Host Zoe Larsen Cumming had much to discuss on a new documentary, the exquisitely made Loimata – The Sweetest Tears, which was launched last Saturday to a full house at the ASB Waterfront Theatre as part of the international Whanau Marama film festival.

She asked Pacific Media Watch contributing editor Sri Krishnamurthi what made the documentary so special on today’s Pacific Media Centre – Southern Cross segment of Radio 95bFM’s The Wire.

The documentary is about a female master waka builder, navigator and sailor Lilo Ema Siope who was born in Taihape and spent her troubled growing-up years in South Auckland.

LISTEN: Southern Cross on the Pacific Media Centre’s Soundcloud

Abused she was, but she found her true calling on and in the waka.

It remains important to tell these stories of our Kiwi-born Pacific families who find a way to connect with their cultures and to bring richness in diversity to the New Zealand way of life.

What makes this documentary special are the bonds that develop between the Palagi film-making family of Anna and Jim Marbrook, a Pacific media Centre associate, and the Siope aiga who took the Marbrooks into their heart.

Also discussed on the radio programme was climate change and the dangers of relying on sustainable ecotourism,  and the dramatic rise in covid-19 cases in Papua New Guinea where cases have jumped by a record 23 to 62.

• Loimata – The Sweetest Tears will also play as part of the Whanau Marama hybrid online festival, from August 2-8.

Host Oscar Perress talked to contributing editor of Pacific Media Watch Sri Krishnamurthi today about Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s government rejecting a licence for the country’s biggest radio and TV network ABS-CBN.

Its 25-year-old franchise expired in May but the majority of legislators refused to renew in a threat to the post-Marcos democratic constitution.

This was the lead issue on the Pacific Media Centre’s Southern Cross segment of Radio 95bFM’s The Wire.

LISTEN: PMC Southern Cross podcasts

“The parliamentarians who rejected this request for a new franchise will go down in history as legislators who preferred to support the ruling caste’s personal interests instead of defending the spirit of the 1987 constitution,” said Daniel Bastard, head of RSF Asia-Pacific news desk.

The vote count was overwhelmingly 70-11 against awarding the new franchise.

Southern Cross then discussed a comment piece from Benny Wenda, chair of the United Liberation Movement of West Papua.

He was adamant in his commentary article that when the 2001 special autonomy statute expires this year that it was time for the people of West Papua to reject Indonesian-controlled “autonomy” and the only solution was an independence referendum.

“There is only one just, democratic and feasible solution for West Papua: our right to self-determination, exercised through a referendum on independence,” Wenda claimed.

And once again the Philippines was making headlines for all the wrong reasons.

This time it was the #HoldTheLine support for the brave Maria Ressa who is being backed by 60 freedom groups, including the Pacific Media Centre.

At the weekend the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the International Centre for Journalists (ICFJ), and Reporters Without Borders (RSF) announced the launch of the #HoldTheLine campaign in support of journalist Ressa and independent media under attack in the Philippines.

Acting in coordination with Ressa and her legal team, representatives from the three groups have formed the steering committee and are working alongside dozens of partners on the global campaign and reporting initiatives.

They hope to drup up 30,000 signatures.

Rappler’s chief executive Maria Ressa on June 20 was, alongside her colleague Reynaldo Santos Jr, convicted of “cyber-libel” – a criminal charge for which they could face six years in prison.

Thirty five years ago this week in another life Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie was an environmental journalist on board the original Rainbow Warrior, the Greenpeace flagship that was bombed by French secret agents on 10 July 1985.

He was on board for almost 11 weeks and joined the Greenpeace campaigners in the Marshall Islands to rescue the Rongelap islanders from the legacy of US nuclear tests.

He wrote a book about this “last voyage”, Eyes of Fire, which has been published in several countries.

LISTEN: The 95bFM Southern Cross podcast on the Pacific Media Centre’s Soundcloud channel

He shared some of his reflections on Southern Cross radio at 95bFM today and also discussed latest happenings around the Pacific – including the massive “march in black” peaceful demonstration in Papua New Guinea last Thursday in memory of the young mother Jenelyn Kennedy and against gender-based violence, and the webinar exchange about the West Papuan media freedom #black hole” between Dr Robie and a senior Indonesian Foreign Affairs official.

Speaking on a webinar organised by the Tabloid Jubi newspaper in Jayapura, Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ director of the European affairs Sade Bimantara said Papua was “much more open” than credited in social media and that it was “easy” for journalists to go there.

But Dr Robie said that little had changed on the ground in Papua since the new access policy had been announced by President Widodo. No New Zealand journalists had been allowed to go there since 2015.

Southern Cross host Sherry Zhang, who is joining The Spinoff next week, and producer James Tapp were also farewelled from the programme today.

• Protest marks French Pacific nuclear tests at Moruroa anniversary

Host Sherry Zhang interviewed veteran Pacific affairs journalist Michael Field who broke last week’s story on the secret BDO New Zealand accountancy report into allegations of funding rorts at the regional University of the South Pacific today on the Southern Cross segment of 95bFM.

Field also spoke about the hounding of suspended vice-chancellor Professor Pal Ahluwalia, the whistleblower who revealed the mismanagement of funds at the university.

In a Pacific Media Centre commentary today, director Professor David Robie, an alumni of USP, analysed the fight to save academic freedom at the university.

LISTEN: Today’s Southern Cross on 95bFM

Contributing editor Sri Krishnamurthi spoke about #PapuanLivesMatter in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.

He talked of Filep Karma, a former political prisoner who revealed Joko Widodo’s unkept promise to free all Papua political prisoners made five years ago.

West Papua is of high economic value to Indonesia because of the Freeport gold and copper mine and the palm oil and logging industries.

Also discussed was the Polynesian Panthers who came into being in June 1971 when protested for Pasifika rights, especially during the Dawn Raids in 1973.

One of the original five Polynesian Panthers was Will ‘Ilolahia, who was arrested for helping organise the protests. He spoke at the Auckland Black Lives Matter rally yesterday and it is hoped he will feature in next Monday’s Southern Cross.

Thousands throng Auckland for NZ Black Lives Matter protests

Well into the alert level 3 phase of New Zealand’s covid-19 coronavirus pandemic lockdown, and today’s weekly Pacific Media Centre Southern Cross radio programme covers what  is happening  in New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region.

Pacific Media Watch contributing editor Sri Krishnamurthi discusses new developments on the media front in New Zealand.

A surprising bid by NZME to buy Stuff for $1 – were they trying to pull a fast one?

LISTEN: Today’s Southern Cross programme on 95bFM

Whether we should go to alert level 2 – the decision later today was yes on a staggered basis – and the World Press Freedom Day report done by Transparency International on Papua New Guinea.

Also discussed were the controversy over the allegations of homophobic slurs by Fiji Rugby Union chairman Francis Kean who was stood down from standing for World Rugby’s executive council.

• Presented by The Wire host Sherry Zhang and producer James Tapp
• Pacific Media Centre’s Soundcloud channel

Into the fourth week of  lockdown in New Zealand, and today’s weekly Pacific Media Centre Southern Cross radio programme covers what journalism schools are doing in the Asia-Pacific region as well as the media in crisis in New Zealand.

New Zealand stands on the precipice of decision day today as the government decides whether to go from alert level 4 to alert level 3 – this afternoon it opted for five more days.

The lockdown will be eased at 11.59pm on Anzac Monday, April 27, followed by two weeks of alert 3 on trial.

LISTEN: Today’s podcast on 95bFM

With ANZAC weekend coming up, the big concern has been will the lockdown rules be broken like at Easter weekend, when many people tended to flout the rules?

For that reason alone, Pacific Media Watch’s Sri Krishnamurthi – like many experts – argues in favour two more weeks of lockdown.

• 95bfm The Wire presenter Sherry Zhang; producer James Tapp
• Radio Southern Cross | PMC Soundcloud channel

Fiji’s Social Democratic Liberal Party (SODELPA) leader Sitiveni Rabuka is confident of winning government benches in the 2018 general election.

SODELPA, the largest opposition party from the 2014 election in Fiji, currently has 15 seats while FijiFirst has 32 and the National Federation Party has three in a 50-seat Parliament.

SODELPA was established in 2013 after the dissolution of its predecessor, the then ruling Soqosoqo ni Duavata ni Lewenivanua (SDL) party.

“I’m looking at, at least 28 seats, which gives us a majority. I have calculated on the basis of the 18 seats that we held. We won 18 seats but then lost three – two to debt and one to imprisonment,” said the enigmatic leader of SODELPA.

“They were replaced by the next three on the list, but those three only missed out by a few votes because of our total party vote.”

Rabuka, notorious for executing the Pacific’s first coup in 1987, says his party is all geared up for the election and ready to start campaigning.

“We are giving out the party message about consolidating the (indigenous) Fijian institutions – the iTaukei institutions and remembering the Bible,” says the former prime minister.

“It is a long struggle.”

Coalition deal sought
As for strategy, he has tried to do his utmost to get the other parties around the table in a coalition deal to take on the ruling FjiFirst party.

“I tried to form a coalition before the elections but based on the views of their supporters, they preferred not to be seen holding hands with me, so they decided no, we’ll go it alone.”

Rabuka seemed to undergo a change in attitude in the years after his coup. He formed a partnership with the then National Federation Party leader, Jai Ram Reddy, to usher in the more equitable 1997 Constitution.

But ironically, their coalition suffered a humiliating defeat in the 1999 election to the Fiji Labour Party led group.

Rabuka made it clear that a grand coalition with FijiFirst, post-election, is not on the cards and will never be, as long as he remains leader of SODELPA.

“With FijiFirst, we have not considered that, and I will not consider it,” he says as a bottom line.

“We are diametrically opposed in our views,” he says with a stern gaze.

Record of service
And, why should people vote for SODELPA, which is looked suspiciously in some quarters as a nationalist party, unlike FijiFirst, which claims multiracialism as its manifesto?

“We believe we have the record of service, a leadership that listens to the people,” said Rabuka, who was prime minister of Fiji from 1992-1999.

“We have compassionate leadership, and we have the will to do what is right, with malice towards none.”

He has several planks on which to campaign this election, and he outlines them:

“We are going to campaign on social justice, looking after the marginalised, the weak in society; we will continue with the social programmes in the past and spread the national wealth as widely as possible,” he says, reciting his well-practised mantra.

He denies notions that SODELPA is perceived as an iTaukei (indigenous) party.

“Some view us as that, but it is not factual, as we have shown,” he says.

“We are just carrying on what started in the Deed of Cession (1874), where we promote civilisation and Christianity.

Good governance
“We increase industry and trade, and good governance in the interest of the natives, as well as the white population – those are words of the Deed of Cession.

“We continue in the same trend as continued in the colonial days; the Alliance days, the SVT days and the SDL days.”

He vehemently disagrees with the abolition of the Great Council of Chiefs (Bose Levu Vakaturaga), disbanded in March 2012 by current Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama.

“It was the wrong thing to do because the universal cry now is for indigenous institutions since the declaration on the rights of the indigenous peoples on December 13, 2007.

“The Great Council of Chiefs (GCC) should be re-established. They have no executive role, but they have a very important mediatory and advisory role.”

As for the claims that the GCC had always tried to be involved in the politics of Fiji, Rabuka admits there is some truth to that accusation.

“They have always tried that. I found that during my time, I had to stand my ground as prime minister and chief executive officer of the government of Fiji.

“I used to say, ‘you are advising me on indigenous matters, on matters of iTaukei, I listen, but I rule in the interest of the nation as a whole’.”

Rabuka has become a consummate politician, a long way from the days when he was third-in-command in the military in 1987, carrying out the orders of the then beaten Alliance government and staging a coup.

Sri Krishnamurthi is a journalist and Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies student at Auckland University of Technology. He is attached to the University of the South Pacific’s Journalism Programme, filing for USP’s Wansolwara News and the AUT Pacific Media Centre’s Asia Pacific Report.

AUT Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project editor Kendall Hutt speaks with 95bFM’s The Wire host Amanda Jane Robinson on the weekly radio programme Southern Cross about celebrating 30 years of a nuclear-free Aotearoa.

She was at Devonport’s Depot Artspace at the weekend to hear some inspiring speakers who led the Peace Squadron and the peace movement campaigning for a nuclear-free New Zealand.

Auckland mayor Phil Goff and activist photographers John Miller and Gil Hanly were there too.

Hutt also talks about Pacific leaders calling for healthier oceans at UN conference in Washington.

•  David Robie traces the early history of peace movement in a 1986 article for the New Internationalist
• RNZ National on Rev George Armstrong and the Peace Squadron
• David Robie’s comments at the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Aotearoa “30 Years On” event at the Deport Artspace in Devonport at the weekend.
• Greenpeace on New Zealand’s nuclear-free landmark.

By TJ Aumua in Auckland

Former Māori party co-leader Sir Pita Sharples described te reo Māori as being on “life support” at a Human Rights Commission forum this month.

He said he would lead an initiative of revitalising the Māori language and would hope to encourage the Government in supporting the notion, as a fundamental right in the United Nations Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

“I am determined this year to lead a charge with the Declaration and with the Treaty of Waitangi and for Government to be meaningfully supportive of the growth of te reo Māori in New Zealand.”

‘forbidden’

Sharples talked about his parents who, in the past, were forbidden to talk te reo Māori in New Zealand.

As a result “our language was killed in one generation”.

He told the Pacific Media Centre an environment that would support the learning of the language and its use in everyday conversation needs to be established in New Zealand.

“When our kids go to the mall, they talk Māori the whole time. But the world around them doesn’t support what they are doing.”

Sharples also emphasised that New Zealand media have to be trained in Māori pronunciation in order to foster an environment that encourages and respects te reo.

Indigenous law

Expert member on the UN Permanent Forum of Indigenous Issues Valmaine Toki recommended mandatory indigenous law studies in New Zealand as part of implementing legal understanding of the UNDRIP.

She also said constitutional recognition of the Declaration in New Zealand is key to reflecting indigenous rights.

Listen to the full audio story:

Traditional knowledge

Toki also touched on how indigenous knowledge is key to solving Pacific climate change.

“The Pacific is really vital and key at the moment because of climate change-it’s a huge issue. And traditional knowledge cuts right across that.”

Listen to the interview with Valmaine Toki:

The importance of preparing our Pasifika youth to succeed in a digitally connected world was a key message delivered this week by the NZQA, chief-executive, Karen Poutasi.

Speaking at the Pacific Tertiary Education Forum held in Auckland this week Poutasi said there needs to be a greater leverage between education and the opportunities of digital technology.

“We live in a different world at the moment, it’s global, digital and connected.

“As an education system we need to reflect the world that they are growing up in and the world they will be employed in.”

Poutasi said it is not as easy task for teachers as many didn’t grow up in a “digital enabled world”.

“Yet it is vital that we actually use technology, exploit the opportunity and manage the risks and therefore tutors and teachers are needing to grapple with it.”

‘But never underestimate the power of teachers in influencing Pasifika success’, she added.

Future employment 

In her presentation Poutasi referred to a World Economic Forum survey, which suggest 16 skills needed for employment in the 21^st century.

This is what international employers want, Poutasi said.

“These are the skills education in some way, shape or form need to deliver.”

Listen to the full audio story on Pacific Media Centre’s SoundCloud:

People stories
CNN Philippines editor Jose Maria Carlos says more “people stories” need to be told in the media to bring better interest and awareness to climate change.

“That is identifying families or individuals who have done something to deal with the impact of climate change. Whether it’s flooding, planting new types of crops that are resilient to the impacts of climate change, or simply moving out from dangerous areas to new locations.

“Your viewers are people, and they’re interested in people. If you use that approach first, then you can put in the hard stuff like statistics,” Carlos told Asia Pacific Report.

Carlos quoted from the Philippines Climate Change Commission which reported climate change awareness was high but the depth of understanding was lacking.

Local dialects
He said scientific terms and language barriers are part of the problem.

“You can’t have complex terms in your story, news has to be understood by all types of people,” Carlos said.

“If you are targeting fishermen or families in the coastal areas in the Philippines you won’t use English, you have to use their dialect so they will understand what climate change is all about and how they can deal with it.”

Youth voice
The head of media and communications at the National University of Samoa (NUS), Misa Vicky Lepou, talked to Asia Pacific Report about the importance of having the youth voice at the forefront of the issue.

“They are the future leaders of the [media] industry and the country,” Lepou says.

“Having that new voice in the media, they would of course progress this and take this to the next generation.”

Communication lecturer Dr Hermin Indah Wahyuni of Gadja Mada University in Indonesia encouraged young journalists to inspire their communities.

“They can do this by observing and offering them refreshing insights on climate change,” she says.

“Always offer new perspectives, irritate the society in a positive way and always rejuvenate the issue.

“Only media can keep society on their toes.”

Listen to TJ Aumua’s full audio podcast on the Pacific Media Centre’s SoundCloud channel.

New Zealanders need to catch up with reality about the country’s trade partners in the South-East Asia region, says an ambassador.

Speaking to the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) NZ Business Council today, New Zealand Ambassador to Viet Nam Haike Manning said it was important for ASEAN members to work together to change outdated perspectives of potential business in the region.

“What I find in general is that a lot of perceptions about Viet Nam in New Zealand lags behind the reality of the country,” he told council members.

New Zealand’s Heads of Mission from ASEAN country members met at an Auckland University of Technology breakfast to update each other on recent developments.

Listen to TJ Aumua’s podcast for Pacific Media Watch.

“Yesterday I took a screenshot of an article that said, ‘Could Viet Nam become the next Silicon Valley’, and I think it’s a really interesting and provocative proposition,” Manning said.

“What we are certainly seeing is the rapid emergence in Viet Nam of a knowledge economy, we are seeing a rapid emergence of Viet Nam has a high-tech place.”

‘Academic freedom’
In an interview with Pacific Media Watch, Manning said that as part of Viet Nam’s step towards a growing knowledge economy, the country is working on establishing its very first university to have academic freedom.

“I think in Viet Nam it’s pretty well understood that the public education system cannot properly deliver all the needs for its people and that’s why we see a lot of Vietnamese students coming to New Zealand,” Manning said.

“But something’s got to happen inside the country as well in terms of supplying the public education system.”

“It’s a brave step by the Vietnamese government to give this freedom.”

The New Zealand Ambassador to the Philippines, David Strachan, also spoke at the event, saying New Zealanders needed to understand the Philippines was a great business and trading hub.

His speech also highlighted the controversy around Philippines President-elect, Rodrigo Duterte, who has become known for his hate speech and approval of increased death squads to reduce crime.

But he noted that the Philippines had been the top performing south-east Asian economy in recent years and he expected Duterte’s decisive leadership would be good for New Zealanders doing business with the country.

• Could Viet Nam become the next Silicon Valley?

The conference at Victoria University will bring together scientists, politicians and activists from around the Pacific with the aim of coming up with a plan of action.

Professor Renwick says even though their emissions are so low they have done almost nothing to contribute to global warming, small island states like Kiribati, Tuvalu and Niue disproportionately feel its effects.

He says things could turn ugly quickly in the Pacific with sea level rises, storm surges and more frequent cyclones.

“The best thing that we can do, the people across the Pacific can do, is make a lot of noise. Agitate. I think the small island nations as a group, have been pretty effective. The COP21 meeting in Paris just before Christmas talked about keeping global warming well below 2 degrees and ideally 1 and a half degrees. That’s been the line that’s been pushed from the island states for a number of years.”

Professor Renwick says the ultimate goal of the conference is to empower people so they feel they can take action.

>> LISTEN to the Radio Waatea interview with Professor Renwick

More about In the Eye of the Storm conference

Greens co-leader Metiria Turei says the Treaty of Waitangi protection clause in the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement isn’t as strong as the New Zealand government claims it is.

Concern over whether the 12-country pact will hamper the crown’s ability to protect Māori interests under the Treaty is driving Māori opposition.

The government says it has negotiated a Treaty of Waitangi exemption into all the trade deals it has negotiated over the past decade.

But Turei says the Greens’ analysis shows it does not give iwi Māori any right to have a say over issues that affect them.

“If the implementation of the treaty is contrary to the TPPA, either government won’t implement it or we risk being sued by companies overseas who see profits being lost because of that implementation.

“THe classic example is WAI 262, our interests in fauna and flora here in New Zealand, all of that becomes much more difficult under the TPPA.”

Turei says despite the Prime Minister’s assurances, Pharmac will also be adversely affected because the TPPA means the government drug-buying agency will have to set up an expensive review process to allow outside parties to appeal against its choices.

The TPPA will be signed by trade ministers in Auckland tomorrow.

>> Listen now to Metiria Turei on Waatea radio

Live streaming today
The Daily Blog and Waatea News will be live streaming protest actions today.

Protests against the TPPA protests, the climate change movement post-Paris 2015, and the run up to Waitangi day …

Unite Union’s Joe Carolan talks to climate activist Gary Cranston, E TU organiser Chris Rigby and the Mana Movement’s Repia Trei on this week’s Workers Voice at PlanetFM radio in Auckland.

>> Listen to PlanetFM

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Item: 9472

Lisa Er
INTERVIEW: AUCKLAND (Green Planet FM / Pacific Media Watch): Freedom of the press describes the right to gather, publish, and distribute information and ideas without government restriction.

This right encompasses freedom from censorship, but does our media really have complete freedom in New Zealand? We need to ask this question when we see the government’s response to Nicky Hager’s investigative journalism, and Channel 7 is removed from TV in spite of having half a million viewers.

A journalist was recently no longer required by the New Zealand Herald after writing an honest critique of the TPPA, and what happened to Campbell Live and why?

David Robie, professor of communication studies and Pacific journalism, director of the Pacific Media Centre, journalist and author answers these questions and more.

Are journalists part of a movement that merely holds up a mirror to society with all its cynicism, or are they part of a process of empowerment and action for a better world?

Why are certain topics ignored? Perhaps the headings would not be sexy enough. Perhaps sport and tabloid news are appealing to the masses more than educated comment on important events in this country and around the world.

Have the corporations bought the larger media outlets? How do economic issues affect the impartiality of the media?

Optimistic view
In spite of all this, David Robie is optimistic about the work of “our last TV public broadcaster” – Maori TV.

However, he is concerned for his students as to what sort of career they can expect in New Zealand’s media.

Political crises and indigenous issues throw a spotlight on a region’s news media and its role in democracy.

David Robie champions media scrutiny in the Pacific and believes more research will contribute much to the communications industry. This is an area where young journalists can go and experience stories that need to be reported, but they might be dangerous assignments.

For example in West Papua people are being arrested and detained for taking part in peaceful activities.

The victims of security force harassment and violence in West Papua are predominantly those who have publicly expressed their support for self-determination or independence.

We hear little about this in New Zealand, although Māori Television did a story recently. The journalists were escorted by the Indonesian authorities, however.

Embarrassing Indonesia
Perhaps if the world’s mainstream media reported on this it would embarrass Indonesia into modifying their behaviour somewhat.

Also “Understanding our neighbours is vitally important and researching and publishing on the media is an important goal for good governance for the region,” says Professor Robie.

Having been a journalist on board the Rainbow Warrior on the voyage leading up to the bombing in 1985, David has always had an interest in peace.

He talks on how peace journalism can challenge “war voyeurism”.

Is a peace keeper keeping peace peacefully when carrying a gun, for example.

Peace journalism explains conflicts and the reasons for them in some depth. It gives all parties a voice, whereas war journalism is propaganda oriented and is mainly concerned with victory.

“The idea of peace journalism troubles some journalists – mostly due to a lifetime of relying on ‘conflict’ as a core news value. This is surprising, because in this era of ‘infotainment’ and super-hype in news media, this peace notion is much more about reasserting basic news values such as truth, context, fairness and depth.”

Reporters and editors have the choice to create opportunities for society to consider non violent responses to conflict.

This is an example of where journalists can be a part of the solution and not part of the problem.

* David Robie has written 10 books on the region’s politics and media, including Mekim Nius: South Pacific politics, media and education; Eyes of Fire, a book about the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, and Don’t Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific (Little Island Press, 2014). He was awarded the 2005 PIMA Pacific Media Freedom Award and the 2015 Asia Communication Award.

Full broadcast podcast – 1hr

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.