Tag: Freedom of Information
Facebook news ban turns attention to tech giants’ impact on journalism
By Kalinga Seneviratne in Sydney
The tech juggernaut Facebook’s shock decision to block all news feeds from Australian media outlets this week in response to...
Kasun Ubayasiri: How will ruthless billionaire posturing by Rupert and Zuckerberg...
COMMENT: By Kasun Ubayasiri in Brisbane
It has indeed been a few strange days for Australian news media. Apparently, monopolies are bad if they are...
RSF condemns Google for dropping Australian media searches in ‘tests’
Pacific Media Watch newsdesk
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned the arbitrary and opaque experiments that Google is conducting with its search engine in Australia,...
Solomon Islands businesses, rights groups condemn Facebook ban plan
By Robert Iroga in Honiara
Struggling businesses have expressed concerns and international media rights groups have condemned the Solomon Islands government’s proposal to temporarily ban...
New Caledonia court again defers Temaru case over Radio Tefana
By RNZ Pacific
The court case in New Caledonia brought by French Polynesia's pro-independence leader Oscar Temaru against the French prosecutor over the Faa'a community...
Jornal Independente wins annual ‘best media’ award in Timor-Leste
By Jose Sarito Amaral in Balibo
The Jornal Independente newspaper has been awarded Timor-Leste's mediaoutlet of the year prize in the National Press Council’s 2019...
Media under strain in Melanesia during challenging era
By RNZ Pacific
Hostile media environments pose growing challenges to Melanesia's democracies, according to a new edition of the Pacific Journalism Review.
With its first special...
West Papua scores lowest democracy index, free expression declines
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk
Indonesia's West Papua province has again been recorded as having the worst democracy index in the republic, reports CNN Indonesia.
This year...
Amidst coronavirus lockdown, biggest Philippines TV network goes off air
On Al Jazeera's The Listening Post this week: The Filipino government has forced local television network ABS-CBN off the air. Plus, covid-19 is used...
PNG media suffers ‘overwhelming deference’, says freedom report
The Samoa Observer media freedom video, Journalism Without Fear or Favour.
By Sri Krishnamurthi, contributing editor of Pacific Media Watch
Papua New Guinea's two daily newspapers...
RSF challenges Fiji over general’s ‘stifle criticism’ views on virus
The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has condemned an op-ed by a pro-government military commander in Fiji last week defending curbs on freedom of...
Hong Kong police arrest Next Digital founder Jimmy Lai among 14...
Pacific Media Watch
The Committee to Protect Journalists has called on Hong Kong authorities to drop all charges against Jimmy Lai, founder and chair of...
‘Spy’ agency involved in ABC raids, new documents show
Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk
Newly released documents show that another government agency along with the Australian Federal Police was involved in the investigation that led...
Vanuatu government more open under information law, says journalist
By RNZ Pacific
One of Vanuatu's leading journalists has said the right to information law has contributed to an air of openness in the country.
The...
António Sampaio: Freedom of the press – rights, responsibilities and transparency
By António Sampaio in Dili, Timor-Leste
New debates in Timor-Leste are circulating about political interference in newsrooms. Attempts to condition or determine that somebody cannot...
Stop harassing Rappler, media advocacy groups tell Duterte
Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) have written a joint open letter to the prosecutor-general of...
Nauru, PNG join Fiji in global ‘obstructed’ freedoms watchlist
Six in 10 countries now seriously repressing civic freedoms, according to findings in the latest Civicus Monitor, a global research collaboration tracking fundamental freedoms...
Media freedom commentators condemn Nauru ‘gag’ actions
By RNZ Morning Report
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern arrived today for the leader's retreat at the Pacific Islands Forum in Nauru where she...
PNG Facebook ban threat casts shadow over Pacific media freedom
Papua New Guinea threatened to temporarily ban Facebook earlier this year. With the APEC conference looming in November, the question remains whether this was...
Juffa accuses O’Neill government of ‘shutting down’ free speech in PNG
Pacific Media Centre Newsdesk
Oro Governor Garry Juffa says the people of PNG find it "frightening" and "alarming" that the Papua New Guinea government is...
Keith Jackson: Did dumb just get dumber and Sam Basil dig...
A near confrontation on the floor of Parliament on Friday, with the Papua New Guinea Opposition walking out in protest over the referral of...
PNG students in China say Facebook move is ‘irrelevant’ and damaging
By Melisha Yafoi in Beijing
Students studying in Beijing, China, have described the move by Papua New Guinea's Communications Minister Sam Basil to suspend Facebook...