With more than 50 Fijian villages earmarked for potential relocation in the next five to 10 years due to the climate crisis, Fijian journalists are committing themselves to amplifying the voices of those who face the challenges of climate change in their everyday lives.

Vunidogoloa village on the island of Vanua Levu was home to 32 families who lived in 26 homes. As early as 2006, floods and erosion caused by both sea-level rise and increased rains started to reach homes and destroy crops that fed the community.

The situation worsened in the following years, with water progressively taking over the village. The mangroves that used to cover the coast where they lived were absorbed by the sea completely.

• READ MORE: Other reports in the QUT Fiji Project series

The Fijian government began the mission to relocate Vunidogoloa in 2014. Not only did people in the community walk away from their homes, they left the place where their traditions and stories were passed down. Since Vunidogoloa was relocated, five other Fijian villages have faced the same fate.

Several projects have been established in response to such pressing threats, with an aim to increase the amount of climate journalism in Fijian media.

University of the South Pacific journalism coordinator Associate Professor Shailendra Singh has previously expressed concern about the lack of specialisation in climate reporting in the Pacific and says the articles produced can often come from “privileged elite viewpoints”.

Dr Singh continues to harbour such concerns in 2024. He notes that Pacific news media organisations have small profit margins, so rather than face the expense of sending out teams to talk to everyday people, their stories tend to focus on presentations and speeches that are cheaper to cover.

“This refers to the plethora of meetings, conferences, and workshops where the experts do all the talking and presenting,” he says.

“Ordinary people in the face of climate change are suffering impacts and do not get as much coverage.”

Training journalists to specialise in climate reporting will give them an in-depth understanding of both talking to experts and ordinary people experiencing the effects of climate change, Dr Singh says.

Blessen Tom’s climate change ‘ghost’ village report on Vunidogoloa for Bearing Witness in 2016. Video: Pacific Media Centre

“It brings focus, consistency and knowledge if done on a regular basis. Science has its place, but let’s not forget that people dealing and living with the effects of climate change are experts in their own right.”

Up-and-coming journalists, USP students Brittany Nawaqatabu and Viliame Tawanakoro say they see it as a good journalists’ responsibility to prioritise climate stories.

“Journalism provides people with the opportunity to be the vessel of message to the world. We are the captain of the ship that delivers the message,” Viliame says.

Brittany criticises Western media that considers climate change as a “debatable” topic.

“You have to put yourself in the shoes of a Pacific Islander to know what it’s really like. You can’t be debating it because you’re not the one going through it,” she says.

It’s important for Fijian media to continue to put the climate crisis on the front page and not let the stories become lost in other news, she says.

“If we are not going to become strong advocates as Pacific islanders for climate change and what our island homes are going through, then it’s only going to go downhill.”

Brooke Tindall is a student journalist from the Queensland University of Technology who travelled to Fiji with the support of the Australian Government’s New Colombo Plan Mobility Programme. This is published as the first of a series under our Asia Pacific Journalism partnership with QUT Journalism.

The news media’s crucial role in climate change and environment journalism was the focus of The University of the South Pacific’s Journalism Programme 2024 World Press Freedom Day celebrations.

The European Union Ambassador to the Pacific, Barbara Plinkert, and Pacific Islands Forum Secretary General Henry Puna were the chief guests at the event last week on May 3.

Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Secretary Dr Sivendra Michael was the keynote speaker.

• READ MORE: Other World Press Freedom Day reports

Plinkert reemphasised journalists’ role in being public’s eyes and ears on the ground, verifying facts, scrutinising those in power and amplifying marginalised voices.

Puna’s message was targeted at Pacific leaders in terms of due recognition to the significant role of environmental journalism in sharing the priorities and realities of the resilient Pacific.

Dr Michael highlighted the need for governments and development partners to work with the local and regional media in mitigating environment and climate change challenges.

The event ended with a panel discussion on the theme for the 2024 World Press Freedom Day — A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the face of the environmental crisis: Fiji and the Pacific.

Media ‘poor cousins’
Associate Professor in Pacific Journalism Dr Shailendra Singh said that the WPFD theme was appropriate since environment and climate change news were relegated to “poor cousins” of politics, sports, business, and entertainment news.

He said it was to understand why this situation persisted and how to address it.

Others at the event included USP deputy vice-chancellor Professor Jito Vanualailai, deputy head of the School of Pacific Arts Dr Rosiana Lagi, and the Regional Representative for the Pacific, UN Human Rights Heike Alefsen.

The event was organised by The University of the South Pacific School of Journalism in partnership with the Delegation of the European Union to the Pacific.

Republished from Wansolwara News in collaboration.

New Zealand journalist and academic David Robie has covered the Asia-Pacific region for international media for more than four decades.

An advocate for media freedom in the Pacific region, he is the author of several books on South Pacific media and politics, including an account of the French bombing of the Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour in 1985 — which took place while he was on the last voyage.

In 1994 he founded the journal Pacific Journalism Review examining media issues and communication in the South Pacific, Asia-Pacific, Australia and New Zealand.

• READ MORE: Other presentations at the Mediasia conference in Kyoto, Japan
• The Bearing Witness project

He was also convenor of the Pacific Media Watch media freedom collective, which collaborates with Reporters Without Borders in Paris, France.

Until he retired at Auckland University of Technology in 2020 as that university’s first professor in journalism and founder of the Pacific Media Centre, Dr Robie organised many student projects in the South Pacific such as the Bearing Witness climate action programme.

He currently edits Asia Pacific Report and is one of the founders of the new Aotearoa New Zealand-based NGO Asia Pacific Media Network.

In this interview conducted by Mediasia organising committee member Dr Nasya Bahfen of La Trobe University for this week’s 13th International Asian Conference on Media, Communication and Film that ended today in Kyoto, Japan, Professor Robie discusses a surge of disinformation and the challenges it posed for journalists in the region as they covered the covid-19 pandemic alongside a parallel “infodemic” of fake news and hoaxes.

He also explores the global climate emergency and the disproportionate impact it is having on the Asia-Pacific.

Paying a tribute to the dedication and courage of Pacific journalists, he says with a chuckle: “All Pacific journalists are climate journalists — they live with it every day.”

• David Robie’s Eyes Of Fire microsite (with Little Island Press)

Award-winning University of the South Pacific student journalist Sera Tikotikoivatu-Sefeti says Pacific voices on the climate fight need to be amplified for big nations to notice and be accountable for their actions.

The final-year student recently won the top prize in the tertiary level journalism students category at the 2022 Vision Pasifika Media Award with her two submissions on the environmental impacts of Tonga’s volcanic eruption on villagers of Moce Island in Fiji, and declining fish populations on the livelihoods of Fijian fishermen in Suva.

Tikotikoivatu-Sefeti said she was “beyond humbled” to receive the award and expressed her gratitude to God for the opportunity to amplify Pacific voices on climate change.

• READ MORE: Other environmental journalism reports
• Bearing Witness: A Pacific climate crisis documentary and journalism development project — David Robie and Jim Marbrook

Originally from Dravuni village on beautiful Kadavu island, Tikotikoivatu-Sefeti said Pacific Island countries contributed the least towards climate change and global carbon emissions — but were the most affected.

“We are known to have a close relationship to the land and sea. To have that severely affected by big world countries whose activities are a big cause of this is unacceptable,” said the student editor of Wansolwara, USP Journalism’s award-winning print and online publication.

“I am passionate about environmental issues and human interest stories. I believe the Pacific stories should be ‘heard’ and ‘told’ from the Pacific Islanders’ perspective and words as it is a crisis they live by and survive every day.

“In Fiji, there aren’t enough journalists covering stories of the environment and how it’s affecting the people. I understand it can be a resource constraint and financially limited area.

Filling the gap
“I want to fill that gap in the industry and be able to do something I’m passionate about because it’s incredibly important to tell our people’s story.”

Tikotikoivatu-Sefeti dedicated her award to her family, USP Journalism students, staff, peers and indigenous women.

“So many times, we limit ourselves to what others perceive us, and it will take you to step out of your comfort zone to be able to experience your full capabilities,” said Tikotikoivatu-Sefeti, who was also a recipient of the EJN story grant for indigenous reporting.

She was recently one of the first recipients of the Native American Journalists Association and the Asian American Journalists Association (NAJA-AAJA) Pacific Islander Journalism Scholarship.

The Pacific Regional Environmental Programme’s (SPREP) acting communications and outreach adviser, Nanette Woonton, reaffirmed that SPREP recognised the critical role of all media in disseminating public information, education and influencing behaviour for the better.

“At the secretariat, we are excited to be able to offer the opportunity through these awards to honour and recognise the hard work by our media colleagues in protecting our people and the environment,” she said.

Vision Pasifika Media Award
The 2022 Vision Pasifika Media Award was facilitated through a collaboration between the SPREP, Pacific Islands News Association (PINA), Internews Earth Journalism Network (EJN), and the Pacific Environment Journalists Network (PEJN), with financial support from Aotearoa New Zealand.

The award comprised five categories — television news, radio production, online content, print media, and tertiary-level journalism students.

• Other category winners were: Fabian Randerath (television news), Jeremy Gwao (online content) and Moffat Mamu (print). Randerath was also named the overall winner for his story “Rising Tides – Precious Lives” on Fiji Broadcasting Corporation (FBC).

Akansha Narayan is a final-year student journalist at USP’s Laucala campus, Suva. USP and Wansolwara collaborate on Pacific stories, and for several years USP and the AUT’s Pacific Media Centre collaborated on a joint Bearing Witness climate journalism project.

When it comes to the world’s two biggest emitters, we are caught between a secretive autocracy and an oversharing corrupted democracy.

Most media attention is focused on the latter. The United States this week raised hopes of a compromise climate spending bill and quashed it again before you could say “Joe Manchin is a bad-faith actor”.

Having somebody to blame does not make it any easier to address a system rigged in favour of fossil fuel interests.

• READ MORE: As Xi Jinping seeks more power, the world’s window into China’s climate action narrows
• Other climate crisis reports

At Climate Home, we bypassed that news cycle (come back to us when you’ve achieved something, America!) and took a longer look at the former.

Because the fact that so little climate journalism comes out of China at a certain point becomes newsworthy in itself. And once Chloé Farand started asking around, we knew this story’s time had come.

It has never been easy for journalists and civil society to operate in Xi Jinping’s China. As he looks to secure a third term as president over the coming months, it is harder than ever.

Beijing’s zero-covid policy is, most sources said, no longer just about public health, but a tool of control at a politically sensitive time. Conferences are cancelled indefinitely and travel restricted. Officials up and down the hierarchy are afraid to speak to the media.

Out of six China-based climate reporters who spoke to Climate Home for the article, four had left or were preparing to leave the country.

This is a problem. Not just for the international community, which has an interest in holding China to account for its emissions performance, but for China. In the vacuum, misinformation and Sinophobia flourish.

From the slivers of news that do emerge, we can see that Chinese experts have much to teach the rest of the world. Ok, so they might want to keep their advantage in mass producing solar panels, but when it comes to smart deployment policy, they have every incentive to share tips.

Perhaps they could give US climate campaigners, who are in despair right now, some fresh ideas.

• Other Climate Home News reports

As Cyclone Cody got set to pummel Fiji in early January, students at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, Fiji were getting set to start a media training programme that would have them reporting on climate change.

“More than a little irony here,” says Doug Mitchell, founder and director of Next Generation Radio.

“We’ve experienced weather related challenges but nowhere close to this level. Add in the global pandemic, case numbers soaring, our students across the International Dateline and a cyclone, wow.

• READ MORE: Other reports on Next Generation Radio

“Still, we do what journalists do, we find a way to keep going. I can’t say enough how proud I am of the professional team and a very special hat-tip to our folks in Fiji. They remained, undaunted.”

Oceania is perhaps the most vulnerable region in the world to climate change, yet Pacific Islanders don’t often have the opportunity to tell the world their climate change stories – stories about declining fisheries, increased cyclone activity, displacement and more.

“There is a difference when you are a local reporting an issue that directly affects you, it is more impactful — to be able to report climate change effects to Pacific Islanders, by a Pacific Islander”, says Sera Tikotikovatu-Sefeti, one of nine USP students taking part in the Next Gen training programme.

The Next Gen Radio programme is a US-based digital media training initiative and the Fiji project was Next Gen’s first ever international project. The Next Gen USP stories can be heard here.

Cyclone set to threaten Fiji
And the arrival of Cyclone Cody was set to threaten Fiji the same day the project was due to begin — illustrating not only the urgency of climate change but the need to ensure the region’s journalists have the skills needed to tell those stories.

“The importance of our programme has never been more clear. We’re not doing traditional reporting but finding people who have a story to tell, and we let them tell it,” says Mitchell.

The choice of climate change as a theme for the workshops was not accidental.

A short video on NextGenRadio.

For Pacific islanders, land and ocean have huge economic, political and cultural significance – an ocean-based economy focused on maritime transportation, fisheries, extractive industries and tourism.

Yet these small island nations of the Pacific region are more vulnerable to the acute effects of climate change than any other region in the world.

And the importance of being able to tell those stories is paramount.

Ability to use any medium
Lice Movono is a Fijian journalist and serves as a mentor on the project.

“The ability to use any medium to tell the stories of the Pacific and its people and the challenges they face is so important,” she says.

“The Next Gen project offers senior journalism students and journalists working in the digital space to combine the strengths of radio broadcasting with available visibility tools to tell these stories effectively.

“Pacific people are oral people with rich traditional art and so this model of communications development is very relevant to the region’s storytellers.”

The students are being guided by a team of Next Gen staff and mentors — many of whom deployed to Hawai’i.

Each student is paired with a mentor and has support from a full team of audio producers, digital and visual editors and even editorial illustrators – all working remotely to guide the students through the storytelling process.

Everyone is literally in the virtual room as the storytelling gets underway.

“It’s great to be part of a team dedicated to increasing coverage of the Pacific on some of the most pressing issues facing Oceania. As a journalist indigenous to Micronesia who returned home to report, I am so humbled to be part of a team preparing the next generation to continue to make meaning,” says Thomas Mangloña, regional correspondent for KUAM on Guam and a project mentor.

Project an eye opener
Student Sera Tikotikovatu-Sefeti says the Next Gen project has been an eye opener.

“As a journalism student and writer, it has never occurred to me how much planning and prepping takes place before we actually go out into the field,” she says.

“The Next Gen project has given me the opportunity to learn from media specialists, illustrators and other work that goes into the field of radio and more. My impression of Next Gen is really just that – it is an extraordinary opportunity to collaborate with some of the best in the field, even if we are separated by time zones and miles apart, we connect through the same passion and this project gives us that opportunity to collaborate despite the distance. I’m learning so much and willing to learn so much more.”

The students will produce audio and digital stories highlighting the experiences of people in Fiji and Papua New Guinea whose lives are being affected by climate change.

The Next Gen programme is part of the Growing Independent Radio Broadcast Journalism in the Pacific Islands project that aims to bolster radio at both USP and across the Pacific and is administered by the East-West Center in partnership with the Institute for War and Peace Reporting.

“We are so excited to be working with journalists from USP and the whole Next Gen team,” said Scott Kroeker, project coordinator from the East-West Centre.

“The centre is always looking for opportunities to support media professionals in the Pacific Islands, and this project should have a direct and tangible impact on the careers of the young participants.”

Story telling prepared for Asia Pacific Report.

• Next Generation Radio
• Next Generation Radio stories from USP

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and more than 60 environmental journalists of 34 different nationalities have appealed for respect for the right to cover environmental issues.

These journalists — who are from every part of the world and every kind of media, and who have all kinds of backgrounds and political views — have joined RSF in signing an unprecedented appeal coinciding with COP26 entitled “Climate emergency, journalism emergency”.

Men and women, some of them environmental experts and some of them more general reporters, some with a long history of covering “green” issues and some covering the environment more recently as it has become an increasingly alarming news story, they have denounced the obstacles that limit the right to provide information about these issues.

• READ MORE: Red alert for green journalism — 10 environmental reporters killed in 10 years
• Other COP26 climate reports

Climate change is crucial for all humankind.

The petitioners are asking governments to officially recognise that the right to information about these issues is inherent in the right to a healthy environment and the right to health.

The first journalists signing the appeal include Gaëlle Borgia, a 2020 Pulitzer Prize winner based in Madagascar, France’s Morgan Large, a food industry specialist, Russia’s Grigory Pasko, an RSF Press Freedom laureate who was awarded the Sakharov Prize in 2002, India’s Soulik Dutta, an expert in energy and land issues, South Africa’s Khadija Sharife, who investigates environmental crimes, and Lucien Kosha, a freelancer covering mining in the DRC.

Most of them have signed on an individual basis but the staff at some news organisations have wanted to sign collectively.

Environmental teams
This was the case with Afaq Environmental Magazine, a Palestinian media outlet, and Reporterre, a French news site covering environmental issues.

Crucially, the appeal points out that, although the right to cover environmental issues was established as a principle as early as the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, this right is still not being respected.

The signatories report that, in many countries, it is still very difficult to obtain information and scientific data about the environment, although such information is of paramount public interest. Their coverage can help change behaviour and help combat the unprecedented threat posed by global warming.

“Nearly 30 years after the right to cover environmental issues was proclaimed in the United Nations Earth Summit declaration in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, this right must finally become a reality, it must finally be applied and respected without exception, as something that is self-evident,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.

“At the hour of the climate emergency, this is a journalistic emergency. Environmental coverage is now vital.”

The dangers linked to covering environmental issues in some parts of the world has led to the killing of at least 21 journalists in the past 20 years for investigating these sensitive issues.

RSF and the journalists signing the appeal have also called for concrete implementation of international law on the protection of journalists.

For more information, see RSF’s report on the persecution of environmental journalists.

Auckland-based Pacific Media Watch is a collaborating project with Reporters Without Borders.

• Sign the citizen petition in support of the appeal Climate emergency, information emergency!

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

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

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

• READ MORE: Pacific journalism education

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Incoming editor Philip Cass highlights the recent “covid-free” success of several Pacific countries while acknowledging the recent reversals in that impressive record.

He laments the appalling record of the United States under the failure of covid leadership by defeated US President Donald Trump, a situation that has been echoed in the American territories in the Pacific such as Guam.

• READ MORE: Pacific Journalism Review – the full archives

“Comparatively safe as we are in New Zealand, this is still the second edition of Pacific Journalism Review we have produced with covid-19 in the background and even when the pandemic is over, or at least brought under control, we will still be threatened by a host of challenges—not least that of climate change, which has already forced internal migration in Papua New Guinea and Fiji and threatens to do the same in the ASEAN region, with its incomparably larger population,” writes Dr Cass in the editorial.

He says it is significant that the first national leader to congratulate US president-elect Joe Biden was Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, who has played a proactive climate change leadership role in the Pacific.

This 306-page edition was launched by the deputy dean of AUT’s Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies, Professor Fiona Peterson, at this week’s Pacific Media Centre symposium  with a theme of “2020 and Beyond: Highlights and New Horizons”.

Dr Cass spoke of the challenges facing PJR at the launch, including continuing its international trajectory and the need for a new “home base”, preferably a Pacific institution.

Being named editor was a “great honour and a fantastic opportunity”, he said.

“We have set  our standards very high. Our focus on the Pacific, our growing links with Asian academics and our openness to cross disciplinary approaches has created a truly unique journal.

“I am grateful to the board members and contributors who have offered some innovative ideas for developing PJR in the future.”

The latest issue has been published in partnership with Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, with several climate and covid papers about ASEAN countries from UGM’s “Rethinking the Social World” symposium in August being published.

Other climate change papers
Other climate and coronavirus papers include an analysis of the role of the churches in the Pacific; public discourses about climate displacement in Oceania; and Malaysian newspaper coverage of environmental NGOs.

A strong Frontline section of four articles features a critique of the new fields of research classifications adopted in Australia and New Zealand, which the author, Dr Chris Nash, a former Monash journalism professor and author of What is Journalism? The Art and Politics of a Rupture, says “pose considerable opportunities and challenges” for the discipline.

Frontline also includes a profile by Vivien Altman and Wendy Bacon of Australian-Tongan journalist Jill Emberson, who made a significant contribution to journalism in the Pacific with “issues relevant to Indigenous Australians and to women” before she died of ovarian cancer in 2019; a case study of political documentary and alternative journalism based on the film Obrero about Filipino labour migrants in Christchurch after the 2011 earthquake; and a project analysis on a covid reportage initiative at an Auckland university to counter the virus “disinfodemic”.

Unthemed articles include deaths in custody journalism in Australia, Rotumans and the “coconut wireless” over the 2018 Fiji elections; and the media framing of attacks on West Papuan students in Indonesian online media.

Wewak-born Dr Cass succeeds founding editor Professor David Robie who started the journal at the University of Papua New Guinea, Port Moresby, in 1994 as a publication to speak truth to power through research.

Dr Robie recalled in this edition’s joint editorial what he had said at the 20th anniversary celebration of the journal in 2014, “we have achieved precisely what we set out to do, being a critical conscience of Asia-Pacific socio-political and development dilemmas”.

“Tenk yu tumas … lukim yu Philip, and good luck to you and your future crew for the media waka journey ahead,” he wrote.

The journal will be on sabbatical for some months and plans a seminar and book project next year in Australia on “Journalism, creative arts, and Indigenous studies”.

• The full edition
• PJR archives

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

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

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

READ MORE: InfoPacific – the geojournalism project

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A group of University of the South Pacific journalism students have returned from a week-long trip to the Solomon Islands covering communities at the forefront of climate change.

Rosalie Nongebatu, Romeka Kumari and Ben Bilua, who are also part of Wansolwara team, were selected to be a part of the project “Adapting to and mitigating effects of climate change and island sea level rise,” funded through the Internews/Earth Journalism Network (EJN) Asia-Pacific and Bay of Bengal 2019 media grants.

Wansolwara editor and trip leader Geraldine Panapasa, said it was a very successful and valuable experience for the students.

READ MORE: USP journo students head to Solomons for environmental reporting project

“The students were able to apply their journalism production skills for print, online and broadcast. Part of the field reporting training included mojo (mobile journalism) skills for short news videos,” she said.

“We visited vulnerable communities in the greater Honiara area, spoke to those at the forefront of climate change, those in resilience and adaptation projects, those suffering from the devastating impact of climate change, those in decision-making positions and the future generation.”

The students found that, unlike in Fiji, climate change does not get much exposure in the Solomon Islands. Government agencies usually supply environmental reports to the newspapers rather than journalists doing the reporting themselves.

Communities seldom visited
Because communities seldom get visits by local media or government, the students met many people who wanted to share their stories about shortages of water, depleted fish stocks and other climate change effects.

When the students visited the Lord Howe Settlement in Honiara, they found that the residents, mostly of Polynesian decent, had few food gardens and depended on the sea for their livelihood.

“Sanitation wise, they also use the sea for bathing and other ‘toilet’ business. Proper water supply, health and sanitation are clearly lacking in this community,” Panapasa said.

However, she said that many people have come to see climate change reporting as a money making opportunity and only supply information for payment.

“This, of course, would taint the credibility of their views. Would they really tell us what they’re going through or tell us what we want to hear?” Panapasa said.

Balanced and thorough coverage
However, the group ensured their coverage was both balanced and thorough and spoke to representatives across the community.

“We felt it was important to cover all aspects of the project by speaking to stakeholders – grassroots communities, UN agencies, NGOs & CSOs, government, youth etc.

“We also took into consideration the importance of providing gender balanced views on the issues we intended to cover with climate change, resilience and mitigation.”

USP Journalism coordinator Dr Shailendra Singh thanked the grant sponsors, saying that it had enabled the students to report on pressing issues through a professional experience.

“The USP journalism programme would like to thank the Earth Journalism Network for making this project possible.

“Next we will take a student team to the Cook Islands on a similar assessment.

“We look forward to our continued partnership with EJN to develop both environmental journalism and student journalists in the Pacific.”

Three journalism students from The University of the South Pacific in Suva have been selected to participate in a week-long environmental reporting project in the Solomon Islands.

After a stringent selection process, students Rosalie Nongebatu, Romeka Kumari and Ben Bilua were chosen to be part of the project titled, “Adapting to and mitigating effects of climate change and island sea level rise”, made possible through the Internews/Earth Journalism Network (EJN) Asia-Pacific and Bay of Bengal 2019 media grants.

The project involves journalism students conducting climate change reporting in the Cook Islands and the Solomon Islands.

READ MORE: USP wins US$20,000 grant to boost Pacific environmental journalism

Led by Wansolwara editor and USP Journalism staff member Geraldine Panapasa, the team is expected to visit areas in Honiara that are susceptible to the devastating impacts of climate change as well as report on vital efforts undertaken by stakeholders to address climate impacts on vulnerable communities.

Kumari, who is also the sports editor for USP Journalism’s student training newspaper Wansolwara, said climate change was an urgent issue that needed to be addressed at all levels.

“There are many untold stories of the threat and risks of climate changed faced by many Pacific Islanders, including those in the Solomon Islands,” she said.

“The trip is an opportune time to put faces to the stories of climate change and to re-emphasise the reality and gravity of the situation for grassroots people in these vulnerable communities.”

Benefitting aspiring journalists
Second-year journalism student, Epeli Lalagavesi, who will join the environmental reporting team to the Cook Islands later in the year, said the project would benefit aspiring journalists.

“I am excited about the trip to the Cook Islands for two reasons. First, it will enable me to witness, learn and report on climate change injustice as well as the challenges faced by the people of Cook Islands,” he said.

“Secondly, I hope to learn new skills, especially the concept of ‘mojo’ or using mobile journalism tools to disseminate information.”

Boost for environmental reporting
USP Journalism coordinator Dr Shailendra Singh said the grant was a boost for solidifying the foundations of environmental reporting for the future.

He said the Pacific was at the forefront of climate change impacts, on top of various other problems, such as the exploitation of fisheries and forestry resources, plastic pollution and waste disposal and management.

“Environmental issues in the Pacific are under-reported compared to the magnitude of the problems and because of the smallness of the Pacific media industry, journalists are generalists by necessity, with no specific beats such as environmental journalism,” Dr Singh said.

Although USP Journalism lacks resources to offer specific courses in environmental journalism, students report on the environment as part of their assessed news assignments, using the expertise available at other USP faculties as resource material.

Authentic learning
“The $US20k grant from EJN would take authentic learning – the idea of incorporating the classroom with the real world – to another level, with two teams of the best student reporters sent to the Cook Islands and the Solomon Islands to report on community mitigation efforts,” Dr Singh said.

He said the project was geared towards expanding coverage horizontally beyond Fiji, and vertically down to the grassroots level, building future capacity through student journalism.

The trip will take place from June 24 until July 1.

The Pacific Media Centre and Asia Pacific Report have a publishing partnership with the University of the South Pacific journalism programme.

A new handbook for the existential problem of our time – climate change – has been published as a boost for journalists working in the Asia-Pacific region.

Launched at the 27th Asian Media Information and Communication (AMIC) conference at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand, this week, Science Writing and Climate Change is a “book for our times”, says lead author Professor Crispin Maslog.

Dr Maslog, chair of the Manila-based AMIC, said at the launch that a book of this kind had been needed by journalists for a few years.

“Climate change is upon us and we need to educate people about this urgent problem now,” he said.

“What former US Vice-President Al Gore described as an ‘inconvenient truth’ years ago is now an ‘incontrovertible fact’.”

Many of the chapters have been adapted from Dr Maslog’s regular science and development columns in the global SciDev.net website.

SciDev.net regional editor for the Asia-Pacific Joel Adriano and New Zealand’s Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie are co-authors for the 104-page volume.

Ripped by tornadoes
In his introductory preface “Climate Change 101”, Dr Maslog writes: “Halfway into this year, 2019, some 1009 tornadoes have ripped through the United States with unusual violence – about double the average number in previous years.

“In the Philippines and Southeast Asia, the typhoons have become more frequent, violent and destructive.

“We are reminded of 2013 when the category 5 Superstorm Haiyan (Yolanda) smashed into Central Philippines and flattened the city of Tacloban and nearby cities on Leyte and Samar, killing some 10,000 people and causing property damage in the billions of dollars.

“It was the strongest typhoon to hit land at 350 kph.”

Part one of the book explains the role of science in development and the science education of the population in the Asia-Pacific region. It includes news writing tips for science reporters.

Part two offers sample writing from effective science stories.

According to Dr Maslog, the book will be “useful for science writing teachers in schools and trainers in non-formal science journalism training programmes”.

• The book is a co-publication with SciDev.net and Auckland University of Technology’s Pacific Media Centre support.
• Available in the Philippines through AMIC
• Available in New Zealand and the Pacific online through AUT Shop

Clinging to the top of a swaying coconut tree, Vanuatu journalist Edgar Howard carefully plucks out his phone from his pocket.

He’s clambered up there looking for a strong enough signal, so he can file his report to VBTC, the country’s public broadcaster in the capital, Port Vila.

That’s the way Edgar Howard often files his stories as one of the world’s most remote radio and TV correspondents, reporting on news and current affairs from Vanuatu’s northernmost islands in Torba province.

LISTEN: Remote Vanuatu journo goes above and beyond to tell stories

With increasing effects of climate change and rising seas, his work has become all the more important.

For 15 years he’s travelled between the 13 islands, sometimes motoring in his banana boat in high seas and strong winds for five hours at a time to reach the far-flung communities.

“The government must be informed about what’s happening in the province of Torba,” he said.

“I think there’s a lack of information there and that’s why the government does not know how exactly to help those people.”

According to him, there are plenty of stories to tell among the province’s 8000 people who make a living mostly from copra, coconuts, crabs, lobster and fish.

Self-taught and committed
Howard is self-taught and so committed he funded himself for the first few years until the public broadcaster VBTC took him on as a paid correspondent.

“I start like bottom up. I start with nothing and I build myself up and now I’m working with national TV and radio.”

Paying passengers hitch a ride on his boat to help defray the expensive fuel costs.

Howard doesn’t have a story in mind when he sets out as he knows there’s always something happening.

“Every day I get a story with the local people,” he said, explaining that the chief is always his first port of call when arriving on an island.

“He directs me to the people I have to talk to and I make my interview.”

Climate change coverage
The effects of climate change on the province’s coastal communities are some of the main stories he covers.

“Now they [have to] start to move inland because the place they lived before is covered by the sea.

“We’re not used to living in the middle of the bush. It’s a big change.

“Some of the historical sites we lost because of climate change, like the oldest places of our grandfathers.”

Resulting conflicts over land are also a big issue.

Conflict over land
“Because the land is not now enough, population growth is one issue and makes sometimes conflict with the land, the tribes.”

The loss of fish varieties, troubles with crops and ways to ensure fishing is sustainable for future generations are all subjects for his reports.

Howard has a 30-minute TV programme to fill every week which he films, edits and voices himself with a self-recorded stand-up at the start.

The recognition he gets when walking down the street on his occasional trips to Port Vila make him proud.

“They say, woah …Vois Blong Torba!” he laughed, referring to the name of his programme which he sends off on the weekly flight to the capital.

Tree-top reporting
It’s a risky business sending some of his reports from the top of a 30-metre-high tree, especially in heavy rain.

“Sometimes the tree is too slippery. I must make sure the phone is in my pocket. I find a branch of the tree to make sure I don’t fall and slowly I take the phone out of my pocket and I start to communicate.

“It takes me about 20 minutes up there to finish all my reporting.”

The reporting may be difficult, but the effort is worth it, Howard said.

An Australian-funded police post in Sola came about through his reporting.

“I feel so glad because it’s good feedback for my job. It’s so satisfying and I’m really glad because I feel I have contributed to the project.”

This article is published under the Pacific Media Centre’s content partnership with Radio New Zealand.

COP23, which refers to the 23rd annual Conference of the Parties to the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC), and Fiji holding the presidency over the last year is the reason university students in Fiji are alarmed at the rapid changes in their environment.

“As someone from the Pacific, there is a strong concern about climate change. The thing which I see in the Pacific as part of climate change is the burden that it is not of our own doing, but unfortunately, we are the losers who are putting it out there,” says Mohammed Ahmed, a Bachelor of Arts student at the regional University of the South Pacific.

“For example, in one of the conventions in which all the countries are represented, there is a decision made to reduce carbon emissions by 10 percent.

“To countries like China and America, which are industrial nations, that’s applicable but to a country in the Pacific which has a substantially insignificant carbon footprint that wouldn’t apply.”

Climate change is foremost on the minds of USP students rather than an impending Fiji general election that has still not had a declared date.

Koroi Tadulala, a final-year journalism student, is deeply concerned about what climate change means for his generation.

“For the young generation, the issue today is climate change because there is strong focus on Fiji,” he said.

“One of the major highlights that I want to point out is the presidency [held by the Prime Minister of Fiji, Voreqe Bainimarama] of COP23 last year, its Fiji’s advocacy on climate change, and the talanoa concept that was developed and has now become a global thing.

Talanoa dialogue
“I am very concerned about the environment. I took part in the talanoa dialogue. I was at COP23 in Bonn, Germany, as a youth ambassador.

“It was really interesting because we got a global perspective in one confined space. We had leaders brainstorming solutions and innovative ways which we can combat this global issue.”

Regardless of the politics of Fiji, he had nothing but praise for the way his Prime Minister handled himself on the world stage.

“I’d say he has delivered very well as president of COP23. He still continues to fight climate change and he remains active about the issue.”

It worries Elizabeth Osifelo, who hails from the Solomon Islands, because she observes the rising sea levels each time she goes home from Suva.

“I am concerned because I come from a low-lying area, which is by the sea. I always go back home during Christmas and every time I go back, year after year, I can see changes,” she said.

There are similar concerns voiced for the environment in the Solomon Islands.

Eliminating plastic
“I know a lot of Pacific Island nations are in the process of eliminating plastic bags and rubbish like in Fiji and Vanuatu, which has taken the lead in banning plastic bags.

“I hope that the Solomon Islands will come that soon so that we are more active in the way we look after our environment,” she said.

Kritika Rukmani from the nearby tourism mecca of Pacific Harbour could not put it more succinctly.

“I am very passionate about climate change. We, as an island nation, should be concerned because we are very small compared with other countries. We will sink at a faster rate than anyone else,” she said.

Adi Anaseini Civavonovono believes that individuals cannot shirk their responsibility and leave it all to the authorities or the private investors.

“How we look after the environment is up to individuals we cannot depend on government initiatives or climate change financiers. Climate change is a concern not only for Fiji but for the Pacific region because we are the most affected,” she summed up.

Keynote speaker
Having travelled near and far in the past two years and being involved in the NGO sector, Aneet Kumar was invited to Auckland last month to be the keynote speaker at the Peace Foundation’s Auckland Secondary Schools’ Symposium.

Working and studying at the USP, he takes a wider view on the subject.

“As a young person who has been to a number of countries, I can say Fiji has made significant progress in terms of representations on international bodies and agencies like the United Nations. That is one way of dealing with threats to our futures,” said Kumar.

“This week I was reading about our permanent representative to the UN [Satyendra Prasad], who had raised his concerns at the UN Security Council’s Peaceful Mediation process, on the importance of the UN Security Council to consider rigorously and debate climate change issues and issue of disputes between countries. Hopefully something good comes out of it.”

Perhaps the last words on the touchy topic for students comes from Mohammed Ahmed who aptly sums up, “As a person that is concerned about climate change, we have talked a lot but we have dragged our feet as well”.

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 journalism programme, filing for USP’s Wansolwara News and the AUT Pacific Media Centre’s Asia Pacific Report.

• Other Fiji reports by Sri Krishnamurthi

Fiji’s presidency of the United Nations climate talks was an unprecedented opportunity for the Pacific island state to make its mark internationally.

But the sudden removal of chief climate negotiator Nazhat Shameem Khan last month, despite praise for her leadership, revealed a rift between the Geneva-based diplomat and capital Suva.

At the centre of the fight is a group of Australian and European consultants brought in to assist the Fiji government to deliver its biggest diplomatic challenge. Shameem Khan had increasingly objected to the prominent role these outsiders had within Fiji’s presidency.

In exclusive interviews with Climate Home News, insiders said this eventually led to her ousting, with Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama taking the consultants’ side. They raised concerns that Fiji ceding control to unaccountable professionals jeopardised a critical year of climate talks.

“In the world of [UN climate negotiations], to see a small island state in the presidency being closely managed and controlled by consultants from developed countries is not good for trust and goodwill,” a source from the Fiji delegation told Climate Home News.

“But [the consultants] refused to take a back seat and we had difficulties in relation to this.”

Another member of the national staff, contacting CHN independently, said: “Most of their advice and interference was harmful rather than helpful… They undermined us and didn’t understand the local dimensions.”

Both sources spoke on condition of anonymity.

Fijian PM Statement 070318 by Megan Darby on Scribd

No response at first
CHN asked Bainimarama’s office about the circumstances surrounding Shameem Khan’s removal, specifically about her objections regarding consultants. But no response was made to this point.

Writing to Climate Home News prior to publication, Bainimarama said any suggestion the country had been unduly influenced was “false and mischievous”. After this article was published, he issued a further statement, embedded above.

In a speech to the Fijian Parliament on Monday, Bainimarama alluded to the deterioration in the relationship. After thanking Shameem Khan for her work, he said the country needed “a rejuvenated team unquestionably willing to work with all members of the COP23 [climate talks] presidency”.

Her replacement Luke Daunivalu, Fiji’s permanent representative to the UN in New York, was “a team player”, said Bainimarama, with the “personal qualities and experience to shape the consensus for more ambition the world needs to reach”.

Sources said Shameem Khan raised the concerns in this article with Bainimarama and his attorney general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum over the past six months, as well as directly asking the consultants to keep a low profile.

Lead diplomat: Bonn climate talks must ‘restate vision of Paris’

Fiji’s presidency of the climate talks centred on the UN Conference of Parties (COP) in Bonn in November 2017 and will continue throughout 2018 to COP24.

To help with the huge undertaking, the Fijian government hired consultants, including law firm Baker McKenzie, climate experts Systemiq and public relations specialists Qorvis. An Australian, John Connor, was appointed as executive director. It is not unusual for national delegations, particularly small or poor countries with limited capacity, to take external advice.

They were paid through funds donated by other countries, with the bulk coming from the developed world.

Fiji wins chalked up
The consultants chalked up wins for Fiji, brokering a $50 million green bond for the island nation and coordinating “America’s Pledge” with California governor Jerry Brown and business leader Mike Bloomberg.

Initially, Shameem Khan and her team relied on consultants, UN officials and former presidents of the climate talks to bring them up to speed on the issues and processes. As they became more knowledgeable, though, they quickly came to question the consultants’ advice and level of influence over the strategy.

“The balance of power was wrong from day one,” said the first Fijian delegation source. “They were telling us how to run the COP at a visionary level.”

Report: Fiji announces $50m ‘climate bond’ ahead of COP23 presidency

Ahead of the Bonn summit, China and other emerging economies raised concerns that consultants paid for by countries such as Australia were drafting statements for a Pacific island that were seen to favour developed world narratives. A non-Fijian source familiar with the matter told Climate Home News these tensions fuelled a spat over pre-2020 action that came to dominate the conference.

Closer to home, Pacific campaigners were outraged to discover Fiji was not planning to make “loss and damage”, UN jargon for support for the victims of climate disaster, a key theme of its presidency. They saw it as a top priority for the vulnerable region.

A briefing note circulated by Baker McKenzie’s Martijn Wilders in March 2017 explicitly ruled out loss and damage as a theme. “This will be considered in April but we need to take care for now as to what we promote,” he wrote in an accompanying email seen by Climate Home News.

“[The consultants] are so closely aligned to developed country policies,” said the first Fijian source. “They were trying to protect us from doing something very controversial, but unfortunately, they forgot the developing country views.”

‘Extensive consultation’
A spokesperson for the presidency in Suva said the position on loss and damage was the result of “extensive consultation with a range of Fijian and international experts”. These included a past president of the climate talks, officials from the UN climate body and Shameem Khan.

“It was a position that was conscious of the role of COP president and mandate to operationalise the Paris Agreement” and “supported by all in the Fijian delegation”.

Report: No finance plan for climate change victims in draft UN decision

While these wider political fights played out, relations within the presidency became increasingly strained.

Shameem Khan’s allies say consultants frequently went over her head to Bainimarama’s number two, Sayed-Khaiyum, a government minister. A spokesperson for the presidency said Sayed-Khaiyum had never overruled Shameem Khan on negotiation issues.

At the Bonn summit itself, the rift hampered communications. Bainimarama’s speeches were co-written by Graham Davis of PR firm Qorvis and UK-based consultant James Cameron, a longtime adviser of island states in climate negotiations.

Cameron was attending the delegation’s morning meetings but had been largely relegated from the negotiating rooms.

According to the first Fijian source, Shameem Khan was not consulted on the speeches and they did not reflect the state of play of negotiations.

‘Real embarrassment’
“It was a real embarrassment. When I look back, it is a miracle COP23 had any successes at all,” said the source.

Davis said Shameem Khan had “ample opportunity” to raise concerns about the content of the speeches with him and had not done so. Cameron declined to comment.

“As the prime minister’s principal speechwriter for the past five years, I have consistently conveyed the Fijian government’s advocacy of the need for more ambitious climate action,” Davis told Climate Home News by email.

It is not the first time Qorvis’ influence on Fiji’s government has been questioned. In November, a former public servant told Australia’s ABC he had lost his job after refusing to become a “lackey” for the PR firm.

Report: Poland to put ‘common sense’ over climate ambition as host of critical UN talks

Fiji passes the baton this year to Poland, which is hosting the next climate summit in December. Bainimarama told Parliament Fiji would continue to preside over a mass outreach programme, known as the “talanoa dialogue”, in partnership with Poland after its formal term ended.

“Because the Talanoa concept was Fiji’s idea, we will continue to lead and shape that dialogue,” he said, “in a way that no Pacific nation has ever had the opportunity to do before.”

Sources on both sides of the internal dispute raised fears that without Fiji’s partnership, Poland would take a less progressive approach, in light of its domestic attachment to coal.

Pacific campaigners expressed concerns at the impact of Shameem Khan’s removal. “Her voice will be missed,” said the Pacific Island Climate Action Network in a press release last Friday, urging Daunivalu to keep the design of the talanoa dialogue “fully with Fijians”.

Citing the most ambitious warming limit in the Paris Agreement, policy officer Genevieve Jiva said: “It is crucial that the talanoa dialogue is focused on ambition and aimed at keeping global temperature rise to 1.5C. For Pacific islanders, nothing less is acceptable because we are fighting for our survival.”

This article was first published in Climate Home News and has been republished by Asia Pacific Report under a Creative Commons licence.

Interview with Ambassador Nazhat Shameem Khan, chief negotiator for the Fijian COP 23 Presidency from POLITICO.eu on Vimeo.

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

Samoan Prime Minister and climate change action advocate Tuila’epa Dr Sa’ilele Malielegaoi is among the high-profile experts presenting at the Pacific Climate Change Conference this week at Te Papa National Museum.

Tuila’epa will give the opening keynote address at the conference on Wednesday morning.

The three-day event, February 21-23, co-hosted by Victoria University of Wellington and Apia-based Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), has more than 160 invited speakers from backgrounds including science, government, business, indigenous rights, law, activism, media and the arts.

Among the line-up of speakers are renewable energy expert Professor Daniel Nocera from Harvard University, Professor D. Kapua’ala Sproat from the Native Hawai’ian Law Center, environmental scientist Dr Patila Malua-Amosa from the National University of Samoa, climate scientist Professor Michael Mann from Pennsylvania State University, indigenous bio-cultural heritage expert Aroha Mead and graduate lawyer Sarah Thomson, who filed a legal case against the New Zealand government over its emission targets.

It is the second time Victoria University has hosted the Pacific Climate Change Conference.

Climate change scientist and conference co-organiser Professor James Renwick says Victoria’s inaugural conference in 2016 highlighted the deep and long-lasting effects climate change was having on Pacific communities.

“In 2016, we heard from people whose daily lives are impacted by climate change-whether it’s more frequent extreme storms demolishing sea walls and destroying food crops, or warmer seas affecting fisheries and damaging corals,” he said.

“We heard then President Anote Tong of Kiribati express very real concerns that his people may no longer have land to stand on if sea levels continue to rise.

‘Better understanding’
“But we also heard from people who are dedicating their work to better understanding the science, legal, political, economic and human aspects.

“This second conference is a chance to get the very latest information, exchange knowledge and ideas, and reignite connections that can bring positive change.”

Victoria’s Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Pasifika) Luamanuvao Winnie Laban says the conference is a vital chance for the voices of the Pacific to be heard.

“We have representatives from at least 11 Pacific island nations attending this conference so it’s an invaluable opportunity to share expertise and experience, and come together to find solutions.

“At the last conference, we asked representatives from Pacific nations, including New Zealand, to find out how their governments are reducing greenhouse gas emissions, in accordance with the Paris Agreement, and report back. We look forward to hearing their progress.”

The Pacific Media Centre’s director Professor David Robie and postdoctoral researcher Dr Sylvia Frain are presenting papers at the conference.

• Full conference programme
• Pacific Climate Change Conference website
• Asia Pacific Report/Scoop stories on the last climate conference
• Asia Pacific Report coverage of COP23

At the time of reviewing this important and timely book, Hurricane Irma had just ripped a trail of unprecedented destruction from Antigua, Barbuda and Saint Barthélemy in the eastern Caribbean to Florida with at least 81 deaths.

Florida involved one of the largest mass evacuations in US history, with nearly 7 million people being warned to seek shelter elsewhere. Seventy percent of Miami lost electricity at the height of the storm.

And Irma in turn had followed on the heels of Hurricane Harvey, which devastated a large swathe of Texas. This was the first major hurricane to hit US soil in more than a dozen years.

Seventy-one fatalities and more than US$70 billion in damage. Two wrecking storms of such destructive force hitting the US mainland in less than a fortnight. Unsurprisingly, President Donald Trump dismissed any link between climate change and the two hurricanes.

“We’ve had bigger storms than this,” he snorted, even though earlier he had “marvelled” at their historic size.

The catastrophic category 5 Hurricane Irma sparked an analysis of media responses by Carbon Brief and a forensic examination of the science of climate and Atlantic hurricanes. Citing three climate specialists in particular, the website concluded: ‘The strongest hurricanes have gotten stronger because of global warming’ (Multiple authors, 2017).

Florida’s global warming denier governor Rick Scott weathered criticism after the devastation to his state by still refusing to say—as he had done for seven years since he was first elected in 2010—if he believes man-made climate change is real (Caputo, 2017).

Rather ironic
This is all rather ironic given that at the time of completing Journalism and Climate Crisis: Public Engagement, Media Alternatives, the co-authors were writing in the context of massive wildfire ravages in the Canadian city of Fort McMurray—epicentre of one of the world’s most controversial energy mega-projects, the Alberta tar sands—and, on the other side of the globe, aggressive wildfires were savaging Australia with sharply increasing frequency and intensity.

Just a few years earlier, in 2009, 173 people had perished in the “Black Saturday” bushfires that engulfed the community of Kinglake in the state of Victoria. Disturbing coral bleaching was also damaging Australia’s popular tourist attraction Great Barrier Reef off the Queensland coast.

Noting that the reality of anthropogenic climate challenge can no longer be ignored, this book warns that neither can the “responsibility of journalism to inform, motivate and empower citizens to engage with the problem” (p. 2)

Journalism and Climate Crisis seeks to disrupt the status quo of the way climate change is reported in much of the world, especially Anglo countries such as Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States, and to offer strategies for community empowerment, action and hope in the digital age.

While much of the mainstream media, compromised as they are through their declining commercial models, offer little scope for change, the co-authors offer many examples of active communication success, mostly through alternative media.

The four co-authors are uniquely qualified for this collaborative volume. Robert A. Hackett is professor of communication at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, and as a co-founder of NewsWatch Canada, and has been a leading writer on environmental and peace journalism models. He also contributed an issue-defining article in the July 2017 edition of Pacific Journalism Review on climate change and critical media models.

Susan Forde is director of the Griffith Centre for Social and Cultural Research and associate professor of journalism at Griffith University, Australia, and whose books include Challenging the News on alternative media. Shane Gunster is a colleague of Hackett at Simon Fraser University, where he is an associate professor in the School of Communication. Kerrie Foxwell-Norton is senior lecturer in journalism and media studies at Griffith University and a co-author of Developing Dialogue.

‘Normative touchstones’
The book is divided into seven chapters as well as an introduction to journalism models for climate crisis and a conclusion written by the co-authors. The first chapter is on Democracy, Climate Crisis and Journalism, looking at “normative touchstones”, followed by a chapter on Engaging Climate Communication, which examines audiences, frames, values and norms. The third chapter deals with Environmental Protest, Politics and Media Interactions.

Chapter four From Frames to Paradigms offers an in-depth comparative analysis of civic (or public) journalism, peace journalism and alternative media. This is followed by a British Columbia case study on Contesting Conflict with an examination of advocacy and alternative media in that province.

Chapter six analyses Australian independent news media and climate change in the context of COP21 when the historic Paris Agreement was forged. The final chapter looks at a Guardian Australia case study to demonstrate alternative approaches to environmental coverage. The conclusion offers a strategy for ‘media reform for climate action’.

Writing about “ordinary journalism in extraordinary times”, the authors argue that the conglomerates that “increasingly dominate media ownership are maximising short-term profits, stripping assets and disinvesting in news and thus have declining capacity and inclination to face up to the challenges of climate crisis”. Mirroring the arguments of McChesney and Nichols, for example, the authors state:

Working journalists are faced with tighter deadlines, heavier workloads, multiplatform demands, a 24/7 news hole to fill and a broader palette of topics to report. The result is predictable: fewer beat [rounds] reporters with specialised expertise, less investigative or accountability journalism, more pressure to act like stenographers, reporting competing claims rather than assessing their respective validity (p. 4).

However, the problem does not end there. It goes beyond the “crisis of journalism’s business model—Climate Crisis journalism faces additional barriers of institutional structure, class power and ideology”. Citing Naomi Klein’s argument for taking climate change seriously, they reaffirm the need for a positive role for government, a strengthened public sector and collective action—which is precisely why conservative political forces, especially in North America and Australia, prefer not to take it seriously.

The co-authors argue that journalism needs to rethink its mission to cover urgent political issues such as climate change. The problem is less about the informed citizen, and much more about empowering the public to be engaged. They are highly critical of how “elite media” in Australia and the US, for example, have privileged denialist opinion and vested interests, blaming them for widespread misinformation and disengagement. This is contrasted with Western Europe’s “vibrant and pluralistic” media systems.

The co-authors draw from the Christians et al. (2009) model of four normative democratic roles for journalism in their search for answers. While they critique the limited effectiveness of the traditional monitoring and the watchdog function of the media (and institutional biases of “objectivity”), they propose the facilitative role seeking to improve the quality of public life and the radical role foregrounding social injustice and abuses of power as being more helpful for climate crisis strategies. They give less emphasis to the collaborative role “in support for broader and dominant social purposes”, but this latter category is important in many developing countries, such as in the Pacific.

Their concluding and positive message is that global media reformers and environmentalists have a strong basis for common ground in seeking public support for alternative media and independent journalism as key pillars of democracy and climate communication.

Journalism and Climate Crisis: Public Engagement, Media Alternatives, edited by Robert A. Hackett, Susan Forde, Shane Gunster and Kerrie Foxwell-Norton. Abingdon, UK: Routledge. 2017. 204 pages. ISBN 978-1-1389-5039-9. This review was first published by Pacific Journalism Review.

Full references

Climate change seems to be getting increasingly more news coverage recently, which is a positive outcome—on at least some levels.

But how engaging is the material?

A core challenge with climate-change reporting is not only generating sufficient public interest, but sustaining it.

This is partly because climate change used to lack the immediacy of hard news—the here and now effect—although this is changing, as the damaging effects of the phenomenon become more apparent.

Many local Pacific climate change news stories seem to rely on speeches and press statements.

Yes, journalists can fill news holes quite easily in this manner to meet deadline imperatives.
But is this style and nature of reporting really capturing people’s attention, assuming that is the goal?

For example, the speeches of many Pacific Island leaders receive widespread coverage.

Such speeches are usually targeted at fellow world leaders, which is quite necessary and legitimate in some respects.

Lavish coverage
Other news stories are usually based on international meetings and conferences. They receive lavish coverage. These are big and important stages, and they should get fair representation.

But to what extent are local audiences connecting with these stories? That’s assuming that local audiences matter in climate change.

How relevant and compelling are the speeches and press statements to local ears? Is the oratory having any impact, or starting to sound bland and repetitive? This is something worth considering if the idea is to inform people and mobilise them into action.

Once, we used to complain about the scarcity of coverage. However, slanted and saturated coverage of a certain type is also problematic in its own way.

The point I’m making is that the media’s challenge is to make stories interesting and relevant; otherwise readers, listeners and viewers may simply switch off.

Capturing and holding audience attention will require more than just republishing statements and speeches ad nauseam.

The gratuitous coverage given to presidents, prime ministers, diplomats, heads of regional organisations and other bureaucrats needs to be balanced with coverage of grassroots people who are actually experiencing the effects of climate change first-hand.

Compelling stories
This would make the stories more compelling, and the problem appear more real, rather than far-removed and abstract.

Why not cover more human interest stories, rather than bore readers to death with statistics, speeches and scientific jargon only?

If the speeches have to be used, at least derive some original ideas from them; for example, the blame game is rife with developed world leaders accused of inaction, and rightly so.

But are Pacific Island leaders walking the talk or not? Have we examined this issue sufficiently enough, or are we just content with speech making? For example, mangroves are one of the best protection against sea level rise.

Yet there are reports of mangrove destruction, even in the face of big international meetings.

Large tracts have reportedly been cleared in Lami, Wailekutu, Nasese, Vatuwaqa and elsewhere, for the sake of industrial development, tourism projects and urbanisation.

Professor Wadan Narsey, Dr Ajantha Perer and others have written about this.

National Green Strategy
How does this trend figure in our national Green Sustainable Growth Strategy?

Does it contradict the grand sounding speeches at major international meetings?

Also, does Fiji have a national mangrove replanting scheme? Who would finance any such undertaking?

How much is allocated to such projects compared to meetings and conferences?

Are grassroots projects sufficiently funded or is the money gobbled up by professional junketeers?

Some time back there was a moratorium on mangrove destruction. But why not a total ban, as in many other countries?

My point is, instead of just reporting speeches and statements, we need to conduct our own research independently. We need to formulate the hard questions and seek answers from leaders; otherwise there is a risk of getting too caught up in the hype of big meetings and high-profile speakers.

Yes, such meetings are important for various reasons, including crucial and binding international treaties. The meetings attract some very learned people who know their stuff.
Pacific leaders have vital roles at such meetings, and they have achieved some outstanding results.

Fair and balanced
Still, the coverage should be fair and balanced, rather than skewed and elitist.

Reporters should not lose touch with the realities on the ground or the fundamentals of journalism—to be skeptical and question things, rather than rely on handouts alone.

The job remains the same—keep governments and leaders accountable, rather than cut-paste speeches.

In journalism, single sources are risky and inadequate, so also cite the work of other researchers and commentators, for the sake of balance—which is a requirement under the 2010 Media Industry Development Decree anyway!

Use the information to derive questions and grill leaders; otherwise there is a risk that the coverage will become merely a PR exercise, which would be both wasteful and counterproductive.

The idea is to make climate change and its effects relevant locally to help comprehend and develop a proper consciousness of the problem on a global level—a problem which the scientific community describes as lethal for earth and its inhabitants.

Dr Shailendra Singh is a senior lecturer and coordinator of the University of the South Pacific Journalism Programme. This article is based on a presentation by the writer at a special briefing for journalists on climate change on 18 September 2017 at USP.

• Timely climate media strategy to empower citizens – Pacific Journalism Review