Stranded New Zealanders still hope for India flights – two new...
By RNZ Pacific
New Zealanders left behind in India are asking for additional repatriation flights to evacuate them, after the government did not have enough...
Jailing of Jakarta Six fuels virus fears over Papuan political prisoners
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY: By David Robie, convenor of Pacific Media Watch
The jailing of the Jakarta Six – five Papuans and the first Indonesian to...
Guam’s news blackout: Since when are our journalists being ‘info rationed’?
On World Press Freedom Day, Mar-Vic Cagurangan, editor and publisher of the Pacific Island Times, questions Guam's information management of the media amid the...
WHO’s exclusion of Taiwan endangers global coronavirus fight, says Palau
By Bernadette Carreon, RNZ Pacific Palau correspondent
Palau's President says the World Health Organisation's neglect of Taiwan has endangered, not only Taiwanese, but people everywhere.
In...
Six new NZ coronavirus cases and one further death reported
By RNZ News
New Zealand has reported six new cases of covid-19 today - double the number yesterday - and one further death in the...
Kaniva News: Amnesty time for NZ overstayers to help check virus...
EDITORIAL: By Kaniva News staff
Last month’s announcement by Minister for Pacific Peoples 'Aupito William Sio that overstayers qualify for health care during the covid-19...
Spike in PNG coronavirus cases expected this month
A clip from the SOE Controller's media conference. Video: EMTV News
By EMTV News
Papua New Guinea expects a spike of covid-19 cases this month -...
MPs’ questioning of NZ legal iwi checkpoints ‘really is racism’
By Te Aniwa Hurihanganui, Te Manu Korihi reporter of RNZ News
Community checkpoints have garnered support from New Zealand local councils, police and hundreds of...
Pacific Beat: How Pacific governments use coronavirus crisis to curb media
By Radio Australia
There have been very few new covid-19 cases confirmed in the Pacific this week.
The total number of reported cases since March stands...
Indigenous Papuans initiate own lockdowns in face of coronavirus
By Basten Gokkon of Mongabay
Local authorities and indigenous communities in Indonesia’s Papua region have imposed a sweeping lockdown in an attempt to minimise the...
Jobless immigrants face exploitation, poverty due to virus, says NZ adviser
By RNZ News
An immigration consultant is warning an entrenched underclass of unlawful workers will emerge unless the government provides emergency benefits to unemployed immigrants.
About...
Xanana Gusmão opposes extending state of emergency in Timor-Leste
By António Sampaio in Dili
Xanana Gusmão, president of the second largest Timorese party, has criticised the decision to extend Timor-Leste's state of emergency, considering...
NZ’s coronavirus response ‘one of the strongest’, says WHO
By Max Towle, Worldwatch reporter of RNZ News
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says New Zealand has been world-leading in its response to the covid-19...
Governments knew a pandemic was a threat – why were they...
By Chris Tyler of UCL and Peter Gluckman of Koi Tū
Most people think or at least hope their government is doing a good job...
RSF challenges Fiji over general’s ‘stifle criticism’ views on virus
The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned an op-ed by a pro-government military commander in Fiji last week defending curbs on freedom of...
‘If you don’t want to die, don’t come to Papua’, warns...
By Gemma Holliani Cahya in Jakarta
When the first covid-19 coronavirus pandemic cases were detected in Indonesia, one doctor at least knew right away that...
Virus tourism collapse threatens many in Pacific with poverty
PACIFIC PANDEMIC DIARY: By Sri Krishnamurthi, contributing editor of Pacific Media Watch
The collapse of tourism across the world in the face of the covid-19...
NZ hailed for ‘winning battle’ over covid-19 – but the war...
By Jo Moir, political reporter of RNZ News
New Zealand's Director General of Health Dr Ashley Bloomfield has had to walk back comments made by...
How might coronavirus change Australia’s ‘Pacific Step-up’?
ANALYSIS: By Tess Newton Cain of Griffith University
Across the globe, the coronavirus pandemic has prompted countries and governments to become increasingly inward-looking. Australia is...
High Indonesian smoking rate factor in highest coronavirus death rate
By Natasia Christy Wahyuni in Jakarta
Indonesia currently has the highest covid-19 coronavirus mortality rate in Asia - between 8–9 percent - owing to its...