleet, adds: “We will operate safely, using prudent mitigation measures.”

But seriously what is the real justification for staging them at all given the global covid-19 crisis and the United Nations chief’s call on March 23 for a global ceasefire to focus on the “true fight of our lives”?

Silencing the guns
Ten days later, UN Secretary-General António Guterres followed up with an open letter to the world repeating his plea and declaring: “To silence the guns, we must raise the voices for peace.” He said:

“Ten days ago, I issued an appeal for an immediate ceasefire in all corners of the globe to reinforce diplomatic action, help create conditions for the delivery of lifesaving aid, and bring hope to places that are among the most vulnerable to the covid-19 pandemic.

“This call was rooted in a fundamental recognition: There should be only one fight in our world today: our shared battle against covid-19.

“We know the pandemic is having profound social, economic and political consequences, including relating to international peace and security.

“We see it, for example, in postponement of elections or limitations on the ability to vote, sustained restrictions on movement, spiralling unemployment and other factors that could contribute to rising discontent and political tensions.

“In addition, terrorist or extremist groups may take profit from the uncertainty created by the spread of the pandemic.

“Nonetheless, the global ceasefire appeal is resonating across the world.”

Stalled ceasefire vote
But it hasn’t resonated with isolationist Donald Trump’s United States. Washington “stunned” other members of the UN Security Council last Friday by preventing a vote on a resolution for a ceasefire in various conflicts around the world.

Responding in a recent Daily Blog column, campaigner John Minto wrote: “How brainless is this when we all know ships are floating viral incubators?”

Media reports have highlighted the grim case early last month of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, which was forced to put ashore in Guam more than 1100 crew members (more than a quarter of the ship’s total) infected with covid-19 and a row over the skipper who was the courageous whistleblower.

Captain Brett Crozier was relieved of his command after a letter he wrote to his superiors about the crisis was leaked to the media and he now has a desk job at US Pacific Fleet headquarters in San Diego, California.

Then there was the case of the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, recalled 10 days early from deployment in the Atlantic on an anti-ISIS NATO exercise in the middle of last month. The ship was forced to put ashore 660 crew members – a third of the total – infected in a coronavirus outbreak.

At least 26 US Navy warships have reported cases of covid-19 infection, reports CNN.

A senior Navy official was cited as saying the ships were taken into port or maintenance yards for disinfecting but individual ships have not been publicly identified for “security reasons”.

More than 3500 US service members had been tested positive for the virus, including two deaths, by the end of April.

‘Dead keen’ for NZ
Despite this, notes Minto, Defence Minister Ron Mark is “dead keen for New Zealand to take part”.

“We must join hands with people from around the Pacific and around the world to tell our governments to stop this dangerous behaviour,” adds Minto.

One of the bizarre footnotes to RIMPAC is the news that Israel is one of the countries that has pulled out this year. Why was it even in the mix in the first place?

Israel took part in the exercise for the first time in 2018 – along with 26 other nations, 47 surface ships, five submarines, 18 national land forces, and more than 200 aircraft and 25,000 military personnel, reports The Jerusalem Post.

However, in March the Israeli military cancelled all joint military drills because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In an open letter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, many peace groups, non-government organisations, academics, environmental campaigners and concerned citizens have declared:

“Given the global covid-19 pandemic, it is irresponsible to send New Zealand soldiers to interact with local communities in Hawai’i and to interact with soldiers from dozens of other nations. There is every probability that soldiers will transmit the virus, exacerbating the spread and imposing heavy tolls on vulnerable communities.”

Vindictive treatment for Jakarta Five
Among other pandemic news that has dropped in the shadows is a revelation that the Jakarta Six activists – originally there were six but one has been released already – for Papua self-determination will languish in jail for their full jail terms and risk being infected.

Their plight and that of other political prisoners has already been canvased in an earlier edition of this Pacific Pandemic Diary column.

The five had been expected to be released early as part of the Indonesian government’s policy over prisoners in the light of the rapidly spreading virus. But this was cancelled by a last-minute political intervention from Jakarta.

Outrageous and vindictive.

According to the human rights watchdog TAPOL – which protested to the Indonesian government – Suryanta, Ambrosius Mulait, Dano Tabuni, and Charles Kossay are currently detained in Salemba Detention Center.

Ariana Elopere is detained at Pondok Bambu Detention Center where 24 prisoners have tested positive for covid-19.

“On Monday afternoon, the five remaining prisoners signed ‘letters of execution of sentences’ and in the evening, guarantors signed ‘letters of assimilation’. Yesterday [Tuesday], at midday, they signed letters confirming assimilation release, tested negative for covid-19 and were given rice and instant noodles by the detention centre to take home.”

Then they were told their planned release had been cancelled. They will now serve out their full sentences before being freed on May 26.

‘Brutal, deep and systemic’
Finally, with all the conflicted news of countries and states opening up their economies before they are ready, spare a thought for French Polynesia.

Senator Nuihau Laurey, put a cat among the pigeons by criticising the Tahiti local government for failing to cope adequately with the covid-19 pandemic, saying it was too dependent on France, and describing the impact of the crisis on the island paradise as “brutal, deep and systemic”.

This riled his party colleagues in a territory that has had 60 cases but no deaths with the Pape’ete leadership snorting what had he done for French Polynesia.

Unity, folks? Unity in the face of adversity facing us all.

As New Zealand prepares to go to alert level 2 in the covid-19 coronavirus pandemic, the attention turns to the recovery of the economy – and we must spare a thought for the economies of the Pacific.

Most of the Pacific relies on tourism, as does New Zealand, however devastation of the industry has rendered it almost non-recoverable.

As Ingrid Leary, who was director for New Zealand and the Pacific for the UK cultural relations organisation British Council for 11 years, says, the recovery is going to be “tricky” for the Pacific.

READ MORE: Al Jazeera coronavirus updates – New lockdown in Iran after coronavirus spike

• Tahiti insists on continued covid-19 checks on arrivals from France

While it is easy to dismiss her as just another Pākehā voice in the distance – who is standing in the Dunedin safe seat of Taieri for Labour, succeeding Clare Curran – nothing can be further the truth.

She has a deep love for the Pacific, in particular Fiji, having gone there in 1997 and helped develop the University of the South Pacific journalism school with the Pacific Media Centre’s Professor David Robie for several years.

Leary understands the Pacific’s estimated US$4.2 billion tourism industry has been destroyed and with no social welfare to fall back on this leaves the people of the Pacific facing poverty and unemployment.

“The question of Pacific tourism is very tricky and yes thousands of jobs are lost, as indeed in New Zealand as well,” she says.

Tourism ‘devastated’
“The tourism industry has been devastated by covid-19 and it is going to take a lot of imagination and rethinking to get the industry back up and running.

“I think some of the answers will be around eco-tourism and also making use of the fact most Pacific Islanders didn’t experience any cases of covid-19,” Leary told Pacific Media Watch.

She hopes that the trans-Tasman bubble can be extended to the Pacific in due time.

“So, promoting tourism within the region and when New Zealand and Australia form a bubble then perhaps extending that bubble to the Pacific when it is safe to do so, so there can be regional tourism and regional travel,” says the award-winning former television journalist who went to Banda Aceh after the 2004 tsunami and covered the devastation there.

“And that climate change and climate orientated services and products are very much at the centre of that tourism offer,” says Leary, who is also a lawyer.

Ironically, covid-19 might be a blessing in disguise for the environment and climate change when it comes to rethinking tourism, she thinks.

“If that does happen then covid-19 in the tourism sector might be a blessing in the Pacific because the rate of destruction of the environment through climate change was so massive as the Fijian government knows and has led on,” she says.

Projecting the environment
“Having a reset and having tourism being done differently so that it protects the environment and the communities which survive on it would be a fantastic long-term outcome from what is otherwise been a devastating pandemic,” she said.

No one can doubt her sincerity, as I found out myself  when returning to Fiji after 30 years away.

“Recently, in my role with the British Council I was working on a project to vision the new art gallery with the Fijian government,” she recalls.

But it is the next sentence which left me gobsmacked – here is a woman who doesn’t just love the islands but belongs there.

“Every time I got off the plane the familiar smell of Fiji, warmth and vibe just reminded me that I was home again, my second home and that feeling will never leave me.

“I love Fiji. I have two Rotuman children from my time in Fiji. As much as it is my second home, Fiji has such complex cultures, and politically and there are always surprises and for that reason I will always find Fiji fascinating,” Leary says.

The expectation is that the tourism industry will take at least two years to get back on its feet.

Pacific tourism report
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) commissioned a report in conjunction with the Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO) titled “Pacific Tourism: Covid19 Impact & Recovery, Sector Status Report: Phase 1B” which was released last week on May 5.

The major focus on countries in the report are Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Tonga.

The report says: “At this time, all tourism in the Pacific has ceased. All borders to Pacific countries, including New Zealand, are closed to commercial air traffic and cruise ships.

“There are currently no commercial air services, and global tourism has halted. Flights are operating on a charter basis only.

“Currently, there are no cases of covid-19 in Cook Islands, Niue, Vanuatu, Tonga, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu.

“There are confirmed covid-19 cases in Fiji, French Polynesia, New Caledonia and PNG.

“Impact on all Pacific nations is significant, with the tourism sector and all associated businesses and sectors effectively shut down commercially and in maintenance mode at best,” the report says.

For instance, Fiji’s economy is projected to shrink by 4.9 percent in 2020, Cook Islands 2.2 percent, Samoa 3 percent, Tonga zero growth, Vanuatu 1 percent and Tuvalu 2.7 percent.

“If there were limited cases and no travel restrictions, New Zealanders are willing to travel,” the report goes on to say.

https://corporate.southpacificislands.travel/spto-releases-pacific-tourism-impact-report/

• Lockdown on Waiheke
• Pacific tourism ‘catastrophe’

After nearly five weeks of alert level 4 covid-19 lockdown and a further week at level 3, there is only one voice most New Zealanders rely on – Prime Minster Jacinda Ardern. 

While there has been clamouring to get the economy going from the likes of former prime minister Sir John Key and opposition leader Simon Bridges, Jacinda Ardern has remained firm. 

Sir Key said during an interview on TV3’s Rebuilding Paradise with Paul Henry: “It’s crucially important we get to a freer, more open economy. In a funny kind of way, I think the levels system was a good idea and it did its job – it defined what we had to do, but in a lot of ways it defined what we couldn’t do.”

READ MORE: Al Jazeera’s coronavirus live updates – US could see 3000 deaths daily as economy reopens

However, there is no economy without healthy people, and Prime Minister Ardern realised that very early in the pandemic. 

On March 23, Ardern stood on the Beehive Theatre stage to announce she was putting New Zealand into lockdown, she gave a warning with five words: “Tens of thousands could die.” 

I know for sure with underlying health conditions that I have that I would perish should I get covid-19. 

That’s why I have trusted the Prime Minister through this lockdown – and she has been proven right. Yesterday’s zero new cases for the first time in eight weeks is a good sign.

‘Proof from New Zealanders’
“The thing that has probably given me confidence in our response has been the proof from New Zealanders today that as long as people see the need, people know why you’re making that decision, that you’re sharing all of the information, and people are coming on that journey with you then they will do extraordinary things,” she told The New Zealand Herald.

“It’s just been about trust. 

“Human behaviour changes as long as people trust they have all the information they need to support the decision you are making on their behalf.” 

While Jacinda has cut back on her appearances on the Beehive Theatre stage, she does appear – if only to provide reassurance to the public just as she did during the Christchurch massacre last year and the White Island volcanic explosion. 

The level of trust she has engendered can be seen in Ardern’s popularity is at a record high, taking 65 percent of the preferred Prime Minister rating in the latest UMR poll which came out on May 1. 

Amnesty for overstayers call
Meanwhile Tonga’s  Kaniva News  has called for an amnesty for New Zealand overstayers to help check virus spread. 

While not condoning remaining illegally in New Zealand, the leading Tongan news website says that overstayers’ families and children are particularly vulnerable in the current crisis. 

Papua New Guinea expects a spike of covid-19 cases this month – but so far no new cases have been detected in the country beyond the eight previously reported. 

In Guam, there are now 145 cases with five deaths, and there are now 1100 cases among the USS Theodore Roosevelt crew.

Northern Marianas has 14 cases with two deaths, French Polynesia now has 58 cases while Timor-Leste has 24 cases. 

The jailing of the Jakarta Six – five Papuans and the first Indonesian to be convicted for a Papuan protest – in Indonesia last month has focused global attention on the plight of political prisoners in the face of a failing struggle against the coronavirus pandemic.

Already several analysts are warning that both Indonesia and Papua New Guinea are at risk of becoming coronavirus “failed states” and this will be of concern to Australia and New Zealand.

While Papua New Guinea has had only eight confirmed covid-19 cases so far – a spike is expected this month in spite of the state of emergency, Indonesia already has 10,843 cases with 831 deaths and the real toll is feared to be higher and climbing.

READ MORE: Tough coronavirus controls threaten Pacific, global media freedom

In Indonesia’s two Melanesian provinces of Papua and West Papua, the figures are reportedly 189 and 37 respectively with seven deaths overall and a new surge reported in the Mimika mining hub. Remote tribespeople have taken to setting up their own blockades to protect their villages.

“Countries with pre-existing conditions — poverty, limited healthcare, ineffective or corrupt governments — are fragile, and it is these countries that covid-19 is threatening to push to the brink of survival,” writes ABC’s foreign affairs correspondent Melissa Clarke.

She acknowledges those critics who suggest the United States has made a “solid start” for gaining such a dubious status, “but for the Australian government, the real concerns lie just to the north – Papua New Guinea and Indonesia.”

Human rights advocates and civil society groups are voicing their condemnation of Papuans  being held in crowded and risky Indonesian jails for taking part in peaceful demonstrations and a “Free West Papuan political prisoners” campaign has gone viral on social media.

Political prisoners still held
ETAN – East Timor and Indonesian Action Network, founded in 1991 and one of the most active US non-profit groups campaigning for human rights across Southeast Asia and Oceania, says that while Indonesia “struggles to contain the spread of covid-19”, the government still holds anti-racism and pro-independence prisoners in jails across West Papua, Jakarta and Balikpapan.

“In many cases, trials have continued against these political prisoners endangering the health of the prisoners, lawyers, judges and court staff,” ETAN says.

An urgent appeal to the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention and UN Special Rapporteurs was filed last month by advocate Jennifer Robinson and Indonesian human rights lawyer Veronica Koman, backed by the human rights organisation Tapol, on behalf of 63 political prisoners.

The legal papers demonstrate that all of the detainees are being “arbitrarily and unlawfully detained in violation of Indonesia’s international human rights obligations”.

The prisoners are 56 indigenous West Papuans, five Moluccans, One Indonesia, and one Polish citizen.

“While most of them are on remand and still awaiting trial, seven have been sentenced and others are currently on trials,” says Tapol.

“The great majority of the political prisoners – 56 – were arrested in the crackdown by Indonesian authorities during the mass political protest movement in support of West Papua last year – dubbed the “West Papua Uprising”.

Carrying, displaying flags
“The activities for which they have been detained range from simply carrying or displaying the West Papuan or Moluccan national flags, to participation in peaceful protests and being members of political organisations which support self-determination – all internationally protected activities.”

In its May Day message, ETAN condemned the conviction of the Jakarta Six for their “peaceful expression of their opposition to Indonesia’s heavy-handed rule in West Papua”.

“We call for the immediate release of these prisoners and other Papuans arrested for freedom of expression and for the investigation and prosecution of those responsible for the terrible violence perpetrated on them.”

A panel of judges at the Central Jakarta District Court found the six activists guilty of treason on April 24 for holding a protest in support of Papuan independence in front of the Presidential Palace in Jakarta in last August.

Jakarta court finds 6 activists guilty of treason for holding Papuan protest

The bench handed prison sentences to the activists – Indonesian People’s Front for West Papua (FRI-West Papua) spokesperson Surya Anta and students Charles Kossay, Deno Tabuni, Isay Wenda, Ambrosius Mulait and Arina Elopere – during a virtual verdict hearing. All activists were handed a nine-month prison sentence (including jail time already served), except for Wenda who was punished with eight months’ imprisonment

The defendants’ lawyer, Oky Wiratama, said she was disappointed with the verdicts and questioned the judicial process.

Amnesty International Indonesia director Usman Hamid said the treason charges might have been misused by the government against people who should never have been arrested or detained in the first place.

Students targeted
On August 16, the day before Indonesians celebrate independence, Papuan students in dormitories in East Java were targeted by students after rumours spread that the Papuans had “disrespected” the Indonesian flag.

Students and later vigilantes such as the Islam Defenders Front, a notoriously violent Islamist group, attacked West Papuan students, calling them “pigs,” “monkeys” and “dogs”.

Accounts of these attacks show Indonesian security forces directing attacks, and in later attacks participating in the violence against Papuans and Asia Pacific Report widely covered the crisis.

The challenge now is over the risks to these political prisoners languishing in their Indonesian jails. Reports suggest that covid-19 deaths in Indonesia may be substantially higher than officially reported. With the mass overcrowding, the prisons are likely to be vectors for the spread of the coronavirus.

In the Philippines, where jails are also congested, nearly 10,000 prisoners have been released in a bid to halt the spread of covid-19 after outbreaks at several facilities. While announcing the release of 9731prisoners, Associate Supreme Court Justice Mario Victor Leonen told media the justice system was “very much aware of the congested situation” in prisons.

‘Shameful’ media freedom threat
Meanwhile, World Press Freedom Day today is being marked by many statements honouring journalists and frontline workers at the heart of the coronavirus outbreak.

Among the first statements were from Australia’s Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) union for journalists which called for serious reforms to reverse a raft of “national security” laws that can be used to criminalise journalism and punish whistleblowers for telling the truth.

The union said  that Australia’s reputation as a healthy democracy was now at risk, adding that it was “shameful” that on World Press Freedom Day, three journalists who were the subject of police raids last year “still have the threat of prosecution hanging over their heads”.

In MEAA’s just-released annual The War on Journalism report, 89 percent of 2472 respondents in a survey stated the health of press freedom was poor, or very poor – a sharp deterioration from 71.5 percent in 2019.

“While covid-19 casts a shadow over journalism, we celebrate the bravery of those on the reporting frontline,” declared Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia  (JERAA) president Dr Alex Wake in a statement.

She wrote there was little to celebrate this World Press Freedom Day with Australia slipping five places to 26th in the Reporters Without Borders (RSF) World Press Freedom Index  – New Zealand dropped two places to ninth, and other Pacific countries such as Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga have also slumped.

“Covid-19 is casting our struggling news industry into deeper turmoil, populist world leaders are cheering on attacks on journalists, and funding cuts at Australian universities pose a looming threat to journalism education and research,” she said in the statement.

However, Dr Wake added that colleagues could “honour the extraordinary work of our frontline reporters, many of them just out of our classrooms, putting their own safety at risk covering the covid-19 pandemic”.

The collapse of tourism across the world in the face of the covid-19 coronavirus pandemic could plunge thousands of people into poverty in the Pacific, predicts a new International Labour Organisation report.

Thousands of jobs in countries like Fiji, Samoa and Tonga are dependent on visitor numbers, which have fallen to zero.

READ MORE: Trump resumes attack on China over coronavirus

The crash will have serious impacts on many island economies.

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

Thousands of jobs lost
Thousands of jobs have already been lost, with resorts and hotels closing in Fiji, the Cook Islands and Samoa, countries where tourism makes up more than half the economy, reports RNZ News.

And the ILO says that with the pain brought by the pandemic expected to be long-lasting, workers with previously stable incomes are sliding into poverty.

Many of these people are also informal workers, with few protections if their jobs fall through.

They don’t have a social welfare system to fall back on, unlike New Zealand or Australia.

The ILO says few Pacific countries have the money to fully cope with the coronavirus response, and solidarity from the likes of Australia, New Zealand and the World Bank will be vital.

The economies of the Cook Islands, Fiji, Palau, Samoa, and Vanuatu are the Pacific countries likely to feel the brunt of the covid-19 pandemic most, according to a separate new report by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) earlier this month.

Assuming even just a three-month interruption in travel and trade, the tourism-based economies are all expected to contract this year, with Tonga forecast for zero growth, according to the latest  Asian Development Outlook (ADO) 2020, ADB’s flagship economic publication.

Pacific contraction
Growth of ADB’s Pacific developing member countries (DMCs) in 2020 is forecast to contract by 0.3 percent, as the covid-19 pandemic directly impacts on tourism and trade flows, while also affecting construction activity.

The recovery in 2021, at 2.7 percent, will rely on improvements in tourism numbers, the commencement of delayed construction projects, and the resumption of labour mobility and cross-border trade

“While most Pacific countries moved quickly and decisively to restrict travel from a fast-growing list of COVID-19 affected countries, such restrictions can come with a high economic cost,” says ADB director-general for the Pacific Leah Gutierrez in a statement.

“ADB is committed to supporting the Pacific cope with the covid-19 pandemic and help address immediate needs.

“We are providing grant financing and support to procure needed medical goods and equipment in selected countries.

“We are also working with Ministries of Finance to assess their budget support needs and coordinating on these closely with other development partners. Strengthening social protection will be key to safeguarding vulnerable groups during this downturn and will also help support the eventual recovery process.”

Economic growth in Papua New Guinea in 2019 was 4.8 percent, tempered by the deferral of large investment projects.

Construction decline
Agriculture, forestry, and fisheries continued to expand, but construction is estimated to have declined. The  ADO 2020 says the government faces important challenges in managing public debt.

The covid-19 pandemic is an added shock for the PNG economy and is already negatively affecting commodity prices. Growth in PNG is expected to remain weak at about 0.8 percent in 2020, rising to 2.8 percent in 2021, it said in its statement.

After uninterrupted growth for the past nine years, growth in Fiji is estimated to have slowed to 0.7 percent in 2019, a hangover from the effects of cyclones Winston and Harold.

Fiji’s economy is projected to further decline by 4.9 percent in 2020 due to the covid-19 pandemic.

The tourism and air transport sectors are expected to be the worst hit. The report suggests the government must strengthen and empower the private sector to innovate, diversify, and drive the economic recovery after covid-19, while finding the right balance between investing in climate resilient

infrastructure, limiting debt exposure, and building fiscal buffers. As a priority, Fiji needs to improve its business and investment climate, while encouraging business innovation. The report says growth will improve in 2021 and reach about 3.0 percent.

Economic growth in Solomon Islands is expected to slow to 1.5 percent in 2020, slightly down from 2.6 percent in 2019, as exports fall because of the covid-19 pandemic.

Continuing logging decline
Growth is expected to recover to 2.7 percent in 2021 as construction on large infrastructure projects offsets a continuing decline in logging.  ADO 2020  says that with the logging sector contributing less to growth over the longer term, reforming the tax system will become critically important to ensure that it supports broad-based growth in other areas.

Vanuatu’s economic growth is forecast to contract from 2.8 percent in 2019 to -1.0 percent in 2020 as travel restrictions arising from covid-19 undermine tourism. Growth should recover and reach 2.5 percent in 2021. The report notes that with more workers accessing labour mobility schemes, policies must ensure that the benefits are both broadly enjoyed and sustainable.

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. 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 recovery and faster government implementation of rehabilitation and recovery from Cyclone Gita, says the ADB report said.

More covid-19 cases
Meanwhile, Guam has recorded more positive covid-19 results, taking cases there to 144 and five people have died from the virus in the US territory.

In the curious case of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, now docked in Guam there were 840 cases, but the origins of covid-19 remain a mystery.

In New Zealand, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield announced today that there were three new cases, two confirmed and one probable.

The new national total of confirmed and probable cases is 1472.

And, as New Zealand moved to alert level 3, the queues at MacDonalds and other takeaway sites after four weeks of lockdown were something to behold.

In the Northern Marianas they had 14 cases and two deaths, New Caledonia 18 cases, French Polynesia 58 cases, Timor-Leste 24 cases and Hawai’i has 607 cases with 16 deaths.

PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY: By David Robie, self-isolating in Auckland under New Zealand’s Covid-19 lockdown as part of a Pacific Media Watch series.

Against a backdrop of many governments using tough controls under cover of fighting the covid-19 coronavirus pandemic to strengthen “creeping authoritarianism”, a global media freedom watchdog has signalled draconian virus reactions as a major threat.

From Papua New Guinea where media briefings have been curtailed with a lockdown of the national information and operations “nerve centre” at Morauta Haus, to Fiji where media personalities have been arrested, to the Philippines where state troll armies “weaponise” disinformation on social media, and to Indonesia where street artists have stepped in fill an information void, the signs are really worrying for defenders for media freedom.

The pandemic is “highlighting and amplifying the many crises”, already casting a shadow on press freedom, says the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders watchdog, which released its annual World Media Freedom Index this week.

READ MORE: The Reporters Without Borders 2020 World Press Freedom Index

While China and Iran have been singled out for strong criticism for suppressing details of the coronavirus outbreak early in the crisis, several countries traditionally strong on media freedom in the Asia-Pacific region have slipped down in the rankings – including Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.

In the case of New Zealand, which has usually been in the top 10 of media freedom nations, it has dropped two places to ninth, mostly because of shrinking media plurality.

Only Timor-Leste made gains in regional media freedom, with Fiji and Samoa barely holding the line.

According to RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire, the pandemic has encouraged some regimes to “take advantage of the fact people are stunned and mobilisation has weakened to impose measures that would be impossible to adopt in normal times”.

RSF accused China and Iran – in 177th, three places from the bottom of the 180-nation list, and 173nd place respectively – of censoring major coronavirus outbreaks.

Few rankings changed dramatically from last year, with Scandinavian countries again doing really well. Norway was top for the fourth year in a row with Finland again in second place.

Rounding off the bottom nations, unsurprisingly, were Turkmenistan and North Korea.

‘Information hyper-control’

RSF says China “maintains its system of information hyper-control, whose negative effects for the entire world have been seen during the coronavirus public health crisis”.

However, Europe has also not been immune with countries such as France (34th) – suffering violence against journalists in state crackdowns – and the United Kingdom (35th) also slipping.

Hungary (89th) has been criticised too over Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s widely condemned law on false information which was a “completely disproportionate and coercive measure”.

According to RSF, there is a “clear correlation” between suppression of media freedom in response to the coronavirus pandemic and a country’s ranking in the index.

The watchdog’s Asia-Pacific director, Daniel Bastard, says this year’s Index shows that press freedom is potentially in danger in any country. He adds that the region has shown the highest increase of violations (up 1.7 percent).

“The proof is Australia (26th), formerly cited as a regional model, which has fallen five places – above all because of federal police raids on a journalist’s home and the state TV broadcaster’s headquarters last year,” says Bastard.

“The precedent set by the raids poses a serious threat to investigative reporting and the confidentiality of journalists’ sources.

Constitution lacking guarantees
“It also drew Australians’ attention to the fact that their constitution is completely lacking in guarantees for the right to inform and to be informed.”

Bastard says the report shows that “business imperatives also threaten media independence” through encouraging an “extreme polarisation and search for sensationalism” – as with Tonga (down 5 at 50th), Papua New Guinea (down 8 at 46th),  one place below the United States, and Taiwan (down 1 at 43rd).

“Even the regional model, New Zealand (9th), has fallen two places because media ownership continues to be highly concentrated,” says Bastard.

“It shows that regardless of where in the world you want to exercise the right to press freedom, you have to keep fighting for it.”

In the Philippines (136th), after a decade-long wait, leading members of the Ampatuan political clan were finally convicted in December 2019 of carrying out the biggest ever massacre of journalists, in which 32 journalists, many of them women, were killed on the island of Mindanao in 2009 and dumped in a mass burial site.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s government employs an army of trolls to attack media critics and has mounted a relentless campaign against some media companies.

A quick snapshot of selected Asia-Pacific nations in the Index report:

Australia 26th (down 5 places)
“In 2019, Australian journalists became more aware than ever of the fragility of press freedom in their country, whose constitutional law contains no press freedom guarantees and recognizes no more than an ‘implied freedom of political communication’. Federal police raids in June 2019 on the home of a Canberra-based political reporter and the headquarters of the state-owned Australian Broadcasting Corporation in Sydney were flagrant violations of the confidentiality of journalists’ sources and public interest journalism. ‘National security’, the grounds given for these raids, is used to intimidate investigative reporters. They also have to cope with a 2018 defamation law that is one of the harshest of its kind in a liberal democracy.”

Fiji 52nd (no change)
“Under Voreqe ‘Frank’ Bainimarama, who has proved impossible to remove as prime minister ever since a military coup in 2006, journalists who are overly critical of the government are often subjected to intimidation or even imprisonment. The media have to operate under the draconian 2010 Media Industry Development Decree, which was turned into a law in 2018, and under the regulator it created, the Media Industry Development Authority, over which the government has direct oversight. Those who violate this law’s vaguely worded provisions face up to two years in prison. The sedition laws … are also used to foster a climate of fear and self-censorship. Sedition charges put the lives of three journalists with The Fiji Times, the leading daily, on hold until they were finally acquitted in 2018. Many observers believe it was the price the newspaper paid for its independence.”

New Zealand 9th (down 2)
“The press is free in New Zealand but its independence and pluralism are often undermined by the profit imperative of media groups trying to cut costs to the detriment of good journalism. Concern was voiced about the editorial integrity at New Zealand’s leading news portal Stuff after its owner, Fairfax Media, was taken over by the Australian entertainment giant Nine Television Network in July 2018. Stuff was forced to close a third of the sites it hosted and major budget cuts were imposed on all the local media outlets it owns. The situation could have been even worse if the Commerce Commission had not blocked another proposed merger between Stuff and New Zealand Media and Entertainment (NZME), which owns the country’s leading daily, The New Zealand Herald.”

Papua New Guinea 46th (down 8)
“Although the media enjoy a relatively benign legislative environment, their independence is clearly endangered. The last months of the government led by Peter O’Neill, a prime minister with dictatorial tendencies, were marked by many press freedom violations, including intimidation, direct threats, censorship, prosecutions and attempts to bribe journalists. The installation of an O’Neill rival, James Marape, as prime minister in May 2019 was seen as an encouraging development for the prospects of greater media independence vis-à-vis the executive.

“Journalists nonetheless continue to be dependent on the concerns of those who own their media. This is particularly the case at the two main dailies, The Post-Courier, owned by Australian media tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, and The National, owned by the Malaysian logging multinational Rimbunan Hijau, which does not want its journalists to take too much interest in environmental issues.”

Samoa 22nd (down 1)
“Despite the liveliness of media groups such as Talamua Media and the Samoa Observer group, this Pacific archipelago is in the process of losing its status as a regional press freedom model. A law criminalising defamation was repealed in 2013, raising hopes that were dashed in December 2017, when Parliament restored the law under pressure from Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi so that that he could attack journalists who dared to criticise members of his government. … In response to … repeated threats, the Samoa Alliance of Media Practitioners for Development (SAMPOD) urged the media to reaffirm the right of Samoans to pluralist, free and independent journalism as an essential condition for democracy.”

Timor-Leste 78th (up 6)
“No journalist has ever been jailed in connection with their work in East Timor since this country of just 1.2 million inhabitants won independence in 2002. Articles 40 and 41 of its constitution guarantee free speech and media freedom. But various forms of pressure are used to prevent journalists from working freely, including legal proceedings designed to intimidate, police violence and public denigration of media outlets by government officials or parliamentarians. The creation of a Press Council in 2015 was a step in the right direction, despite the reservations expressed by the media about the way its members are elected.

“However, the media law adopted in 2014, in defiance of the international community’s warnings, poses a permanent threat to journalists and encourages self-censorship. Relatively unrestricted coverage of government instability in 2019-20 nonetheless served to show the importance of the role that media pluralism can play in East Timor’s democracy.”

Tonga 50th (down 5)
“Independent media outlets have increasingly assumed a watchdog role since the first democratic elections in 2010. However, politicians have not hesitated to sue media outlets, exposing them to the risk of heavy damages awards…. The re-election of [the late] Prime Minister Samuela ‘Akilisi Pōhiva’s party in November 2017 was accompanied by growing tension between the government and journalists. This was particularly so at the state radio and TV broadcaster, the Tonga Broadcasting Commission (TBC), where two senior editors were sidelined under pressure from the government. Pohiva Tu’i’onetoa, who became prime minister in October 2019, must put a stop to the pressure and meddling and ensure that journalists enjoy full editorial independence.”

Not all Pacific nations are surveyed by the Index. At least Vanuatu should be there and West Papua is “hidden” within the Indonesian (119th) statistics.

A final word on the status of Timor-Leste. The country has a dynamic young media industry with a group of dedicated and creative journalists and industry leaders. In many respects they are showing the way to their more established Pacific neighbours and this ought to be reflected with a higher ranking.

Perhaps next year if the media freedom improvements keep coming?

Pacific Media Watch collaborates with Reporters Without Borders.

PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY: By Sri Krishnamurthi, self-isolating in Auckland under New Zealand’s Covid-19 lockdown as part of a Pacific Media Watch series.

Papatūānuku – earth mother is breathing,

The mere suggestion that you can see and hear tūī and kererū in Auckland was once a myth… but no longer as Covid-19 keeps the traffic at bay.

Even in Auckland you can now hear birds as clear as daylight as the air clears over New Zealand’s biggest city, reputed to be the largest Polynesian city in the world.

READ MORE: Al Jazeera coronavirus live updates – Europe death toll passes 100,000

The tūī, with a distinctive white throat tuft, is usually very vocal, with a complicated mix of tuneful notes interspersed with coughs, grunts, and wheezes. In flight, their bodies slant with the head higher than the tail, and their noisy whirring flight is interspersed with short glides.

And the kererū, or wood pigeon, is a large bird with iridescent green and bronze feathers on its head and a smart white vest. The noisy beat of its wings is a distinctive sound in our forest.

You don’t hear them normally in urban New Zealand, but the air has been so clean that  they are back, and many people have commented on hearing the birds chirping in their gardens.

That is because our earth mother, Papatūānuku, is breathing.

Celebrating silence
A video that celebrates the silence of our biggest city in the Covid-19 lockdown has become the biggest ever global hit on the Visit Auckland YouTube channel – 218,940 view at last count.

Papatūānuku is breathing, narrated by 11-year-old Manawanui Maniapoto Mills, pans across Auckland’s natural landscapes as human activity almost stops during the lockdown.

“Stop, listen, Papatūānuku, the earth mother, is breathing, Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland is still,” it begins.

“Out tūī, our kererū, now need not fight with the daily hum of our busy lifestyles.”

And at the end: “Dream, plan, and when the time is right, we welcome you, but for now listen, Papatūānuku is breathing.”

Auckland Tourism, Events and Economic Development (Ateed) destination general manager Steve Armitage told The New Zealand Herald the video’s message was “designed to be simple: this is a time of rest; take a moment to appreciate the stillness and the beauty of our region”.

“We hope the video is encouraging for Kiwis entering their third week of lockdown,” he added.

Within just days of its release on social media, the video has amassed more than half a million views and generated the most engagement for ATEED.

It has been viewed by not only New Zealanders, but by people in Australia, the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada.

Translated into French, Spanish
It has even been translated into French and Spanish by “inspired viewers”.

It is a haunting video that shows the best of New Zealand.

Meanwhile, more than 40,000 Pacific people in New Zealand have benefitted from the government’s Covid-19 support packages.

The Pasifika Medical Association through Pasifika Futures- the Whanau Ora commissioning agency for Pacific families – said nearly 7500 packages had been delivered to families since the lockdown was announced on 23 March.

Data to determine if community transmission of Covid-19 is occurring in New Zealand will be a big factor in tomorrow’s decision on whether to extend the level 4 lockdown, reports RNZ News.

At a media briefing yesterday, Director-General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield reported nine new cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand. All were linked to existing cases.

There were now 18 people in hospital, including three in intensive care, with two in a critical condition and 1098 cases, while more than 4000 tests were processed in laboratories yesterday. Dr Bloomfield also confirmed a death that occurred in Invercargill last week was a Covid-19-related death, taking the total to 12.

17 cases in Fiji
Fiji going into the weekend had 17 cases. A 21-year-old who had been a travelling companion of a man who visited India to go to a religious festival who flagrantly disregarded all self-isolation rules has now infected several people.

Also going into the weekend, Papua New Guinea, which is ill-prepared for the Covid-19 pandemic, had prime minster James Marape confirm they had five new cases taking the total to seven.

Guam had 135 cases and five deaths going into the weekend and the sailors off the USS Theodore Roosevelt had 615 positive cases.

Northern Marianas has 13 cases and two deaths, Tahiti has 55 cases and New Caledonia is still at 18.

In all going into the weekend there were 250 cases in the Pacific with seven deaths around the Pacific.

Meanwhile, Reporters without Borders (RSF) is alarmed to learn that Indonesia’s police have been ordered to combat not only disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic but also criticism of the president and government.

NZ lockdown – day 25: Nine new cases – community spread key to lockdown

Donald Trump’s sabre-rattling freeze on funding for the World Health Organisation at a time when many countries are pulling together for a global response to the coronavirus pandemic has surely earned him the epithet of the “world’s chief covidiot”.

The US President’s efforts at deflecting the blame for his country’s national public health crisis by pointing the finger at WHO and announcing that Washington would pull funding as the largest donor has shocked the world, triggering widespread condemnation from leaders and public health experts.

The impact of this shock decision is bound to be felt in the Pacific region with some countries and territories clinging precariously to their Covid-19-free status, while others – such as the US territory Guam, New Caledonia and French Polynesia – have already become hotspots.

READ MORE: NZ media warn of desperate times ahead

• Pacific Covid-19 updates
• RNZ coronavirus timeline

American funding to WHO provided more than 15 percent of the international body’s 2018-19 budget of $4.4 billion.

While Richard Horton, the editor-in-chief of the Lancet medical journal, denounced Trump’s decision as “a crime against humanity” and an “appalling betrayal” of every scientist, health worker and citizen – and of global solidarity, the second largest WHO donor, Microsoft’s Bill Gates of the Gates Foundation, described the move “as dangerous as it sounds”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says it is “not the time” to cut funding or to question errors.

“Once we have finally turned the page on this epidemic, there must be a time to look back fully to understand how such a disease emerged and spread its devastation so quickly across the globe, and how all those involved reacted to the crisis,” he said.

Former New Zealand prime minister and ex-UN Development Programme Administrator Helen Clark accused Trump of “shooting the messenger” at a critical time for the world.

“I can’t think of anything more foolish in the middle of a global pandemic which has gone beyond being a health crisis to being a full-blown economic and social crisis,” Clark told RNZ Checkpoint in an interview.

Three-month review
Rather pointless right now when most countries are in crisis.

Trump ordered the blocking of funds pending a three-month review of WHO’s role in allegedly “severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus”.

The president claimed that the pandemic could have been contained “with very little death” if the UN agency had accurately assessed the situation in China, where the virus outbreak began in the city of Wuhan late last year. He accused of WHO of having put too much faith in Beijing.

However, the US president had in the early stages regularly downplayed the dangers of this virus that has killed more than 128,000 people and infected more than 2 million worldwide, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.

He had declared it was all “under control” and as late as March 27 praised President Xi Jinping for China’s handling of the crisis. According to Politico, he tweeted or addressed rallies 15 times in praise of China.

The US has now become the hardest hit country with the highest death toll of more than 30,000 and 630,000 confirmed cases.

Ironically, the Johns Hopkins University figures – regarded as the most reliable – have been criticised for obscuring the degree of impact in the US by breaking up US death toll figures into individual state tallies.

Warning signs for PNG
The warning signs are there for countries such as Papua New Guinea which has already drawn alarm signals from Human Rights Watch, saying that a serious outbreak there would be “a catastrophe”. (Seven cases so far, with five in the past day – three of those in Western Province, which borders Papua).

“Even before the coronavirus pandemic, the fragile health system in Papua New Guinea was underfunded and overwhelmed, with high rates of malaria, tuberculosis, and diabetes among its population of more than eight million,” wrote an HRW associate director, Georgie Bright.

“Access to hospitals is extremely limited, with 80 percent of the population living outside urban centres. Prime Minister James Marape has acknowledged the country has only 500 doctors, less than 4000 nurses, and around 5000 beds in hospitals and health centres.

“The country reportedly has only 14 ventilators.”

However, Bright also acknowledged that hopefully there might be mitigating factors, such as large sections of its rural population living in remote mountainous villages in the highlands : “It could be that PNG will be spared the scale of the pandemic seen elsewhere such as Wuhan, a dense urban area with a mobile and older population.”

Vanuatu (population almost 300,000) is another country with serious concerns of “disaster” with a possible outbreak, but Fiji (pop. About 900,000) – although it has 19 confirmed cases so far – seems to be holding its own with the success of its fever clinics that have tested more than 120,000 people in the capital of Suva so far.

Timor-Leste is also on the watch list with eight cases so far and a furore over the sacking of the acting health minister.

Pushed into the background by the relentless sad statistics and pandemic doomsday stories around the globe are some other issues in the Pacific that normally struggle to get an airing in mainstream media.

Growing concern for West Papua
Just over the porous 820 km jungle border from Papua New Guinea, are the two Melanesian provinces Papua and West Papua ruled under protest by Indonesia. Collectively known as West Papua, the region has become a growing public health concern as Indonesia appears headed for disaster.

The coronavirus pandemic is “exacerbating tensions” in West Papua and exposing the “shortcomings” of Jakarta government policy, laments a conflict watchdog group.

The Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) says President Joko Widodo’s government needs to urgently appoint a senior official to “focus exclusively on Papua” province to ensure that immediate humanitarian needs and longer term issues are effectively addressed.

It has appealed for greater transparency and more support for the local Papuan administrations in coping with the spread of the virus.

“The virus arrived in Papua as tensions left over from deadly communal violence in August-September 2019 remained high, and pro-independence guerrillas from the Free Papua Organisation (Organisasi Papua Merdeka, OPM) were intensifying attacks in the central highlands.

“Papua’s major faultlines – indigenous vs migrant, central control vs local autonomy, independence movement vs the state – affected both how Papuans interpreted the pandemic and the central government’s response.”

The pandemic has also added new complications such as how many Papuans are “already portraying the virus as being brought in by non-Papuan migrants and the military”. As a result, “hostility and suspicion” are growing.

‘Jakarta six’ episode
Another episode happened in Jakarta this week that ought to have focused attention on the ongoing human rights struggle for Papuans yet was barely noticed in mainstream media in Australia and New Zealand.

A hearing about the trial of six Papuan activists – known as the “Jakarta Six” – will now be held online or long-distance amid the enforcement of large scale social restrictions to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

The accused – five men and a woman – are Paulus Suryanta Ginting, Charles Kossay, Ambrosius Mulait, Isay Wenda, Anes Tabuni and Arina Elopere. They were arrested by police for flying the Morning Star independence flag during a protest action demanding a referendum for Papua in front of the State Palace on August 28 last year.

The hearings into the alleged makar (treason, subversion, rebellion) case have been changed since the coronavirus pandemic has hit Indonesia, particularly in Jakarta.

The team of lawyers defending the six had earlier asked the panel of judges to postpone the hearing. However, the judges refused the request but changed the mechanism for the hearing so that the defendants can remain in jail for the trial.

NZ’s ‘long road back’
Back in New Zealand, the four-week national lockdown has been going encouragingly well, it is into its last week with the debate now moving on to the “long road back” for the economy by relaxing controls – a little – and the manner of how this would be achieved. A decision will be announced next Monday.

The Ministry of Health statistics show just nine deaths so far – mostly elderly rest home patients – with a fairly stable 1386 cases, just 20 new ones announces yesterday that are eclipsed by the rate of recoveries, now up to 728.

In fact, according to the Washington Post’s Beijing bureau chief, New Zealander Anna Fifield, the country is not just on track to “flatten the curve” but to “squash” it.

The last of 18,000 stranded German and European visitors and tourists seeking repatriation have now returned to their countries. The final Lufthansa Airbus flight had a sole incoming passenger – an Easter Bunny named Jacinda in honour of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern who has gained admiration for her courageous leadership, clear communication and kindness.

Not to mention the voluntary gesture of the prime minister, her cabinet and civil service managers to take a six-month 20 percent pay cut in solidarity with the “struggle that many New Zealanders are facing”.

As New Zealand edges toward the third week of lockdown having passed 1000 cases threshold (1039) with 89 new cases, 12 clusters and one death on day 11 the bigger angst during the week was for the 237 jobs lost with the folding of the magazine giant Bauer New Zealand.

While Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said yesterday the projections were for 4000 cases by now she was relieved it had not come to that.

“Modelling showed we had the potential to face as many as 4000 cases this weekend, we’re instead just over 1000 those 3000 fewer cases shows the difference that cumulative action can make,” she told her televised press conference.

READ MORE: Al Jazeera coronavirus live updates – Italy, France record lower deaths

• TC Harold adds to Vanuatu, Fiji coronavirus fears

However, the bigger debate during the second weekend of lockdown was whether or not the German magazine corporate had intended to pull out of New Zealand even before the Covid-19 crisis.

Bauer, in a media statement, said the closure was due to the “severe economic impact of Covid-19”.

However, not so said the minister responsible for media Kris Faafoi, who said no one from Bauer ever lobbied his office on that point, and the company had rejected any government assistance through the wage subsidy.

He and the prime minister insist Bauer’s exit is unrelated to the Covid-19 crisis.

Sudden collapse
“The government actively sought assist Bauer through this period,” Ardern of the dramatic and sudden collapse of the company on Thursday.

That assertion was backed up by Paul Dykzeul, who was hired to lead the company here when Bauer Media moved into New Zealand in 2012.

“No doubt they have been working on this for some time,” he told RNZ’s Mediawatch.

“Bauer is involved in much more media than just magazines now. They’ve been looking at publishing business around the world five years ago and exited from some countries because the model is in decline,” Dykzeul said.

“Government support for the media should include community newspapers,” said Journalism Education Association of New Zealand (JEANZ) president Dr Greg Treadwell last  week.

“If the government is going to act it is a pretty good place to start.”

The other issue during the Covid-19 pandemic to raise its ugly head was the creeping authoritarianism that was starting to take hold in the Pacific.

‘Responding with paranoia’
“While the Pacific infection rates are still relatively low, many governments have been responding with panic, paranoia and especially in relation to freedom of information, media independence and constructive and accurate communication, so vital in these critical times,” wrote my colleague Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie in  Saturday’s Pacific Pandemic Diary.

Such as President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines who has ordered his troops to “shoot dead” anyone caught violating Manila’s three-week lockdown period.

The first death happened on Saturday when a 63-year-old man was shot dead in the Philippines after threatening village officials and police with a scythe at a coronavirus checkpoint.

In Indonesia, President Joko Widodo’s government has pressed ahead with fast track a debate to adopt three controversial laws.

In Papua New Guinea, East Sepik Governor Allan Bird, controversially called for a “shoot to kill” order to frontier troops against border-crossers from Indonesia.

And, Vanuatu, despite having no Covid-19 cases has seen the government conveniently use the pandemic to introduce draconian, authoritarian rule and censorship last week.

Covid-19 cases escalate
It was a week which saw Covid-19 cases escalate in the Pacific with Tahiti, Guam and Hawai’i all experiencing a rise is cases.

New Caledonia now has 18 cases, while recorded five new cases on the weekend to take its tally to 12 including one who is suspected of contracting the disease at a religious festival in India.

Meanwhile, Fijians do not seem to be taking the threat of Covid-19 seriously with 134 people being arrested for breaching curfew regulations on Saturday night with 24 of them found drinking kava or holding drinking parties.

If that was not enough, Tropical Cyclone Harold – now category 5 – was bearing down on Vanuatu today and could reach Fiji early this week.

• More Asia Pacific Report stories on the coronavirus pandemic

A rather beautiful Guåhan legend is rather poignant in these stressed pandemic times. It is one about survival and cooperation.

In ancient times, goes the story, a giant fish was eating great chunks out of this western Pacific island. The men used muscle and might with spears and slings to try to catch it.

This didn’t work. So, the women from many villages got together while washing their hair in a river. They wove their locks into a super strong net, caught the fish and saved the island.

READ MORE: Al Jazeera coronavirus live updates – World Bank says economic crunch will hit poorest nations most

• Doctors want refugees out of Nauru hotels due to Covid-19 risk
• NZ confirms 82 new cases for total 950

Now modern day Guåhan, or Guam, is the Covid-19 coronavirus epicentre in the Pacific, if we leave out the US state of Hawai’i. With the latest five more cases, Guam now has 82 infections – more than double the next worst island territory, French Polynesia with 37; there have also been three deaths so far.

For long time observers, the plight of Guam is not exactly a surprise.

“Epidemics or outbreaks of disease have been a persistent part of Guam’s history since first contact with Europeans,” writes local author, artist and activist Michael Lujan Bevacqua in the Pacific Daily News. “From the start of Spanish colonisation in 1668, you can provide a historical outline of Guam’s history over the next two centuries simply in terms of disease outbreaks.

“As the Spanish brought new diseases into the Marianas, their mere presence was deadly to CHamorus. As the first priests under San Vitores began to spread out across the Marianas, their arrival was often announced through microbes, with someone dying a strange and unsettling death, even prior to a priest actually visiting a village.”

Death by colonial ship
Death by epidemic always entered the territory the same way – by ship.

Although the last major outbreak happened back in 1918, writes Bevacqua, when the world was engulfed by the Spanish flu with 868 people dying locally (6 percent of the island population), some people still recall the horror.

And now Guam is host again to the worst Covid-19 outbreak in the Pacific. To make matters worse, another ship is involved with the colonial masters seeking sanctuary. The landing of almost 3000 crew members from the USS Theodore Roosevelt yesterday by Governor Lou Leon Guerrero to be quarantined in hotels ashore has been branded as a “dangerous” gamble by community leaders.

Seventy seven confirmed cases were on board with three deaths and the captain feared a disaster with the cramped quarters on board.

While the Pacific infection rates are still relatively low, many governments have been responding with panic, paranoia and creeping authoritarianism, especially in relation to freedom of information, media independence and constructive and accurate communication, so vital in these critical times.

Perhaps they are borrowing some ideas from not-so-distant neighbours in Southeast Asia. For example, the Philippines where President Rodrigo Duterte gave a controversial order to troops to “shoot dead” violators of the capital Manila’s three-week coronavirus lockdown, including those protesting for food.

Duterte’s ‘shoot them dead’ virus order to troops slammed as dangerous

Duterte’s government, intolerant of the news media at the best of times, has also cracked down on journalists. The Paris-based media freedom advocate Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has called on Philippine prosecutors to abandon all proceedings against media under a new law that is claimed to combat “false information” about the coronavirus pandemic “but in fact [it] constitutes a grave violation of press freedom”.

Two journalists face prison
Two journalists based in the southern province of Cavite – Latigo News TV website editor Mario Batuigas and video blogger and online reporter Amor Virata – are facing the possibility of two months in prison and fine of 1 million pesos (NZ$68,000) along with a local mayor as a result of charges under the new law brought by the police last weekend.

According to RSF, they are accused of spreading “false information on the Covid-19 crisis” under section 6(6) of the “Bayanihan [community] to Heal As One Act,” which President Duterte signed into law on March 25 granting himself special powers.

In Cambodia, people who violate the extensive new state of emergency powers fast-tracked into law yesterday face up to 10 years in prison, according to a draft of the pending legislation.

“The law includes 11 articles divided into five chapters and gives the government near limitless powers to repress public gatherings and free speech during times of threats to national security and public order — or in times of health crises — and gives authorities wide powers to arrest people as they deem necessary,” reports Cambojanews.

In Indonesia, President Joko Widodo’s government has pressed ahead with fast a track  debate to adopt three controversial laws, including the revised Criminal Code and a weakening of the anti-corruption law, widely interpreted to collectively cement legal intolerance to dissent just at a time when the Covid-19 crisis public restrictions prevent any demonstrations.

Critics are stunned that the Parliament is determined to press ahead with this debate at the time of the health emergency that some critics have described as a “slowly-ticking coronavirus bomb nearing the point of detonation”.

Lacking public oversight
According to The Jakarta Post in an editorial: “It seems fairness is not something many of our politicians, either in the legislative and executive branches of power, believe in strongly. The deliberation of the three bills, which have met widespread opposition given to their contentious articles, will lack public oversight, which is essential.”

But as Gadjah Mada University communication lecturer Wisnu Prasetya Utomo notes in his Indonesia at Melbourne blog: “A key element of responding to the coronavirus outbreak must also involve efforts to eliminate or challenge misinformation. Minimising fear and panic as a result of hoaxes and misinformation is half the job in responding to this evolving crisis, which as yet has no end in sight.”

The Indonesian “bomb” across the border in Papua stirred an angry response in neigbouring Papua New Guinea from East Sepik Governor Allan Bird, who controversially called for a “shoot to kill” order to frontier troops against border-crossers. He later explained his views in a blog.

“This is a fight for survival. If we spend all our bullets (resources) and deploy our troops in the wrong corridor, we will lose the war,” he wrote.

“So what’s the strategy? Where should we deploy our assets to fight the virus? Where are we most vulnerable? And where can we mount our best defence? To me it’s at the entry point. Our borders… That’s the front line.

“Who do we need on the frontline? Soldiers and policemen. Well resourced. That should be 60 percent of our effort.”

Draconian rule, censorship
In Vanuatu, the caretaker government, taking cover from last month’s post-election confusion, has introduced draconian, authoritarian rule and censorship this week with the public barely noticing, as my colleague Sri Krishnamurthi revealed yesterday in Asia Pacific Report.

Vanuatu using Covid-19 to impose censorship on media, citizens

A regional media freedom advocacy group, Pacific Freedom Forum, has voiced concerns over governments taking advantage of emergency powers to impose restrictions on Pacific media. The detention and charging of two high profile Fiji citizens with breaching the Public Order Act over social media comments about Covid-19 brought the issue to a head.

The forum also noted that the Cook Islands had just passed information restrictions in its new Covid-19 legislation, levelling heavy fines and jail terms for those spreading “harmful information” over the pandemic.

“The state of emergency is not an excuse to treat newsrooms as a one-way channel to the public, or to gag dissent, social media commentary, and hard questions with restrictions and legislation,” warned Melanesia co-chair Ofani Eremae, a Solomon Islander.

As Governor Bird says, a comprehensive strategy is needed – not only for his country, but also for the Pacific region: “Burning roadside markets and beating up our women who sell food is not a smart strategy. Why is this our focus?”

Those legendary Guåhan women had the right idea: strategy, strength in unity and collaboration.

• More Asia Pacific Report stories on the coronavirus pandemic

PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY: By David Robie, self-isolating in Auckland under New Zealand’s Covid-19 lockdown as part of a new Pacific Media Watch series.

A South African celebrity jingle that has gone viral at the end of this week could easily have been a theme song for New Zealand when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern declared a lockdown on Monday for midnight on Wednesday.

Several of South Africa’s most popular artists, such as Madjozi, Zolani Mahola and Francois van Coke, teamed up with the national groceries retailer Pick n Save to produce the rollicking “Don’t Panic Buy” in a bid to prevent stockpiling.

The lyrics urge shoppers to only buy what they really need and save the rest for fellow consumers, who may need it far more.

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Written by Ard Matthews and produced by Theo Crous, the lyrics appeal to shoppers to only buy what they really need and save the rest for needy fellow customers. The song goes like this:

The whole wide world has gone insane
‘Cos suddenly the things we know are not the same
But that doesn’t mean we lose control
‘Cos now’s the time to keep from falling apart
We got to keep love in our heart
Friends don’t let friends panic buy
‘Cos you don’t want to be that guy
Please think of those in need
‘Cos we got a lot of hungry mouths to feed

The video was featured on Al Jazeera’s Listening Post media programme last night and it could have been a hit for New Zealanders too when there was serious panic buying on Monday and Tuesday with breathless media commentaries after Ardern dropped her lockdown bombshell – a necessary lifesaving action – followed by a declaration of a state of emergency.

After the lockdown got under way though, a remarkable spirit of compliance, cooperation and goodwill took over across this nation of 5 million people. This prompted Ardern to sum up at the end of the week about progress with the “new normal” strategy:

“On Monday we said we needed to shut New Zealand down. And here we are on Thursday with our streets essentially empty. That is a remarkable feat and I want to thank the nation for that.”

First death
By today, this was tempered by the first death in New Zealand from Covid-19 – a woman aged in her 70s, from the West Coast of the country, who had originally been diagnosed with influenza. All 21 medical staff who treated her were put on self-isolation.

“Today’s death is a reminder of the fight that we have on our hands,” Ardern said. “Stay at home, break the chain and save lives.”

The death and the rising case statistics, with 63 new cases, now up to 514, failed to dampen the buoyant spirits across the nation and in the media.

Paying tribute to a long tradition of New Zealand selflessness and community service, the nation’s largest newspaper, the Weekend Herald, declared in an editorial that it was grateful to be a “trusted source of news and information – as we have been since 1863”.

It added that the “struggle to overcome this microorganism will not be remembered for panic buying or quarantine breaches” but for many acts of humanity over the weeks, or months, ahead.

The newspaper reminded readers of the country’s pioneering “number-eight wire” attitude that helped establish early traditions, and noted that the “vicious virus has sparked a revival of kindness; watch out, it’s contagious”.

‘Feats of selflessness’
“History records are abundant with the feats of selflessness and heroism from past conflicts. The struggle to overcome this microorganism will not be remembered for panic-buying or quarantine breaches but for the acts of humanity which rose to the occasion,” said the editorial.

“The impending lockdown also initiated a run on garden centres and hardware stores, signalling a renaissance of the do-it-yourself, number-eight wire, ethos of the past – could this be Kiwi can-do on a comeback?”

To make the point, the Herald splashed across its frontpage the banner headline “Army of Kindhearts” and reported how 2500 New Zealand health workers had come out of retirement or cancelled parental leave to volunteer to rejoin the medical workforce.

“In all, 606 nurses, 587 doctors, 58 midwives and 203 medical laboratory scientists have committed to helping out.” However, the Ministry of Health has appealed for more volunteers.

New Zealand demonstrated an empathetic concern for its small Pacific Island neigbours by imposing self-isolation restrictions on travel to and from the region, but almost immediately cases of infection rapidly began. Oceania has become locked down  and the pandemic has dislodged climate change as the region’s number one priority.

The region’s hot spots so far have proven to be the American territory of Guam in Micronesia with 55 so far and the island region’s first death, French Polynesia with 34 and New Caledonia with 15.

Fiji with five, Northern Marianas with two and West Papua with one are well behind at this stage but there are fears over Papua New Guinea where, although its only confirmed case so far was an Australian mineworker who has already been repatriated, there is a sense of an impending tragedy based on trends in neighbouring Indonesia, and also Australia.

This unease has been fuelled by an internal government information war and confusion.

The news media has done a tremendous job over reporting the Pacific, including RNZ Pacific and ABC Radio Australia, with some individual journalists around the region excelling with insightful commentaries such as EMTV’s Scott Waide (with his personal blog), Barbara Dreaver’s Pacific Update and Bob Howarth and Antonio Sampaio in Timor-Leste.

New Zealand’s Ministry of Pacific Peoples produced Covid-19 briefs translated into nine languages – for the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, Rotuma, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga and Tuvalu – which were distributed and broadcast by RNZ and RNZ Pacific.

As an attempt to boost the “positive stories” in the region’s media, The New Zealand Herald has launched a Go NZ! series and picking up on Prime Minister Ardern’s theme of “be kind” to others, its message is: “Kindness can be contagious. Spread well enough, it can overcome this threat.”

• Panic buying should not be a surprise to anyone
• More Asia Pacific Report stories on the coronavirus pandemic