Host Sherry Zhang interviewed the director of the Pacific Media Centre, Professor David Robie, about the tragic life and death of Jenelyn Kennedy from gender violence in Papua New Guinea today on the Southern Cross segment of Radio 95bFM.

Professor Robie discussed the rather horrific image of her lifeless body on the front page of The National newspaper and the ethical dilemma about publishing this photo to bring into focus gender-based violence.

The image was defended by senior journalist Rebecca Kuku who was criticised in social media for taking the stance.

LISTEN: More Southern Cross radio clips on Soundcloud

However, while Professor Robie supported publication of the photo and also published it on the PMC’s Asia Pacific Report, he said the newspaper should have also had a front-page editorial explaining why they ran the picture.

“Jenelyn’s story needed to be told – as a reporter, a woman, a mother, a sister, I failed to be her voice when she was alive and I’d be damned if I would fail her now in her death,” wrote Rebecca Kuku.

“Her voice needs to be heard and that picture was used to ensure her voice was loud and clear and to also awaken the authorities who seem to be sleeping, to open their eyes to the realities of gender-based violence (GBV).”

Jenelyn who eloped with Bosip Kaiwi when she was just 15, bore him two children and was killed at 19.

Then contributing editor of Pacific Media Watch Sri Krishnamurthi discussed the Cook Islands where members of Parliament (MPs) want to go to extraordinary lengths to ban a senior Cook Islands News journalist.

Rashneel Kumar who reported on MPs seeking travel perks was this week awaiting the decision of the Speaker of the House, Niki Rattle, while media groups have protested over the parliamentary move.

Host Sherry Zhang interviewed veteran Pacific affairs journalist Michael Field who broke last week’s story on the secret BDO New Zealand accountancy report into allegations of funding rorts at the regional University of the South Pacific today on the Southern Cross segment of 95bFM.

Field also spoke about the hounding of suspended vice-chancellor Professor Pal Ahluwalia, the whistleblower who revealed the mismanagement of funds at the university.

In a Pacific Media Centre commentary today, director Professor David Robie, an alumni of USP, analysed the fight to save academic freedom at the university.

LISTEN: Today’s Southern Cross on 95bFM

Contributing editor Sri Krishnamurthi spoke about #PapuanLivesMatter in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.

He talked of Filep Karma, a former political prisoner who revealed Joko Widodo’s unkept promise to free all Papua political prisoners made five years ago.

West Papua is of high economic value to Indonesia because of the Freeport gold and copper mine and the palm oil and logging industries.

Also discussed was the Polynesian Panthers who came into being in June 1971 when protested for Pasifika rights, especially during the Dawn Raids in 1973.

One of the original five Polynesian Panthers was Will ‘Ilolahia, who was arrested for helping organise the protests. He spoke at the Auckland Black Lives Matter rally yesterday and it is hoped he will feature in next Monday’s Southern Cross.

Thousands throng Auckland for NZ Black Lives Matter protests

Pacific Media Watch  contributing editor Sri Krishnamurthi discusses a new book today on West Papua, The Road: Uprising in West Papua, reviewed by Professor David Robie, in his weekly 95bFM segment Southern Cross.

The book is authored by Australian investigative journalist John Martinkus who has covered wars and conflicts in Asia and the Middle East for many years, including the US-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan.

David picks up on the author’s theme of “The Road” – the 4000-plus km Trans-Papua Highway – supposed to be for development in the Melanesian region.

But, as John Martinkus makes very clear in this damning book launched in Sydney this afternoon, it is more about repressing the West Papuans while exploiting the the rich natural resources such as the giant Freeport mine.

There is a section in the book paying tribute to the Pacific Media Watch coverage of West Papua.

Also discussed, is the Philippines with President Rodrigo Duterte’s government shutting down the largest television broadcasters, ABS-CBN with 42 channels across the country.

And, was NZME trying to pull a “fast one” over Stuff in a takeover bid?

• Presented by The Wire host Sherry Zhang and producer James Tapp 
• Pacific Media Centre’s Soundcloud channel 

Into the fourth week of  lockdown in New Zealand, and today’s weekly Pacific Media Centre Southern Cross radio programme covers what journalism schools are doing in the Asia-Pacific region as well as the media in crisis in New Zealand.

New Zealand stands on the precipice of decision day today as the government decides whether to go from alert level 4 to alert level 3 – this afternoon it opted for five more days.

The lockdown will be eased at 11.59pm on Anzac Monday, April 27, followed by two weeks of alert 3 on trial.

LISTEN: Today’s podcast on 95bFM

With ANZAC weekend coming up, the big concern has been will the lockdown rules be broken like at Easter weekend, when many people tended to flout the rules?

For that reason alone, Pacific Media Watch’s Sri Krishnamurthi – like many experts – argues in favour two more weeks of lockdown.

• 95bfm The Wire presenter Sherry Zhang; producer James Tapp
• Radio Southern Cross | PMC Soundcloud channel

During New Zealand’s national Covid-19 lockdown, educational institutions have been changing the way they function or have shut down during this period.

Auckland University (UOA) has moved its courses online as has neighbouring Auckland University of Technology (AUT). Many people are also working from home.

There has been a fair amount of discussion at the moment as to what constitutes  “essential workers”, particularly in the media.

LISTEN: Monday’s Southern Cross programme on 95bFM

95bFM radio station at UOA is still continuing, along with its Pacific Media Centre’s weekly Southern Cross programme as an essential service.

However, how is this affecting community newspapers? And other printed publications, specifically non-daily prints? Magazines?

“All community newspapers have been shut by decree of the government, but there have calls to reopen them because they serve an important function to keep the elderly informed,” said PMC’s Pacific Media Watch contributing editor Sri Krishnamurthi on the programme on Monday.

“As well as other print publications and magazines keep people informed and give people something to read and do in these times of lockdown.

“They play a vital role in keeping the community informed because in these times they might not be able to get The New Zealand Herald or the Dominion Post

“They can go online if they don’t print or use Facebook.”

Ironically, only a day later Prime Minister Jacinda Adern recanted and deemed them essential services for rural areas and far away communities, and also for communities where English is a second language.

However, that decision might have come too late for the Kaitaia-based three-day-a-week publication, The Northland Age which also announced yesterday it was to stop publication after publishing for 116 years.

• 95bFM’s presenter Sherry Zhang (University of Auckland) and producer James Tapp (AUT)

The Pacific Media Centre’s weekly Southern Cross radio programme on 95bFM has featured the latest Pacific news brought to you by Pacific Media Watch contributing editor Sri Krishnamurthi.

He was joined by Auckland University of Technology communications masters student Laurens Ikinia from West Papua to discuss the threat of coronavirus for the Pacific, Papuan students in NZ, right-wing extremism groups and a scourge of crown of thorns starfish eating coral – and how an environmental group found a solution.

“This is a very worrying trend,” says Krishnamurthi in response to the three cases of Covid-19 in a French Polynesia outbreak – first in the Pacific. “And now three cases in Guam, two from the Philippines and one from Japan.

“So they brought it back into Guam. And there is a self-isolating case in American Samoa.

“It has had a very sobering effect in the Pacific – people are being very careful.”

Listen to the PMC’s Southern Cross radio programme.

Ikinia talked about the 160 Papuan students studying in New Zealand as part of a bold education strategy of the local Papuan provincial government of sending students to English-speaking countries.

Krishnamurthi and Ikinia talk about the Pacific issues with 95bFM’s The Wire presenter Sherry Zhang and producer James Tapp.

• 95bFM Southern Cross podcast
• Education key to a better life for West Papua

Operations manager of the NZ Institute for Pacific Research, Dr Evelyn Masters, presented an introduction to regional initiatives and a media outreach plan on air today.

Along with Sri Krishnamurthi, a journalist and digital media student from AUT’s Pacific Media Centre, and Professor David Robie, director of the PMC, Dr Masters talked to 95bFM’s The Wire presenter Reuben McLaren on the PMC’s weekly Southern Cross programme about opportunities ahead for the NZIPR .

Dr Robie gave a rundown on this week’s Pacific news with the RSF World Press Freedom Index and the accusations that Facebook have been censoring a West Papua photograph by a leading photojournalist, Ben Bohane, from Vanuatu.

• Southern Cross on 95bFM
• Listen to Southern Cross on PMC’s Soundcloud channel

Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie blasted some of the global coverage of the alleged Chinese military base plans for Vanuatu, describing it as speculative and “scaremongering”.

He praised the Vanuatu Daily Post for giving the other side of the story and media director Dan McGarry for his in-depth “baseless rumours” article published in both The Guardian Australia and the Post.

Radio 95bFM’s Reuben McLaren talked to Dr Robie on the PMC’s weekly Southern Cross show.

Dr Robie also talked about Nauru abolishing its Appeal Court in Australia, a huge diabetes health bill blowout in Fiji, and the “mourning” in Suva over Fiji’s shock 14-0 loss to New Zealand in the Commonwealth Games sevens gold medal final.

The diabetes story was revealed by a final-year Wansolwara student journalist, Adi Ana Civavonovono, of the University of the South Pacific.

PMC’s Southern Cross on 95bFM

Southern Cross on PMC’s Soundcloud

Listen to Southern Cross:

New Zealand broadcaster 95bFM and youth media company VICE have today announced a new content partnership that will see the two companies bring a daily news column to the country.

A fresh source of local and independent news — from media dedicated to “authenticity, quality and credibility”—News of Zealand coverage will offer a reliable, nuanced, and contemporary perspective on “social and political events that matter”.

Researched through 95bFM’s skilled, passionate news team and delivered to VICE’s editorial team for publishing on VICE.com, ‘News of Zealand’ will cover broad local topics and events – from festival pill-testing to water-export tax and the latest in election news, as well as international news covering topics such as the liberation of Mosul or LGBTQ equality in Germany.

This daily digital feature will combine both organisations’ reportage and storytelling skills, delivering the kind of content that engaged, switched-on New Zealanders care and talk about.

News of Zealand will be collected through a dedicated hub here.

About VICE
VICE is a global youth media company and content creation studio. Launched in 1994, VICE now operates in more than 30 countries, including New Zealand, distributing its programming to viewers across digital, linear, mobile, film and socials.

VICE includes an international network of digital channels; a television and feature film production studio; a magazine; a record label; an in-house creative services agency; a book-publishing division; and a newly launched TV network, VICELAND, which launched December 2016 on SKY New Zealand Channel 013.

VICE’s award-winning programming has been recognised by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Peabody Awards, Sundance Film Festival, Cannes Lions, Webby Awards, and New Zealand’s Beacon Awards, among others.

About 95bFM
95bFM is New Zealand’s largest alternative music radio station. Founded in 1969, Auckland’s bFM has spent more than 45 years leading the curve in local and independent music and mindset.

Based at the University of Auckland, 95bFM is dedicated to promoting a diversity of local talent; from giving a platform to unknown musicians through to fostering up and coming voices in journalism and broadcasting.

In particular, 95bFM is highly regarded for its ambitious and independent news reporting, particularly its political coverage.

In the past, bFM has given a start to New Zealand media stalwarts Wallace Chapman, Jeremy Wells, Noelle McCarthy, Marcus Lush, Charlotte Ryan and has welcomed the return of its own native son, Mikey Havoc, to host the bFM Breakfast Show.

• The Pacific Media Centre also collaborates with 95bFM to present its weekly Pacific Media Watch programme Southern Cross on Mondays at 12.20pm.
• News of Zealand

AUT Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch freedom project editor Kendall Hutt speaks with 95bFM’s The Wire host Amanda Jane Robinson on the weekly radio programme Southern Cross about celebrating 30 years of a nuclear-free Aotearoa.

She was at Devonport’s Depot Artspace at the weekend to hear some inspiring speakers who led the Peace Squadron and the peace movement campaigning for a nuclear-free New Zealand.

Auckland mayor Phil Goff and activist photographers John Miller and Gil Hanly were there too.

Hutt also talks about Pacific leaders calling for healthier oceans at UN conference in Washington.

•  David Robie traces the early history of peace movement in a 1986 article for the New Internationalist
• RNZ National on Rev George Armstrong and the Peace Squadron
• David Robie’s comments at the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom Aotearoa “30 Years On” event at the Deport Artspace in Devonport at the weekend.
• Greenpeace on New Zealand’s nuclear-free landmark.