Asia Pacific Report editor David Robie was honoured with Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit (MNZM) at the weekend by the Governor-General, Dame Cindy Kiro, in an investiture ceremony at Government House Tāmaki Makaurau.

He was one of eight recipients for various honours, which included Joycelyn Armstrong, who was presented with Companion of the King’s Service Order (KSO) for services to interfaith communities.

Dr Robie’s award, which came in the King’s Birthday Honours in 2024 but was presented on Saturday, was for “services to journalism and Asia-Pacific media education”.

• READ MORE: Decolonisation, the climate crisis, and improving media education in the Pacific — Global Voices
• Investiture ceremony – video link, 24 May 2025

His citation reads:

Dr David Robie has contributed to journalism in New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region for more than 50 years.

Dr Robie began his career with The Dominion in 1965 and worked as an international journalist and correspondent for agencies from Johannesburg to Paris. He has won several journalism awards, including the 1985 Media Peace Prize for his coverage of the Rainbow Warrior bombing.

He was Head of Journalism at the University of Papua New Guinea from 1993 to 1997 and the University of the South Pacific in Suva from 1998 to 2002. He founded the Pacific Media Centre in 2007 while professor of journalism and communications at Auckland University of Technology.

He developed four award-winning community publications as student training outlets. He pioneered special internships for Pacific students in partnership with media and the University of the South Pacific. He has organised scholarships with the Asia New Zealand Foundation for student journalists to China, Indonesia and the Philippines.

He was founding editor of Pacific Journalism Review journal in 1994 and in 1996 he established the Pacific Media Watch, working as convenor with students to campaign for media freedom in the Pacific.

He has authored 10 books on Asia-Pacific media and politics. Dr Robie co-founded and is deputy chair of the Asia Pacific Media Network/Te Koakoa NGO. 

In an interview with Global Voices last year, Dr Robie praised the support from colleagues and student journalists and said:

“There should be more international reporting about the ‘hidden stories’ of the Pacific such as the unresolved decolonisation issues — Kanaky New Caledonia, ‘French’ Polynesia (Mā’ohi Nui), both from France; and West Papua from Indonesia.

“West Papua, in particular, is virtually ignored by Western media in spite of the ongoing serious human rights violations. This is unconscionable.”

Dr David Robie’s investiture.       Video: Governor-General’s blog

Flipped “back in time” is how New Zealand author, journalist and media educator Dr David Robie describes the crisis in New Caledonia.

Robie has covered the Asia-Pacific region for international media and educated Pacific journalists for more than four decades.

He reported on the indigenous Kanak pro-independence uprising in the 1980s and says it is happening again in the French-colonised territory.

• READ MORE: Pasifika make mark in New Zealand’s royal awards

Dr David Robie talks to Ma’a Brian Sagala of PMN News in 2021.     Video: PMN/Café Pacific

Robie’s comments follow the rioting and looting in New Caledonia’s capital Nouméa on May 13 that followed protesters against France President Emmanuel Macron’s plan for electoral reform.

At least seven people have died and hundreds injured with damage estimated in the millions of dollars.

“The tragic thing is that we’ve gone back in time,” he told PMN News.

“Things were progressing really well towards independence and then it’s all gone haywire.

“But back in the 1980s, it was a very terrible time. At the end of the 1980s with the accords [Matignon and Nouméa accords], there was so much hope for the Kanak people.”

Robie, who has travelled to Noumēa multiple times, has long advocated for liberation for Kanaky/New Caledonia and was even arrested at gunpoint by French police in January 1987.

He reflected on his work throughout the Pacific, which includes his involvement in the Rainbow Warrior bombing — the subject of his book Eyes of Fire; covering the Sandline crisis with student journalists in Papua New Guinea; and helping his students report the George Speight-led coup of 2000 in Fiji.

Dr David Robie talks to Ma’a Brian Sagala of PMN News in August 2018.  Video: PMN/PMC

“Because I was a freelance journalist, I could actually go and travel to many countries and spend a lot of time there.”

“I guess that’s been my commitment really, helping to tell stories at a grassroots level and also trying to empower other journalists.”

Robie’s commitment has been recognised in this year’s King’s Birthday Honours and he has been named a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit.

He headed the journalism programmes at the University of Papua New Guinea and University of the South Pacific for 10 years, and also founded the Pacific Media Centre at AUT University.

What Robie calls “an incredible surprise”, he says the award also serves as recognition for those who have worked alongside him.

“Right now, we need journalists more than ever. We’re living in a world of absolute chaos of disinformation,” he said.

Robie said trust in the media had declined due to there being “too much opinionated and personality” journalism.

“We’re moving more towards niche journalism, if I might say, mainstream journalism is losing its way and Pacific media actually fit into the niche journalism mode,” he said.

“So I think there will be a growing support and need for Pacific journalism whereas mainstream media’s got a lot more of a battle on its hands.”

Republished from PMN News with permission.

A media network publishing an international research journal has vowed to expand its activities into community media and training initiatives.

The non-profit Asia Pacific Media Network, publisher of the ranked Pacific Journalism Review, says media and community advocates believe there is a need for minority and marginalised groups that feel neglected by the mainstream.

Network chair Dr Heather Devere told the annual general meeting of the publishing group in Mt Roskill yesterday that now that APMN had been consolidated it could turn to some of its wider community goals.

• READ MORE: Other APMN reports

Members from Australia, Fiji and Tahiti joined their New Zealand colleagues via Zoom in discussing many plans, including community media mentoring and training for diversity groups.

A proposal for a media conference in Suva, Fiji, next year by Pacific journalism associate professor Shailendra Singh was tabled and adopted in principle.

Dr Devere told the members that the network, established in 2021 to fill the void left by the closure of the Pacific Media Centre and to take on publication of PJR, had made great progress.

The ad hoc group was registered as an incorporated society last year.

“This first year of APMN we have concentrated on establishing a sustainable network that maintains the respected reputation that had been established at the Pacific Media Centre,” Dr Devere said.

“And I am happy to report that thanks to the commitment of a number of people who have the skills and expertise to continue some of this work, APMN is in a good place to look at moving forward into the coming year from a firm base.”

Pressing need
Community advocate Nik Naidu, an APMN member from the host Whānau Community Centre and Hub, said there was plenty of potential for the new network and there was a pressing need for media skills training to empower marginalised groups.

Retired Sydney journalism professor Chris Nash lamented that journalism schools had become very conservative and were “failing journalism”.

Pacific Journalism Review founder Dr David Robie and network deputy chair said he was encouraged by the developments and believed that APMN was consolidating its innovative role.

Current editor Dr Philip Cass said work on the July 2023 edition of PJR was underway.

“We have received a number of submissions that fall far outside our frame of reference from very distant countries,” he said.

“While this is slightly puzzling, it does indicate how far our name has travelled.”

‘Excited’ by developments
This second AGM of the network attracted new supporters, including Filipino media educator, filmmaker and PSTv5 podcaster Rene “Direk” Molina and broadcaster and community social media campaigner Ernestina “Tina” Bonsu Maro.

Maro, of Pacific Media Network, who works with Cook Islands and African communities, said she was “excited” by the developments.

“We need more opportunities to tell our own stories,” she said. “The mainstream media isn’t interested in us or our stories.”

Pacific Journalism Review, founded at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1994, has published two independent editions with the APMN, and hopes to celebrate its 30th year in Suva next year.

A presentation was made to AUT scholarly communications librarian Donna Coventry and the Tūwhera digital journals platform in gratitude for the “tremendous” support for PJR since the online edition was launched in 2016.

Content warning: this article contains mentions of racial discrimination against First Nations people.

The ABC recently apologised to staff for racism and cultural insensitivity in its newsrooms. This came after Indigenous and culturally and linguistically diverse ABC staff told an internal group they felt unwelcome in their workplace, their ideas were not being listened to and they received online abuse from the public.

Unfortunately these issues are not unique to the ABC and exist at other media outlets and newsrooms.

• READ MORE: Media inclusion of Indigenous peoples is increasing but there is still room for improvement
• First Nations kids make up about 20% of missing children, but get a fraction of the media coverage
• For an Indigenous perspective on ‘Australia Day’, here’s a quick guide to First Nations media platforms

We also know media organisations can produce content that is racist or hostile towards First Nations people. Decades of research show, with few exceptions, many mainstream Australian media organisations have unfairly reported on First Nations Peoples over the years, and continue to do so.

This reporting has included racist cartoons, prejudiced stereotypes, questions of cultural identity and portrayals of First Nations people as either violent or victimised.

I experienced racism many times throughout my cadetship in 2019. At times it caused crippling anxiety to the point where I’d really have to psych myself up just to go into the office. A former colleague in a leadership role even went out of their way to ruffle my hair once. https://t.co/0osoUh3LNd

— Jedda Costa (@CostaJedda) June 16, 2022

Racist and inappropriate portrayals of First Nations people can also make newsrooms and other media outlets unsafe places to work for Indigenous journalists, as well as influencing how First Nations issues are covered and thought about.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Australians working in media can improve their cultural competency during their university education. This way, they can enter and contribute to workplaces prepared to ethically and respectfully interact with and report on stories outside their own cultures.

However, our new study shows many Australian universities with journalism programmes have significant work to do in including cultural safety in their curricula.

Australia needs cultural safety in its newsrooms
Journalists can help shape national conversations and can influence audiences’ attitudes through how they choose to report. That’s why it’s critical for these journalists to be culturally safe in how they communicate about communities and individuals outside their own culture.

Cultural safety aims to create a space where “there is no assault, challenge or denial of” Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s identities and experiences.

It is built through non-Indigenous people deeply listening to First Nations perspectives. It means sharing power and resources in a way that supports Indigenous self determination and empowerment. It also requires non-Indigenous people address unconscious biases, racism and discrimination in and outside the workplace.

First Nations groups and high-level institutions have been calling for more expertise and training in this area for decades.

The 1991 Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody report called for journalism education to consider

in consultation with media industry and media unions, the creation of specific units of study dedicated to Aboriginal affairs and the reporting thereof.

The National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples notes Australian news outlets too often spread “myths and ill-informed or false stereotypes about Australia’s First Peoples, which in turn influence public opinion in unfavourable ways.”

This racism creates

a debilitating individual impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, devaluing their cultural pride and identity and having adverse impacts on their physical and mental health.

Acknowledging and apologising does not interrogate how whiteness is upheld in these spaces. The Australian media landscape has normalised cultural and institutional practices that stem from colonisation and continue to oppress people of colour within it. https://t.co/pYRVcDnmNY

— Alex Dorante (@babydorante) June 17, 2022

In 2009 The National Indigenous Higher Education Network recommended universities “systematically embed Indigenous perspectives in curriculum”.

In 2011, Universities Australia issued an expectation that “all graduates of Australian universities will have the knowledge and skills necessary to interact in a culturally competent way with Indigenous communities”.

Our study
In our study, we reviewed in 2021 more than 100 media/journalism assessments from a sample of more than 10 percent of Australian universities with journalism programmes. We found only one had an explicit focus on an Indigenous topic. Our interviews with 17 journalism students revealed how absent or minimal their education on Indigenous affairs has been.

In the words of a second-year university student:

There is definitely more that should be done because stories and issues concerning Indigenous people is, like, such a big topic. And it would be very useful for people becoming journalists to understand their role in communication and storytelling and the influence their words have on the public perception of Indigenous peoples as well.

The students we interviewed largely expressed desire for more training on Indigenous affairs in Australia. They stated this would help them achieve confidence in reporting on First Nations Peoples in respectful and culturally safe ways.

The students also thought their universities could integrate Indigenous content and perspectives in a more sustained and concentrated way. “It can’t just be that one week we talk about racism,” according to a third-year university student. More education on Indigenous affairs would also benefit First Nations students. One Indigenous participant from our study stated:

Even just having some more Indigenous journalists come through, you can talk to them, find out what it’s really like for them being like a black sheep, essentially, from a very white-dominated industry. I think that there’s a need to be able to put more perspectives and Indigenous knowledges in education in there.

Journalism training needs to include cultural safety
A possible solution could be increasing First Nations journalists in Australian newsrooms. However, the burnout rate for these journalists is high due to toxic workplace conditions. This contributes to the low proportion of Indigenous journalists in Australia.

Universities need to provide their staff and students with time and resources to thoughtfully consider how to work with and report on First Nations Peoples. This would allow for a more culturally safe way of working. This could also provide a safer space for Indigenous people wanting to pursue a role in journalism. It could hopefully address the burnout of these journalists when they join the media workforce.

The integrity of our media system and the way our nation engages with Indigenous affairs depend on it.

Dr T.J. Thomson, senior lecturer in visual communication & Media, Queensland University of Technology; Julie McLaughlin, senior lecturer, Queensland University of Technology, and Leah King-Smith, lecturer and academic lead (Indigenous) in learning and teaching in the School of Creative Practice, Queensland University of Technology. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

The Journalism Research and Education Association of Australia (JERAA) has urged the Australian government to make a strong commitment to supporting journalists and media personnel in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of international forces.

JERAA said in a statement today it had endorsed the calls of Australia’s Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) and International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) for urgent action to provide humanitarian visas and other support to those attempting to flee the country.

In the current upheaval, it is difficult to obtain figures on how many journalists have been attacked, but the Afghan Independent Journalist Association and Afghanistan’s National Journalists Union express grave concerns for the well-being of journalists and media personnel.

• READ MORE: RSF visits Afghanistan, proposes “urgent actions” to protect its journalists
• Taliban says it will respect women’s rights, press feedom- Al Jazeera

Nai, an Afghan organisation supporting independent media, released figures indicating that by late July, at least 30 media workers had been killed, wounded or tortured in Afghanistan since the beginning of 2021.

UNESCO has recorded five deaths of journalists in Afghanistan in 2021, making it the country with the world’s greatest number of journalists’ deaths this year. Four have been women, reflecting the higher risk of attacks on female journalists.

Current figures are likely to be incomplete due to the challenges of obtaining information. They do not include deaths of professionals in related industries, such as the murder of the Head of Afghan government Media and Information Centre on August 6.

The Taliban has a long-established pattern of striking out against journalists.

A Human Rights Watch report, released in April 2021, in the lead up to the United States and NATO troop withdrawal, noted that Taliban forces had already established a practice of targeting journalists and other media workers.

Journalists are intimidated, harassed and attacked routinely by the Taliban, which regularly accuses them of being aligned with the Afghan government or international military forces or being spies.

Female journalists face a higher level of threats, especially if they have appeared on television and radio.

International Press Institute figures, released in May 2021 at the start of the troop withdrawals, also showed that Afghanistan had the highest rate of deaths of journalists in the world.

The IPI expressed concern about an intensification of attacks on journalists and the future of the news media in Afghanistan.

Papua New Guinea’s Communications Minister, Timothy Masiu, recently told a news conference to mark World Press Freedom Day that the state of journalism and broadcasting in the country has seen a general decline.

He was critical of the quality and the content of the media in general.  The former NBC journalist and broadcaster had reported on Bougainville during the decade-long crisis. He had served with former NBC head and senior journalist Joseph Ealedona.

I agreed with him. But I couldn’t let the statement go without challenge.  While many have been critical of the state of “investigative” journalism in the country and the apparent lack of impact the media has had on the corruption and abuse, there has been very little investment in Papua New Guinea’s journalism schools over 25 years.

• READ MORE: Uni Tavur and media education at UPNG
• Other Scott Waide articles

The University of Papua New Guinea’s journalism programme is a shadow of its former self. The once vibrant newsroom centered department of the 1980s and 1990s no longer functions as it did.

Back then, the university produced journalists who were a force to be reckoned with. They shaped the politics, rubbed shoulders with the political and business heavies and were were unafraid to be openly critical of the government abuses.

At Divine Word University, the people focused approach to journalism and development shaped how rural communities were given a voice.

The centre’s recently retired director Professor David Robie has raised concern about the way AUT is handling the PMC’s leadership succession, as well as the removal of its physical office without a clear relocation.

It prompted an outcry among regional exponents of Pacific journalism.

Johnny Blades reports:

Since its inception in 2007, the Pacific Media Centre has built an extensive body of work in regional Asia-Pacific journalism and media research.

• READ MORE: Who is killing off top Pacific journalism – and why?
• Concerns grows over PMC after shock office ‘closure’ and no director
• Pacific reaction to ‘end of an era’
• Outcry over signs of upheaval at PMC – Dateline Pacific
• LISTEN to RNZ Dateline Pacific

But a little over a month after Dr David Robie retired as its director in December, he was sent photos of the PMC’s office stripped of its theses, books, monographs, research journals, media outputs, indigenous taonga and other history.

“I was hugely disappointed when I heard about the removal of the office and we were sent photographs,” Dr Robie said.

“Hugely disappointing because basically it’s trashing 13 years of building up the centre. And this was done without any consultation with any of the stakeholders or the PMC people themselves.”

Professor Robie, who said no clear relocation plan had been presented to the PMC and there was no inventory of the removed materials, also criticised AUT for not taking up his succession plan.

But the head of AUT’s School of Communication Studies, Dr Rosser Johnson, said the faculty had opted for a call for expressions of interest in the leadership role, rather than directly appointing someone.

He said they were looking to make the Pacific Media Centre more visible and more integrated with the life of the faculty.

“We’re moving a few people around. One of the groups of people who are moving around is the PMC,” Dr Johnson explained.

“But it’s moving to space that’s got double the office space and at least double the space for people to work in.”

However, people within the School of Communication Studies who spoke to RNZ Pacific were uncertain about where the PMC office would be, and whether it may simply be a small part of a larger, open space shared with other divisions.

A lack of communication and consultation over the move has drawn condemnation from many regional journalists and researchers.

With almost three months having elapsed since Dr Robie retired, there has been growing suspicion that AUT management will look to change the Asia-Pacific focus of the centre.

Ena Manuireva, a Tahitian doctoral candidate, said that given the recent Davenport review of the university’s culture which found bullying was rife, the handling of the PMC was “shameful”.

“It’s good for AUT to have some critical thinking in that department in their university. I’m trying to see what is the gain that they’re trying to have, what will be the outcome [of the changes],” Manuireva said.

“The outcome would be that AUT would be looked at as a university that’s not open to everyone, especially to the Pacific.”

Furthermore, the Australia Asia Pacific Media Initiative (AAPMI) has called for action to save PMC, warning that its closure would come “at a time when Pacific journalism is under existential threat and Pacific journalism programmes suffer from underfunding”.

But Dr Johnson denied that the School of Commuications was looking to change the centre’s focus. His characterisation of the matter suggests that the PMC will grow its presence.

“There’s only so much one or two or three people can do. So having more people involved opens up more opportunities for people to link into their communities,” he said.

“There’s absolutely no intention at all to limit the Pacific Media Centre.”

Professor Robie said he would wait and see what transpires, but in his view there was a gap between what was being said by AUT and the reality.

“The thing is that as a centre, [the PMC] had this unique combination of media output as well as the research,” Dr Robie explained.

“I guess what I fear is that there will be a stepping back from the actual media outputs and especially that very broad coverage that we had [through student projects such as Bearing Witness and Pacific Media Watch].”

Dr Johnson said a call for expressions of interest in the Pacific Media Centre leadership role would go out this week.

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

A viral spread of photos and videos from last week’s fatal crash at Nabou has highlighted a need for education surrounding the use of social media in Fiji.

University of the South Pacific’s senior lecturer and coordinator of journalism Dr Shailendra Singh told Asia Pacific Report this was “not a first” for something to be spread across social media.

“It highlights a bigger problem and the lack of action to address it,” he said.

READ MORE: Family shocked at gruesome images

“There is need for a national education campaign on how to use social media in a responsible manner.”

The death toll from the tragic minivan crash now stands at seven and at least 25 people received medical treatment. Many social media postings carried gruesome close-ups of the dead victims.

Dr Singh said mainstream news outlets in Fiji did not use graphic images of the deceased because of ethical reasons.

“None of the mainstream news media carried such images because it’s against professional ethics.”

However, the public did not have the same obligations as the media when it came to what they posted on social media, said Dr Singh.

‘Not bound by rules’
“The public users of social media are not bound by any such rules or ethics.”

USP journalism student Anaseini Civavonovono said that in this digital era with the rapid evolution of technology there was an increased concern for their use.

“Smartphones allow people to stay connected always but the challenge is how (ethically) they use it.”

A big problem that comes with the connectedness of technology is the need to be first, said Civavonovono.

“The trend now is not only about geobragging, but how fast a user can update their post and being the first person to provide the update.”

Save the Children Fiji CEO Iris Low-Mackenzie said people should have more tact before sharing on social media.

“This is a sign that it’s time to evaluate our social media habits because some of the deceased are children, children who belong to families, who have friends and a whole network around them, and to be circulating these horrific videos is very inhumane and insensitive.”

Posts upsetting
Family member of one of the young men who survived the car crash Kasanita Bilitaki told Asia Pacific Report it was upsetting to see the many posts about the tragic event.

“I felt so disgusted by those who were posting graphic images and videos on social media, even before the families knew about the crash had the audacity to do that.”

“It was as if our morals as itaukei went quickly out the door for a few likes on social media.”
Bilitaki said she was thankful that her cousin Jacob Vunicagi was recovering in hospital, but said her family was saddened by the spread of explicit posts on Facebook.

“They were disappointed that people went through all that effort to post up graphic images about the other victims that died instantly.”

Harvard University student and intern for UNICEF Pacific Sruthi Palaniappan witnessed the accident and said although she was in shock, that did not stop her from trying to help.

‘Tried my best’
“I tried my best to help by assisting a woman out of a car, calling the ambulance, and providing water and a towel that I had.

“I remember feeling so helpless in the moment as no one around me was a trained medical professional and I wanted to do more to help but did not know how.”

Since the tragic event, Palaniappan said she was compelled to start a GoFundMe page to raise funds to support those affected.

“The lives of these families will never be the same.

“My heart goes out to the affected families, and I wish them all the strength.”

Leilani Sitagata is a reporter for the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch project.

“Fake news” combined with a lack of critical media judgment by many in the millennial generation is a major challenge to democracies across the world, says a leading Indian communication academic.

Speaking at the 26th annual conference of the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) conference with the theme “Disturbing Asian millennials: Some creative responses”, Professor Bharthur Sanjay, pro vice-chancellor of the University of Hyderabad, said the vulnerability of some states in the face of the social media crisis had led to a default response of shutting down the internet in “volatile contexts”.

In the case of India and some states, efforts to formally regulate fake news with legislated responses were withdrawn.

READ MORE: Professor Sanjay’s full address

Papua New Guinea is an example of an Asia-Pacific country where a government minister has threatened to shut down Facebook for a month to research so-called “fake accounts”.

Professor Sanjay did not mention Papua New Guinea but he said the implications were wide-ranging for Asia-Pacific countries. Papua New Guinea is due to host APEC in November.

The WhatsApp social media platform – widely used throughout Asia – was cited as a leading outlet for disseminating fake news.

“Fake news is a bit of a misleading term, as fake news can mean many things – a mistake, intentional misleading, twisting a news story, or fabricating a complete lie,” Dr Sanjay said, quoting Pankaj Jain, one of India’s most active ‘fake news slayers’..

Fake accounts damage
In the opening address at the host Manipal University (MAHE) in Karnataka, South India, Dr Sanjay said that while news media organisations and credible journalists had been found to publish misleading stories and mistakes, the most damage was done by people with fake social media profiles, polarising websites, and social media sites seeking to intentionally spread fake news to win elections or promote hatred.

Formal education contexts featured debates about the public sector, commercialisation and privatisation while a “default faith” was placed on new media that could virtually bring “handheld” education to the millennials.

This was a field that the public and private education sector intended to reach out to through online education and learning tools and options, said Dr Sanjay.

He said the euphoric underpinnings of the digital era in the Asia-Pacific and its subregions of ASEAN countries, South Asia and the Southeast Asia had parallels in the colonial and postcolonial periods with a technocentric dimension.

Dr Sanjay said online Indian language context was expected to reach about 60 percent.

Digital destinations across genres would capitalise on the profile that was non-English.

Information was considered an enabling and empowering input.

The speed with which it travels through multiple platforms has raised concerns about legacy media content through adaptation or user-generated content, Dr Sanjay said.

Higher trust
Apart from ethics, the legacy media enjoyed higher trust based on its screening and verification processes.

User-generated content reflected a paradigm shift that in theory allowed higher participation.

The millennials profile was not uniform across countries and the kind of content had come into sharper focus.

A critique of the content was an issue for both academic discourse and legal and regulatory frameworks, Dr Sanjay said.

Extension models of higher education seemed to suggest that they could be tapped to bring skilled youth into the workplace.

AMIC chairman Professor Crispin Maslog of the Philippines said the millennials were the largest such generation in history – “and we ‘centennials need to understand them’.”

“There are some 1.8 billion out of the 7 billion global population – and they love smart phones. Of that 1.8 billion, 600 million are Asian.”

Redefining millennial life
Millennials, sometimes known as the “echo boomers”, are generally regarded as the 16 to 34-year-olds – the “digital natives’ who are not just consumers of media, but produce their own media content.

Globalisation, migration and technology are some of the major factors redefining the millennials’ way of life.

Most of the 200 academics from 15 countries at the conference presented papers on millennials education research and innovative case stories.

Themes explored included “Branding millennials – defining identity”, “A passion for technology – living in a social media world”, “News and current affairs as consumption (or creation) practices”, “evolving gender representation in the new mediascape”, and “Research and data management – today’s cutting edge competencies”.

One of the conference highlights was a “Free/Dem” panel dialogue and presentation about communication for and by young people in practice.

Deepika and Summi, programme associates of India’s Feminist Approach to Technology (FAT), gave inspiring addresses in Hindi about how their movement had worked across the continent to give girls in poverty-hit communities the opportunity to work with computers and learn technical skills.

“When I saw people using computers, I wanted to be able to do the same,” said Summi, a 13-year-old from a very poor urban neigbourhood where girls never got an opportunity.

“Now I am able to help other girls to do the same.”

Creative communication and culture were also major parts of the programme, including an episode of Jataaya Moksha performed by MAHE’s creative arts school Yakshagana Kendra.

Launching a report on “World Trends in Freedom of Expression and Media Development“, New Delhi-based national UNESCO programme officer Anirban Sarma, said that while new media had expanded freedoms and communication beyond the media, there had also been “increasing incursions into proivacy and an expansion of mass and arbitrary surveillance”.

“The rise of new forms of political populism as well as what have been seen as authoritarian policies are important developments,” says the report based on a survey of 131 countries.

“Citing a range of reasons, including national security, governments are increasingly monitoring and also requiring the take down of information online, in many cases not only relating to hate speech and content seen to encourage violent extremism, but also what has been seen as legitimate political positioning.”

Asia communication awards

Filipino Charlie Agatep – a public relations guru in Asia – made a passionate video plea for more courageous, rigorous and accurate journalism as an antidote for “fake news”.

He was also critical of the “digital acrobats” who swept Rodrigo Duterte into the presidency in 2016 and who still manipulates and distorts public opinion in the Philippines.

Agatep founded the PR agency Agatep Associates in 1988 and transformed it into Grupo Agatep Inc., the largest marketing and digital (social media) communication agency in the Philippines.

He was one of two AMIC Asia Communication Award in Transformative Leadership recipients for 2018. AMIC recognised him for his role as “shaper of many professionals who have learned from his artistry” across diverse Asian audiences, and for his efforts to reach out to youth.

The other was Manila-based Father Franz-Josef Eilers, an inspirational Catholic church and social justice communicator of the Society of Divine Word (SVD). Among many achievements, he helped establish the Asian Research Centre for Religion and Social Communication (ARC) at St John’s University, Bangkok.

AMIC presented the award to Father Eilers in recognition of his “outstanding contributions to church and social communications, and in appreciation for the church communication institutions he has built”.

The conference was hosted by MAHE’s School of Communication whose director, Professor Padma Rani, thanked ZEE television, UNESCO and the many sponsors and her “fabulous” faculty team for the successful outcome.

Next year’s conference will be hosted by Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok, Thailand.

• The Pacific Media Centre’s Professor David Robie addressed the opening plenary panel on “Millennials’ concept of democracy: freedom of expression for all v. freedom of expression for themselves” and delivered a paper on the expanding notions of “Pacific way” journalism.

A brief clip from a community journalism promotion video produced for the Manipal University School of Communication and screened at the university’s “experimental theatre”.

By Hele Ikimotu with visuals by Blessen Tom in Suva

This year, the University of the South Pacific is celebrating 50 years since its opening in Fiji in  1968.

The university’s first campus was established in Suva, with a student count of 200 – it now accommodates over 30,000 students across the different campuses within the Pacific region.

USP has campuses in 12 different Pacific nations – Fiji, Cook Islands, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

Vice-Chancellor Professor Chandra said USP has made a positive contribution to the Pacific region, including contributions in human resources, policy change and research.

He described the university as being “owned by the Pacific and serves the Pacific”. Professor Chandra emphasised the need for these Pacific countries to work together in advocating for Pacific issues.

“As small countries, we need to work together. One is simply too small to be playing in the big world out there. We need to put all of our voices together. We need to co-operate, work together and integrate,” he said.

Professor Chandra also spoke highly of USP’s efforts in tackling the issue of climate change.

Leading stand
Over the years, the university has become one of the leading tertiary institutions to make a stand against the issue.

“The university has played this role of researching, advocating, supporting policies and disseminating knowledge around climate change,” said Professor Chandra.

The USP journalism school for example is consistently producing stories on climate change issues in their student newspaper Wansolwara. They have also partnered with AUT’s Pacific Media Centre to host two students every year for the Bearing Witness climate change journalism project.

This has seen significant stories about the effect climate change has had on communities in Fiji such as the award-winning multimedia story produced by Kendall Hutt and Julie Cleaver last year about Tukuraki village.

“I am also proud of the USP students. They have gone to the various COPs and have supported their own countries and have become senior advisers to their governments.

“I am quite proud and happy because the climate is central to the survival and prosperity of our country.”

The university’s 1999 strategic plan also saw the establishment of the Pacific Centre for Environment and Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD).

Raising awareness
The centre was opened to implement more research of the region’s environment and has continued to raise awareness about climate change and sustainable development in the Pacific.

PaCE-SD offers a postgraduate programme in climate change, with currently 200 students across the Pacific enrolled in the programme.

The centre also implements community projects around climate resilience in the Pacific and has been involved in major projects such as the Community Coastal Adaptation Project (C-CAP) and the Future Climate Leaders Programme (FCLP1).

Since the centre has been established, it has been recognised as a strong part of the university’s fight against climate change and environment research in the Pacific.

PaCE-SD director Professor Elisabeth Holland said it was important to be on the ground making a difference in the Pacific region and local communities.

Deputy director of the centre Dr Morgan Wairiu echoed Professor Holland and said the focus of PaCE-SD was helping communities adapt to the changes in the environment because of climate change.

He said it was also important to provide students with the right skills to help them in their areas of research so they could come up with effective solutions to help communities affected by climate change.

Community projects
Professor Holland said: “We run community development projects. We have a locally managed climate change adaptation network that extends to more than 100 communities in 15 countries across the Pacific.”

She said that by listening to how communities were affected by climate change, it had taught their team to listen better and develop a more participatory approach in decision making.

“We have the opportunity to learn from one another and if we’re learning from one another, we’re in a partnership to serve whatever problem is in front of us.”

Professor Holland encourages anyone who is interested in learning about climate change to keep an open mind and said: “Don’t assume you know what the answer is.

“The strongest solutions are those developed together. The fundamental values of participatory listening and respect help solve most of the challenges that come up.”

Hele Ikimotu and Blessen Tom are in Fiji as part of the Pacific Media Centre’s Bearing Witness 2018 climate change project. They are collaborating with the University of the South Pacific.

• More Bearing Witness stories
• USP’s ’50 Years’ website
• Wansolwara News

Auckland University of Technology has appointed a new head of the School of Communication Studies, the largest in New Zealand, the university has announced.

She is Professor Berrin Yanikkaya, currently professor in communication science at Yeditepe University in Istanbul, Turkey.

The acting dean of the Faculty of Design and Creative Technologies, Pro-Vice Chancellor Philip Sallis, said Professor Yanikkaya had an admirable record of teaching, curriculum development, research and management.

“She comes highly recommended for her leadership and ability to bring staff together in the pursuit of academic excellence. Among her experiences as an academic she has been a member of the Turkish National Curriculum Accreditation Authority and numerous professional community organisations.”

Professor Yanikkaya takes over the role as head of the School of​ Communications Studies from Associate Professor Alan Cocker who in July will take his long-overdue sabbatical leave.

Pro-Vice Chancellor Phillip Sallis said Dr Yanikkaya was chosen from a field of well-qualified and able applicants and went through two formal interviews and gave a presentation to the school and the appointments advisory committee.

She also met with the Vice-Chancellor and Deputy-Vice Chancellor as part of this process.

“Berrin stood out among the candidates for her energy of purpose, clarity of vision for the school and an obvious grasp of these issues and challenges it faces”, he said.

Professor Yanikkaya will begin her role in July. ​

AUT’s School of Communication Studies is a leading academic and media producer, publishing the news websites Asia Pacific Report and Te Waha Nui, and the SCOPUS-ranked research journal Pacific Journalism Review.

• AUT School of Communication Studies news

Students and staff filed their first two stories this week for the innovative website published in partnership with Evening Report.

Roy Abrhamn Narra and Carlo Casingcasing reported an exclusive story showing how Canada’s latest global terrorism blacklists were tagging the Philippines as having the third highest number of “individual terrorists” behind Saudi Arabia and Iraq while journalism coordinator Assistant Professor Jeremaiah M. Opiniano covered Philippines Environment Secretary Regina Lopez’s crackdown on mining companies in a bid to encourage a “green economy”.

Twenty three mining companies have been been served with closure notices and  five others face suspensions. One company involved has assets in New Zealand.

Opiniano was pleased with the collaboration and said UST was working towards a more comprehensive partnership with the PMC and School of Communication Studies.

Professor David Robie, director of the PMC and editor of Asia Pacific Report, welcomed the development, saying: “We are delighted to have UST on board and their input will help boost coverage of the Philippines, especially with more depth.”

He said that since the live feed of the Philippines presidential election last year, the website had experienced a strong Filipino interest and this was reflected by the growing audience among the Philippines diaspora in New Zealand.

Asia Pacific Report also collaborates with other journalism schools around the region, including at the University of the South Pacific in Fiji and Wansolwara newspaper.

• Two new journalism degrees in Philippines

‘Atenisi Institute’s academic dean Dr Michael Horowitz has joined the Pacific Media Centre this month as visiting research fellow and the Tongan university plans to establish a media school on its second campus next year.

Dr Horowitz holds US postgraduate degrees in social science from the New School in New York and the College of Public Affairs at Oregon’s Portland State University.

His analyses of US politics and culture have appeared in the Village Voice, Playboy, and the Psychiatric Times, among other periodicals, while academic articles and reviews have been regionally published in Sites, Journal of Pacific History and Journal of Pacific Affairs.

This week he delivered a seminar with AUT’s Institute of Public Policy on the impact of businessman and reality television magnate Donald Trump being elected as US President-elect earlier this month on democracy in his home country.

Under the pen name V.O. Blum, he authored the speculative novella DownMind (2013), which was favourably reviewed by the Listener soon after publication by Steam Press in Wellington.

Since 2015, Dr Horowitz has directed the university at ‘Atenisi Institute in Tonga, which is planning to establish a media academy on its second campus in the ‘Isileli district of Nuku’alofa.

The academy would train journalists, cinematographers, and thespians, among other talent, for media careers in Western Polynesia.

Part of Dr Horowitz’ agenda at PMC is to recruit specialists here in New Zealand to serve on the academy’s board prior to its launch.

PMC director Professor David Robie, who is currently on sabbatical, welcomed Dr Horowitz, saying: “We are fortunate to have a Pacific academic of the calibre of Dr Horowitz with us and we look forward to working with ‘Atenisi in the future.”

Dr Horowitz will be at AUT’s PMC from the middle of this month until early February 2017.

‘Atenisi: Six terms of reference for an Athens in the Pacific

“Teaching hospital” is a model that is regarded as a way for journalism educators to turn their classrooms into newsrooms by immersing students into a practical learning environment. But it is often debated among media educators who are continuously faced with ethical dilemmas of trying to provide a real world learning experience while staying within the boundaries of institutional ethics and keeping students safe on location. It was a topic discussed among media educators at the 4^th World Journalism Education Congress in New Zealand this week.

‘Real world’ vs learning environment
The teaching hospital model has been a success in their journalism school, says Associate Professor Katherine Reed of the Missouri School of Journalism, who was chairing the panel.

Talking to Asia Pacific Report, she said students had been “Pulitzer prize winners” and are able to find work and contribute towards interesting projects after graduation.

But it has not been without its challenges either, Reed admitted.

During the panel debate, she mentioned the ethical dilemmas she had faced when applying a real world working environment within a university.

She gave an example of her journalism students wanting to cover the conflict and unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014.

“I told them it was too dangerous,” Reed said.

“Stories that were not an ‘imminent threat’ but still served the community, were important to cover.”

She said although there were challenges, it’s important that stories continue to serve the community otherwise “we are teaching our students to be self-absorbed”.

Reed also questioned how students could cope with the stress that comes with the workload of a newsroom as well as being able to meet deadlines for other subject assignments.

Professor of journalism at the University of Florida, Dr Kim Walsh-Childers, said the model was a success because it allowed students to write for their wider community and “past their own university audiences”.

But she said conflicts of interest for the university could also arise as a result.

Post-traumatic care
Professor Harry Dugmore of the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University in South Africa said his class have had “real, live and fiery debates” concerning ethics while practising the model.

Dugmore said the school had applied “analytical tools from sociology and political science” to the teaching hospital theory; allowing students to gain insight into understanding dispositions and conflicts in their country.

“It confronts them with the reality of South Africa and allows them to be more sensitive journalists,” he told Asia Pacific Report.

During his presentation, Dr Dugmore highlighted a student incident that emphasised the need for post-traumatic care for students.

He said a group of university students produced a story addressing the issue of rape culture within the campus, in which names of several alleged rapists were anonymously published.

The university was then “barred and barricaded for a week”.

Despite the story providing a platform to voice a serious issue, it did raise the need for the model to include “debriefing and post-traumatic care for students”, he said.

Listen to an extended interview with Associate Professor Katherine Reed, where she defines the teaching hospital model and explains why she disagrees with the metaphor, saying the model is better compared to the workings of a “kitchen” not a hospital.

The lack of qualified journalists and media educators is threatening the quality of media in the Pacific. This was an urgent topic discussed today among journalism educators as part of the Media Educators Pacific (MEP) fono, held in Auckland’s Pacific Media Centre.

Points for improvement
Dr Shailendra Singh, senior lecturer and coordinator of journalism at the University of the South Pacific in Suva, stressed three fundamental points that needed improvement.

There are not enough expert journalists that are qualified and have experience, he said. 

“Less than 50 percent of journalists in Fiji have six years experience.”

Secondly, he continued, current journalists needed to update their training.

“And lastly, media institutions and industries are not fully committed to the cause,” said Dr Singh.

He said journalism institutions were “not funding the curriculum in the way they should be funding it”. This further impacted on the quality of training resources and equipment.

Dr Singh also added that because of the low salaries of journalists in the Pacific, many of the top graduates were being “plugged” by NGOs.

“Media industries do not offer competitive salaries, so we are not getting the cream of the crop.”

Filling the void
MEP president Misa Vicky Lepou, from the National University of Samoa, said it was vital that media educators gained industry assistance with teaching journalism.

“We need to train working journalists so they can teach journalism, we educators do not have the expertise or knowledge to teach those courses.

“In order for us to get help, we need help as well,” she admitted.

Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PACMAS) programme manager Francis Herman said the trouble with helping working practitioners improve their training was they could not attend a full-time course with the demands of working in a newsroom.

“How can we fill that void?” he questioned MEP members.

Education challenges
He said that restrictive media laws in the Pacific region like the Fiji Media Industry Development Decree would affect the new generation of journalists.

Herman said this was a challenge media educators would have to address and referred to it as a “dire problem” within Pacific journalism education.

The PACMAS representative added that funding to assist media training had proven difficult for Pacific organisations to access.

“We need help putting proposals [for funding] together, this is something that could really strengthen our case.”

Present at the meeting was Michael Rose, director of research and communication at the Australian Press Council.

Rose confirmed the APC’s interest with assisting in areas that supported raising the standards of Pacific journalism.

“We can help with facilitation, bringing in expert journalists into the region for training purposes,” he told MEP.

“We are aware that what works in Australia doesn’t work in every country,” he said. “Please reach out to us with your needs, we can help particularly with advocacy.”

‘Critical thinking’
The director of Pacific Media Centre, Professor David Robie, raised issues of digital technology and how many Pacific news outlets were lagging behind embracing the possibilities.

He said social media strategies were well integrated in the journalism profession but the Pacific is still very low in adapting to these new platforms.

Dr Robie highlighted “critical thinking” and flexibility as paramount to adapting to a “shrinking” profession. Skills were important but far more was needed in developing the ability to produce critical and insightful journalism.

“We keep thinking long term but the industry is changing, and the Pacific industry is going to change very rapidly in time as well.

“Changes are fundamental now, we have to think strategically about the future.”

Western vs ‘Pacific way’
Misa Vicky Lepou told Asia Pacific Report that based on the comments made during the meeting, media educators needed to decide whether they wanted to teach a Western perspective of journalism in their curriculum or whether it should be taught in the “Pacific way”.

“It’s their job as educators to make that call, so before we move forward we need to set these priorities.”

In the meantime, Lepou said Pacific journalists and media educators needed to begin to “trust” and forge partnerships with prominent universities to collaborate and further their expertise.

Listen to an extended commentary from Misa Vicky Lepou about this issue with Asia Pacific Report.

Journalism educators from across the Pacific have raised concerns about the current state of journalism globally at the 4th World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC) at the Auckland University of Technology this week.

The panel of educators from across New Zealand and Australia agreed better practice in journalism is required in order to truly represent diverse communities and those seen as “minorities” and disadvantaged.

Bernard Whelan, manager of Whitireia’s journalism programme, Tara Ross of the University of Canterbury, Professor David Robie of the Pacific Media Centre, and Kathryn Shine of Western Australia’s Curtin University, all said better practice could be achieved through instilling improved methods with young and aspiring journalists. 

This echoed points raised by both Dr Lee Duffield and journalism educator Dr Philip Cass on Wednesday at the JEERA preconference that students were at the heart of developments in the industry.

‘Bicultural responsibility’
Whelan noted how the mainstay of American news values left no apparent room in the mainstream media to explore more “indigenous” and alternative models of reporting.

He stressed journalists, particularly in New Zealand regarding Māori, had a “bicultural responsibility” to at least consider these forms and hoped that through his PhD research a bicultural model for journalism education could be “deeply ingrained” into Whitireia’s programme.

Ross noted how students needed to report with and not on the community, which was not currently the norm as it was different from “normative” educational process.

She stressed the importance of students understanding the consequences of their stories and noted how they need a measure of accountability.

This evoked a vocal response from one of the delegates present, who stressed that a journalist’s stories are not momentary for those that are featured, as the story has a “lasting, lifelong digital attachment”.

Negative focus detrimental
Shine however, raised the important issue of the prevalence of negativity in the media and the media’s seeming inability to pull away from the “if it bleeds, it leads” mentality that continues to drive the mainstream news cycle.

She said such a negative focus might mean the media was “out of sync” with the very community it sought to inform. This echoed sentiments delivered earlier by Ross, who noted that what the media perceived as the community needing was not necessarily what it wanted.

Shine also highlighted the importance of pulling away from such negative stories and perceptions with her research into teachers’ perceptions of the news and journalists.

She found more than 80 percent of teachers believed coverage of their work was negative, while 60 percent said “sweeping generalisations” resulted in media coverage being biased.

More than half concluded that the media did not convey the realities of both schools and teaching, she said.

Such revelations were concerning, as it led the community to question the credibility of the media.

In the Q and A session following the panel, one delegate raised the concern that such issues in the coverage of education posed serious dilemmas for the potential influx of young journalists, as “teachers have a fundamental influence in students career choices”.

Independent media important
Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie drew on the examples of Pacific Scoop and Asia Pacific Report in a case study to stress the importance of the presence of independent, alternative media in journalism schools for students to explore their potential.

Dr Robie highlighted how such media demonstrated best practice as a “cornerstone of democracy”.

He said it was integral to involve students in such a process, and noted the “innovative” work that had been achieved by postgraduate students on the PMC’s Asia-Pacific Journalism Studies course over the past few years, including missions to the Pacific.

Students from the course had covered the the 2014 general election in Fiji — the first since the 2006 militrary coup — and had assignments involving climate change in Fiji, and the Pacific Islands Forum in the Cook Islands and Vanuatu.

Both the panelists and delegates noted that if changes were not made to dominant paradigms and mainstays of journalism soon that the “rubber would hit the road” leading to an internal moral crises within the industry.

• WJEC16: Role of journalism students
• Asia Pacific Report

Journalism educators from across the globe continued to gather at the 4th World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC) at the Auckland University of Technology.The topic of conversation among a series of panels yesterday focused on how digital technology is evolving journalism and its flow-on affects on media education and research.

‘Shaking the platform’
Professor Kaarl Nordenstreng of the University of Tampere discussed the evolution of technology and mass communication and how it had subsequently affected journalism.

Dr Nordenstreng told delegates that the steep growth in mass communication and research into the field from the 1990s and subsequent rise of technology had led to the seeming “out and down” of journalism.

“Technology is shaking the journalism platform.”

He warned academics to not become too enamoured with the “explosive” growth of the mass communication field, and digital journalism even though research was “flourishing” and on the “up”.

“Let’s not become too proud and fall into what I call ‘surfing syndrome.’”

He noted in “living in a historical sunrise industry in the midst of expansion” how the field was undergoing a “renaissance” of academic thought, but mused that it was “perhaps just another cycle that is natural”.

Dr Nordenstreng stressed, however, that in future journalists and academics alike needed a “much more diverse” understanding of the news and profession itself.

‘Moral compass’
In a simultaneous panel debate, media educators urged for a revised look at journalism ethics because of the significant effects digital platforms are having on the profession.

Journalist and professor of journalism and social media at Griffith University, Dr Mark Pearson, said it was extremely important that individual journalists, moderators and commentators owned a “moral compass”.

“That’s the fundamental sense of right and wrong which guide the journalists’ ethical decision making,” he said.

“Mindful journalism suggests a framework for establishing this moral compass.”

On the same panel was Associate Professor Donald Matheson, from the University of Canterbury, who said journalists should maintain a clear relationship with sources when they were operating within their social networks.

“It is always someone’s experience to which the journalists are dealing with.”

He said other ethical terms were needed, elaborating that ethics are more of a dialogue and action, than a set of rules.

Present at the third panel discussion in this series was Dr Paul Voakes from the University of Colorado Boulder, also a specialist on digital media law and ethics.

He said although journalism ethics needec to be revaluated, traditional ethics should not be forgotten.

“We are in the midst of organisational changes and the most important thing is not to leave the traditional journalism values which have existed over the years while acquiring the ‘new ways of creating stories’.”

‘Disruptive changes’
Dr Brad Rawlins, from Arkansas State University, reinstated the disruptive shift digital technology is having within the industry.

“A lot of new ways of story-telling are involved to suit the digital audience nowadays,” he said during the discussion.

Dr Karin Wahl Jorgensen from Cardiff University, one of the world’s noted journalism schools, concluded the point of relooking at ethics, saying that today reporters were expected to possess multi-media skills as well as writing proficiency.

Media experts from around the Pacific region held a series of discussion panels at the preconference leading up to the 4th World Journalism Education Congress held at the Auckland University of Technology this week. They spoke to audiences about the media challenges in their homeland in hope to raise the quality of the Fourth Estate in the South Pacific.

Pitfalls of PNG coverage
The president of Papua New Guinea’s media council highlighted ongoing challenges facing the government and media educators in the panel discussion.

In touching on the challenges to journalism education in Papua New Guinea, Alexander Rheeney, also the editor-in-chief of the Post-Courier, addressed pitfalls in the reportage of the shooting of several University of Papua New Guinea students by police last month.

Rheeney said the reportage was a question of quality from the media and he highlighted the need for investigative reporting.

“It has been a good wake-up call for the industry and we need to pull up our socks.”

Rheeney’s comments come after this week’s “twist” made by the Supreme Court, ordering Parliament reconvene to vote on the no-confidence motion lodged against Prime Minister Peter O’Neill regarding allegations of corruption

Media reports say O’Neill remains confident he will survive the motion scheduled for this Friday.

Rheeney also touched on challenges facing journalism educators in Papua New Guinea, namely the flow-on effects from a “drastic” decline in the quality of high school graduates over the past 20 years in areas such as literacy.

Anonymous source risks
Solomon Star reporter, Eddie Osifelo, talked about the challenges faced by local newspapers publishing anonymous sources in their stories.

According to Osifelo,  journalists are forced to do stories on anonymous sources because government officials do not want their names published as they fear their job might be at risk.

He pointed out that as many as 133 stories with anonymous sources were published in two big Solomon Island newspapers between the periods of October and December 2014.

Osifelo said some of the ways articles had referred to anonymous sources were, “close sources”, “eyewitness” or an “insider”.

“In certain kinds of stories, informants would not talk unless they are assured of anonymity,” Osifelo said.

He explained politicians and individuals did not want to see anonymous sources appearing on stories because it questioned the credibility and ethics of journalists.

But he added that there was no Freedom of Information law in the Solomon Islands that enabled media to access confidential information from the government.

The Solomon Star and Island Sun have been faced with many challenges ranging from legal threats, compensation, harassment and court battles because of publishing anonymous sources in their stories.

He said media would still continue to rely on anonymous sources in years to come if nothing was done to improve the situation.

Digital Divide
Maria Sagrista, a lecturer at Divine Word University, gave insights into the digital divide and its effects on journalism education in Papua New Guinea.

“There are 350,000 Facebook users in PNG,” Sagrista said.

However, they are lacking content related skills that include ability to access information needed and efficient use of these platforms to achieve specific targets or solutions. she explained.

“Some tertiary institutes do not have free internet access for students. They have limited availability of computers and their academic staff admit they have no experience with the internet.”

Sagrista said digital literacy is crucial to become engaged with the new information age and knowledge-based society.

There are many issues in PNG that creates problems to integrate the new technologies into teaching and learning practice.

Power structure
“Technology challenges the traditional power structure. Lecturers feel threatened by the use of technology because [in most cases] students are more digitally literate which challenges their authority and status power.”

According to Sagrista, who acknowledged this was not a specialist area for her, uncertain infrastructure, political power and different understanding of priorities and redefinition of appropriate pedagogy are a few of them.

As the numbers of online news users are increasing, she emphasised “reinventing curriculum for journalism education”.

Sagrista concluded with some solutions like having libraries/mobile libraries, internet advisor, sharing devices and connections, changing perceptions of lectures and students, adapting journalism education curriculum in PNG.

Professionalism in Vanuatu
Dave Mandavah, coordinator of the Vanuatu Institute of Technology (VIT) journalism school presented his research paper, which focuses on the two-year Journalism and Media diploma course at the institute.

Starting in 2009 with funding from the Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PMAS) the course was originally intended to improve and continue the professional development of current media practitioners.

However a challenge since the beginning has been the large intake of students with little or no media experience, Mandavah said.

“Working journalists said the course was too expensive and the time schedule was ‘off’.”

Despite the “missmatch” between the course content and the student’s needs, Mandavah said the hard work and dedication of the students had meant they had been able to tailor the course to suit their needs.

But suitable media candidates were vital to help improve the current media climate in the island.

Breaking ‘societal gender power’
Mandavah said a positive outcome has been that most students had been females.

Something he described as the course’s “biggest challenge but also its biggest success”.

This is because females are dominated by a male patriarchy, he said adding “they [females] are voiceless in Vanuatu”.

He explained that despite the males’ “societal gender power”, the course had given the female students the skills to be represented and play a significant role in society.

The group of Pacific educators will host a series of panel discussions at the WJEC Pacific preconference held on July 13 at the Auckland University of Technology.

Eliki Drugunalevu, a journalism broadcast tutor from the University of the South Pacific in Suva, says he is excited to be presenting a panel about broadcast education in Fiji.

“Being a part of WJEC will expose me to a whole range of issues out there and I’ll be able to meet academics, researchers, journalists who have done so much contribution in this field.”

Drugunalevu, who is also manager of Radio Pasifik, says the audience could expect a thorough look at how student radio stations are offering real world journalism experience to students, which is important under Fiji’s strained media climate.

“The existence of such a facility is critical in engaging students in discussion through a broad range of community, educational and cultural programmes.”

Eddie Osifelo, a journalist from the Solomon Star, will be presenting about some of the challenges in the Solomon Islands media.

“As a journalist I have experienced harassment, verbal abuse and court challenges,” he told Pacific Media Watch.

His presentation will focus on the use of anonymous sources, particularly in political and business articles.

‘Digital divide’
Another journalism lecturer, Maria Sagrista, from Divine Word University (DWU) in Papua New Guinea, will present a discussion on the “digital divide” in PNG.

She told Pacific Media Watch that the digital divide presents many challenges for students transitioning from university to “real world” media organisations.

“The first one of them is the lack of equipment and resources at the university level that do not allow students to become familiar with the current technologies used in “real world” media organisations.”

Access to new technology is crucial for developing countries to play an active role in a knowledge-based society, she says.

“New technologies and the internet have the potential to enhance access to information for people and to bring countries such as Papua New Guinea to a position of active producers of knowledge, shifting away from the traditional role of passive silent consumers,” she says.

Other Pacific contingent members speaking at the preconference include Emily Matasororo (University of Papua New Guinea) and Dave Mandavah (Vanuatu Institute of Technology).

They are all being sponsored to attend by the New Zealand Institute of Pacific Research.

NZIPR director Toeolesulusulu Associate Professor Damon Salesa says the conference aligns with the goals of the institute by providing a place for the sharing of knowledge that will help improve the role of the Fourth Estate in the Pacific.

“It allows for the Pacific to get to know more about New Zealand and world media, and for New Zealand media to better understand the Pacific,” Toeolesulusulu says. “We are really excited and looking forward to this conference.”

Corruption and bribery
A special panel topic about corruption and the media in the South Pacific has been organised by Transparency International and will be streamed live on Asia Pacific Report.

Panelists include Alex Rheeney (editor-in-chief of the Post-Courier in PNG), Dr Shailendra Singh (USP) and Kalafi Moala (Taimi ‘o Tonga media group and deputy chair of the Pasifika Media Association-PasiMA)

Transparency International New Zealand’s Fuimaono Tuiasau, the Pacific director, says the forum enables TINZ to support Pacific journalists in their work to tell stories about corruption and bribery.

“We hope to highlight to an international audience the role of he media in the Pacific and the challenges that face media organisations and to expose those at the forefront to an international audience.”

Fuimaono says corruption and bribery should be a topic introduced into journalism education and training so the media can develop the skills necessary to tell these stories.

• Register for the preconference here.
• Strong Asia contingent lined up for WJEC
• Pacific preconference webpage
• WJEC website

After just one-week in New Zealand, three Pacific-based media and journalism students taking part in Pacific Cooperation Foundation’s (PCF) Media Programme have been exposed to a new realm of ideas and opportunities.

The media programme, now in its second year, sees three Pacific-based journalism students visit New Zealand for a two-week internship at various media organisations in Auckland, while two NZ-based students travel to Fiji and Samoa to complete an internship at media organisations there.

This year’s Pacific-based students include final year journalism students Nadia Marai, 22, from the University of Papua New Guinea (UPNG) and Sonal Singh, 21, from the University of the South Pacific in Fiji and a former editor of Wansolwara newspaper, along with Francis Vaigalepa, 20, who is in his first of two years studying journalism at the National University of Samoa.

Meanwhile, Julie Isles from Massey University and Anuja Nadkarni (AUT University) are in Samoa and Fiji respectively until July 11 when the Pacific and NZ-based students will gather in Auckland for a working breakfast to share their internship experiences before returning home.

One week into the internship, and the Pacific-based interns are experiencing the reality of work and what it takes to be a journalist in a New Zealand newsroom.

The interns have already visited Pacific Media Network, Māori Television, Pacific Media Centre and Tiki Lounge Productions where they have been exposed to many differences between media and journalism in New Zealand and in the students’ home countries.

They have also gained new perspectives on the industry they want to work in.

Media differences
A major difference Marai and the other interns have noticed is the type of equipment used in New Zealand is more technical and advanced than what is used throughout the Pacific.

“Papua New Guinea is slowly making progress but we need more equipment for journalism newsrooms … If I happen to work in a newsroom later on, I will share ideas on what I’ve learnt about using technology and equipment to work more effectively,” Marai says.

The idea of having programmes in the indigenous language of a country is novel, Marai adds.

“Māori Television try hard to keep the Māori culture alive with language programmes which is great … in PNG, we have over 800 different languages but all of our television programmes are in English.”

Marai is particularly interested in environmental reporting when she returns to PNG, whose environment has been vastly affected from mining and climate change, she says.

For Singh, who has a passion for politics, his short time in New Zealand has shown him it is okay to ask questions, despite a media decree limiting media freedom as in his homeland.

“In Fiji, my fellow students and people are afraid to ask questions about politics but here everyone speaks about it freely,” Singh says.

“I’ve learnt it is okay to ask questions, and if the person does not answer, at least you have tried your best to get one –- you don’t know unless you try.”

Singh adds he will encourage fellow students to ask more questions on his return to Fiji.

Absorbing information
Vaigalepa is keen to learn and absorb as much as information as possible about new technology and media practices in New Zealand to take back to Samoa, where he wants to focus on pressing Pacific issues.

Pacific nations face the same challenges, and by standing together, they can learn about how best to face them from each other, he says.

The director of Pacific Media Centre at AUT University, Professor David Robie, says he considers PMC’s collaboration with PCF’s media programme vitally important.

“We see these interns as brothers and sisters of journalism in the region,” Dr Robie says.

AUT has been working with USP for a number of years, and also with UPNG.

It also has links with NUS, so this programme assists with developing a Pacific-wide network, he adds.

“There are many challenges in the region that we all face and need to know more about.

Marginalised in NZ
“Through collaboration we can tackle some of these issues – important for the region but often marginalised in countries such as New Zealand and Australia.

“Part of our work at PMC is to help make these issues centre stage.”

As student contributions are encouraged at PMC for its news and current affairs website Asia Pacific Report, launched in January by PCF’s chief executive Laulu Mac Leauanae, Dr Robie has invited the interns to contribute work about issues in their homelands.

In week two of the internships, the trio will visit Tiki Productions again, along with Television New Zealand, The New Zealand Herald and SunPix, producers of Tagata Pasifika.

Michelle Curran is a Pacific Cooperation Foundation journalist.

• AUT’s Static FM 88.1 radio statiion – visited by the Pacific interns