A world premiere of a new documentary revealing the devastation of rainforest in the southeastern part of West Papua is one of two films being screened in Aotearoa New Zealand next month.

Billed as “Sinéma Merdeka: Stories from West Papua”, the programme is showing the heart of a hidden Pacific conflict and will be presented live by celebrated Papuan journalist and Jubi News founder Victor Mambor.

The two films are Pesta Babi — Colonialism in Our Time and Sa Punya Nama Pengungsi (My name is Pengungsi).

• READ MORE: West Papua Solidarity Forum, mini film festival aim to educate
• WATCH the trailer for Presta Babi

“Pesta Babi” (The Pig Party), directed by Cypri Dale and Dandhy Laksono, is being premiered at the Academy Cinema, Auckland CBD, at 6pm on Saturday, March 7.

Filmed under siege and a draconian media ban, the filmmakers offer a rare and
urgent glimpse into indigenous life in Merauke, where Indonesian bulldozers have been systematically destroying their pristine rainforest home.

This film is co-produced by Jubi, Ekspedisi Indonesia Baru, Greenpeace, Yayasan Pusaka, and Watchdoc Documentary.

The unofficial trailer of Pesta Babi                               Video: Jubi Media

The second film, “Sa Punya Nama Pengungsi”, directed by Yuliana Lantipo is set against the backdrop of escalating government violence and the displacement of an estimated 100,000 Indigenous Melanesian people from their lands.

“My name is Pengungsi” is centred on the story of two Papuan children born in the midst of the conflict. Both are named “Pengungsi”, which in English means “Refugee”.

Films talanoa
The films will be followed by a Q&A/Talanoa with Mambor and film director Dandhy Laksono, and hosted by Dr David Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report and deputy chair of the Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN).

“These films give a powerful insight into the hidden occupation and oppression inside West Papua which all people in Aotearoa need to see to understand what our neighbours are enduring,” said an organiser Catherine Delahunty.

The twin-film festival is part of a weekend West Papua Solidarity Forum programme at the Auckland University Old Choral Hall, 7 Symonds Street, on Saturday, March 7, and on Sunday, March 8, at the Taro Patch, Papatoetoe.

There will also be a public media seminar, “Kōrero With Victor Mambor – West Papua: Journalism as Resistance” at the Whānau Community Centre and Hub at 165 Stoddard Rd, Mt Roskill (next to Harvey Norman), featuring journalist and filmmaker Victor Mambor at 6pm, Monday, March 9.

West Papua is the western half of New Guinea island and has been occupied by Indonesia since 1963. The independent state of Papua New Guinea is the eastern half.

Organisers of the film screenings are West Papua Action Tāmaki Makaurau. The group notes that more than 500,000 civilians have been killed in a slow genocide against the indigenous population, according to human rights agencies.

Basic human rights such as freedom of speech are denied and Papuans live in a constant state of fear and intimidation.

Foreign journalists have generally been barred entrance.

Traditional ways of life are under threat as huge tracts of rainforest are cut down to make
way for Indonesian palm oil and food estates, the world’s largest gold mine and ever-increasing transmigration from Indonesia, making Indigenous Papuans a minority in their own land.

• Book tickets for the “Sinéma Merdeka: Stories from West Papua” here.

West Papuan journalist Victor Mambor has vowed not to be silenced despite years of threats, harassment and even a bomb attack on his home.

The 51-year-old founder and editor-in-chief of Jubi, West Papua’s leading media outlet, was in Fiji this week, where he spoke exclusively to The Fiji Times about his fight to expose human rights abuses.

“Despite them bombing my home and office with molotov bombs, I am still doing journalism today because my people are hurting — and I won’t stop,” Mambor said.

• READ MORE:  West Papuan media plea for Melanesian support against Indonesian media blackout
• Papuan journalist award-winner Victor Mambor targeted for his reports
• Other Victor Mambor reports

In January 2023, an improvised explosive device detonated outside his home in Jayapura in what he describes as a “terror” attack.

Police later closed the case citing “lack of evidence”.

He was in Suva on Tuesday night as Jubi Media Papua, in collaboration with University of the South Pacific Journalism and PANG, screened its documentary Pepera 1969: A Democratic Integration?

“I believe good journalism is journalism that makes society better,” he said.

Republished from The Fiji Times with permission.

Victor Mambor: ‘I need to do better for my people and my land.’   Video: The Fiji Times

The Palestinian-Israeli film No Other Land won an Oscar for best documentary feature at Sunday’s Academy Awards.

The film — recently screened in New Zealand at the Rialto and other cinemas — follows the struggles of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank community of Masafer Yatta to stay on their land amid home demolitions by the Israeli military and violent attacks by Jewish settlers aimed at expelling them.

The film was made by a team of Palestinian-Israeli filmmakers, including the Palestinian journalist Basel Adra, who lives in Masafer Yatta, and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, both of whom are prominently featured in the film.

AMY GOODMAN: And the Oscars were held Sunday evening. History was made in the best documentary category.

SAMUEL L. JACKSON: And the Oscar goes to ‘No Other Land’.

AMY GOODMAN: The Palestinian-Israeli film No Other Land won for best documentary. The film follows the struggles of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank community of Masafer Yatta to stay on their land amidst violent attacks by Israeli settlers aimed at expelling them. The film was made by a team of Palestinian-Israeli filmmakers, including the Palestinian journalist Basel Adra, who lives in Masafer Yatta, and the Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham. 

Both filmmakers — Palestinian activist and journalist Basel Adra, who lives in Masafer Yatta, and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham — spoke at the ceremony. Adra became the first Palestinian filmmaker to win an Oscar.

BASEL ADRA: Thank you to the Academy for the award. It’s such a big honor for the four of us and everybody who supported us for this documentary.

About two months ago, I became a father. And my hope to my daughter, that she will not have to live the same life I am living now, always fearing — always — always fearing settlers’ violence, home demolitions and forceful displacements that my community, Masafer Yatta, is living and facing every day under the Israeli occupation.

‘No Other Land’ reflects the harsh reality that we have been enduring for decades and still resist as we call on the world to take serious actions to stop the injustice and to stop the ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people.

YUVAL ABRAHAM: We made this — we made this film, Palestinians and Israelis, because together our voices are stronger.

We see each other — the atrocious destruction of Gaza and its people, which must end; the Israeli hostages brutally taken in the crime of October 7th, which must be freed.

When I look at Basel, I see my brother. But we are unequal. We live in a regime where I am free under civilian law and Basel is under military laws that destroy his life and he cannot control.

There is a different path: a political solution without ethnic supremacy, with national rights for both of our people. And I have to say, as I am here: The foreign policy in this country is helping to block this path.

And, you know, why? Can’t you see that we are intertwined, that my people can be truly safe if Basel’s people are truly free and safe? There is another way.

It’s not too late for life, for the living. There is no other way. Thank you.

Israeli and Palestinian documentary ‘No Other Land’ wins Oscar. Video: Democracy Now!

Transcript of the February 18 interview with the film makers before their Oscar success:

AMY GOODMAN: We turn now to the occupied West Bank, where Israel is reportedly planning to build nearly a thousand new settler homes in the Efrat settlement near Jerusalem. The Israeli settlements are illegal under international law.

The group Shalom Achshav, Peace Now, condemned the move, saying the Netanyahu government is trying “to establish facts on the ground that will destroy the chance for peace and compromise”.

This comes as Israel’s ongoing military operations in the West Bank have displaced at least 45,000 Palestinians — the most since the ’67 War.

Today, the Oscar-nominated Palestinian director Basel Adra shared video from the occupied West Bank of Israeli forces storming and demolishing four houses in Masafer Yatta.

Earlier this month, Basel Adra himself filmed armed and masked Israeli settlers attacking his community of Masafer Yatta. The settlers threw stones, smashed vehicles, slashed tires, punctured a water tank.

Israeli soldiers on the scene did not intervene to halt the crimes.

Basel Adra’s Oscar-nominated documentary No Other Land is about Israel’s mass expulsion of Palestinians living in Masafer Yatta.

In another post last week, Basel wrote: “Anyone who cared about No Other Land should care about what is actually happening on the ground: Today our water tanks, 9 homes and 3 ancient caves were destroyed. Masafer Yatta is disappearing in front of my eyes.

Only one name for these actions: ethnic cleansing,” he said.

In a minute, Basel Adra will join us for an update. But first, we want to play the trailer from his Oscar-nominated documentary, No Other Land.

No Other Land trailer.   Video: Watermelon Films

BASEL ADRA: [translated] You think they’ll come to our home?

MASAFER YATTA RESIDENT 1: [translated] Is the army down there?

NEWS ANCHOR: A thousand Palestinians face one of the single biggest expulsion decisions since the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories began.

YUVAL ABRAHAM: [translated] Basel, come here! Come fast!

BASEL ADRA: [translated] This is a story about power.

My name is Basel. I grew up in a small community called Masafer Yatta. I started to film when we started to end.

They have bulldozers?

I’m filming you.

MASAFER YATTA RESIDENT 2: [translated] I need air. Oh my God!

MASAFER YATTA RESIDENT 3: [translated] Don’t worry.

MASAFER YATTA RESIDENT 2: [translated] I don’t want them to take our home.

YUVAL ABRAHAM: [translated] You’re Basel?

BASEL ADRA: [translated] Yes.

MASAFER YATTA RESIDENT 4: [translated] You are Palestinian?

YUVAL ABRAHAM: [translated] No, I’m Jewish.

MASAFER YATTA RESIDENT 5: [translated] He’s a journalist.

MASAFER YATTA RESIDENT 4: [translated] You’re Israeli?

MASAFER YATTA RESIDENT 5: [translated] Seriously?

BASEL ADRA: [translated] We have to raise our voices, not being silent as if — as if no human beings live here.

YUVAL ABRAHAM: [translated] What? The army is here?

BASEL ADRA: This is what’s happening in my village now. Soldiers are everywhere.

IDF SOLDIER: [translated] Who do you think you’re filming, you son of a whore?

YUVAL ABRAHAM: [translated] It would be so nice with stability one day. Then you’ll come visit me, not always me visiting you. Right?

BASEL ADRA: [translated] Maybe. What do you think? If you were in my place, what would you do?

AMY GOODMAN: That’s the trailer for the Oscar-nominated documentary No Other Land, co-directed by the Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham and our next guest, Basel Adra, Palestinian activist and journalist who writes for +972 Magazine, his most recent piece headlined “Our film is going to the Oscars. But here in Masafer Yatta, we’re still being erased.”

Basel has spent years documenting Israeli efforts to evict Palestinians living in his community, Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.

Basel, welcome back to Democracy Now! If you can talk about your film and also what’s happening right now? This is not a film about history. It’s on the ground now. You recently were barricaded in your house filming what was going on, what the Israeli settlers were doing.

Palestinian film maker Basel Adra talks to Democracy Now!   Video: Democracy Now!

BASEL ADRA: Thank you for having me.

Yeah, our movie, we worked on it for the last five years. We are four people — two Israelis and two Palestinians, me, myself, Yuval and Rachel and Hamdan, who’s my friend and living in Masafer Yatta. We’re just activists and journalists.

And me and my friend Hamdan spent years in the field, running after bulldozers, soldiers and settlers, and in our communities and communities around us, filming the destruction, the home destructions, the school destructions, the cutting of our water pipes and the bulldozing of our roads and our own schools, and trying to raise awareness from the international community on what’s going on, to get political impact to try to stop this from happening and to protect our community.

And five years ago, Yuval and Rachel joined, as Israeli journalists, to write about what’s happening. And then we decided together that we will start working on No Other Land as a documentary that showed the whole political story through personal, individual stories of people who lost their life and homes and school and properties on this, like in the last years and also in the decades of the occupation.

We released the movie in the Berlinale 2024, last year, at the festival. And so far, we’ve been, like, screening and showing, like, in many festivals around the world.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And, Basel, your film has received an Oscar nomination, but you haven’t been able to find a distributor in the US What do you know about this refusal of any company to pick up your film to distribute it? And also, can it be seen in the West Bank or in Israel itself?

BASEL ADRA: It’s sad that we haven’t found a US distributor. Our goal from making this documentary, it’s not the award. It’s not the awards itself, but the people and the audience and to get to the people’s hearts, because we want people to see the reality, to see what’s going on in my community, Masafer Yatta, but in all the West Bank, to the Palestinians and how the life, the daily life under this brutal occupation.

People should be aware of this, because they are — somehow, they have a responsibility. In the US, it’s the tax money that the people are paying there. It has something to do with the home destruction that we are facing, the settlers’ violence, the building of the settlements on our land that does not stop every day.

And we, as a collective, made this movie. We faced so many risks in the field, on the ground. Like, my home was invaded, and the cameras were confiscated from my home by Israeli soldiers.

I was physically attacked in the field when I’m going around and filming these crimes, I mean, to show to the people and to let the people know about what’s going on.

But it’s sad that the distributors in the US so far do not want to take a little bit of risk, political risk, and to show this documentary to the audience. I am really sad about it, that there is no big distributors taking No Other Land and showing it to the American people.

It’s very important to reach to the Americans, I believe. And so far, we are doing it independently on the cinemas.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And your co-director is Israeli. Have you come under criticism for working with Israelis on the film?

BASEL ADRA: So far, I’m not receiving any criticism for working with Israelis. Like, working together is because we share somehow the same values, that we reject the injustice and the occupation and the apartheid and what’s going on, and we want to work pro-solution and pro-justice and to end these, like, settlements and for a better future.

AMY GOODMAN: Basel, the Oscars are soon, in a few weeks. Can you get a visa to come into the United States? Will you attend the Oscars?

BASEL ADRA: So, I have a visa because I’ve been in the US participating in festivals for our movie. But my family and the other Palestinian co-director doesn’t have one yet, and they will try to apply soon.

And hopefully, they will get it, and they will be able to join us at the Oscars.

AMY GOODMAN: So, since it’s so difficult to see your film here in the United States, I want to go to another clip of No Other Land. Again, this is our guest, Basel Adra, and his co-director, Yuval Abraham, filming the eviction of a Palestinian family.

BASEL ADRA: [translated] A lot of army is here.

YUVAL ABRAHAM: [translated] They plan a big demolition?

BASEL ADRA: [translated] We don’t know. They’re driving towards one of my neighbors.

Now the soldiers arrived here.

MASAFER YATTA RESIDENT 1: [translated] Aren’t you ashamed to do this? Aren’t you afraid of God?

ISRAELI SOLDIER: [translated] Go back! Move back now! Get back! I’ll push you all the way back!

YUVAL ABRAHAM: [translated] I speak Hebrew. Don’t shout.

MASAFER YATTA RESIDENT 2: [translated] I hope that bulldozer falls on your head. Why are you taking our homes?

MASAFER YATTA RESIDENT 3: [translated] Why destroy the bathroom?

AMY GOODMAN: That’s Israeli bulldozers destroying a bathroom. This is another clip from No Other Land, in which you, Basel, are attacked by Israeli forces even as you try to show them you have media credentials.

BASEL ADRA: [translated] I’m filming you. I’m filming you! You’re just like criminals.

ISRAELI SOLDIER: [translated] If he gets closer, arrest him.

BASEL ADRA: [translated] You’re expelling us. Arrest me! On what grounds?

ISRAELI SOLDIER: [translated] Grab him.

BASEL ADRA: [translated] On what grounds? I have a journalist card. I have a journalist card!

ISRAELI SOLDIER: [translated] Shut up!

BASEL’S FATHER: [translated] Don’t hit my son! Leave our village! Go away! Leave, you [bleep]! Shoot.

ISRAELI SOLDIER: [translated] Move back.

BASEL’S FATHER: [translated] Shoot me. Shoot me. Shoot me.

BASEL’S MOTHER: [translated] Get an ambulance!

BASEL’S FATHER: [translated] Run, Basel! Run! Get up, son. Run! Run, Basel!

AMY GOODMAN: Basel, that is you. Your mother is hanging onto you as you’re being dragged, your father. What do you want the world to know about Masafer Yatta, about your community in this film?

BASEL ADRA: I want the world to really act seriously. The international community should take measures and act seriously to end this, like, demolitions and ethnic cleansing that is happening everywhere in Gaza, in the West Bank, through different policies and different, like, reasons that the Israelis try to separate out, which is all lies.

It’s all about land, that they want to steal more and more of our land. That’s very clear on the ground, because every Palestinian community being erased, there is settlements growing in the same place.

This is happening right there, in the South Hebron Hills, everywhere around the West Bank, in Area C. And now they are entering camps, since January until now, by demolishing, like, destroying the camps in Jenin, Tulkarm and Tubas, and forcing people to leave their homes, to go away.

And the world just keeps watching and not taking serious action. And the opposite, actually.

The Israelis keep receiving all. Like, this amount of violations of the international law, the human rights laws, it’s very clear that it’s violated every day by the Israelis. But nobody cares. The opposite, they keep receiving weapons and money and relationships and —

AMY GOODMAN: Basel —

BASEL ADRA: — and diplomatic cover. Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: We have to leave it there. I thank you so much, look forward to interviewing you and Yuval in the United States. Basel Adra, co-director of the Oscar-nominated documentary No Other Land.

The original content of this programme is licensed and republished by Asia Pacific Report under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States Licence.

A West Papuan advocacy group is calling for an urgent international inquiry into allegations that Indonesian security forces have used the chemical weapon white phosphorus against West Papuans for a second time.

The allegations were made in the new documentary, Frontier War, by Paradise Broadcasting.

In the film, West Papuan civilians give testimony about a number of children dying from sickness in the months folllowing the 2021 Kiwirok attack.

• READ MORE: Frontier War, a documentary about Indonesia’s drone warfare in West Papua
• Other West Papua reports

They say that “poisoning . . . occurred due to the bombings”, that “they throw the bomb and . . .  chemicals come through the mouth”, said United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) interim president Benny Wenda.

They add that this was “the first time they’re throwing people up are not dying, but between one month later or two months later”, he said in a statement.

Bombings produced big “clouds of dust” and infants suffering the effects could not stop coughing up blood.

“White phosphorus is an evil weapon, even when used against combatants. It burns through skin and flesh and causes heart and liver failure,” said Wenda.

‘Crimes against defenceless civilians’
“But Indonesia is committing these crimes against humanity against defenceless civilians, elders, women and children.

“Thousands of Papuans in the border region were forced from their villages by these attacks, adding to the over 85,000 who are still internally displaced by militarisation.”

Indonesia previously used white phosphorus in Nduga in December 2018.

Journalists uncovered that victims were suffering deep burns down to the bone, typical with that weapon, as well as photographing yellow tipped bombs which military sources confirmed “appear to be incendiary or white phosphorus”.

The same yellow-tipped explosives were discovered in Kiwirok, and the fins from the recovered munitions are consistent with white phosphorus.

“As usual, Indonesia lied about using white phosphorus in Nduga,” said Wenda.

“They have also lied about even the existence of the Kiwirok attack — an operation that led to the deaths of over 300 men, women, and children.

“They lie, lie, lie.”

Frontier War/ Inside the West Papua Liberation Army    Video: Paradise Broadcasting

Proof needed after ‘opening up’
Wenda said the movement would not be able to obtain proof of these attacks — “of the atrocities being perpetrated daily against my people” — until Indonesia opened West Papua to the “eyes of the world”.

“West Papua is a prison island: no journalists, NGOs, or aid organisations are allowed to operate there. Even the UN is totally banned,” Wenda said.

Indonesia’s entire strategy in West Papua is secrecy. Their crimes have been hidden from the world for decades, through a combination of internet blackouts, repression of domestic journalists, and refusal of access to international media.”

Wenda said Indonesia must urgently facilitate the long-delayed UN Human Rights visit to West Papua, and allow journalists and NGOs to operate there without fear of imprisonment or repression.

“The MSG [Melanesian Spearhead Group], PIF [Pacific Islands Forum] and the OACPS [Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States] must again increase the pressure on Indonesia to allow a UN visit,” he said.
“The fake amnesty proposed by [President] Prabowo Subianto is contradictory as it does not also include a UN visit. Even if 10, 20 activists are released, our right to political expression is totally banned.”

Wenda said that Indonesia must ultimately “open their eyes” to the only long-term solution in West Papua — self-determination through an independence referendum.

Asia Pacific Report

A new documentary and human rights report have documented savage attacks in 2021 by Indonesian security forces on a remote West Papuan village close to the Papua New Guinea border as part of an ongoing crackdown against growing calls for independence.

The documentary, Paradise Bombed, and the research report made public yesterday allege that six Papuan villagers were killed in the initial attacks, a further seven were killed later when fleeing to safety, and 284 people were recorded by witnesses to have died from starvation in the months since then.

The researchers also allege that the security forces used bombs and rockets fired by helicopters and drones in the Indonesian attacks.

• READ MORE: West Papuans flee from conflict into remote PNG area
• PNG Trust report on the attacks on the Ngalum Kupel villagers
• Other West Papuan human rights reports

An estimated 2000 people were forced to flee into the forest and have remained in bush camps ever since, fearful of returning to their homes.

“From 10 October 2021, there have been ongoing attacks on the Ngalum Kupel
community by the Indonesian National Armed Forces,” said the researchers, documentary filmmaker Kristo Langker, and Matthew Jamieson of the PNG Trust.

“The continued aggravated attacks by Indonesian military forces and apparent complicity of Indonesian authorities have profoundly impacted on the community [until] July 2023.

“The Ngalum Kupel people have evidence that the Indonesian National Armed
Forces are targeting the whole of the Ngalum Kupel community with modified Krusik
mortars and Thales FZ 68 rockets.”

Targeted villages
The military aerial attacks were reported to have targeted a series of villages which
are adjacent north and northwest of Kiwirok, the regional and administrative centre.
This includes the Kiwi Mission station.

Four community members of the Nek-speaking Ngalum Kupel ethnic tribe were eyewitnesses to the airborne rocket and bombing attacks on their villages around Kiwirok.

“They described a drone dropping bombs together with four or five helicopters firing rockets at houses, food gardens, pigs and chickens,” the report said.

The witnesses named the dead victims and the displaced survivors.

“The witnesses collected shrapnel and bombs from the initial series of attacks,
bringing this evidence to Tumolbil in PNG,” the report said.

“The shrapnel and bombs collected indicate that Thales FZ 68 rockets and modified Krusik mortars were used as the munitions in the military aerial attacks. The witness accounts detail the Indonesian military forces using a drone/UAV armed with modified Krusik mortars, Thales rocket FZ 68 weapon systems and military attack helicopters against an Indigenous community.”

The report authors concluded that the Indonesia National Armed Forces — which were
understood to be equipped with Airbus Fennec attack helicopters and Thales
rockets systems — were “likely responsible for the helicopter components of the attacks.”

Wenda praises researchers
United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) president Benny Wenda has praised the researcher and documentary maker in a statement yesterday:

“These courageous filmmakers, Kristo Langker and friendlyjordies, have shown how bombs made in Serbia, France, and China were used to massacre my people. What happened in Kiwirok is happening across West Papua.

“We are murdered, tortured, and raped, and then our land is stolen for resource extraction and corporate profit when we flee.

“My heart was crying as I watched this documentary, as I was reminded of the Indonesian attack on my village in 1977. My early life was like the Kiwirok children shown in the film: my village was bombed, my family killed and brutalised, and we were forced to live in the bush for five years.

“The difference is that in 1977 no one was there with a camera to interview me — no one knows what happened to my mum, my aunt, my grandfather. But now we have video proof, and no one can deny the evidence of their own eyes.

“Aside from the number of Kiwirok people killed by Indonesian troops — ranging between 21 and 72 — witnesses from the village say that hundreds have died of starvation while living in the bush, where they lack food, water, and adequate medical supplies.

“Villagers attempting to return to Kiwirok have been attacked by Indonesian soldiers – shot at close range, with sniper rifles, and tortured. The names of Kiwirok residents are now added to the 60,000 — 100,000 who have been forcibly displaced by Indonesian militarisation since 2018.

“The international community knows this is a grave humanitarian crisis, and yet still refuses to act. Why?

“I want to alert all our diplomatic groups, the International Parliamentarians for West Papua (IPWP), the International Lawyers for West Papua (ILWP), and all West Papuan solidarity activists around the world. You must ask your governments to address this, to stop selling arms to Indonesia.

“I also want to thank Kristo Langker and friendlyjordies for making this important documentary, and to Matthew Jamieson for producing the report on the attack. You have borne witness to the hidden genocide of my people.

When we are finally independent, your names will be written in our history.”

There has been no immediate response by Indonesian authorities.

A recent revival of local prime-time TV documentaries has highlighted some thorny social issues and raised awkward questions about justice and equality.

Among them was a revealing investigation this week showing the cost of white-collar crime dwarfs that of welfare fraud, but draws lighter punishments and gets a lot less scrutiny in the media than the kind of crimes that play out in public.

For years, the heyday of New Zealand TV documentary and current affairs seemed to be in the past.

• LISTEN TO RNZ MEDIAWATCH: ‘Uncovering injustice and inequities’

Gone are the days of Mike McRoberts’ mellifluous voice introducing local investigative stories on 60 Minutes after a few seconds of distinctive clock-ticking. The popular franchise stopped producing local content some years ago.

20/20, while still on air, mainly releases repackaged content from the US these days and in spite of the continuing long-form journalism of TVNZ’s Sunday, documentaries have been fading from New Zealand screens for some time.

Lately though, TVNZ has revived the strand Documentary New Zealand with a series of eight new NZ On Air-funded films for TVNZ1 on Tuesday nights between Eat Well For Less and Coronation Street, and on the on-demand service TVNZ+.

Among the most engaging and often moving ones was No Māori Allowed, which aired last week.

Pukekohe discrimination
The documentary delves into the history of Pukekohe, where for decades Māori were subject to discrimination and sometimes, violence.

It deftly navigates several tensions — first between local Pākehā and Māori who lived though an era of segregated movie theatres, but also between the people trying to bring the area’s past to light and the kuia and kaumatua who lived through it, and still bear the scars.

While No Māori Allowed highlighted historic racism and the legacy it has left, this week’s documentary Crime: Need vs Greed trains its eye on a more modern form of racial and economic injustice.

Host Tim McKinnel argues we’ve “sleepwalked” into a $5 billion white collar crime wave of costly fraud and deception offences while the attention of our justice system and media is turned toward often low level street crime.

“While society and the media fixate on gang crimes, ram raids, and other forms of street crime, white collar criminals have been robbing us blind. We’ve sleepwalked into a $5 billion crime wave that no-one wants to talk about. Instead we’re tough on crime and spend billions locking up the poor,” he says in Need vs Greed.

Not only have white collar criminals been robbing us blind — the documentary presents evidence they’ve been getting away with it.

Tax law specialist Lisa Marriot delivers some staggering statistics on the double standard. Her research found people convicted of tax fraud crimes averaging $287,000 have a 22 percent chance of receiving a prison sentence — while those convicted of welfare fraud worth an average of $67,000 are imprisoned 60 percent of the time.

The lack of consequences for white collar crime belies its scale and impact.

$1.7 billion fraud prosecution
A 2014 investigation by New Zealand Herald journalist Matt Nippert helped trigger a $1.7 billion fraud prosecution against the company South Canterbury Finance.

In Crime: Need vs Greed, he says it’s “more than every Treaty settlement combined in New Zealand’s history” or “a hundred years of benefit fraud in one go”.

Given the relative figures involved, it’s worth asking why benefit fraud or street crime like ram raids get so much more attention.

Nippert says part of the reason is obvious: street crime is visceral and a lot more understandable to audiences.

“It’s the comparison between a Jerry Bruckheimer action flick and something much more slow and sedate like a documentary spread across, say, six episodes.

“I think ram raids are quite a violent, shocking act and should be covered. But they are also effectively a pre-scripted sort of action heist movie — with car crashes and getaways and splitting the loot — all condensed down to this one moment of action.

“But the white collar financial crimes often occur very subtly, very carefully, very deceptively over years, sometimes decades,” he says.

Fraud story legal threats
Fraud stories also pose legal difficulties, partly because the perpetrators can afford to hire lawyers and threaten defamation action.

Nippert is routinely threatened with legal action over his investigations. The Herald‘s lawyers have to check almost everything that he writes.

Meanwhile, street crime is more likely to come before the courts, and reporting on it is less likely to be subject to suppression orders and legal challenges from defendants.

“A lot of reporting comes from courts are a reflection of wider problem,” Nippert says.

“You will tend to get far more disadvantaged people in the District Court facing charges. On the other side of it, when you’re looking at sort of white collar crimes . . . I’ve run into suppression orders many, many times. So that not only maybe dampens down the reporting, but also slows it down enormously.”

Journalists have been highlighting inequities in the court system recently, with NZME running the Open Justice project and RNZ’s Is This Justice, which revealed — among other things — that Pākehā are discharged without conviction and granted name suppression at higher rates than Māori, that 90 percent of High Court and Court of Appeal judges are Pākehā, and that judges could be presiding over the cases of people they know.

Human brain ‘and zeros’
Another issue contributing to the comparative dearth of fraud reporting is that the “human brain does funny things when it sees zeroes,” Nippert says.

“The difference between $10 million and $100 million becomes quite ethereal. But everyone can understand what $1000 in the hand looks like.”

Despite the inherent disadvantages fraud stories have in a click-based media economy, Nippert says more reporters should cover them because of the huge costs these crimes impose on victims and society.

That might mean doing a basic accountancy paper at university or downloading Google Sheets onto their phone, but the barriers to entry aren’t as high as some reporters might think, he says.

“I used to think I didn’t have that sort of brain [for numbers]. But then I was made redundant and the only job I could get was a business reporter in the NBR and you know, if you give it a go, I think you’ll find it’s a lot more straightforward than you’ve conditioned yourself to fear,” he says.

“It’s important to point out for readers that some of these cases are alarming and we should be paying close attention because that $100 million isn’t just $100 million from some insurance company — that’s likely to be a thousand families who have lost their nest egg, and whose financial future is extraordinarily precarious, probably for the rest of their lives.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

One of New Zealand’s most celebrated athletes is opening up her on life journey on the big screen.

Double Olympic shot put champion Dame Valerie Adams’ feature documentary, More Than Gold, is centred around the Tongan/Kiwi’s preparation for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

However, the film touches on Adams struggles with balancing her role as a mum as well as memories involving hardship, loss and relationships.

• LISTEN TO RNZ PACIFIC: Susana Suisuiki talks to Dame Valerie Adams
• Trailer for the documentary

From penning an autobiography, to championing many causes, Adams said that the timing felt right to do a documentary, especially with how her sporting career had been in the media for years.

“It’s a way to tell your whole story,” she said.

“What the media tells or how they write your story is from their perspective or what you’ve told them but it’s not exactly what truly goes on behind closed doors or what’s happening in one’s life.”

“My documentary really brings people into that journey and takes people throughout that journey from the very start.”

Being a role model
Dame Valerie’s impressive sporting resume includes competing at five Olympic Games earning two golds, one silver and one bronze medal in the shot put.

She has won 17 New Zealand shot put titles and was awarded the Halberg Sportswoman of the Year for seven consecutive years from 2006.

The video trailer of the documentary.                               Video: Transmission Films

Of Tongan and English heritage, Dame Valerie was born in Rotorua but spent some of her childhood in her mother’s home country Tonga. Eventually, Adams and her family returned to New Zealand where she remained in South Auckland for the rest of her adolescent years.

When asked if she ever felt pressured to be a role model once she started succeeding as an athlete, she said it’s an automatic responsibility.

“Where I come from, my upbringing — all the stigma behind South Auckland — I think it was just a natural progression into that role, and I do take some type of responsibility to make sure I do set a good example and that I am a role model to the young women and also young men that have the same upbringing as I do.”

“At the end of the day it’s up to them to grasp whatever talent or passion they have and be prepared to work for it because the world is bigger than South Auckland — but you never forget where you come from.”

Be comfortable with the uncomfortable
It was important to Adams to be authentic in her film as she wanted audiences to understand the sacrifices she undertook to pursue her sporting dreams.

She said the film will resonate with all people whether they are athletes as there are many relatable themes, especially towards the youth.

“There’s a lot of challenges that people face in life and there’s a lot of challenges that youth face in life as well,” Adams said.

“Society is hard, society is mean sometimes and quite difficult, but I want them to know that they are loved but also to inspire them to set some goals and look for something bigger and better.”

“I really just want to share my life so that people can see the nitty-gritty parts of it, the raw parts of it, the trauma but also seeing you work through all of that.”

“Someone gave me some really good advice a few years ago and it was ‘you gotta be comfortable with being uncomfortable’ — and in life you’re going to be put in uncomfortable situations so you’ve gotta train your mind to say you’re cool being here even though you’re not, and work through those awkward situations because it’s going to you make you a more confident and stronger person.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Every journalist that “outs” a conspiracy theorist or extremist paints a target on their own back.

The anti-truth brigade thrives in dark places and shining a light on it and its associates is doing a public service. Yet it comes at a cost.

The tone of abuse that it generates is even darker than the places from which it emanates. New Zealand journalists — particularly female journalists — are being subjected to taunts and threats on an unprecedented scale and in forms that are deeply disturbing.

• READ MORE: A NZ media conundrum over how to cover the ‘dangerous’ conspiracists
• Other conspiracy theorist reports

Paula Penfold of the Stuff Circuit team that produced the documentary Fire and Fury, which unmasked many of those behind the February-March protest in Parliament grounds, revealed in the Sunday Star Times last weekend that since its appearance she has been targeted with death threats, abuse “and, unsurprisingly, conspiracy theories”.

She told the newspaper: “I’ve had lots before but never as many or as ugly or as threatening than after this documentary.”

Penfold’s situation was outlined in an article about the abuse three female Stuff journalists had endured for doing their jobs. Alongside Penfold were Kirsty Johnston, who revealed MP Sam Uffindell’s record at King’s College, and Andrea Vance, currently revealing the anti- brigade’s associations with local body candidates.

“You can’t fight crazy,” Vance told the SST. “It’s exhausting. Half their tactics are to tie you up in pointless circular arguments but if people honestly think we’re being paid by the government they’re not well.”

Attitude about media
Her latter point was a reference to an all-too-popular suggestion that the media en masse had been suborned by the Public Interest Journalism Fund. Anyone who thinks New Zealand’s media can be instantly brought to heel by $55 million spread among all of them over a period of four years is, indeed, not well.

Then again, the attitude toward journalists is “not well” either.

I felt immensely saddened to see this quote from Kirsty Johnston about the spread of trolling and abuse: “All reporters know it. They go to parties and don’t say what they do.”

When I was young, the only people who had that attitude were undertakers and the people who worked in the local VD clinic. We were proud to say we were journalists, reporters, photographers, sub-editors and so on.

Our broadcasting colleagues were equally open about their profession.

What went wrong, and when?

Fire and Fury – the documentary.                      Video: Stuff Circuit

It has been a long time since the public put journalists on a pedestal. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe the last statue to a journalist in Auckland was erected in 1901 (remembering George M Reed and still standing in Albert Park).

Slow decline
There was a slow decline over the years but in the 40 years I spent in daily journalism I never felt despised. Yes, I received two death threats in that time but the first was written in crayon and the second wasn’t aimed only at me, or even only at journalists (which was why it was reported to the police). What journalists are now experiencing is either something new or something old harnessed to something new.

I think it may well be the latter. The old component is anarchy and the new is digital communication. Together they are dynamite (excuse the pun).

Anarchy is basically the repudiation of existing systems of government and ordered society, represented by institutions such as Parliament and the media (the latter is seen as the mouthpiece of politicians). In the past it had a capital A and was an intellectual breeding grounds for socialism, communism, and other then-radical politics.

However, even then, it had its hangers-on who were drawn to its sometimes-violent rhetoric with little understanding or interest in its philosophy. The crazy bombers and assassins were seldom actually card-carrying members of an anarchist body.

Today, anarchy has a small a. We use the term to denote disorder and disarray. And it underlies much of the anti-this and anti-that ranting that permeates social media.

Put simply, there are people out there who want to see the institutions of civil society brought down. They have no clear idea what should replace it and they don’t care. In a way, they are calling for destruction for its own sake. That is at the core of conspiracy theories.

Social media has become the new explosive. Much easier to come by than volatile nitro-glycerine or the “safer” dynamite, it can carry a destructive force over a far greater distance.

Digital bomb-throwers
The digital bomb-throwers use it in two ways. The first is by undermining truth, which casts doubt over the legitimacy of institutions. The second is by discrediting those who represent those institutions. They reserve special attention, however, for those who would presume to unmask, undermine and discredit them.

So, it came as no surprise that the verbal attacks on journalists rose to a new pitch after the appearance of Fire and Fury on the Stuff website and the series of revelations about local body candidates’ undisclosed affiliations with groups that spread conspiracy theories.

The crescendo of hate requires fortitude on the part of the journalists exposing conspiracy theorists and other bad agents. They can take some comfort from the fact that media organisations take seriously their duty of care toward staff — and freelancers — facing threats.

RNZ chief executive Paul Thompson told me the abuse was taking its toll.

“We have responded with improved security and health and safety planning, at our offices and in the field. We also have set up improved process for dealing with inappropriate and abusive feedback and social media. There are things we can do to mitigate the effects of the abuse but we cannot reduce the impact or risk to zero.”

Television New Zealand’s head of news, Phil O’Sullivan, is similarly conscious of the risks and effects.

“TVNZ has not made any changes to security arrangements due to recent incidents. But we have many existing safety precautions for reporters in place. Depending on the story, this can include traveling with extra security when covering certain events, reporting from safe locations and from a distance if a situation feels volatile and using technology solutions – for example drone footage, or footage recorded on mobile phones rather than a camera set up where needed.

“We have a responsibility to report on all the stories impacting New Zealanders — but ultimately, we need to do that in a safe way. At the forefront of this is the wellbeing and safety of our people and we have a number of measures in place to support this.”

Probing anti-fact organisations
He makes an important point: Media organisations must not let these diatribes and threats stay their hands. Investigation into anti-fact and extremist organisations and individuals must continue and are no more important than during election periods, be they local or national.

There is, however, a caveat. Journalists who call out conspiracy theorists and latter-day anarchists also have a duty of care. They have a duty to ensure they have the facts and that what they say is fair.

Last Saturday, the Wairarapa Times-Age investigated “local government candidates with controversial links” under the heading “Who is pulling the strings?” It “outed” a mayoral candidate, Tina Nixon, saying she “had been promoted by conspiracy website Resistance.Kiwi” and on Facebook had followed people associated with far-right groups.

Its source was FACT Aotearoa, a group that exposes conspiracy theorists.

However, the newspaper did not make direct contact with Nixon (it left an email saying she had two hours to respond but she did not see it within the required timeframe). Her only link with Resistance.Kiwi had been in giving them permission — along with several other websites — to reprint her submission on the 3 Waters proposals.

Like many of us, she follows hundreds of websites and social media users but does not support what many of them say. FACT Aotearoa offered Nixon an apology, saying there appeared to be a “miscommunication” with the Wairarapa Times-Age. In my view, the newspaper failed her and electors by not substantiating information.

There is potential here for witch-hunting or, as my former colleague Fran O’Sullivan put it on social media when calling out the mistake, McCarthyism.

In addition to fact-checking, media should give their targets an opportunity to explain their position before a decision is made to publish or broadcast. Tina Nixon is an object lesson.

There is a further reason why media must take great care in “outing” conspiracy theorists and extremists. Get one wrong and it might be seen as an unfortunate error. Get more wrong and the conspiracy theorists and extremists will say gleefully (and, irritatingly, with a very small amount of justification) that the media can’t be believed.

Dr Gavin Ellis holds a PhD in political studies. He is a media consultant and researcher. A former editor-in-chief of The New Zealand Herald, he has a background in journalism and communications — covering both editorial and management roles — that spans more than half a century. Dr Ellis publishes a website called Knightly Views where this commentary was first published and it is republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission.

The ABC has soundly condemned the Solomon Islands Office of the Prime Minister for a series of “factual errors” in a statement released which criticised the Four Corners investigative report Pacific Capture: How Chinese money is buying the Solomons.

In a rare statement defending its independent journalism, it said today the ABC “stood by the accuracy and integrity” of the reporting in this programme.

• READ MORE: The ABC defence
• The Solomon Islands government criticism
• ABC 4 Corners: The documentary
• Other China in the Solomon Islands reports

It said about the programme broadcast on August 4:

The ABC wishes to correct the following factual errors in the press release issued by the Solomon Islands Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet regarding the Four Corners report Pacific Capture, which examined the impact of China’s growing presence across Solomon Islands.

At no point did the program rely on “misinformation and distribution of pre-conceived prejudicial information”.

It was not our intention to “cause division between the governments of Australia and Solomon Islands”, rather to highlight issues of concern to all Solomon Islanders.

We completely reject the offensive notion of “racial profiling that is bordering racism and race stereotyping”. In fact, we were determined to tell the story from the perspective of Solomon Islanders and the program reflected their concerns. Its main interviews were with two eminent Solomon Islanders, rather than relying on “foreign experts” as is often the case. The ABC rejects the idea that we were “putting words into the mouths of the interviewees” and sees this as insulting to the Solomon Islanders who appeared in the program.

On the issue of Kolombangara, the ABC did not say that the “shareholders have made a decision to sell off the company to a Chinese firm”. Rather, the program accurately reported that the issue had been discussed at board level and that the Australian directors were so concerned about a potential sale to a Chinese state-owned company that they twice wrote to the Federal Government expressing concerns that the purchase could be used by Beijing to establish a base under the cover of a commercial enterprise. Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s office confirmed it was aware of the issue. Her office has also not ruled out intervening. The ABC also notes that the plantation on Kolombangara is owned 85 per cent by the Nien Family of Taiwan and 15 percent by the government of the Solomon Islands, not the 60/40 split claimed in the press release.

It is incorrect to claim that the program did not acknowledge that Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare “repeatedly reaffirmed to Solomon Islanders and the Pacific region that there will be no military or naval base in Solomon Islands”.

The program said: “At a meeting in Fiji, Sogavare assured the new Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese that Beijing won’t be allowed to establish a military base in the Solomons.” It went on to say that one of the main concerns was that a commercial enterprise controlled by Beijing could one day be used to house military assets.

The ABC stands by the accuracy and integrity of the reporting in this program.

Why did criticism of a modest sum spent on a single mini-documentary made two years ago suddenly spring up in the news in two national networks this week — and then disappear?

“I’m just so sick of everything getting taxpayer money for these projects. Why can’t people just pay out of their own pocket?” Newstalk ZB deputy political editor Jason Walls asked on air last Tuesday.

“I just keep seeing these things crop up time and time again, when we have hospitals overwhelmed. Twenty thousand dollars is not tons of money in the grand scheme of things, [but] that sort of stuff keeps adding up,” he added, noting Three’s latest Masterchef series aired and screened without draining the public purse.

More public money than ever is being spent on media content these days — and the spending does deserve scrutiny.

But the single project that triggered his concern this week was not a costly one — or especially newsworthy.

Siouxsie and the Virus is a short online video shot in March 2020 and it has been online for almost two years now, with its sources of public funding noted at the end. It snapshots Dr Siouxsie Wiles’ life in “fly-on-the wall”-style as New Zealand went into Level 4 lockdown.

It was made for the online platform Loading Docs which describes itself as “a launchpad for New Zealand documentary shorts.”

Enables short documentaries
It enables local makers to produce short documentaries which are then available to other media outlets. It is backed by the NZ Film Commission, the government broadcasting funding agency NZ On Air and Māori broadcasting funding agent Te Māngai Pāho.

Walls’ objections were rushed out as a news story online by Newstalk ZB and its sister paper The New Zealand Herald. The stories were shared on social media with the claim “the amount spent has left some gobsmacked.”

“Would you pay $20,000 for a documentary about ‘science superhero’ Dr Siouxsie Wiles? Because you already did,”  the Herald’s story began.

On the air Walls had referred to $20,000 of Film Commission funding but said he wasn’t sure how Siouxsie and the Virus had been funded.

It turned out that sum relates to a different project yet to be made.

Loading Docs producer Julia Parnell told Mediawatch that Loading Docs provided $6000 in production finance and $2000 towards the post-production for Siouxsie and the Virus.

The funding model requires filmmakers to raise other funds themselves via crowdfunding.

Parnell told Mediawatch that Siouxsie and the Virus raised $7685 through the crowdfunding platform “Boosted”.

Boosted by The Herald
Ironically the mini-doco was also boosted by The New Zealand Herald back in 2020.

“It was launched in partnership with The New Zealand Herald on their platform, along with a high-profile story in [Weekend Herald supplement] Canvas. It then went on our platform, TVNZ On Demand, RNZ, PlayStuff and The Spinoff. It has had over 200,000 views and it has been so appreciated by audiences,” Parnell told Mediawatch.

Initially the director, Gwen Isaac, was funded to make a completely different film about a Kiwi MMA fighter in Japan.

“When the covid lockdown happened, we had to pivot and find something else. The director was able to get that access (to Dr Wiles) in that week prior to covid. It was a society-changing moment and we were able to capture it. I’m very proud of that,” Parnell told Mediawatch.

“Loading Docs has a platform-agnostic approach which means that more New Zealanders can connect with our work and the work of our documentary makers,” she said.

On social media, Dr Wiles pointed out on Thursday she made nothing from the mini-doco, and $20,000 would have cost each New Zealanders about half a cent.

She also pointed out NZME — the owner of Newstalk ZB and The Herald  – received $9 million in covid wage subsidy in 2020 that would have taken $2.25 out of the pocket of every Kiwi.

LOL I just found out how much taxpayer money NZME who owns the NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB got in the first half of 2020. $8.6 MILLION! If you are a taxpayer, that’s $2.23 you paid. Oh, and their net PROFITS after tax rose by $1 million to $7.8 MILLION. https://t.co/pq6WhvnXyO pic.twitter.com/kOxQk0v5yM

— Dr Siouxsie Wiles (@SiouxsieW) July 21, 2022

Wage subsidies repaid
Some media companies  — including Stuff and The Spinoff – repaid wages subsidies received in that year when business subsequently stabilised.

NZME has not, even after profits and revenue increased in 2021.

NZME CEO Michael Boggs told Mediawatch in April they used the wage subsidy for the intended purpose of retaining jobs and NZME declined the second tranche of wage subsidy when it was on offer.

Dr Wiles’ observations would have been relevant additions to The Herald and ZB online news stories highlighting the “gobsmacking” Film Commission funding decision, but by this time anyone who went looking for that would only find that those stories were not online anymore.

The Herald‘s link yields an error message that says, “Oops, looks like a dead end”.

The stories have been scrubbed from The Herald and ZB social media feeds without explanation.

Thanks @MediawatchNZ for looking into the dangerous hitjob Newstalk ZB and NZ Herald did on me last week. This was never about asking questions about the use of taxpayer funds. I honestly believe it was about stoking outrage, attacking the arts, & undermining & harming me. https://t.co/SdwWwF90z1

— Dr Siouxsie Wiles (@SiouxsieW) July 23, 2022

First funding questioning
Loading Docs’ Parnell said this was the first time the funding of any production had been questioned in the media.

But it’s not the first time ZB’s Walls has criticised public spending on media content.

Last year he labelled a range of arts projects bankrolled with covid recovery funds “a smorgasbord of abject waste” under the headline: Not a single cent more for podcasts, poetry and picture books in the name of ‘covid recovery.’ He wrote:

“It’s easy to take aim at the Creative NZ funding and to poke holes in what the government’s decided to fund through its $55m Public Interest Journalism Fund.”

Last year NZME secured up to $2995,702 from the PIJF to employ 15 reporters “to fill gaps in court reporting” in 11 of its publications — as well as two national reporting roles.

In 2020 — the year Siouxsie and the Virus was made — the PIJF allocated up to $200,280 to NZME for “a kaupapa editor and an audio innovation editor to improve access to news for blind and low vision New Zealanders.”

NZME also received up to $940,188 over two years “to retain reporting roles in its free community newspapers across Rotorua, Napier, Hastings, Whanganui, Manawatū, Taupō, Horowhenua, and Kapiti.”

More funding
An interactive NZME project exploring “how and when land became part of the Pākehā property system in Aotearoa New Zealand” got a further $80,500.

And just this month, the PIJF fund announced $255,000 of taxpayers money for a Herald series called Unraveling Anxiety.

This is based on a series of videos for The Herald’s website showing how people from different cultural backgrounds coped with anxiety disorders during covid-19 lockdowns and after.

It’s the kind of idea you might expect to find on a platform like Loading Docs, but so far The Herald and ZB have not aired any views on whether that is unjustifiably draining money from the public purse at a time of stress in our hospitals.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Watch Siouxsie and the Virus on YouTube

Former Timor-Leste President Xanana Gusmão today lamented the death of journalist and filmmaker Max Stahl, recalling that his work had “changed the fate of the nation”.

In a letter sent to his widow Dr Ingrid Brucens, Gusmão, chief negotiator over East Timor’s maritime borders, said Stahl’s footage of the 1991 Santa Cruz massacre “exposed the repression and brutality of the Indonesian occupation” for 24 years.

His work was an archival history the country — a legacy for the Timorese nation.

• READ MORE: Timor-Leste’s ‘true hero’ cameraman Max Stahl who exposed Indonesian atrocities dies
• Timorese government condolences for Max Stahl’s death

“Few people have managed to make such a significant contribution to the nation,” Gusmão said.

He said Stahl was “loved by the Timorese” and that the country was “in mourning”.

Max Stahl died in Brisbane hospital early yesterday after a long illness.

The journalist was decorated by the state with the Order of Timor-Leste and the National Parliament awarded him Timorese nationality in 2019.

Born Christopher Wenner, but better known as Max Stahl, he began his commitment to East Timor on 30 August 1991 when he entered the country disguised as a tourist to film a documentary for ITV in Britain, In Cold Blood: The Massacre of East Timor.

He interviewed several resistance leaders and left because of his visa. However, he returned and secretly filmed the Santa Cruz graveyard massacre on November 12 that year.

The Portuguese government also highlighted Stahl’s “key role” in the “East Timor fight for self-determination”.

“Max Stahl played a key role in East Timor’s struggle for self-determination. Our condolences to the family, friends, and also to the Timorese people, who today lose a person who made an invaluable contribution to their history,” said the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

By Antonio Sampaio in Dili

Filmmaker and journalist Max Stahl, 66, has died almost 30 years after capturing images of the Indonesian massacre at Santa Cruz cemetery in the Timor-Leste capital Dili, which helped accelerate the country’s struggle for independence.

By coincidence, he died on the same day in 1991 as Sebastião Gomes, the young man who was buried in Santa Cruz and whose death led to the protest that ended in the Santa Cruz Massacre.

More than 2000 people went to Santa Cruz to pay tribute to Gomes, who was killed by Indonesian-backed militia in the Motael neighbourhood.

• READ MORE: Timor-Leste’s Max Stahl – documenting the audiovisual and development “war” — David Robie’s tribute to Max on Café Pacific
• British filmmaker and war correspondent Max Stahl dies after long illness

The atrocity by the Indonesian military was secretly filmed by Max Stahl and footage smuggled out of the country. International attention on East Timor dramatically changed as a result.

At the graveyard, the Indonesian military opened fire on the crowd, killing 74 people at the scene. Over the next few days, more than 120 young people died in hospital from their wounds or as a result of the crackdown by occupying forces.

Most bodies were never recovered.

Born on 6 December 1954 in the United Kingdom, journalist and documentary maker Christopher Wenner, better known as Max Stahl, began his ties to the country in 1991 when he managed to enter East Timor for the first time.

He became a Timorese citizen in 2019.

Hiding among the graves
On November 12, hiding among the graves of Santa Cruz cemetery, he filmed the massacre — one of many during the Indonesian occupation of the country. Images were circulated  around the world’s media and this changed history.

Decorated with the Order of Timor-Leste, the highest award given to foreign citizens in the country, the Rory Peck Prize for filmmakers, and several other rewards, Max Stahl leaves as a legacy the main archives of images from the last years of the Indonesian occupation of the country.

The Max Stahl Audiovisual Center in Timor-Lete (CAMSTL) contains thousands of hours of video documentary, including extended interviews with key actors in the Timorese struggle for independence.

The archive was adopted by UNESCO for the World Memory Register and has been used for teaching and research on Timor’s history under the framework of cooperation between the University of Coimbra, the National University of East Timor and CAMSTL.

The original 1991 Dili massacre footage by Max Stahl. Video: Journeyman Pictures

Stahl studied literature at the University of Oxford and he was a fluent speaker of several languages, including the two official languages of East Timor — Portuguese and Tetum.

He began his career writing for theatre and children’s television shows. However, he found his calling as a war correspondent when he lived with his family. At the time his father was ambassador to El Salvador where Stahl reported on the civil war between 1979 and 1992.

Stahl covered other conflicts such as those of Georgia, former Yugoslavia and East Timor (from 30 August 1991), where he arrived as a “tourist” at the invitation of resistance groups.

“The king is dead. With great sadness, I write to inform you that Max passed away this morning.”

— Max Stahl’s wife Dr Ingrid Brucens

Historic resistance leaders
Throughout his long ties to East Timor, where he lived until he had to travel recently to Australia for medical treatment, he interviewed historic resistance leaders such as Nino Konis Santa, David Alex and others.

Santa Cruz and the 12 November 1991 massacre made the name Max Stahl known internationally with his images exposing the barbarism of the Indonesian occupation.

In Portugal, the images made a special impact — both through the brutality of the violence portrayed and because the survivors gathered in the small chapel of Santa Cruz, praying in Portuguese while listening to the bullets being fired by the Indonesian military and police.

The 1999 referendum prompted Max Stahl to return to East Timor when he covered the violence before the referendum and after the announcement of independence victory. He also accompanied families on the flight to the mountains.

News of Max Stahl’s death on Wednesday at a Brisbane hospital quickly became the most commented subject on social media in East Timor, prompting condolences from several personalities during the struggle for independence.

In statements to Lusa news agency, former President José Ramos-Horta described Max Stahl’s death as a “great loss” to Timor-Leste and the world. He said it would cause “deep consternation and pain” to the Timorese people.

“Someone like Max, with a big heart, with a great dedication and love for East Timor … [has been] taken to another world,” he told Lusa.

Dr Ingrid Brucens, Max Stahl’s wife, and who was with him and the children in Brisbane, announced his death to friends.

“The king is dead. With great sadness, I write to inform you that Max passed away this morning,” she wrote in messages to friends.

Antonio Sampaio is the Lusa correspondent in Dili.

CAMSTL video tribute
This video below is the  CAMSTL team’s tribute to the memory of Stahl, who had dedicated 30 years of his life to the people of Timor-Leste. CAMSTL colleagues said on their Facebook page:

“The images and testimonies recorded by the journalist in the 1990s alerted the world to the serious human rights violations taking place in Timorese territory.

“From then on, the country’s independence restoration process gained momentum.

“Today, the journalist’s heroic trajectory ends on the earthly plane, but his legacy will continue to live on in the large archive created and directed by him, the Centro Audiovisual Max Stahl Timor-Leste.

“Dear Max. We will always be together with you in preserving the memory of the resistance struggle and the construction of the Timorese nation.

“We would like to thank Max’s friend José Ramos-Horta — Nobel Peace Prize and Former President of the Republic– for participating in this video.”

Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

The documentary Loimata, The Sweetest Tears has won the Grand Prix du Jury at Tahiti’s FIFO (Festival International du Film Documentaire Océanien).

Produced and written by senior lecturer in communication studies Jim Marbrook at Auckland University of Technology and his sister Anna Marbrook (who directed the film), it debuted at Whānau Mārama: New Zealand International Film Festival 2020, where it received outstanding reviews and box office sell-outs.

The documentary also made the stuff.co.nz top 10 films of 2020 list. AUT students formed part of the crew for some of the Auckland portions of the shoot.

• READ MORE: Other APR reports on Loimata

At the prizegiving ceremony, jury member Julia Overton, a leading figure in Australian film and television, described Loimata as “a film that was really well directed . . . on an
important subject: childhood trauma”.

She added: “Our congratulations to the whole team who presented this family’s story with so much compassion.”

Jury member Doc Edge director Alex Lee said: “The film’s narrative is superbly told, giving us a personal connection with the subject, Ema. We are taken into her world where she confronts issues of culture, family, the tradition of wayfaring, sexual abuse, identity, life and death.

“While her mortality is urgent and pressing, the film enables us to pause and reflect as Ema navigates these issue. This is an excellent example of skilled filmmaking and a feature-length theatrical Pasifika documentary which the world needs to view, indicative of the treasure trove of content of our region rarely seen and funded internationally.”

Healing pathway
Director/producer Anna Marbrook said: “We are so thrilled and honoured to be among such an amazing selection of films in competition. This award is a tribute to the protagonist of the film Lilo Ema Siope and her dedication in forging a healing pathway for her extraordinary family – a pathway deeply rooted in her culture, history and philosophy.

“Tahiti is hugely significant in voyaging kaupapa so to win an award there dignifies both our film and Ema’s legacy as a voyaging captain and waka builder.”

Producer Jim Marbrook said: “This is another vital stepping stone that helps us take our film out into the world and also deeper into the Pacific region. We set out to make a documentary that was both cinematic and intimate and the reactions to the screenings and this prize have vindicated our creative choices.

“It was a complex movie to produce because the material was so sensitive.”

Loimata had its television debut on Waitangi Day on Māori Television and is available to watch on their on demand website for the next two months.

Loimata, The Sweetest Tears takes the viewer on an emotional healing journey with extraordinary ocean-going waka captain, Lilo Ema Siope.

The film is an intimate exploration of a family shattered by shame working courageously to liberate themselves from the shackles of the past. A journey of courage, tears, laughter and above all, unconditional love.

• FIFO is the Festival International du Film documentaire Océanien at Te Fare Tauhiti Nui i-Maison de la Culture de Tahiti. Sponsored by France Television

Pacific Media Centre students, staff and journalists gathered at Auckland University of Technology this week and debated reset strategies for the future in a “rollercoaster” symposium.

They also farewelled founding centre director Professor David Robie, who is departing after 18 years at AUT after a surprise announcement. He wishes to concentrate on his journalism, book, research and innovative projects.

Centre volunteer photographer and publications designer Del Abcede, who is also leaving, captured these images on the day. The programme featured a group of West Papuan postgraduate students from Auckland and Waikato who gave a cultural performance.

Master of ceremonies was Tagata Pasifika reporter and presenter John Pulu.

• Pacific journalism, media and diversity researchers tackle challenges ahead
• Former University of the South Pacific professor Dr Crosbie Walsh pens a tribute
• Media education messages of support on Cafe Pacific
• ‘Empowerment is really important. Journalism isn’t just about writing a good story … but empowering people with information in a democracy’

PMC highlights and new horizons

1 of 18

Pacific journalism and media researchers have gathered “live” in Auckland and “virtually” from Australia, Indonesia, and the region to showcase their projects and initiatives – and they spoke of the key challenges ahead.

Presentations at the AUT Pacific Media Centre-organised event yesterday included cross-cultural documentaries, an industry panel on “transition”, Pasifika “brown table” initiatives, a forthcoming Asia-Pacific conference, and an Internews project on climate and coronavirus reportage.

The showcase, hosted by MC John Pulu of Tagata Pasifika, also launched the latest edition of Pacific Journalism Review, which is themed on a range of climate crisis and pandemic papers.

• READ MORE: A watershed year for journalism as research
• PMC celebrates Pacific ‘reset’ vision and farewells founding director
• ‘Empowerment is really important. Journalism isn’t just about writing a good story … but empowering people with information in a democracy’

The recent new fields of research (FoR) classifications adopted by the Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC) were described by Sydney journalism professor and author Dr Chris Nash as “a huge victory”.

Speaking by video link, Dr Nash, a retired foundation journalism professor at Monash University and author of the ground-breaking book What is Journalism? The Art and Politics of a Rupture, told the symposium: “We have retained our positive in creative arts and there is a whole new field of journalism that fits within indigenous studies FoR codes”.

“This is a huge opportunity for journalism in universities in many ways,” he said.
While as a former journalist and documentary maker he had come to research through cultural studies, he had realised that “in the end it had become a bit of a strait jacket”.

Journalism research advocates
He cited journalism research advocates such as the late James Carey of the United States who argued that “journalism had to break out of that”.

However, it was not going to be easy “by a long shot” given the contest over positions, money and income that flowed from the large numbers of journalism students in universities.

Dr Nash said the opportunity was there for journalism to “branch out and be its own self”.

He praised the latest edition of Pacific Journalism Review and the role of founding editor David Robie, designer Del Abcede and associate editors Philip Cass, Wendy Bacon, Nicole Gooch and Khairiah Rahman.

“It’s a fantastic achievement to take the journal to the position it is in now – two consecutive editions of over 300 pages is a massive, massive achievement.”

He said this gave the journal a firm foundation to go forward.

Stepping down as editor
It was announced that founding editor Professor David Robie, who started the journal at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1994, had decided to step down from the role and associate editor Dr Philip Cass was taking over.

Dr Robie is also retiring from the PMC at the end of the year, although he will retain an advisory role on the journal, and colleagues paid tribute to both his work and the contribution of Del Abcede to the university.

Pacific Media Centre advisory board chair Associate Professor Camille Nakhid and board member Khairiah Rahman praised his contribution to the media research and publication landscape and for building up the centre from scratch in 2007.

The announcement of his retirement had caught them by surprise and was “bittersweet as it celebrates and farewells our dear friend, colleague and mentor”, said Rahman.

Following news of Dr Robie’s retirement, tributes had “poured in from PMC’s immediate networks”, among them:

Dr Shailendra Singh, Senior Lecturer and coordinator of journalism at the University of the South Pacific, in Suva, Fiji: “Credits David for introducing him to academia 19 years ago along with his three colleagues, and the major impact that David has made through his mentorship in Pacific journalism.”

Nicole Gooch from the University of Technology in Sydney: “Describes David as ‘a giant of journalism and journalism education in the region’ for having built ‘a solid pathway for future journalists whilst leaving a huge, indelible mark on the journalism-social-political landscape through David’s astonishing work’.

Professor Wendy Bacon, an Australian academic, investigative journalist, and political activist: “She congratulates David and … Del, for her amazing contribution without which many projects would not have been possible.”

‘Fearless, unwavering hero’
“For many of us, David is the fearless, unwavering hero that speaks truth to power,” added Rahman.

Deputy dean Professor Fiona Peterson launched the PJR by untying the edition ribbon and incoming editor Dr Philip Cass, who was born in Papua New Guinea and has contributed to the journal since the beginning, discussed the challenges ahead.

He has the support of Dr Robie and the other core editorial board members.

The industry panel featured journalists who had recently made the transition from media schools to journalism with successful careers and, in one case, a postgraduate student from a developing nation in crisis who carried the weight of expectations of his indigenous community.

Corazon Miller, a political reporter of Newshub Nation, spoke of her dual Filipino-New Zealand heritage and her change from a nursing career into journalism that took her to BBC World News and other opportunities; Blessen Tom, an Indian-New Zealand video producer talked of how his 2018 documentary work on a PMC Bearing Witness project prepared him for work with TVNZ Fair Go; and West Papuan postgraduate student Laurens Ikinia discussed the challenges he faced in a region facing repression and real dangers.

AUT documentary maker and lecturer Jim Marbrook and Fetaui Iosefo of Auckland University reflected on their collaboration over the 2020 NZ International Film Festival’s featured documentary Loimata: The Sweetest Tears and their “returning” narratives in their current projects.

Lecturer Dr Janet Tupou discussed her Tongan community work and affiliations and new strategies about diversity at AUT, including a “brown table” to encourage research collaboration.

Strong Asian connection
Khairiah Rahman spoke of the university’s collaboration with the Taipei-based Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) conference next year on November 25-27.

The conference had originally been scheduled for last month, but New Zealand’s covid-19 lockdowns and global uncertainties forced the postponement.

Rahman is also spearheading a seven-year collaboration with the Centre for Southeast Asian Social Studies at Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. AUT and UGM have published collaborative research on climate change and have a partnership between the two journals PJR and Ikat: The Indonesian Journal of Southeast Asian Studies.

A group of West Papuan students also participated in the symposium and staff, students and media people staged a separate Morning Star flag ceremony during the event.

• More information

Hong Kong’s government-funded broadcaster, Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), is under fire again.

Last week, police arrested freelance TV producer Bao Choy Yuk-ling under allegations that she made a false statement to obtain information on car owners, claiming that she had violated the Hong Kong’s Road Traffic Ordinance.

Choy obtained the information during her reporting for the documentary 7.21: Who Owns the Truth?, aired on the programme Hong Kong Connection.

• READ MORE: A Hong Kong reporter’s account of the crackdown on press freedom under the national security law
• Hong Kong’s pro-democracy legislators resign en masse

The documentary investigated individuals potentially involved in the Yuen Long attacks of 2019, in which a pro-Beijing mob of more than 100 men stormed the Yuen Long MTR station wielding steel rods and canes and attacked protesters returning home from an anti-extradition demonstration.

The incident left 45 people injured, including journalists and commuters, and became one of the most notorious events of Hong Kong’s year-long protests.

Using surveillance footage from the nearby area, the documentary producers were able to track down the legal owners of the cars who took the rod-wielding men to Yuen Long.

Hong Kong reporters have for years used car plate records in their reporting for media outlets of different political camps, most commonly by crime, traffic, and entertainment beat reporters.

First to be arrested for car plates probe
Choy is the first to be arrested for the practice. If convicted, she could face a HK$5,000 (US$645) fine and six months’ imprisonment.

Choy – who appeared in court on November 10 – told reporters her case was no longer a personal matter but involved the public interest and press freedom. Dozens of members of the media gathered outside the court to show support.

Choy’s documentary 7.21: Who Owns The Truth?

Her case was adjourned to January and she remains free on bail.

But this was not the first time the government appeared to have cracked down on RTHK, which in theory enjoys editorial independence despite receiving public funding and has traditionally been allowed to cover politically sensitive topics.

Hong Kong journalists get approval for protest march against producer’s arrest after police objections overturned https://t.co/hcJPO0259p pic.twitter.com/50H1rYMXl7

— Hong Kong Free Press HKFP (@hkfp) November 13, 2020

Amid the political turmoil since the pro-democracy movement erupted last year and the national security law was enacted in July, the public broadcaster has been under fire from various quarters as the government appears to tighten its grip.

Below is a list of some of the recent developments:

RTHK staff required to pledge loyalty
Most of RTHK staff is employed on civil service terms. The government has decided that all those who joined the civil service on or after July 1, when the national security law came into force, should pledge allegiance to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and promise to uphold its constitution known as the Basic Law.

In addition to newcomers, the requirement also applies to existing staff members whose employment is confirmed after completing probation, when contracts are renewed, or when they are up for promotion.

Questions arise as to whether the public broadcaster can stay impartial in its reporting after staff have been compelled to pledge allegiance to the government.

Acting deputy steps down, citing health reasons
The public also raised eyebrows when the Deputy Director of Broadcasting Kirindi Chan resigned in June after serving less than a year in the position. She cited health and personal reasons.

At that time, the broadcaster was criticised for airing a 20-episode programme about the national security law that was perceived to be sympathetic to Beijing.

The programme attended a direct request by RTKH’s government-appointed advisory board, who instructed the broadcaster to ease public concerns about the then-looming law.

Chan served more than 30 years at the broadcaster and had overseen numerous current affairs shows, but in her latest position, she was not directly involved in the production of the controversial programmes.

Amen Ng, director of corporate communications and standards at RTHK, said Chan’s main duty was administration and the decision was not political.

Nabela Qoser probation extended
RTHK has also come under pressure to rein in reporters who ask “disrespectful” questions of senior officials.

In September, the public broadcaster reopened an investigation into Nabela Qoser, an assistant programme officer who had provoked complaints from the public when she confronted the city’s leader Carrie Lam at a press conference after the July 21 Yuen Long mob attack on MTR travellers.

Lam was asked: “Did you learn about it only this morning? Were you able to sleep well last night?” and Qoser also asked her to “speak like a human.”

An initial investigation found that Qoser had done nothing wrong, but shortly before completing her three-year probation period, she was informed that it would be extended for another 120 days for further inquiries.

Union chair Gladys Chiu slammed the decision and said asking difficult questions should not hinder a reporter’s prospects of promotion or confirmation of employment. Lam refused to comment on the case, which she described as a human resources issue.

Interview with WHO top adviser criticised
In March, RTHK News programme The Pulse was criticised by the Hong Kong government for allegedly breaching the One China policy after its producer Yvonne Tong asked questions about Taiwan’s efforts to join the World Health Organisation.

In a video call, Tong asked the WHO’s Dr Bruce Aylward to comment on the Taiwan government’s performance in containing the covid-19 pandemic, and whether the organisation would reconsider the island’s membership.

Dr Aylward appeared to have hung up the call and evaded the question after reconnection.

Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development Edward Yau said the programme breached the principle that there is only one sovereign China. The Director of Broadcasting Leung Ka-wing should be held responsible for RTHK‘s deviation from its charter, Yau added, and RTHK should educate the public about One Country, Two Systems.

Review team set up, pressure by advisory board
In July, the Commerce and Economic Development Bureau set up a team to review RTHK’s governance and management, following the Communications Authority’s findings of bias, inaccuracy and hostility to the police force.

The review aimed to ensure the broadcaster complied with the service charter and codes of practice on programming standards issued by the authority. Charles Mok, the lawmaker representing the IT sector, said he feared the review would compromise the station’s editorial and creative freedom.

In May, the satirical show Headliner received a warning from the Communications Authority after the authority ruled as “substantiated” complaints that an episode aired in February had denigrated and insulted the police force.

The episode implied that police had more protective gear than healthcare staff when the covid-19 pandemic first emerged.

Eventually, the 31-year-old show suspended production after airing the final episode in June.

Personal view programme suspended
In April, the Communications Authority warned the broadcaster over its personal view programme Pentaprism, after it substantiated complaints that an episode contained inaccuracy, incitement of hatred to the police and unfairness. It featured a guest host who criticised the police handling of unrest around the Hong Kong Polytechnic University in November last year.

Complaints about four other episodes which featured guest hosts commenting on police anti-protest operations were also substantiated in September. RTHK decided to suspend the programme in early August, before it received the warnings.
National anthem to be aired every morning

The latest development is that starting from November 16, 2020, the Chinese national anthem – March of the Volunteers – will be aired at 8am every day ahead of news reports on all RTHK radio channels.

Spokesperson Amen Ng said that according to its charter, the public broadcaster should enhance citizens’ understanding of One Country, Two Systems and nurture their civic and national identity. The new arrangement is necessary, she said.

This article was originally published on Hong Kong Free Press (HKFP) on 11 November  2020. This edited version is published by Global Voices and the Pacific Media Centre under a content partnership agreement.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DOCUMENTARY: By Sri Krishnamurthi, who talks to Jim Marbrook about the making of Loimata – The Sweetest Tears.

Loimata isn’t just a true story of one of the Pacific’s great waka builders and sailors that has been captured in a stirring and visually gripping and poignant documentary.

It is also about the friendship between the aiga (family) of Ema Siope, a Samoan-born Kiwi and master waka builder and the palagi (pākehā) Marbrook family that they took into their hearts and made a magical documentary – that is relevant in this 21st century New Zealand.

Anna Marbrook, who has directed more than 150 episodes of Shortland Street and made documentaries focused on Pacific themes such Te Mana o te Moana – The Pacific Voyagers, and reality series Waka Warriors brings to life the tale of waka builder and captain Lilo Ema Siope who died in 2018 from cancer.

READ MORE: Loimata – Why this Kiwi doco will move you in ways you might not see coming

It is brave realistic tale of tragedy and redemption and the return of the Siope family to Samoa and what it meant to Ema captured with gentleness, tears and laughter by Siope’s friend Anna Marbrook.

The documentary also caught the full attention of Jim Marbrook, a senior film lecturer at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) and himself a documentary maker including feature-length documentaries on speed chess maestros (2003 award-winner Dark Horse), psychiatric hospitals (Mental Notes) and environmental issues in New Caledonia (Cap Bocage).

“It was an idea of me talking about the idea making a family project, a family making a film about a family,” says Jim Marbrook about the documentary and the two families that become intertwined like the strands of a seafarer’s rope.

There is little doubt that the ties that bind Pacific families is very difficult to break into, particularly for outsiders and that this palagi Marbrook family managed to do just that was what makes this documentary that little bit extra magical because they give you the rare insight into the Siope family.

The ties binding two families
“So Anna and I have both known the Siope family for years, I have known the family for six years and Anna has known the family for the same number of years,” explains Jim, who is also a research associate and advisory board member of AUT’s Pacific Media Centre.

“We both knew them from different contacts; Anna knew Ema and I knew Fetaui and his son Joshua, and he is currently a master’s student at AUT, so we both knew the family pretty well,” Jim says of the ties that bind the two families.

“So we both knew the family were pretty special so it was obvious to me that this was a very interesting family.

“But I hadn’t met Ema until Anna introduced me, so Anna and Ema decided to start doing the movie and Ema asked me to come on board.

“I’ve done a lot of work before on mental health and mental health films and about communities who were suffering trauma.

“I was a bit hesitant about diving into such a deep and personal story; the moment I met Ema and she asked me on board …I thought she was a pretty interesting woman,” he says wistfully.

But what is it that made it so personal for him?

Films that offer solutions
“I’m a really big believer in doing films that offer solutions,” he says.

“Personally, all of my work has been about people who are proactive and seeking change.

“I guess my personal ethos as a documentary maker is, can I make a film that encourages change, can I present the public that helps them understand difficult situations and provides them not only the portrait of a really interesting person but a way out of that situation,” he says.

“When I heard Ema’s story I realised that here was a person who had used identification with waka culture, with tradition and navigation to change her world view, to get out of a situation where she did live some very difficult times in her youth and those times involved abuse,” he says thoughtfully.

“So, the moment I met Ema and the moment I understood what the story was about I realised, ‘hey this is a film that has the potential to encourage people to grow and change’.”
But the puzzling thing, I suppose, was how the aiga came to accept the Marbrooks as part of the larger family.

“I think both Anna and I have worked in all sorts of multicultural communities, so firstly I think we’ve developed a way of working alongside people. I think the very idea of working alongside each other was important.” he says.

“And I think if we hadn’t known the family for so long that work would have been impossible.

‘They kind of came to us’
“The fact is we didn’t come in and pitch the film to them. They kind of came to us and Ema came to Anna and then Ema came to me. That makes a huge difference in terms of the way you’re planning a project that becomes a partnership,” he says with a finality on the subject.

And how was Ema Siope as a person?

Here was a six-foot person, twice as strong as a man and an Amazon.

She was gender fluid and she was someone who knew what she wanted, and people followed her like the captain she was.

He recalls the time when he with camera in hand tried to keep up with her in Samoa.

“When we went to Samoa she was in a quite a bit of pain but there she was, picking up a machete in one hand and hibiscus flower in the other, chopping her way through the undergrowth and that was classic Ema.”

It is the redemptive tale of the waka builder and skipper Ema Siope’s final years, the stunning Loimata – The Sweetest Tears is a chronicle of journeys – journeys of migration, spirituality, voyaging, healing and coming home.

Confronting intergenerational trauma
Confronting intergenerational trauma head on, the Siope family returns to their homeland of Sāmoa.

For Ema’s father, this is his first time back to his birthplace since leaving in 1959. The result is a poignant yet tender story of a family’s unconditional love for each other, and a commitment to becoming whole again.

Ema was born and raised in South Auckland as a child of Samoan migrants. She captained both the Haunui Waka Hourua and Aotearoa One, both of which belong to the great waka master Hoturoa Barclay-Kerr.

Ema’s key role in the revival of voyaging saw her become an important mentor for future generations of voyagers

Jim Marbrook has only one wish – that everyone of Samoan heritage and the whole of New Zealand turns out to watch it.

• Loimata – The Sweetest Tears is having its world premiere in cinema in the Whanau Marama/New Zealand International Film Festival at ASB Waterfront Theatre in Auckland, on Saturday, July 25, at 7.00pm. It will then screen in select cinemas and venues across the country. It has already sold out for its first screenings in Auckland and Wellington. It will also play as part of the hybrid online festival, from August 2-8.

Award-winning Filipino-American filmmaker Ramona Diaz takes viewers to the Philippines where the free press has been under siege since President Rodrigo #Duterte took office three years ago. Video: BA News

Pacific Media Watch

PBS investigative documentary series Frontline has acquired A Thousand Cuts, the powerful documentary of award-winning Filipino-American director Ramona Diaz about a “lawless regime and press freedom”, reports Rappler.

It was screened as the opening night film in New Zealand’s DocEdge virtual documentary film festival tonight and also streamed free in the Philippines tonight as a prelude to the cybercrime libel trial verdict on Monday in the case against Rappler chief executive and co-founder Maria Ressa.

Today is Independence Day in the Philippines and the documentary is being shown via the Frontline YouTube channel for only 24 hours.

READ MORE: Ramona Diaz’s A Thousand Cuts: ‘A risky film on free press, lawless regime’ – review by Camille Elemia

Diaz’s Sundance film festival 2020 entry, which tackles democracy and press freedom in the Philippines under President Rodrigo Duterte, is being planned for a theatrical release in the United States in August and a television broadcast in November 2020.

Rappler has faced many legal battles since 2016, which includes the cyber libel case over a Rappler article published even before the cyber libel law took effect.

Ressa and former Rappler researcher Rey Santos are charged in the case. Ressa, a mainstream investigative journalist with CNN and other news services before co-founding the digital news website currently faces eight charges due to her hard-hitting journalism.

Tomorrow, June 13, Ressa, Diaz, and Frontline executive producer Raney Aronson-Rath will be live at 8 pm, Philippine time, for a discussion on “Truth, Power, and the Importance of Press Freedom.”

The stream is being hosted for free on Zoom and Facebook, and is presented by Frontline in cooperation with the International Center for Journalists.

• A Thousand Cuts in New Zealand’s DocEdge festival

By ABC News Indepth

Just north of Australia a secret war is being fought. West Papuan independence fighters and Indonesian security forces are involved in a protracted and bloody battle over the issue of Papuan independence.

The conflict escalated after young West Papuan fighters killed Indonesian road workers building a highway into Papua’s central highlands.

The Indonesia government hit back hard, deploying hundreds of police and military who attacked the region in an effort to root out the rebels.

READ MORE: The battle for West Papuan independence from Indonesia has intensified with deadly results

Last year mass protests broke out, with civil resistance leaders from in and outside West Papua calling for freedom from Indonesia.

With foreign media largely shut out, the story of this unfolding humanitarian disaster remains untold. Hundreds have died and local officials estimate that over 40,000 people have been displaced.

There are allegations of torture and human rights abuses.

ABC Foreign Correspondent has been able to report from inside the conflict zone, gaining access to exclusive pictures of the recent unrest and speaking to eyewitnesses of the violence.

“I have to yell out to the world…because if I don’t, we’re going to be weaker and the indigenous people will be wiped out.” says one West Papuan highlander who is looking after children orphaned in the recent fighting.

“We will not retreat. We will not run. We will fight until recognition dawns,” says a member of West Papua’s young guerrilla force whose ranks include teenagers orphaned in the ongoing conflict.

“Dialogue is needed but dialogue which is constructive”, says Indonesia’s former Security Minister.

Sally Sara, with Victor Mambor, reports on a war with no end in sight.

A creative “grab bag” of projects has been unveiled by the Pacific Media Centre in a showcase of collaboration across academic and communication communities.

Held at Auckland University of Technology on Friday and hosted by PMC advisory board chair Associate Professor Camille Nakhid, the PMC “Midwinter Showcase” celebrated the launch of a double edition of Pacific Journalism Review, the 2018 Bearing Witness documentary Banabans of Rabi, the Pacific Media Watch Project – The Genesis video and the new PMC Online website.

Doctoral candidate and journalist Atakohu Middleton opened the night with a karakia before pro-vice chancellor and faculty dean Professor Guy Littlefair officially launched PJR – which focuses heavily on the New Zealand mosque massacre and media dilemmas of democracy – with a powerful and poignant speech.

READ MORE: NZ mosque massacre, New Caledonia referendum and Fiji elections top PJR

Describing universities as the “critic and conscience of society”, Professor Littlefair lauded the value of the new PJR research in light of the media response to the March 15 atrocity.

He said how the privileged Pākehā narrative of New Zealand history made the violence of the attack all the more affronting for a media community consisting of mostly young, white journalists.

“This double issue of PJR that I have the privilege to launch tonight picks up on the narrative at precisely this point,” he said.

“’Dilemmas for journalists and democracy [PJR title]’ – these five words encapsulate for me the critic and conscience role of universities.

“This journal provides once again a magnificent example of the best, most relevant, most meaningful research that I as a dean could hope to see come from this wonderful faculty of ours.

“David and the team, I could not be more proud.”

The trailer for Banabans of Rabi.

Banabans of Rabi
Banabans of Rabi was then screened after an introduction by AUT screen production senior lecturer Jim Marbrook.

Marbrook, who helped produce the film, described it as a successful product of collaboration between journalism and screen production students.

He explained that film creators Blessen Tom and Hele Ikimotu had to overcome particular challenges to get to the remote Fijian island of Rabi and make the documentary.

“The philosophy of the Bearing Witness project is to go to areas that are under reported, that are quite difficult to get to; with that comes risks and complications.

“It’s kind of a pressure cooker situation to drop two students into.

“There is not a lot of power on the island, it’s isolated. Complicating that is the mix of languages; Fijian, Gilbertese and Banaban as well.

Blessen Tom then described filming on Rabi where scarcity of electricity meant that he had to be very selective with his choice of shots to conserve battery power.

Sri Krishnamuthi and Blessen Tom’s documentary about Pacific Media Watch.

PMW Project – The Genesis
Postgraduate communications student and former NZ Press Association journalist Sri Krishnamurthi introduced the Pacific Media Watch Project – The Genesis documentary which pays homage to the origins of the PMW media freedom project.

Through making the film with Blessen Tom, Krishnamurthi described learning about the project, from its creation in response to the wrongful arrest of three Tongans in the famous “contempt of Parliament” case in 1996, to its two decades since as a “watchdog of Pacific journalism.”

He stressed the value of the project and its role in the development of student journalists.

“The beauty of it is the use of student contributing editors – all of them will echo my sentiments; that this little gem which is invaluable as a guardian of Pacific journalism must be kept going for years to come.”

PMC Online
Finally, Tony Murrow of Little Island Press unveiled the new mobile friendly and robust PMC Online website, the product of almost two years of his team’s work in collaboration with the PMC.

He said the bold and colourful design reflected the vibrancy and diversity of the Pacific Media Centre.

The website is due to go live on www.pmc.aut.ac.nz in the coming days.

Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie acknowledged all those who had contributed and collaborated on the assortment of projects – including Pacific Journalism Review co-editors and collaborators Khairiah Rahman, Dr Philip Cass, Del Abcede, Nicole Gooch and Professor Wendy Bacon, whom he described as one of the best investigative journalists in Australia.

A short documentary which highlights the risks of being a journalist in Indonesian-ruled Papua region (West Papua) has won an international film award.

Aprila, directed by Rohan Radheya, took out the best short film award at the 16th Pacific FIFO Documentary Film Festival in French Polynesia.

The Dutch journalist and film-maker’s documentary tells the story of a young local journalist who stopped doing her job after receiving death threats.

READ MORE: FIFO 2019 – the winners

According to FIFO’s website, audience members in Tahiti expressed interest in the insight the film offered into a region and freedom struggle largely unknown to the world.

Radheya said while international attention on Papua often focused on restrictions that Jakarta placed on access for foreign journalists, the plight of local journalists was ignored.

“What we endure as foreign journalists is nothing compared to what local indigenous journalists in Papua are facing,” he said.

Papuan journalist turned novelist Aprila Waya, the main character in the documentary, said on Facebook: “This is a new thing for me where the process of making this film (more than three years) has taken more energy than writing a novel.

“Anyway, this is not my victory – it’s the victory of all the Papua people.”

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

#journalismisnotacrime

• More West Papua stories

By RNZ Pacific

A Canadian film about climate change in Kiribati and the Pacific has won the top prize at the 16th Pacific Documentary Film Festival in French Polynesia.

The film, Anote’s Ark by Matthieu Rytz, looked at the plight of Kiribati and former President Anote Tong who championed the Pacific human rights struggle over climate change.

Tong was president of his country between 2003 and 2016.

READ MORE: The FIFO 2019 film festival

The special prize of the jury went to Island of the Hungry Ghosts from Austrian director Gabrielle Brady.

The prize of the public went to a local production Patutiki, the art of tattooing of the Marquesas Islands by Heretu Tetahiotupa and Christophe Cordier.

About 30,000 people attended the week-long event in the Tahitian capital of Pape’ete.

• Bearing Witness climate project

By Rahul Bhattarai in Auckland

Banabans of Rabi – A story of Survival, a short documentary film by the two Auckland University of Technology media students, has been premiered in the fourth Nuku’alofa International Film Festival that took place in Tonga this week.

This short documentary is a story about the people who have been first affected by the phosphate mining on their original home island of Banaba and now by climate change on their adopted island of Rabi.

The British Phosphate Commission forceful displaced them from Banaba during World War Two.

READ MORE: Life on Fiji’s Rabi Island – simple, peaceful and full of smiles

Since 1945 after they first settled into their new home – Rabi, a remote northern island in Fiji – they are faced with a second and the most threatening man-made global problem, climate change.

Tom Corrie, one of the residents who had left Rabi as a young man and later returned, says Rabi has changed.

“The part of my history has been taken away from me, part of my livelihood, my enjoyment my pleasures have gone,” he says in the documentary, pointing at his former playground that now has now been engulfed by the rising tides.

“We are the most effected by climate change,” he says.

In solidarity
“People in Rabi and their struggle with climate change, they’re not the cause of this but unfortunately they [have] had to face the consequences,” says co-director Blessen Tom.

“I wanted the world to know about their struggle and wanted to let them know that they’re not alone in this,” says Tom.

The film was a part of the Pacific Media Centre’s Bearing Witness climate change project, which was initiated by director Professor David Robie in 2016.

It has been made possible by collective support from the partners, University of South Pacific Journalism, the Pacific Centre for the Environment and Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD) and AUT’s Te Ara Motuhenga documentary collective with senior and documentary maker Jim Marbrook.

Film makers Hele Ikimotu and Blessen Tom travelled to Tonga with the assistance of a funding grant from AUT’s School of Communication Studies.

• ‘Bearing Witness’ – a Pacific climate change journalism research and publication initiative

Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk

A short documentary, Banabans of Rabi – A Story of Survival, by Hele Ikimotu and Blessen Tom of Auckland University of Technology’s Pacific Media Centre, has been selected for the 2018 Nuku’alofa Film Festival in Tonga next month.

This is a film produced out of the three-year-old Bearing Witness climate change project, a research and publication collaboration between the PMC and its documentary partner Te Ara Motuhenga, and the Pacific Centre for Environment-Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD) and the Regional Journalism Programme at the University of the South Pacific.

According to the filmmakers: “During the Second World War, the inhabitants of the island of Banaba were forcibly displaced to Rabi Island in Fiji due to phosphate mining by the British Phosphate Commission.

“The island of Banaba was decimated and the Banabans had to start afresh in Rabi. The documentary follows the people in Rabi and sheds light into the problems that they face now, especially with climate change.”

Film maker Blessen Tom said on the documentary’s Facebook page: “It’s an amazing news for all of us. The festival will be the first time the full documentary is screened in public.

“Super excited for the Pacific screening. If you’re in Tonga on November 22-23, be sure to visit us.”

Documentary maker and senior lecturer Jim Marbrook said: “This is great and it’s a very cool first step,” adding that plans should be made for other film festival entries.

Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie said: “This is a tremendous achievement for starters and a reward for the really hard work that Blessen and Hele have put into making this quality and inspirational doco.”

• Banabans of Rabi
• 2018 Nuku’alofa Film Festival

A Chinese government-sponsored cultural and education programme offers Mandarin lessons around the world. But a new film raises questions about a darker side of the Confucius Institutes, reports Rahul Bhattarai of Asia Pacific Journalism.

Chinese-born Canadian film director Doris Liu has had her visa to China denied but has never faced a direct threat or interference from the Beijing government over her controversial documentary In The Name Of Confucius screened in Auckland last month.

Her visa to China has been rejected because of her investigative work, she told Asia Pacific Report.

Her documentary criticises Chinese policy and political influence through the multibillion dollar Chinese government-supported Confucius Institute programmes attached to 1600 universities and schools across the globe.

READ MORE: In The Name of Confucius

Three universities in New Zealand have ties with CI – University of Auckland (UOA), Canterbury University and Victoria University of Wellington.

Auckland University of Technology (which has no ties with the institute) and Victoria University welcomed the screening of the documentary.

But the University of Auckland cancelled its public screening on the day of the event – just hours before the documentary was due to be screened.

“I had already been rejected for a Chinese visa to enter China because of my journalism before making this film,” filmmaker Liu said.

Recorded, threatened
However, she added that during her interviews in one of the Canadian institutes, the Confucius Institute director had video recorded her and threatened that she would report her back to Beijing.

“The director used her smartphone to film me conducting an interview with the school board representatives,” Liu said.

“She told me that she would report back to Hanban in Beijing about my media presence.” (Hanban is an abbreviation for the Office of Chinese Language Council International, the Confucius Institute headquarters.)

Liu added that “the interview didn’t end happily as the school representatives stopped the interview and they all walked away.

“After that I couldn’t get access to any Canadian Confucius Institutes, except for a couple of telephone interviews.

“I could imagine that Hanban informed all its Chinese directors working at the Canadian Confucius Institute not to accept my interview requests.”

Suppressing teachings
While talking to Mack Smith of 95bFM, Dr Catherine Churchman of Victoria University said that under the institute policy, “you have to teach Mandarin, you are not allowed teach Cantonese or Hokkien” – or any of the other Chinese languages – and “you have to teach in the simplified Chinese characters set”.

Dr Churchman said the main reason the institutes did not allow the teaching of traditional Chinese was to “suppress people” from being able to read documents from Taiwan or Hong Kong, or many other overseas countries.

Until the 1980s, the Chinese diaspora, including in New Zealand, used traditional Chinese characters to publish their literature.

Dr Churchman said that many of the texts published in China, including the literature from the Chinese Communist Party and its foreign affairs, were only in traditional Chinese.

Suppressing the traditional Chinese was a form of “censorship that the Chinese Communist Party has over things written inside China”, she said.

“They [CI] have a lot of influence over the institute itself, they pay for half of it usually, and they pay quiet a lot of money,” she said.

Dr Churchman said Victoria University received about “half a million” dollars in 2016.

Institute ‘controlled’
The Confucius Institute was run by Hanban, which was controlled by the Chinese Ministry of Education, she said.

While the ministry might not necessarily have had direct influence over the institute, it did provide rules about what was allowed to be taught in the institute.

After Auckland University cancelled the public film screening of In The Name of Confucius, Associate Professor Phillipa Malpas said: “The event was prematurely advertised as being open to the public before it had been approved and confirmed by my faculty.

“It was subsequently approved for screening to University of Auckland staff and students.”

AUT screened the documentary at a public event on July 26 with a packed auditorium, including the presence of an Asia Pacific Report journalist.

However, Alison Sykora, head of communications in AUT, said the Chinese Vice-Consul-General spoke to the university before the screening of the movie. The Vice-Consul had been given an invitation but AUT had not yet received a reply.

Chinese soft power
The documentary shows how China has been using CI in order to influence foreign countries through soft-power initiatives.

Michel Juneau-Katsuya, former chief of the Asia Pacific Canadian Security Intelligence Service, says in the film: “CI were used to manipulate not only the academic world, where they were implanted, but to also emanate more influence outside of the campus as well.”

The documentary says that the CI is an “infiltration organisation” that was founded in 2004 by the Chinese government under the guise of teaching foreign students Chinese culture and language.

Institute teachers were also forced to sign a contract that they were not members of the banned and persecuted spiritual group Falun Gong.

Last November, the Chinese government pressured the Japanese government in an attempt to cancel an international conference due to the planned showing of the documentary, but in spite of the pressure the screening went ahead.

The film was shown in an international human rights conference in Tokyo, receiving a good response from the global audience.

In The Name Of Confucius has been shown 57 times in 12 countries.

Filmmaker Doris Liu said that the movie had been well received, with review ratings of 8.7 out of 10 on Internet Movie Database (IMDb) and 4.8 out of 5 on Facebook.

Rahul Bhattarai is a student journalist on the Postgraduate Diploma in Communication Studies (Journalism) reporting on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course at AUT University.

• How China is invading Western universities with communist propaganda – Huffington Post

Over the course of a week earlier this month, a French/Ni-Vanuatu documentary team ventured to the summit of Ambae’s Mount Lombenben to see for themselves the effects of the Manaro-Vui volcano in Vanuatu.

What they saw was an island transformed.

One team member, a Ni-Vanuatu man, told the Vanuatu Daily Post how he had spoken to one Ambaean woman who was nearly ready to give up on trying to grow food.

READ MORE: Latest Ambae eruption produced worst ashfall

The crops kept dying, she said, and she kept planting. All she can do now, she told him, is hope that her garden would survive.

“It’s up to God and the land,” she said.

Throughout Ambae, and particularly in the western half of the island, communications are sparse, travel is becoming increasingly difficult, and supplies are alarmingly short. Water is a particular concern in the west.

The two roads joining the western and eastern ends of the island are cut by mudslides.

According to eyewitnesses, the roads are impassable to vehicles, so all travel and transport between the two sides has to go by boat or by plane.

Supply shortages
This appears to be leading to supply shortages in the west. According to one report, a 36-litre carton of bottled water now costs VT2400 (NZ$32).

But the biggest worry is what is on top of the island. The Manaro-Vui volcano, situated at the summit of Mount Lombenben, has utterly transformed its immediate vicinity, and a growing area around it.

The approach to the summit is tortuous, according to Philippe Carillo, whose video production company, Fusion Productions, has operated in Vanuatu since June last year.

The team was advised that fog descends on the summit by mid-morning most days, so in order to ensure clear skies for the crew, they departed from the area of Ndui Ndui village shortly after midnight.

The team struggled for eight hours through a morass of mud, muck and ash. Ash has blanketed a substantial area, killing all vegetation in a ring that’s now several kilometres in diameter.

Outside that area, volcanic ash is ever-present. Roads are carpeted with it, creating an uncannily smooth ride—where vehicles can still pass. Drone footage of an abandoned village on the approaches to the volcano shows a house constructed of timber and local materials that’s been flattened by the weight of ash upon it.

In some villages, ash is ankle-deep on the ground.

Shocking transformation
The higher you go up the mountainside, the more shocking the transformation. Even kilometres away from the caldera, a deep blanket of ash has choked all life. Deep runnels carved by rainwater make the path a tricky one.

The ashfall is so heavy in some areas that even locals no longer recognise the place. The group’s guide lost his bearings at least twice, sending the team casting about across the hillside waste land, trying to find their way.

After a gruelling eight-hour slog, the team finally crested the last hill overlooking what used to be lake Vui. It has been replaced by a kilometre-wide ash plain, reminiscent of a lunar landscape.

A tiny vestige of the lake remains, coloured brilliant red because evaporation has left it super-concentrated with iron and other minerals.

The scale of the devastation is hard to grasp from the ground. But drone imagery shows the true size of the cone that’s risen from the waters. Human figures almost are almost vanishingly small in this post-apocalyptic landscape.

The visuals are stunning, but the implications for the island are cause for concern. With this volume of ash, much of it still not packed down by wind and rain, the prospect of further damage downhill rises as the rainy season approaches.

Tree trunks and large limbs killed by the ashfall could well accompany the large volumes of mud that will inevitably flow down the hillsides. These could block existing streams and creeks, sending mud and water elsewhere and potentially posing an additional danger to villages, which are often situated near watercourses.

Mud damage risk
The Geohazards Unit has already issued advisories concerning this risk, and has identified an area covering more than two-thirds of the island as being at risk of damage from mud and water.

The team returned from the summit the late in the day, and later shared their results with local villagers. One member, Terence Malapa, assured the Daily Post that the team had shown deep and sincere respect for the strong tabu associated with the volcano.

They performed kastom ceremonies with the relevant chiefly authorities, he said, and went nowhere without permission.

Will they be returning soon? No, says Philippe Carillo. The walk to the summit was arduous.
“It was a once in a lifetime journey,” he said.

The team voluntarily briefed the National Disaster Management Office, who thanked them for their contribution.

Dan McGarry is media director of the Vanuatu Daily Post group. This article is republished with permission.

By Michelle Winowatan

Dozens of Indonesian military and police personnel raided a student dormitory in Surabaya on July 6 to stop the screening of a documentary about security force atrocities in Papua.

It is the latest example of the government’s determination not to deal with past abuses in the country’s easternmost province.

Security forces carried out the raid following social media postings about the planned screening of the documentary Bloody Biak (Biak Berdarah).

READ MORE: Police claim raid on Papuan students to block ‘Bloody Biak’ film screening

The film documents Indonesian security forces opening fire on a peaceful pro-Papuan independence flag-raising ceremony in the town of Biak in July 1998, killing dozens.

Security forces said the dorm raid was necessary to prevent unspecified “hidden activities” by Papuan students.

The raid is emblematic of both the Indonesian government’s failure to deliver on promises of accountability for past human rights abuses in Papua and its willingness to take heavy-handed measures to stifle public discussion about those violations.

The government of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo has not fulfilled a commitment made in 2016 to seek resolution of longstanding human rights abuses, including the Biak massacre and the military crackdown on Papuans in Wasior in 2001 and Wamena in 2003 that killed dozens and displaced thousands.

Killing with impunity
Meanwhile, police and other security forces that kill Papuans do so with impunity.

Media coverage of rights abuses in Papua are hobbled by the Indonesian government’s decades-old access restrictions to the region, despite Jokowi’s 2015 pledge to lift them.

Domestic journalists are vulnerable to intimidation and harassment from officials, local mobs, and security forces.

The government is also hostile to foreign human rights observers seeking access to Papua.

Last month, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, said he was “concerned that despite positive engagement by the authorities in many respects, the government’s invitation to my Office to visit Papua – which was made during my visit in February – has still not been honoured”.

The raid in Surabaya signals the government’s determination to maintain its chokehold on public discussion of human rights violations across Indonesia.

This suggests that the government’s objective is to maintain Papua as a ”forbidden island” rather than provide transparency and accountability for human rights abuses there.

Michelle Winowatan is a Human Rights Watch intern. The Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project monitors Asia-Pacific rights issues.

• West Papuans tortured, killed and dumped at sea, citizens’ tribunal hears

Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk

A Bougainvillean leader has accused Papua New Guinean Prime Minister Peter O’Neill of “undermining” the island’s 17-year-old peace agreement and the independence vote due next year.

Martin Miriori also condemned O’Nell for lacking sensitivity over Bougainville that struck a New Zealand-brokered peace agreement which ended a 10-year civil war and included a referendum vote on independence.

Miriori, a Panguna landowner and pro-independence leader, was reacting to a statement by O’Neill at the Business Forum in Brisbane last week and repeated in PNG’s The National newspaper that the vote was not about independence, but what was best for the people of Bougainville.

READ MORE: PNG prime minister says Bougainville vote is not about independence

“When the prime minister comes out openly making such a statement in public, my view is that he is already undermining the good intentions and the spirit of the Bougainville Peace Agreement which, among other issues, clearly states that the issue of independence for Bougainville will be also among the options for a referendum vote to be taken by the people [in] June next year,” he said today in a statement.

“This is also the common understanding of the international community as well [as] including the United Nations,” Miriori said.

“For the prime minister to water down the main focus on the independence issue at this time is simply a big slap on the face [of] the people of Bougainville.”

Miriori said Bougainvilleans would not have “fully committed themselves” to the joint partnership with Papua New Guinea in the peace process if they knew that they were “going to be tricked”.

“We must not lose the trust and confidence of the people at all cost, and in doing so try to confuse them by making such statements, which could easily undermine all our good work and tireless efforts being invested in this very delicate and sensitive process since we first fully committed ourselves at Burnham [New Zealand] in July 1997 towards achieving lasting peace by peaceful means,” Miriori said.

RNZ Pacific reports that O’Neill told the Business Forum in Brisbane that when the outcome of the referendum was tabled in the national Parliament, he was sure every MP would vote in the interests of a unified and harmonious country.

Guitars instead of guns
Meanwhile, the film maker of a forthcoming documentary about the Bougainville peace process, Soldiers Without Guns, has released a trailer.

In a social media message message to supporters last week, Will Watson said: “We were celebrating the 20th anniversary of lasting peace for Bougainville yesterday.

“Yes, the 30 April 1998 was the signing of the peace accord.

“The other big news is that I completed the trailer for the upcoming movie, Soldiers Without Guns. It took lots of work but I think it describes the Pacific’s worst civil war and peacekeeping with guitars instead of guns.

“Still lots of work to do to complete the film. I hope you like the trailer.

Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk

The people of Natawaru Settlement in Fiji have seen their humble livelihoods grow more precarious as the effects of climate change take their toll.

From rising seas, depleted fish stocks and rising temperatures, the community is faced with a struggle for survival.

However, the people, who live near Fiji’s second city Lautoka on Viti Levu island, have declared themselves a “violence free community”.

Tide of Change is a short documentary film by student journalists at the University of the South Pacific: Koroi Tadulala, Aachal Chand, Mitieli Baleiwai, Venina Rakautoga and Kaelyn Dakuibure

Producer: Dr Olivier Jutel

• More Fiji stories

In Papua New Guinea, community leader Joe Moses struggles to save the 3000 inhabitants of Port Moresby’s Paga Hill settlement before they are forcibly evicted from their homes in this documentary screened on Al Jazeera’s Witness programme.

Despite betrayals, police brutality and risks to his own life, Moses battles through the courts for three years, fighting the company which wants to develop the area into a luxury resort and cultural centre.

WATCH ON YOUTUBE: Al Jazeera’s Witness screening of the Paga Hill documentary

As the struggle unfolds, Moses recruits a coalition of allies, including politician Dame Carol Kidu, investigator Dr Kristian Lasslett and a motivated team of pro-bono lawyers to help him save his community.

“Some stories pick you. On my second day in Papua New Guinea, I found myself in the middle of a human rights abuse – standing between police holding machetes and machine guns, and the Paga Hill community, who were watching their homes being destroyed and fearing for their lives. The community were peaceful, but refused to be defeated,” recalls filmmaker Hollie Fifer.

“When I found out that a property developer was after the Paga Hill land in order to build a five-star hotel, marina wharf, and national cultural centre, I knew I had an obligation to capture the community’s resistance.

“The irony of violently evicting a Papua New Guinean community to replace their homes with a national cultural centre was startling.

“The fallacy of ‘development’ was clear. Over the last four years, I have been constantly watching the story of Paga Hill unfold and trying to capture it as it does.”

• The Opposition, the documentary by Hollie Fifer, which itself has been the target of censorship bids and a legal wrangle, can be viewed via Al Jazeera’s Witness programme page on YouTube.
• The trailer
• The ‘battle of Paga Hill’ – controversial PNG doco finally on NZ screens

DOCUMENTARY: By Markus Henssler

Climate change and rising sea levels mean the island nation of Kiribati in the South Pacific is at risk of disappearing into the sea.

But the island’s inhabitants aren’t giving up. They are doing what they can to save their island from inundation.

Their survival story was featured this month at COP23 in Bonn, Germany.

UN estimates indicate that Kiribati could disappear in just 30 or 40 years.

This is because the average elevation is less than 2m above sea level.

And some of the knock-on effects of climate change have made the situation more difficult.

Kiribati can hardly be surpassed in terms of charm and natural beauty.

There are 33 atolls and one reef island – spread out over an area of 3.5 million sq km.

All have white, sandy beaches and blue lagoons.

Largest atoll nation
Kiribati is the world’s largest state that consists exclusively of atolls.

A local resident named Kaboua points to the empty, barren land around him and says, “There used to be a large village here with 70 families.”

But these days, this land is only accessible at low tide. At high tide, it’s all under water.

Kaboua says that sea levels are rising all the time, and swallowing up the land. This is why many people here build walls made of stone and driftwood, or sand or rubbish.

But these barriers won’t stand up to the increasing number of storm surges.

Others are trying to protect against coastal erosion by planting mangrove shrubs or small trees.

But another local resident, Vasiti Tebamare, remains optimistic. She works for KiriCAN, an environmental organisation.

She says: “The industrialised countries — the United States, China, and Europe — use fossil fuels for their own ends. But what about us?”

Kiribati’s government has even bought land on an island in Fiji, so it can evacuate its people in an emergency.

But Vasiti and most of the other residents don’t want to leave.

• More COP23 stories

By Charlie Angela in Venice

“Two people drowned at sea. I wish they were still with us,” a middle-aged man says, his voice breaking.

“They appear in my dreams at night. I see them in my sleep and they tell me what to do. What am I supposed to do?” he asks, breaking down in tears.

This is just one of the many powerful scenes captured in Human Flow, the new documentary by Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei exploring the global refugee crisis.

VIEW MORE: Ai Weiwei’s photos from Lesbos capture refugee life

The film is one of the most talked-about entries in this year’s Venice Film Festival, and was one of the top contenders for its top prize, the Golden Lion.

It might have missed out on the main prize – which went to an American romantic fantasy The Shape of Water about a cleaning lady who falls in love with an aquatic creature – but Human Flow has still had a dramatic impact on global thinking about refugees.

Shot in more than 40 refugee camps across 23 countries, the documentary offers a fresh look at the refugee crisis from Europe and Asia to Africa, peppered with poetry, heartbreaking stories and dramatic aerial footage shot mostly with drones.

Speaking at the festival, Ai said a solution to the crisis could easily be reached once people realise that the refugee problem is “about all of us”.

“It takes individuals to act, to be involved, to push the politicians, to create the right discussion,” he said.

As many as 70 countries have placed walls to stem the flow of refugees. In an interview with the Huffington WorldPost, filmmaker Ai said that he planned to screen his documentary to legislators involved in the refugee policies.

“My art is a personal effort to help viewers understand, through experiences and emotions, another person or another condition,” he said.

WATCH MORE: Drifting – art, awareness and the refugee crisis

Lee Marshall, a critic for Screen Daily, said he was impressed by the way Ai had approached his role in the film.

“One nice thing about it, for me, is that he does appear in the film but very much as a guy who is just hanging out with refugees,” Marshall told Al Jazeera, “rather than going in … and being very pushy and trying through irony or provocation to get his agenda through”.

A major artist of our times, Ai is renowned for his activism.

• More refugee stories

BACKGROUND: Naashon Zalk reports on his two-part documentary

I had lived in New Zealand for two years in the early 2000s. In 2015, I moved back here. And I was astonished to see how much the country had changed in those 15 years.

It has become wealthier on the back of an urban property boom, mass immigration and the explosive growth of intensive dairy farming which began back in the 1990s.

I also discovered that the country is harbouring a disturbing secret, little known to the rest of the world: its freshwater is in severe crisis. Two-thirds of New Zealand’s rivers are too polluted to swim in and half its lakes are irreversibly damaged.

This pollution, say many independent environmentalists, scientists and economists, is primarily a by-product of the laissez faire growth of the country’s dairy industry. The government, dairy industry, and irrigation lobby disagree. They say it’s a legacy of over 100 years of farming.

I set out to investigate why New Zealand, a country which markets itself as a clean, green paradise, has in fact got disturbing water pollution problems which only appear to be getting worse.

While I was researching the story an event happened which I believe has been pivotal in awakening New Zealanders to the dire state of their freshwater. In August 2016, the tiny town of Havelock North, on the east coast of the country’s North Island, was incapacitated by an outbreak of campylobacter in their drinking water.

More than 5000 of its 15,000 inhabitants were made ill by the bug and three deaths were later linked to the outbreak.

Bigger pertinent story
Upon investigating the Havelock North water poisoning I was alerted to an even bigger, and more pertinent story in the wider Hawke’s Bay area.

The regional council had been striving for years to get a controversial billion-dollar irrigation scheme off the ground, called the Ruataniwha Water Storage Scheme. But as I found, local and national opposition to the dam, especially after the Havelock North contamination outbreak, was becoming more vocal.

I quickly realised that this was a crucial part of the story. The growth of New Zealand’s highly profitable dairy industry has, to a large extent, been made possible by irrigation schemes which deliver the massive volumes of water needed to produce milk.

Every litre of milk produced requires about 1000 litres of water. The most irrigated region of New Zealand is Canterbury, on the east coast of the country’s South Island. It has seen significant economic growth on the back of dairy farming but, over the same period of time, has also seen a drastic decline in the quality of its waterways.

Opponents of the dam in Hawke’s Bay were worried that the same environmental degradation would take place in their region if it went ahead.

They were also concerned that the council, hell-bent on the scheme, were ignoring glaring flaws in the dam’s business case.

A regional election, coming only a month after the Havelock North debacle, was gearing up to become a referendum on the dam and it gave me the perfect vehicle to explore the arguments. At the time, the nine-member council was divided between five pro- and four anti-dam representatives.

All it would take to thwart the dam was for anti-dam councillors to win a single seat. And the winning of that seat would have national repercussions, because the Ruataniwha project was seen as the poster child for other planned irrigations schemes, most of them along New Zealand’s drought prone east coast.

Eager to understand their vastly opposing views I followed the election campaigns of two local politicians.

‘Can the Dam’ campaign
Alan Dick, a regional councillor, was one of the dam project’s originators. The other, Paul Bailey, is a former bank manager turned Green Party politician. He was running for office for the first time under the slogan “Can The Dam”.

On the surface, the arguments of the pro-dam lobby sounded very reasonable. I was told the dam would alleviate drought concerns, boost economic growth and improve the quality of rivers it fed into by flushing away pollution.

In tandem with constructing the dam, much stricter environmental regulations would come into play to keep contamination below an environmental limit which was set by the Environmental Protection Agency.

But as I investigated further I found what seemed to be serious flaws in their arguments. And indeed, upon examination, the commercial case for the dam didn’t seem to add up either.

As you’ll see, these are documented in the first film – and continue into the second episode in which I also look at allegations of high-level political interference in the project and other related issues.

Over the many months, I’ve spent investigating this story, anxiety and anger about freshwater pollution has grown to make it New Zealand’s top environmental concern – and now, reflecting many of the same arguments I’d encountered in Hawke’s Bay, it’s also become a key issue in the country’s current and ongoing general election campaign, which reaches a climax on September 23.

Barely a day goes by without the problem being reported in the media here and seemingly everyone has an opinion – whether they be environmentalists arguing for a better way of managing a vital natural resource or dairy farmers who are angry at what they see as grossly unfair criticism of their role in the crisis.

The fury of the latter – and they are a powerful lobby in New Zealand – was brought home to us several times on location when our attempts to film generic roadside shots of dairy cattle were interrupted by the animals’ suspicious owners.

My main hope is that some of the questions raised by these films will contribute to the debate around New Zealand’s freshwater problems – problems that all agree will have to be addressed by whichever party takes office after the election.

One thing is certain, urgent action on pollution cannot be delayed.

Editor’s note: Last week, on August 30, as these two Al Jazeera documentaries were being prepared for broadcast, Hawke’s Bay Regional Council announced it was withdrawing support for the Ruataniwha dam, leaving the project’s future in some doubt. Nevertheless, with the current New Zealand National Party-led coalition government and many in the powerful dairy industry continuing to be strong supporters of irrigation schemes, it may be too soon to write the scheme off entirely.

• How water pollution has become a major issue in New Zealand
• Reporter’s Notebook
  
• Polluted Paradise – People & Power investigates Part 1
• Polluted Paradise – People & Power investigates Part 2

With just one female MP in a house of 50 MPs in Honiara, there is a broad agreement that something most be done to increase female representation.

Osifelo looks at the politics of the proposed 10 reserved parliamentary seats for women and discusses the issues facing the next generation of leaders.

• Radio Pasifik’s Facebook page
• Wansolwara News

On an island with the third largest rainforest in the world live an indigenous people who are quickly becoming a minority in their own land.

Sitting north of Australia and occupying the western half of the island of New Guinea is West Papua – a territory rich in natural resources which was formally but controversially absorbed into Indonesia in the 1960s following the withdrawal of Dutch colonial administration.

West Papuans were largely excluded from that decision and for the past 50 years they have raised concerns about the infringement of their basic human rights in modern Indonesia.

Joko Widodo’s government has rejected these concerns saying living standards are improving for people in the Papua region, which appears at odds with the growing number of demonstrations by West Papuans calling for a legitimate self-determination process and an end to rights abuses.

Regardless, Indonesian rule means the face of West Papuan society is changing rapidly, but Radio New Zealand International journalists Johnny Blades and Koroi Hawkins found that the core culture of these Melanesian people is not easily destroyed.

Written and produced by: Johnny Blades

Camera: Koroi Hawkins

Editor: Jeremy Brick

This documentary was first broadcast by RNZ International on 23 December 2016 and has been republished here with permission.

• Media freedom in West Papua ‘exposed’ – Graduate journalist Struan Purdie’s report for the Pacific Media Centre
• Watching this space, West Papua – Johnny Blades in Pacific Journalism Review

The first screening was held on October 30 at the Deptford Cinema, London, a community cinema with a longstanding following.

People were inspired at learning about the forgotten struggle in West Papua and were eager to learn how they could help.

Another screening of the film was held last week at St Margaret’s House in Bethnal Green.

The event brought together scores of people, including from the UK’s Pacific Islands community who were inspired to learn of the West Papuan struggle firsthand after watching the film.

A Q and A session followed with Benny Wenda afterwards.

West Papuan band The Lani Singers also played West Papuan songs of freedom and a Free West Papua stall was held.

Copies of The Road To Home can be ordered through the Free West Papua website here and copies of the award-winning West Papua documentary Forgotten Bird of Paradise (by the same filmmaker) can also be ordered here. 

By TJ Aumua in Auckland 

Filmmakers of the New Zealand documentary Price of Peace were honoured this week with the producers receiving an award for their contribution to “peace and aroha”.

Director Kim Webby with co-producers Christina Milligan and Roger Grant were recipients of the Te Pou Tatau Pounamu NZ Peace Foundation Award at the Ngā Aho Whakaari (Māori in Screen Production) 20th Anniversary.

Milligan told the Pacific Media Centre that they were honoured to be recognised by their peers and the film community.

She added the film has achieved more success than they had hoped for, reaching mainstream and indigenous audiences around the world.

Tūhoe activist

The film provides exclusive access to the world of Tūhoe activist Wairere Tame Iti and the trial of the Urewera Four’ in which Iti and three others were accused of plotting terrorist activities in 2007.

International screenings

International screenings of the film continue this week, with the documentary being featured in the Margaret Mead Film Festival at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.

It was recently aired on Al Jazeera as a Witness documentary under the title An Innocent Warrior. 

In January 2017, it will be filmed at the Skábmagovat -Indigenous Peoples’ Film Festival in Finland.

·       A list of all the recipients at the Ngā Aho Whakaari award ceremony

·       New documentary gives fresh side to Tame Iti story

An agreement has been reached with SBS’s NITV channel for the film to screen 80 times over the next 3 years, starting from November 1.

Produced and directed by British filmmaker Dominic Brown, the film includes footage from Wenda’s first official overseas tour to the US, Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea in 2013, and provides a rare insight into his campaigning work and family life.

Wenda was denied the opportunity to speak at New Zealand’s Parliament on that visit, but he is due back in New Zealand later this month.

He is expected to get a much warmer welcome this time as the West Papuan self-determination issue has had greater international exposure in the media in the past two years.

• West Papuan leader Benny Wenda plans NZ visit this month
• NITV at SBS

By Christina Milligan in Pape’ete

The 13th Festival International du Film Documentaire Océanien (Pacific International Documentary Festival) was held recently in Tahiti, attended by filmmakers from throughout the Pacific.

FIFO, as it is known, is an important event for bringing attention to Pacific films which sometimes struggle for attention outside their home territories.

An outstanding example this year was the film Le Salaire des Profondeurs, a film from New Caledonian filmmakers Dominique Roberjot and Christine Della-Maggiora. This film explores the fate of Fijian fisherman diving for sea cucumbers in an illegal, unregulated environment which exposes many of them to injury, even death.

It is a deeply disturbing, politically challenging story which deserves a wider audience.

The festival screens a small number of films in competition, with a much wider selection of features and shorts screened outside competition. Prizes are awarded by an international jury, which this year was headed by Abderrahmane Sissako, the Mauritanian director who expressed his deep appreciation for the work that FIFO does, and the connections that he felt between the indigenous people of the Sahara and of the Pacific.

Jury prizes were awarded this year to the New Zealand films The Ground We Won and The Price of Peace, and to the NZ-Tahitian co-production Tupaia. Honourable mention was made of Le Salaire des Profondeurs.

And the audience prize, awarded by public vote, went to the New Zealand film Hip Hoperation.

A compilation of trailers for the 11 films entered in this year’s FIFO in Tahiti.

The Grand Prize was awarded to Another Country, directed by Australian Molly Reynolds. This film follows the great Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil back to his home territory and is a searing indictment of the damage done to the Aboriginal people by colonisation.

Co-creator and chair of FIFO, Wallès Kotra, has commented that the festival is “at least as popular with grandmothers as with the young” and visiting filmmakers find this engagement by the people of Tahiti one of the truly charming aspects of this festival.

As New Zealand filmmaker Lala Rolls comments: “These stories are Pacific stories that it is right to share in our own neighbourhood. They help reflect on and build the Pacific community, often with shared heritage, cultural similarities and values.”

Christina Milligan is a film director and producer, and is also a lecturer in documentary making and screen writing at Auckland University of Technology. She was co-producer of The Price of Peace, one of the jury prize-winners at FIFO this year.

FIFO 2016 – the 13th Pacific International Documentary Film Festival

New documentary gives fresh side to Tame Iti story

From the Pacific Media Centre

A short documentary by Alistar Kata

In 2009, a short video was made by AUT television students John Pulu and Sophie Johnson about the work of the Pacific Media Centre.

Now a new programme, a 15min documentary by Pacific Media Watch project contributing editor Alistar Kata has been made.

Dubbed The PMC Project, it is a compelling video about the student journalists and staff involved and their research and media reports.

Among the people interviewed are founding PMC director Dr David Robie; award-winning documentary maker Jim Marbrook; graduating postgraduate student KP Lew, who was in internship in Fiji last year; and Alistar herself – and many others are featured.

The people tell their inspiring story themselves. Quote:

“The centre is quite unique in that it was actually founded as both a research unit and media producer. We have the PMC online itself, which has a range of news and current affairs resources, but then we also have an industry partnership with Pacific Scoop and we’re also about to start a new one called Asia Pacific Report. We also do research publications, we publish PJR… plus we have internships, we send our students from the centre around the Pacific, and also in the Asian region as well to work for media internships and so on. We run a very good monitoring service, the Pacific Media Watch service.”

Reporter/Editor: Alistar Kata, contributing editor of the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch project.

Special thanks to:
Pacific Media Centre
School of Communication Studies, AUT
Dr David Robie
Jim Marbrook
KP Lew

Credits include:
Asia Pacific Report
Cap Bocage documentary
Del Abcede
Florent Erisouké
Mads Anneberg
Niklas Pedersen
Pacific Scoop
Selwyn Manning
Te Waha Nui
Victor Mambor and Tabloid Jubi
Wansolwara