A group of regional and international media representatives met at a forum in Fiji last week to discuss some of the challenges and opportunities facing journalists in the Pacific.

The three-day conference brought together people from the media industry, academics, civil society, and other interested parties.

A budding Fiji journalist Shivaali Shrutika said that newsrooms needed to evolve with the times.

• READ MORE: Other Pacific Media Conference reports

“Transformation is important, wherever you are, and this is my observation,” she said.

“But in any space we work, particularly in mainstream media, we are reaching out to the communities that we want to become the voice for, but first we need to work on ourselves to be better people to understand them and then portray their minds and their thoughts to our audiences.”

She said every journalist and person involved in the newsroom should have a positive environment to work in.

“Because in journalism there is pressure, and there are deadlines in that space, it is important to have positive energy and a flexible environment to work in where everyone’s work is appreciated, especially for those trying as it is important to help boost people’s confidence and create those spaces.”

Lack of support
She said some young journalists left the profession due to a lack of support from more experienced reporters.

“Young journalists need this as they are new to the industry and unsure of their job, and when they are ignored, it can lower their confidence.”

Kaneta Namimatau is a final-year journalism student at the University of the South Pacific’s journalism programme.

“This is the biggest media conference I have been to and the first one in Fiji in 20 years,” he said.

He said the stories of intimidation and harassment that journalists in Fiji had faced, under the Media Industry Development Act, were very challenging to hear.

For him, the most powerful discussion at the conference was a panel on the “prevalence and impact of sexual harassment on female journalists”.

The sexual harassment of women journalists in Fiji is a major problem, according to a study published earlier this year.

‘Disheartening’ experience
“I found that disheartening to hear as it is something that I would hate for my sisters to have to experience in the workplace.”

Namimatau said the conference reinforced his decision to become a journalist and work in the Fiji news arena.

“I think I can contribute more to Fiji and tell the stories of the Banaba people, my people. I also want to represent my people from Rabi.”

The conference included academics, like USP’s associate professor Shailendra Singh, who was chair of the Pacific International Media Conference.

Dr Singh said it was a critical time for journalists in the region.

“Mainly, for two reasons, the digital disruption that we know has siphoned off huge amounts of advertising revenue from the media industry and mainstream media, as well as covid-19 which worsened the situation.

“I think most media organisations are struggling to survive.”

Dr Singh is coordinator of the journalism course at the University of the South Pacific.

He said the papers tabled and some of the discussions that took place would be published in Pacific Journalism Review.

The 2023 lifting of the FijiFirst government’s 2010 draconian media act, which involved constant censorship, has created a new environment in which Fiji journalists no longer operate in fear.

No ‘shying away’
Asia Pacific Report publisher and editor Dr David Robie said this was the sort of conference that Fiji needed right now” — a forum that did not “shy away” from the challenges facing reporters in the region.

Dr Robie described the panels, in particular the discussion around sexual harassment in Pacific journalism, as the best he had ever attended.

Other panels dealt with similarly difficult topics such as climate change, and stress/burn-out within the industry.

This is the first conference of its kind in Fiji in 20 years, and Dr Singh hopes that the delegates can take back what they have learned, to their newsrooms.

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

SPECIAL REPORT: By ABC Backstory editor Natasha Johnson

When Tahlea Aualiitia talks about hosting the ABC’s new Pacific-focused news and current affairs TV programme, The Pacific, her voice breaks and she becomes emotional.

Personally, it’s a career milestone, anchoring her first TV show after a decade working mostly in radio, producing ABC local radio programmes and presenting Pacific Mornings on ABC Radio Australia. But it’s also much more than that.

Aualiitia grew up in Tasmania and is of Samoan (and Italian) heritage. She has strong connections to the country and the Pacific Islander community in Australia.

• SEE MORE: Follow The Pacific

What moves her so profoundly about The Pacific is that the 30-minute, weekly programme is being broadcast across the Pacific on ABC Australia, the ABC’s international TV channel, as well as in Australia (on the ABC News Channel and iview), and is produced by a team with a deep understanding of the region and features stories filed by local journalists based in Pacific nations.

“For me, it’s representation and I think that is really important,” she says.

“I’m probably going to cry because for so long I feel that in Australia and on mainstream TV, Pacific Islanders have been, at best, under-represented and, at worst, misrepresented.

“Given the geopolitical interest, there is more focus on the Pacific but my hope for this show is that it will highlight Pacific voices, really centre those voices as the people telling their stories and change the narrative.

‘The ABC cares’
“It shows the ABC cares, we are not just saying we decide what you watch, we’re involving you in what we’re doing, and I think that that makes a difference.”

Aualiitia’s father was born in Samoa and moved to New Zealand at the age of 12, then later to Australia. Her mother’s brother married a Samoan woman, so Samoan culture was celebrated in her immediate and extended family.

She recalls a childhood shaped by Samoan food, dance and song, and the importance of family, faith and rugby. But from her experience, “the narrative” about the Pacific in Australia has tended towards being negative or patronising.

“I think people tend to see the Pacific as a monolith and there are a lot of stereotypes about what a Pacific Islander is, especially in view of the climate change crisis — there’s this idea everyone’s a victim and they should all just move to Australia,” she says.

“There’s a lot of stuff you carry as a brown journalist. When I hear a story on the news about a Pacific Islander and a crime, I brace myself and think about what that might mean for my day, is it going to make my day at harder when I walk out onto the street, will it make my day at work harder?

“I’ve had people say to me when they learn I have an arts degree, ‘oh, your parents must be so proud of you because you’re the first person in your family who has gone to uni’. And that’s not true, my dad has a PhD in chemistry.

“It’s indicative of ideas that people have of what you’re capable of, what you can do, and that’s the power of the media to shape those narratives and change those narratives.

Facebook ‘reality’ check
“When I started presenting Pacific Mornings, I would interview people from across the Pacific and people would find me on Facebook, message me, saying, ‘I didn’t know any Pacific Islanders were working at the ABC’.

“I was just doing my job, but they said they were proud of me, of the visibility and that it was a good thing that it was happening. So, I hope this programme re-frames things a little bit by showing the rich diversity of the Pacific, its different cultures, resilience, and the joy of being Pacific.”

The Pacific is being produced by the ABC’s Asia Pacific Newsroom (APN), based in Melbourne, with funding from ABC International Broadcast and Digital Services.

While the scope of the ABC’s international services has fluctuated over the years, depending on federal government funding levels, an injection of $32 million over four years to ABC International Services allocated in the 2022 budget has enabled this first-of-its-kind programme to be made, among a suite of other initiatives under the Indo-Pacific Broadcast strategy.

“The APN has been a trusted content partner for the ABC’s International Services team for many years and already has deep Pacific expertise,” says Claire Gorman, head of international services.

“We have been working with the APN to produce our flagship programmes Pacific Beat and Wantok for ABC Radio Australia and have been wanting to produce a TV news programme for Pacific audiences for some time, but until now have not have the funding for it.

“The Pacific is the first of many exciting developments in the pipeline. We believe it is more important than ever before for Australians and Pacific audiences to have access to independent, trusted information about our region.”

Pacific-wide team
Joining Aualiitia on air is long-serving Pacific Beat reporter and executive producer Evan Wasuka and journalist Johnson Raela, who previously worked in New Zealand and the Cook Islands.

Correspondent Lice Movono, based in Suva, Fiji, and Chrisnrita Aumanu-Leong in Honiara, Solomon Islands, are contributing to the programme as part of a developing “Local Journalism Network”, also funded under the Indo-Pacific Broadcast strategy, to use the expertise of independent journalists located in the region.

Behind the scenes are APN supervising producer Sean Mantesso, producers Gabriella Marchant, Dinah Lewis Boucher, Nick Sas and APN managing editor Matt O’Sullivan.

“The ABC has covered the Pacific for decades but largely for the Pacific audience,” says O’Sullivan.

“In recent years, that’s mostly been via Pacific Beat and increasingly through digital and video storytelling. We’ve felt for some time that there’s growing interest in the Pacific within Australia and there’s also a massive Pacific diaspora in Australia with strong links to the region.

“So, we’ve felt a need to share our content more broadly. The Pacific programme will cover the breadth of Pacific life beyond palm trees and tourism, from politics to jobs and the economy, climate change, culture and sport.”

Lice Movono has been working as a journalist in Fiji for 16 years and has previously filed for the ABC. She believes elevating the work of regional journalists across the ABC programs and platforms, through the Local Journalism initiative, will help provide more informed coverage of Pacific affairs.

“I believe it’s critical for journalists from within the Pacific to be at the centre of storytelling about the Pacific,” she says.

“A few years ago, while working in a local media organisation, I had the opportunity to attend a conference in Europe and it shocked and saddened me to find that there are people on the other side of the world who have little or no understanding of what it means to live with the reality of climate change here in the region.

“So, it means everything for me to work with the ABC, which has one of the widest, if not the widest reach in the Pacific region and to have access to a platform that tells stories about the Pacific and Fiji, in particular, to the rest of the world, to tell authentic stories through the lens of a Pacific Islander, and an Indigenous one at that, about the realities of what Pacific people face.”

While the covid pandemic and various lockdowns curbed a lot of international news gathering, it provided an opportunity to showcase the work of locally based reporters on ABC domestic channels.

“We’ve often used stringers in the region, but covid showed us the value journalists in country can offer,” says O’Sullivan.

“Because we couldn’t fly Australian-based crews into the region during the pandemic, we relied more on journalists in the Pacific telling their stories, for example during the 2021 riots in Solomon Islands.

“We are now building on that foundation of local expertise and knowledge by establishing the Local Journalism Network of independent journalists to report for the ABC.

“We’ve had producers doing training with them, teaching them how to shoot good TV pictures and we’ve provided mobile journalism kits that enable them to quickly do a TV cross.

“In filing for the ABC, they can tell stories local media often can’t but the challenge for us is protecting them.”

Support and protection from the ABC has been welcomed by Movono. Renowned for her tough questioning, she has endured personal threats and harassment over the course of her career, but the country is now moving into a new era of openness with the newly-elected Rabuka government repealing the controversial Media Industry Development Act that was introduced under military law in 2010 and has been regarded as a restraint on media freedom.

In an international scoop, Movono landed an interview with the new Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, for the first episode of The Pacific.

“When I knew that there was going to be a segment of The Pacific where we could Talanoa with leaders of the Pacific, it was important for me to position the ABC as the one international organisation that Rabuka would do an interview with,” she says.

“I knew, with the new government only weeks into power, it was going to be a challenge. The government is dealing with a failing economy, a divided country, high inflation, high levels of poverty, the ongoing recovery from covid and trying to mitigate the impacts of climate change.

“But he has made progress as a Pacific leader, as the leader of a country just coming out of a military dictatorship, and he’s done some significant work in the region. So, it was a very significant interview, probably one of the most important assignments of my career.”

In addition to new content and engagement of local journalists, ABC International Services is also expanding the FM footprint for ABC Radio Australia and enhancing media training across the region.

As she prepared for the first episode of The Pacific to go to air, Tahlea Aualiitia was keen to hear the feedback from the audience and — with some trepidation– from family and friends in Samoa.

“I think that’s the part that I’m most nervous about,” she says.

“I know that they will lovingly make fun of my struggling to pronounce Samoan words properly, given I grew up in Australia, but I know they’re already proud of me because of the work I’m doing here.

“Having said that, my brother is a doctor, so I don’t think I’ll ever reach that level of family pride but I’m getting closer!”

The Pacific premiered on ABC Australia last Thursday. This article is republished with permission.

Veteran Fijian journalist Netani Rika and his wife were resting in their living room when suddenly a Molotov cocktail went crashing through their living room window.

It was one of the many acts of violence and intimidation he endured after the 2006 military coup.

For the past decade Fiji’s media have operated under tight restrictions and scrutiny, with strict rules governing how stories can be reported.

• READ MORE: Fiji’s media veterans recount intimidation under FijiFirst government – eye on reforms
• WATCH ON ABC PACIFIC: The stories on this page
• ‘No Fiji TV broadcast tonight due to censorship’ – Rika recalls Fiji media intimidation
• Other Fiji media freedom reports

Now journalists are hoping for changes to Fiji’s controversial Media Act, or its complete removal, to protect the freedom of the press.

Credits:
Lice Movono, Reporter
Hugo Hodge, Producer

Featuring:
Netani Rika, former editor-in-chief of The Fiji Times and manager of Fiji Television News
Sean Dorney, former ABC Pacific correspondent
Professor David Robie, former director of the AUT Pacific Media Centre
Samantha Magick, editor of Islands Business International

Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat reports today on how Fiji has fared under the draconian Media Act that has restricted media freedom over the past decade.

There are hopes that state-endorsed media censorship will stop in Fiji following last month’s change in government to the People’s Alliance-led coalition.

Reported by Fiji correspondent Lice Movono, the podcast outlines former Fiji Times editor-in-chief Netani Rika’s experiences of repression under the former FijiFirst government.

• LISTEN TO ABC PACIFIC BEAT: Media freedom under the new Fiji government
• READ MORE: Former Fiji Times editor has no regrets about resisting censorship

But a change in government has also been reflected by a change in attitude towards the media.

It comes as the Fijian Broadcasting Corporation board has terminated the contract of FBC’s chief executive Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum amid reports that the CEO for the public broadcaster earned more money than the prime minister of the country.

Media veterans are also hoping for changes to Fiji’s controversial Media Act, or its complete removal, to protect freedom of the press.

Movono also reports on Islands Business editor Samantha Magick’s view on media freedom and retired journalism professor Dr David Robie, who founded the Pacific Media Centre, expressing his “scepticism” over whether the hoped for relaxed rules would go far enough for the global RSF Media Freedom Index which ranks Fiji at just 102nd out of 180 countries.

The media item is rounded off with an interview with Attorney-General Siromi Turaga who says the repression of the past should never have happened.

He said he would directly work on the changes to the Act, once the minister responsible for information moves to suggest changes.

“The coalition government is going to provide a different approach, a truly democratic way of dealing with press freedom,” Turaga said.

“We’re going to ensure they have freedom to broadcast to impart knowledge information to members of the public.”

Interviewed:
Netani Rika, former editor of The Fiji Times and former Fiji Television manager of news and current affairs
Samantha Magick, editor of Islands Business
Dr David Robie, retired journalism professor and editor of Asia Pacific Report
Siromi Turaga, Attorney-General of Fiji

In other items on today’s Pacific Beat:

• Fiji’s top cop and head of prisons are suspended pending an investigation by a special tribunal.
• A programme is launched in the Australian state of Victoria to get seasonal workers road-ready.
• Pacific women take part in Tennis Australia’s leadership programme, coinciding with the Australian Open.
• And scientists warn some sharks are on the brink of extinction.

Reporter Lice Movono

Presenter: Prianka Srinivasan

Fiji police have evicted two Chinese defence attaches from a Pacific Islands Forum summit in Suva while US Vice-President Kamala Harris was delivering a virtual address, reports The Guardian Australia.

Kate Lyons, editor of The Guardian’s Pacific Project, reported that the the men were present at a session of the Forum Fisheries Agency when Harris announced the step-up of US engagement in the region, “believed to be in response to China’s growing influence”.

According to The Guardian, the officials had been sitting with the media contingent, but one was identified as a Chinese embassy officer by Lice Movono, an independent Fiji journalist who has been covering the forum for the Australian edition of the newspaper.

• READ MORE: US announces major Pacific push, embassies in Tonga, Kiribati
• Climate crisis top Pacific agenda item and it’s a security issue, says Ardern
• $10m climate funding to support Pacific seed crops
• More Pacific Islands Forum summit leaders pull out as crisis grows
• Pacific Islands Forum ‘on course’ as China issue casts shadow
• Kiribati exit from Pacific forum ‘out of order’, says founding president
• Other Pacific Islands Forum reports

“Movono said she ‘recognised him because I’ve interacted with him at least three times already’, including during the visit of the Chinese foreign minister, Wang Yi, to Suva last month, at which journalists were removed from events and blocked from asking questions,” The Guardian report said.

“‘He was one of the people that was removing us from places and directing other people to remove us,’ she said. ‘So I went over to him and asked: “Are you here as a Chinese embassy official or for Xinhua [Chinese news agency], because this is the media space. And he shook his head as if to indicate that he didn’t speak English”.’

Movono alerted Fijian protocol officers, who told her to inform Fijian police, who then escorted the two men from the room. They did not answer questions from media, reported The Guardian.

Diplomatic sources later confirmed that the men were a defence attache and a deputy defence attache from China, and part of the embassy in Fiji, The Guardian said.

The report highlighted the intense geopolitical rivalry over growing Chinese influence in the region.

• Full report on The Guardian’s Pacific Project pages

Public frustration over mixed messages from the government is growing in Fiji as covid-19 continues to spread rapidly.

The latest daily update saw another 352 new cases reported yesterday.

The Health Ministry also confirmed three more deaths due to the coronavirus, bringing the toll to 33 – 31 from this latest outbreak that started in April.

• READ MORE: Fiji reports record 522 new cases of covid-19 – three more deaths
• Sayed-Khaiyum leading Fiji into chaos, says women’s crisis centre leader
• Other reports on the Fiji covid crisis

All three were unvaccinated and died at home or on the way to a health centre.

On Sunday, the ministry reported a daily record 522 new cases and three deaths due to covid-19.

Making the situation even more grim, is the main mortuary is full — and people are being told to make immediate plans to farewell their loved ones.

Relatives have to make plans to uplift their deceased family members and arrange funeral rites.

Infected people sent home
With hospitals unable to cope, health authorities have sent many of the people infected with covid back home to isolate – more than 1000 of them.

RNZ Pacific correspondent in Suva, Lice Movono, said people were getting more and more worried.

“There are a lot of fearful people, so much anxiety and continuing distrust of the government, but the government is not coming out to explain itself very well and we haven’t seen our ministers, our Prime Minister, for a very long time now.”

Movono said she had not been out of her house, even to shop, for almost six weeks.

The opposition National Federation Party leader, Professor Biman Prasad, said that meant some were going to multi-generational, crowded households.

“With the increasing number of cases our health systems are giving up. People with other kinds of ilness are being affected. They’re not able to get the treatment they ought to get,” he said.

“People are dying on arrival, or people are dying before they even get to the hospitals.”

Government urged to seek foreign help
The deteriorating situation in the country is failing to sway Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama from his no-lockdown stance.

In a bid to save the economy, the government is allowing some businesses to stay operational.

So while Fiji’s Health Secretary is advising the public to stay at home, the Trade Minister is talking about retail businesses, restaurants and gymnasiums staying open as long as safety measures are followed.

Dr Biman Prasad, a professor of economics, says the government’s mixed messages, and “business as usual” approach, has caused a disaster.

“The situation is going to get worse and it is not too late for this government to change its strategy, to stop being arrogant about what they have decided before.

“If you look at the numbers, which have risen exponentially, it’s only happened after the prime minister made the decision to open up the containment zones.”

Dr Prasad is urging the government to request help from Australia and New Zealand in implementing a nationwide lockdown.

He said that if the expense of catering for people in a lockdown was too much for Fiji, help must be sought.

“Let’s ask Australia and New Zealand for help,” he said.

The government has not responded to requests for comment.

There are more than 600 areas of interest in the central division with one zone in the western division.

More than 5000 people have been in isolation since the latest outbreak in April.

Fifteen covid-positive patients have died from the serious medical conditions they had before they contracted the virus, the Health Ministry said.

Workers forced to show up amid outbreak
Meanwhile, some Fijian workers have been forced to continue going to work despite the rapid spread of the virus in the wider community.

A retail worker in Suva, who did not want his name used, said he still had to go to work, on reduced hours.

The father-of-five added it was critical that he earned money to feed his family, even though community transmission was rife.

“Numbers going up. Yesterday it was 500 (cases). Numbers keep going up but I don’t know what this f***ing government is doing. They’re not doing any nationwide (lockdown) We’re having a lot of pressure, you know, our families, no food. A lot of things, man.”

The father-of-five said safety measures were being followed at his work.

However public adherence to the safety measures remained mixed.

This is not helped by slow communication from authorities over which areas have been designated red zones, according to Allen Lockington, a social worker in Lautoka who delivers food to families in need in informal settlements.

“We just deliver the food, and people say, ‘we’ve been locked down’. We try to get out of there as fast as possible,” he explained.

“The other thing: when we go to the informal settlements, and we see the people walking around with no masks and in groups, 10 or 20 all clustered together. And if someone should be sick there, no doubt it will spread like wildfire.”

If there is a ray of hope for Fiji, it is that the vaccination rollout is progressing swiftly — more than half of the eligible population have had at least a first jab of Astrazeneca, while around 50,000 people are fully innoculated.

But the delta variant of covid-19 is moving rapidly through Fiji, and calls for the government to exert some control on the spread of the virus by calling a nationwide lockdown are growing.

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