Radio 95bFM The Wire’s Zoë Larsen Cumming and Justin Wong talked to Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie today about a resurgence of coronavirus cases in Papua New Guinea and the impact of other Pacific cases on two very important upcoming votes in Bougainville and New Caledonia.

Speaking on the Southern Cross programme, Dr Robie also outlined the latest edition of Pacific Journalism Review, which has been causing ripples around the region over its criticisms of government assaults on media freedom in a series of research papers.

A dramatic increase in covid-19 cases in PNG over the past few days took the total to 214 at the weekend with another reported mine case, this time at Lihir in New Ireland province.

READ MORE: Concern over new covid cluster in French Polynesia

A covid status graphic in Papua New Guinea featured on the PMC Southern Cross radio item. Image: The National

Another positive case in New Caledonia has taken the total to 23, but French officials report that the important referendum on independence scheduled for October 4, will go ahead as planned.

The first covid case in Bougainville has been reported but the presidential election will take place on August 12-September 1.

Relaxed borders in French Polynesia has meant two more cases taking the total to 63.

PMC’s weekly Southern Cross radio programme is now taking a break for a while.

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

A reprieve for the newsagency Australian Associated Press (AAP) is featured today on Pacific Media Centre’s Southern Cross segment on Radio 95bFM.

An article written by student journalist Jade Bradford of Curtin University in Perth tells of how AAP is being saved. The implications of the story is discussed given that the agency was supposed to have been ceased operations later this month.

It comes as a major relief to Pacific Island nations that rely on it for balanced coverage of the region.

LISTEN: PMC’s Sri Krishnamurthi and Southern Cross on Soundcloud

On Friday, AAP announced that a consortium of philanthropists and media executives had expressed an interest in buying the AAP Newswire service. Good news for a free media in the Pacific.

“There is now a generation of journalists in Fiji who have never known what it’s like to have a truly free press,” says PMC director Professor David Robie, who is also editor of Asia Pacific Report.

In fact, it was AAP foreign correspondent based in Suva at the time, Jim Shrimpton, who broke the story of Fiji’s first coup in May 1987.

Also discussed on Southern Cross was the Papua New Guinea police investigating death threats texted to Lae city chief Neil Ellery, who has a New Zealand father, and his wife.

There is also a chat with Debate writer and programme producer James Tapp about confronting Pākehā Privilege as a white male student.

Tapp is a Bachelor of Communication Studies and Bachelor of Business conjoint student at Auckland University of Technology, majoring in international business and advertising creativity.

• Pacific Media Centre’s Southern Cross segment on 95bFM
• Pacific Media Watch reporter Sri Krishnamurthi, The Wire presenter Sherry Zhang and producer James Tapp

The arrest of former Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Peter O’Neill on his arrival home in Port Moresby was featured today on Pacific Media Centre’s Southern Cross segment on Radio 95bFM.

He was arrested for questioning over allegations of purchasing two generators for 50 million kina (US$14 million) from an Israeli company without approval of the National Parliament.

O’Neill had only just returned to PNG from Australia and was quarantined for 14 days and was granted K5000 bail.

LISTEN: Sri Krishnamurthi on Southern Cross

Also discussed on the programme by Pacific Media Watch contributing editor Sri Krishnamurthi, was the pro-independence FLNKS seeking a delay to the referendum for two months because of covid-19 disruptions in New Caledonia.

However, anti-independence politician Sonia Backes said she was firmly opposed to the delay.

The ongoing saga of the past week between print giants NZME and Stuff, which went to the High Court with NZME claiming it had exclusive negotiation period Stuff owners Nine Entertainment Australia, was also highlighted.

However, Justice Sarah Katz said Stuff was getting another offer from a prospective buyer, which was revealed this afternoon to be Stuff’s chief executive Sinead Boucher.

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

Pacific Media Watch  contributing editor Sri Krishnamurthi discusses a new book today on West Papua, The Road: Uprising in West Papua, reviewed by Professor David Robie, in his weekly 95bFM segment Southern Cross.

The book is authored by Australian investigative journalist John Martinkus who has covered wars and conflicts in Asia and the Middle East for many years, including the US-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

David picks up on the author’s theme of “The Road” – the 4000-plus km Trans-Papua Highway – supposed to be for development in the Melanesian region.

But, as John Martinkus makes very clear in this damning book launched in Sydney this afternoon, it is more about repressing the West Papuans while exploiting the the rich natural resources such as the giant Freeport mine.

There is a section in the book paying tribute to the Pacific Media Watch coverage of West Papua.

Also discussed, is the Philippines with President Rodrigo Duterte’s government shutting down the largest television broadcasters, ABS-CBN with 42 channels across the country.

And, was NZME trying to pull a “fast one” over Stuff in a takeover bid?

• 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

From the second week of lockdown in New Zealand, to Covid-19 in the Pacific and an “authoritarianism creep” by governments in the Asia-Pacific region provided a fast-changing landscape on the Pacific Media Centre’s Southern Cross radio programme on 95bFM today.

New Zealand had crossed the 1000-case threshold on Sunday with 89 new cases and one death, reports Sri Krishnamurthi on the programme.

LISTEN: Southern Cross on PMC Soundcloud

However, the pandemic was starting to affect the Pacific with Guam being the worst-hit with 93 cases and four deaths and there was also the curiosity of an American aircraft carrier docked in Guam with 155 cases on board.

Ironically, captain Brett Crozier, 50, who was “relieved” after he sent a letter which ended up in hands of a San Francisco Chronicle reporter, saying that conditions were dire on board was himself reported now to be suffering from Covid-19

Meanwhile, people in Fiji were still not taking the threat seriously with 134 arrested on Saturday for flouting lockdown rules, with Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama threatening unleash the army if lockdown rules were not obeyed.

If that was not enough, some governments were using Covid-19 to clamp down on people and the media as authoritarianism began to raise its ugly head in the Philippines – where on person was shot on Saturday, Cambodia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.

There was much angst too, over the way Bauer Media New Zealand toppled costing 237 jobs as the media continues its run of bad news.

And, as fate would have it, category 5 cyclone was bearing down on Vanuatu as well as on-track to hit Fiji, after devastating the Solomon Islands.

• Presented by The Wire host Sherry Zhang and producer James Tapp

The Pacific Media Centre’s weekly Southern Cross radio programme on 95bFM has featured the latest Pacific news brought to you by Pacific Media Watch contributing editor Sri Krishnamurthi.

He was joined by Auckland University of Technology communications masters student Laurens Ikinia from West Papua to discuss the threat of coronavirus for the Pacific, Papuan students in NZ, right-wing extremism groups and a scourge of crown of thorns starfish eating coral – and how an environmental group found a solution.

“This is a very worrying trend,” says Krishnamurthi in response to the three cases of Covid-19 in a French Polynesia outbreak – first in the Pacific. “And now three cases in Guam, two from the Philippines and one from Japan.

“So they brought it back into Guam. And there is a self-isolating case in American Samoa.

“It has had a very sobering effect in the Pacific – people are being very careful.”

Listen to the PMC’s Southern Cross radio programme.

Ikinia talked about the 160 Papuan students studying in New Zealand as part of a bold education strategy of the local Papuan provincial government of sending students to English-speaking countries.

Krishnamurthi and Ikinia talk about the Pacific issues with 95bFM’s The Wire presenter Sherry Zhang and producer James Tapp.

• 95bFM Southern Cross podcast
• Education key to a better life for West Papua

Pacific Media Watch’s Kendall Hutt spoke with 95bFM’s The Wire host Tess Barnett today about martial law in the southern island of Mindanao in the Philippines.

She says this is worrying for the Asia-Pacific region.

Papua New Guinea and the Micronesian states have significant diasporic Filipino communities.

Hutt talked about what the declaration of martial law in response to urban attacks in Marawi City, means; comparisons with the Marcos dictatorship; and the threat it poses if it continues past the “normal” 60-day period.

Kendall Hutt and colleagues present the weekly radio programme Southern Cross about Pacific issues on 95bFM on Mondays.

In Manila, Opposition lawmakers condemned President Rodrigo Duterte over his apparent rejection of constitutional provisions allowing Congress and the Supreme Court (SC) to assess the martial law declaration in Mindanao, reports Rappler.

“Is the President saying that he’s willing to violate the Constitution? He is on his way to becoming a dictator,” said Ifugao Representative Teddy Baguilat Jr.

Duterte declared martial law in Mindanao following clashes between government forces and Maute Group terrorists in Marawi City.

Listen to Kendall here:

Pacific Media Centre’s Kendall Hutt speaks with host of Radio 95bFM’s The Wire Amanda Jane Robinson about a study on how journalists cover climate change, free speech in the case of Indonesia’s blasphemy law, and Timor-Leste journalists facing jail for defamation over criticising the Prime Minister.

• Pacific Media Watch

Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie speaks to Radio 95bFM’s The Wire host Amanda Jane Robinson about security operations for the Papua New Guinea general election, the 30th anniversary of the original Fiji coup, credibility in narratives surrounding the Manus Island shooting, and exiled West Papuan MP Benny Wenda’s visit to New Zealand.