Journalist and publisher Maria Ressa has called on tech and social media giants to practise “enlightened self-interest” amid a global call for platforms to step up in the fight against disinformation.

“The world that you’ve created has already shown that we must change it. I continue to appeal for enlightened self-interest,” said Ressa, chief executive and founder of Rappler, in an online lecture for the Facebook and the Big Lie series.

Ressa, a veteran journalist and Nobel Peace laureate who will be receiving the award this Friday, has been studying, reporting on, and sounding the alarm against the use of social media platforms as a means to spread lies and hate.

• READ MORE: Rappler’s Maria Ressa, Russia’s Dmitry Muratov win 2021 Nobel Peace Prize

The Rappler boss herself has been the subject of harassment online and of legal cases against her in the Philippines.

Platforms like Facebook, said Ressa, give the same weight on posts, whether it is a lie or a fact, in a bid to increase user engagement.

While it has meant more revenue for the platforms, it also means that posts that spark emotion — whether or not they are based on fact — gain the most traction online.

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen had earlier revealed that the algorithm for instances, puts weight on “angry” reactions more than regular likes.

‘Moderate the greed’
“In the Philippines, we say ‘moderate the greed.’ [These platforms] are part of our future, that’s why we’re partners,” she explained.

The stakes are even higher in countries like the Philippines, which will be electing a new president in May 2022.

“Why we must fight disinformation. It weakens, and ultimately subverts, democracy, by undermining the factual basis of reality, by denying the standards of truth.”

— #FightDisinfo

“We cannot not do anything because we in the Philippines have elections on May 9. If we do not have integrity of facts, we won’t have integrity of elections,” warned Ressa.

Platforms, after all, are anything but clueless and helpless.

Facebook, for instance, put more weight on “news ecosystem quality” or NEQ after employees found that election-related information were spreading on the platform in the days following the US elections in 2021.

The NEQ, according to The New York Times, is a “secret internal ranking it assigns to news publishers based on signals about the quality of their journalism.”

The lies asserted that the elections were rigged and that Donald Trump, then US president, was the true winner.

The ‘big lie’ persists
he “big lie,” as it has since been called, persists to this day.

Ressa said she woud be asking Facebook “behind the scenes and in front,” via Rappler’s partnerships, to turn up the NEQ locally.

Increasing the weight of the NEQ, at least in the US, meant that for a while, mainstream media accounts — The New York Times, CNN, and NPR — were more prominent on the Facebook feed than hyperpartisan pages.

“The foundational problem is that facts and lies are treated equally, which is what has poisoned the information ecosystem,” added Ressa.

Duterte, who won the 2016 elections by a wide margin in a plurality, is among the first national candidates to effectively use social media in a Philippine election.

Social media hasn’t just changed how regular citizens act and candidates campaign, it has also changed sitting leaders’ tactics.

“Leaders in the past that would take over, their first challenge is always how to unite people. Now, with social media because of the incentive schemes, we’re seeing leaders awarded if they divide,” said Ressa.

More manipulation tools
“Illiberal governments have gotten more tools to manipulate people,” she added. Rappler investigations later found that pro-Duterte networks used fake accounts to spread lies and disinformation well into his term as president.

Rappler started out as a Facebook page in mid-2011 and has since grown to be among the leading news sites in the Philippines. The news organisation faces at least seven active pending cases before different courts in the Philippines.

These are on top of online attacks over its reporting on the Duterte administration, including its bloody “war on drugs” and allegations of corruption among the President’s allies.

Ressa and a former researcher were convicted in June 2020 for a cyber libel law that hadn’t even been legislated when the article first came out.

Ressa is the first Filipino individual awardee of the Nobel Peace Prize and is the only woman in this year’s roster of laureates.

Ressa won the Peace Prize alongside Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov.

They won the prize “for their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace.”

Republished from Rappler with permission.

The French High Commissioner in New Caledonia, Patrice Faure, has confirmed the December 12 date for the independence referendum, fuelling tension over the ballot.

Kanaky New Caledonia’s pro-independence parties had called on Paris to postpone the vote to the second half of 2022 because of the impact of the covid-19 outbreak, which has claimed more than 270 lives, mostly Melanesian.

The pro-independence parties said they would not respect the result of the independence referendum if France retained December 12 as the date of the vote, reports RNZ Pacific.

• READ MORE: Other New Caledonia referendum reports

The parties said that with a Kanak population in mourning, the conditions were not conducive to run a proper referendum campaign.

However, the latest announcement by the French High Commissioner has been welcomed by the anti-independence parties.

The anti-independence camp want the December date to be maintained, saying that New Caledonia needs “clarity”.

Two previous referendums, in 2018 and 2020, were won narrowly by anti-independence supporters, but the pro-independence parties increased their vote and were gaining momentum before the covid-19 pandemic.

Social media threats
In a media release, Daniel Goa, president of the pro-independence Caledonian Union (UC), has condemned a campaign of “degagism” — a political “clean out” approach designed to manipulate the youth, reports The Nouvelles Calédoniennes.

The UC announced its support for the mayor of Poindimié and President of the Northern Province, Paul Néaoutyine, who had been the target of verbal attacks and threats.

Police a now investigating a video broadcast by the Facebook page ERSK TV which allegedly carried the threats.

The UC criticised the “discourse of degagism … taking hold in the country and in popular movements”.

It said the bad atmosphere risked creating a rift between the the youth and elders, “who remain the guarantors of our political and social struggle.”

Goa called called on citizens not to be “caught up” by “manipulative and deceptive” speeches seeking to create “instability”.

A Pacific Media Centre advocate and researcher is one of five people named today in the Meta Aotearoa News Innovation Advisory Group to help support New Zealand’s news industry in a changing digital world.

Khairiah A. Rahman, an Asia-Pacific communication studies specialist at Auckland University of Technology, PMC advisory board member and assistant editor of Pacific Journalism Review, was delighted to be selected.

“It’s a privilege to be part of such a worthwhile and inclusive initiative that recognises the value of media diversity for a fully functioning democracy,” she said.

“I look forward to serving in the advisory group and seeing culturally diverse media receive the help they need to develop and flourish.”

• READ MORE: RNZ Mediawatch on the rebranding of Facebook as Meta
• A commitment to support the sustainability of New Zealand newsrooms

The other panel members have been named as Te Karere presenter Scotty Morrison; former editorial director of the NZ Newspaper Publishers’ Association Rick Neville; media consultant and former MediaWorks news director Hal Crawford; and award-winning journalist and business owner Brodie Kane.

In a statement, Meta announced that it was committed to supporting quality journalism in New Zealand.

“While news is a small part of the experience of most Kiwis on our platforms, including Facebook, we recognise that we can play a role in helping New Zealand’s news industry thrive in a changing digital world,” said news lead Andrew Hunter for Meta Australia and New Zealand.

The New Zealand government’s Public Interest Journalism Fund aimed to preserve and enhance public interest journalism, he said.

“We share the government’s commitment and believe by helping publishers reach people through free distribution, and investing in free tools and programmes specifically designed to help build audiences and revenue, we can support sustainable business models for the long term.

‘More diverse plurality’
“Today we’re furthering our investments in the local news ecosystem to drive greater and more diverse plurality in the sector, while encouraging a digital transition that is key to sustainability.”

The corporation’s four-part investment is designed specifically for Aotearoa New Zealand and tailored to support the local industry, especially regional, digital and culturally-diverse publications.

Meta’s investments include:

• Supporting local publishers develop sustainable business models through an Accelerator and Grant Fund;
• Establishing a Meta Aotearoa News Innovation Advisory Group;
• Investing in video and content innovation with Kiwi publishers; and
• Dedicated training for Kiwi publishers on growing and engaging digital audiences.

Hunter said the accelerator fund would bring 12 publishers from regional, digital and culturally-diverse publications together to “innovate, learn from experts, and collaborate on new strategies to improve their business both on and off Facebook”.

Facebook News Day
Hunter said a Facebook News Day would be launched to engage with New Zealand publishers on sustainable business models

The programme would be funded and organised by the Facebook Journalism Project. Grants would be provided through the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ).

“Newsroom leaders across the world are finding ways to better serve their audiences and boost revenue, and we are committed to supporting those efforts,” said Johanna Carrillo, ICFJ’s vice-president of programmes.

“We’re excited to now support New Zealand publishers as they work to build more sustainable news outlets in the public interest.”

• The first virtual Facebook News Day will be on November 26.
• Registrations close on November 22.
• More information on the Meta newsroom sustainability project.

October 2021 was a horror month for Facebook as the headlines screamed “Facebook under fire” which started with the social media behemoth suffering an outage for several hours.

Then it had a whistleblower — American data scientist Francis Haugen — who accused the company of:

• prioritising growth over user safety;
• bowing to the will of state censors in some countries;
• allowing hate speech to burgeon in other countries;
• ignoring fake accounts that may influence voters and undermine elections;
• allowing the antivaccine message to proliferate; and
• having algorithms that fuel noxious behaviour online.

Add to that, a major impending problem of capturing a young audience who are flocking elsewhere and turning their backs on the oldest social media platform which was founded in 2004 by Harvard students Mark Zuckerberg, Eduardo Saverin, Dustin Moskovitz, and Chris Hughes.

• READ MORE: Facebook profits top $9bn amid whistleblower revelations
• Other Pacific Newsroom reports
• The Pacific Newsroom

Even so, its success as the leading platform is undeniable with it announcing a $9 billion quarterly profit in October with a massive 3 billion users.

It was the access to smartphones when they were offered in the Pacific and technology that drove Facebook’s popularity to largely receptive devotees. The uptake of the social media platform in French Polynesia (72.1 percent penetration by 2020), Fiji (68.2 percent, Guam (87.8 percent), Niue (91.7 percent), Samoa (67.2 percent) and Tonga (62.3 percent) made it a no-brainer for Sue Ahearn, founder of the highly credible The Pacific Newsroom page to use the platform.

Measured success
The success of The Pacific Newsroom page can be measured by the site garnering in excess of 40,500 members most of who can participate actively by contributing to the page.

Ahearn is no stranger to the Asia-Pacific region. An Australian journalist for more than 40 years, 25 at the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), who originally hails from Martinborough in New Zealand, she was drawn to set up the page primarily because of misinformation that tends to flourish in the Pacific news.

“It came to me about four years ago when the ABC cut back on all of its coverage of the Pacific, and I could see there was a big gap there,” she says.

“The ABC was only providing a small service and there was a lack of interest in most of the Australian media. You could see the technology was changing, how the information was flowing from the region was changing.’’

The apathy for a thirst for Pacific knowledge has had a profound effect on insularity in the media, especially in Australia and New Zealand, although the Public Interest Journalism Fund is attempting to address that in some way in New Zealand.

“I wish I knew, Sean Dorney, Jemima Garrett and all of the Pacific journalists just can’t fathom why is there so little interest in our region among the Australian media,’’ says Ahearn.

“It doesn’t make sense. There tends to be three or four journalists that cover the region and try to convince news outlets to run their stories or send reporters, and that has become very difficult.”

Only Pacific correspondent based in Pacific
Natalie Whiting of the ABC and the recipient of the Dorney-Walkley Foundation grant 2021 is the only journalist from Australasia who is based in the Pacific. She is stationed in the Papua New Guinean capital of Port Moresby.

“In New Zealand, that’s not a problem and New Zealand does good coverage of the Pacific. New Zealand has a much closer relationship with the Pacific,” Ahearn says.

However, Michael Field in Auckland, a page administrator and a veteran of the Pacific who went to journalism school with Ahearn, had qualms about the coverage out of New Zealand.

“The thing that really bugs me is that only Radio New Zealand (RNZ) seems to be doing Pacific news. For example, you’d pick up the (New) Herald and see who’s covering the hurricane out in Fiji only to see it is a re-run of a RNZ story,” says Field.

“It bothers me. The Herald should have had a different angle on the story, RNZ a different angle, The Dominion Post would be different and there would be work for stringers in the Pacific. Now that is not the case because RNZ takes up everybody else’s work and runs it that way,

“I guess that is the reality of it now, but it seems the voice of the Pacific these days is state radio.

“Call me old fashioned, but I’d be too embarrassed to run a story quoting another media organisation, and if you had to do it you’d do it grudgingly. We are starting to fail in the coverage of the region,” he says.

Success stirs amazement
The success and growth of The Pacific Newsroom as an organic, quasi news agency akin to Reuters, Agence France Press (AFP) or Australian Associated Press (AAP) in a tiny way, has caught Ahearn by amazement.

“I am surprised because we have a lot of engagement, some stories get 80,000 or 90,000 engagements so there is a lot of interest in it, and I think it fills a huge niche.

She speaks about the talanoa concept of The Pacific Newsroom.

“It’s like a town square where people can meet, share stories and talk about what is happening. Michael (Field) and I spend an enormous time on this project and we’re basically volunteers, we’re not being paid or making any money from it,” she says.

Nor would she entertain the thought of applying for funding either in New Zealand or Australia, preferring instead to maintain their editorial independence.

“Mike and I have discussed this, and we think one of the main attractions of our site is it is not monetised, that it is a voluntary site, there are no advertisements on it, we try and keep it independent, and we are both at the stage in our lives where we’re not working fulltime in the media,” Ahearn says.

“We’ve got time to spend doing this as a public interest, we really enjoy doing it too, it’s a lot of fun.

Many great stories
“There are so many great stories in the Pacific that need to be amplified to the world.

“Things are happening with technology and it’s giving a much stronger voice to the Pacific whether it’s on climate change or fishing or other important issues and that is why it is going to get stronger and stronger,” Ahearn says.

Among the stories that gained the site momentum was the University of the South Pacific (USP) having its vice-chancellor and president Professor Pal Ahluwalia at the centre of controversy during his first term when Fiji government and educational officials tried to oust him from office in the so-called USP saga, eventually unceremoniously deporting him in a move widely condemned around the Pacific.

“The big story which moved us along was the USP saga last year, for quite political reasons which had to do with the players, we were leaked all the reports and people could see if it got a certain amount of information on Pacific Newsroom that things might happen, and it did,” Field says.

“More recently we’ve had the same with the Samoan elections where a number of players wanted to be interviewed directly; the former Prime Minister (Tuila’epa Sa’ilele Malielegaoi) seemed to have some misinformed view that we are more powerful than we are. We cope with that so it is constantly moving thing.”

Another worrying development were the libel laws in Australia where last month the court ruled publishers to be liable for defamatory comments.

“The libel laws, it’s another tension and another thing we’ve got to watch. We watch it like a hawk (as moderators) and that is not to characterise the particular audience we’ve got,” Field says.

‘Shooting your mouth off’
“Shooting your mouth off seems to be regarded in much of the Pacific as a God-given right — ‘why you trying to stop me from saying this’, we just delete people now. We tried saying to people right at the beginning we didn’t need expletives, swear words and all that stuff, and we were going to take them down.

“It is learning experience, moderating a site like Pacific Newsroom can be hard, depressing work and sometimes there’s a lot of people that sort of feel they have to say something even though it is a complete nonsense, and it is hard yakka that sort of stuff,’’ Field says.

On the flip side of it were the tangible rewards that make it all worthwhile.

“I can remember one particular point where we were tracking a superyacht that was tripping around Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga; there were people from quite remote village areas of these countries that would send us pictures saying, ‘here is a picture of the yacht that has just passed my village ‘. Whereas back in the day you tried to get a shortwave radio operator to tell you what happened three weeks after the event.

“The Pacific is now full of people with smartphones and with good connections so we can cover everything in the Pacific,” Field says.

As for the credibility of the site, Field declined an approach from a major mainstream New Zealand media company that sought copyright and permission to use the material that was published.

Then there was the young journalist from another mainstream media company who asked Field for a contact in relation to a Vanuatu story, telling Field that they all shared their contacts in the newsroom. Needless to say, he went away disappointed and empty-handed.

Ancient settler societies
Just how well The Pacific Newsroom is regarded in the Pacific is summed up eloquently by history associate professor Morgan Tuimaleali’ifano of the USP who tells it with a Pacific panache.

“Apart from Australia, New Zealand, Tokelau, Hawai’i, Guam, American Samoa, West Papua, Rapanui, and the French territories (New Caledonia, Uvea and Futuna, Tahiti), the nature of independent and self-governing Pacific societies is that they are ancient settler societies steeped in conservatism,” Tuimaleali’ifano says.

“While their constitutions have absorbed Western influences, imperial laws, Christianity, fundamental freedoms/rights, monetary capitalism, they remain steeped in ancient systems of governance based largely on hereditary hierarchies.

“Two worlds co-exist with the constitutional democratic model heavily influenced by kinship patterns of thought and behaviour. Within kinship hierarchies, there exists diverse governance structures and no two villages share the exact governing structure,” he says.

“Equally important are the constitutions and parliamentary legislation. These law-making institutions together with the judiciary are constantly evolving as they must with changing circumstances and best practices.

“It is within these social dynamics that journalism provides the Fourth or Fifth Estate to maintain an even keel on the Pacific’s growth as a viable region of nation-states.

“The Pacific Newsroom plays a vital role, of mirroring the changing Pasifika people needs and commenting on sensitive matters that many may find unsavoury difficult and overwhelming to articulate within ultra-conservative societies.

‘Without fear or favour’
“Without fear or favour, The Pacific Newsroom and its sister networks provide a critical service for a multi-faceted Pasifika struggling to reconcile and reshape a new consciousness for Pasifika.

“These include the enduring issues of regional identity and solidarity and unity within the context of relentless ideological and geopolitical power plays.”

As associate professor and head of journalism at USP Shailendra Singh in Suva, who continues to strive to keep his students well abreast in journalism under draconian media laws in Fiji, says:

“It is indeed a success story, due to a large following, because of media restrictions in Fiji. Users from Fiji especially feel more comfortable expressing themselves on this page.

“The page is prudently and professionally moderated, so it is respectable. The page uses information from credible news sources. (Independent sources like Bob Howarth on Papua New Guinea and Timor-Leste; former Vanuatu Daily Post publisher Dan McGarry; current Pacific Island Times publisher Mar-Vic Cagurangan; and photojournalist Ben Bohane, until he returned to Australia from Vanuatu; as well as David Robie‘s Asia-Pacific Report which is a huge contributor to the page).

“I promote USP journalism students’ work on Pacific Newsroom. It is exemplary of how Facebook can support democracy.”

A vital source of information in the covid era. You get a cross-section of news and views on one platform. It is definitely the most popular virtual “kava bar” in the Pacific.

• Browse The Pacific Newsroom

The Pacific Newsroom – the virtual ‘kava bar’ news success story #ThePacificNewsroom #AsiaPacificReport @shrek45 #mediafreedom #independentmedia @RSF_inter @RSF_AsiaPacific @sueahearn @MichaelFieldNZ @ShailendraBSing @wansolwara @USPWansolwara https://t.co/9m7DJ0DUq6 pic.twitter.com/QIJUlvsbFu

— David Robie (@DavidRobie) November 5, 2021

It is open season again for Indonesian trolls targeting Asia Pacific Report and other media with fake news and disinformation dispatches in a crude attempt to gloss over human rights violations.

Just three months ago I wrote about this issue in my “Dear editor” article exposing the disinformation campaign. There was silence for a while but now the fake letters to the editor – and other media outlets — have started again in earnest.

The latest four lengthy letters emailed to APR canvas the following topics — Jakarta’s controversial special autonomy status revised law for Papua, a brutal assault by Indonesian Air Force military policemen on a deaf Papuan man, and a shooting incident allegedly committed by pro-independence rebels – and they appear to have been written from a stock template.

• READ MORE: Outrage over Indonesian officers for stomping on disabled Papuan teen’s head
• ULMWP calls for suspension of Indonesia from UN rights council over assault on deaf Papuan
• Indonesian military duo to be punished for attack on deaf Papuan
• Other West Papua human rights reports

And they all purport to have been written by “Papuan students” or “Papuans”. Are they their real names, and do they even exist?

The latest letter to Asia Pacific Report, dated July 30, was written by a “Paulus Ndiken” who claims:

“I’m a native Papuan currently living in Merauke, Papua, Indonesia. I would like to address your cover story about Indonesia apologises for ‘excessive force’ against deaf Papuan man.

“One day after the incident, the Indonesian Air Force had detained and punished severely 2 members … that had roughly apprehending [sic] Esebius Bapaimu in Merauke, Papua province.”

Dubious reputation
The letter linked to Yumi Toktok Stret, a website with a dubious reputation with accuracy. The report was sketchy and the correct name of the assaulted man, according to reputable news media and Papuan sources, is actually Steven Yadohamang.

“We regret that this kind of rough-housing [sic] happened on the street,” wrote correspondent “Ndiken”, “but we, as Papuans, [are] also glad to know that these perpetrators have received sound punishment …

“Responding to the unfortunate events, the Indonesian netizens had asked for the Indonesian military to immediately take action against the guilty party and were glad that the institution had addressed the people’s concern in a very fast manner.”

A more nuanced and accurate article was written for Asia Pacific Report by Brisbane-based West Papuan academic Yamin Kogoya who compared the “inhumane” assault to the tragic killing of George Floyd in the United States after a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes as he lay face down in the street on 25 May 2020.

Another letter writer, “Michael Wamebu” … “a native West Papuan living in Merauke”, said on June 29 he would like to bring our attention to West Papua, “which has been painted as if the whole island is in conflict, when actually [there are] only a few small areas [that] were invaded by the Free Papua terrorists that had been exposed to enormous violence.

“I would like to assure the world that there [is] nothing like a full-blown war.”

In the lengthy letter about an incident on June 4 when four civilians were killed in a shooting and two were wounded, “Wamebu” provided alleged details that are likely to have been provided by military sources and at variance with actual news reports at the time.

‘Spike’ over special autonomy
“Yamkon Doleon”, a “student from West Papua and currently studying in Yogyakarta, Indonesia” wrote on July 19 that there had been “a spike in the topic of Papuan special autonomy in social media and also [in] a few international media”.

Launching into a defence of the new Special Autonomy for Papua law for the governance of the two Melanesian provinces of Papua and West Papua for the next two decades – adopted by the House of Representatives in Jakarta last month without consultation with the Papuans, “Doleon” wrote:

“The Special Autonomy itself is a law that guarantees every Papuan to be the leader of their region, to have free education, free health service, and a boost I [the] economy … So which article is not in favour of the people?”

The writer makes no mention of the heavy militarisation of Papua in recent months, the repeated allegations of human rights violations, or the rejection of the Special Autonomy law by the Papuan people.

In a comment about the spate of Indonesian troll messages to some media outlets, West Papua Media Alerts said:

“Indonesian intelligence bots, go away. You are being banned and reported and deleted everytime you post, so go away.”

The engaged media advocacy and news service continued: “It is clear we are telling the truth, otherwise you wouldn’t have to spend so much money trying to counter it with a transparent influence exercise. Go home, invaders.

“Friends, there are literally over a hundred sock accounts using random Anglo names, and the same script response. These accounts all come from the BIN-run FirstMedia in Jakarta, and were all created after March 2.

Report fake accounts
“If you see a comment, please click through on the account name, click the 3 dots and report them as a fake account and going against community standards. We will obviously delete and ban these fake accounts.”

Meanwhile, the London-based Indonesian human rights watchdog Tapol has strongly condemned the two Air Force military policemen who severely beat the disabled man, Steven Yadohamang, in Merauke, Papua, on 27 July 2021.

Video footage which has been widely shared on social media, shows the two personnel beating up a man and crushing his body into the ground and stamping on his head.

The footage of the assault on Steven Yadohamang. Video: Benar News

Tapol said in a statement: “It is clear from the footage that Yadohamang does not possess the capacity to defend himself against two individuals who appear to be unconcerned with possible consequences.”

A similar incident in Nabire took place the following day, said the statement. A West Papuan man, Nicolas Mote, was suddenly smacked on the head repeatedly during his arrest despite not resisting.

“The incident follows a spate of previous violent incidents committed by the security forces against civilians in West Papua province and is likely to raise further questions about what purpose increasing numbers of military personnel are serving in West Papua,” Tapol said.

Although the Air Force had apologised, it had suggested that the two military policemen, Second Sergeant Dimas Harjanto and Second Private Rian Febrianto, alone should bear responsibility for the incident, said the watchdog.

Outrage over Indonesian officers for stomping on disabled Papuan teen’s head – by Yamin Kogoya #CafePacific #HumanRights #HumanRightsViolations #WestPapua @westpapuamedia @FreeWestPapua #justice4papuahttps://t.co/tolA6q0EgS pic.twitter.com/1oJVYp7gSk

— David Robie (@DavidRobie) July 29, 2021

‘Pattern of violence’
“They, and the Indonesian media, have described the soldiers as ‘rogues’. This assessment is not consistent with a pattern of violence committed against civilians that has been allowed to go unpunished in recent months and years,” Tapol said.

“Indeed, had there not been such indisputable visual evidence of security force violence, it is entirely possible that the incident would not now be subject to further investigation by the authorities.

“But despite facing punishment, the perpetrators are likely to only to receive light sentences because they will be tried in military courts.”

Following the end of the New Order period, civilian politicians were not pushing for military personnel to be tried in civilian courts.

Since 2019, there had been a steady build-up of military and police personnel in the two provinces of Papua and West Papua, said Tapol.

“Deployments and security force operations have increased further since April 2021, when the Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security, Mahfud MD, designated the armed resistance movement, TPNPB, as a ‘terrorist’ group.

“West Papuans and Indonesians have raised concerns that the designation would further stigmatise ordinary West Papuans.

“We would also highlight that in West Papua there are significant underlying problems with institutionalised racism by the authorities.”

Tapol called on President Joko Widodo and the House of Representatives of Indonesia to finish the post-Suharto agenda of reforming the military to combat a culture of impunity over human rights violations in West Papua.

Fiji police have warned that any attempts to destabilise and cause instability will be investigated and dealt with, reports The Fiji Times.

The warning came from Acting Commissioner Police Rusiate Tudravu yesterday in the wake of two major fires in Ba and Raiwai at the weekend.

He claimed some Fijians were quick to use the two fires to incite violence and rally more support against the government, claiming they were linked.

• READ MORE: Fiji police, fire agency jointly probe two separate urban fires

He said people instigating movements of violence and instability from overseas or hiding behind “fake profiles” on social media were selfish and self-centred because any acts of violence would only lead to more suffering.

The fires destroyed the Central Arcade in Ba and Tappoos warehouse in Raiwai, Suva, on Sunday night.

Talebula Kate of The Fiji Times reports that the Ba blaze is a major loss to the affected businesses during these challenging times.

Museum, town hall undamaged
Minister of Local Government Premila Kumar said the National Fire Authority (NFA) fire-fighters were quite responsive and managed to save the museum and town hall.

“There has been no damage to these facilities. Despite the windy weather conditions, the quick and efficient effort by our NFA team is appreciated,” she said.

“The outstanding continuous work by our firefighters is commendable, as the impact of the fire could have been extremely detrimental.

“Unfortunately, the cause of the fire is still unknown at this stage and the cost of the damage is yet to be determined.

“Out of the eight shops in the arcade, six shops had tenants and were occupied.

“The arcade accommodated a fish store, a saloon/billiard room, a second hand clothing store, an electrical appliance shop, and two restaurants.”

Eight market vendors were also housed at the arcade.

Handicraft vendors
“These vendors were situated at the SME Market at the arcade and were selling curios and handicraft for their livelihood,” the minister said.

“It is rather disturbing to note that all their stock was destroyed by the fire.

“The number of fires in the country is alarming and becoming a concern. As per the statistics from NFA, there have been 57 fire incidents from 1 January to 1 August 2021,” Kumar vsaid.

“Fifty five were residential fire incidents and two were commercial fires, including [Sunday]’s incident. Sadly, there have been four deaths in the residential fire incidents so far this year; three in Nadi and one at Tacirua.

“We would like to reiterate that we need to be responsible and keep our homes and commercial properties fire-safe at all times,” the minister said.

The Ba Central Arcade Building was a 17-year-old structure and was insured after a valuation of the properties carried out in 2020.

Nevertheless, the Ba Town Council has a loan of approximately F$1.6 million (NZ$1.1 million), which needs to be paid off.

The council has been directed to work on practicable strategies to pay off the exorbitant amount of loan considering the difficult times we are in right now.

Republished with permission.

Fiji’s opposition MPs who were arrested after their criticism of a government land bill say they will not be intimidated or silenced.

Police have since released several leaders of the opposition who were arrested late Sunday.

One of those arrested, the National Federation Party leader Professor Biman Prasad, said he was wanted in relation to his party’s criticism of government moves to amend the iTaukei Land Trust Act in Parliament in recent days.

• READ MORE: Former Fiji prime minister detained by police over Land Bill comments
• WATCH VIDEO: ‘Gutless Fiji government lacking courage and compassion’

After two hours of questioning, he was later released, telling RNZ Pacific that it felt like an attack on Fiji’s democracy.

“We don’t blame the police. This is coming from the government. They are using police to oppress the opposition’s political leaders, and that’s not the way democracy works.”

Prasad said the government failed to consult the public properly over the bill, and there are now calls to withdraw it because it is seen as abusing the rights of indigenous landowners.

“We are elected members of Parliament. Our job is to continue to speak and we are not going to be intimidated by such tactics by the government to silence the opposition who have an important contribution to make in the process of any lawmaking in the country.”

Accused of ‘malicious act’
Another leading opposition MP, Lynda Tabuya, was also taken into custody and accused of a “malicious act” by police for her social media posts about the Land Bill.

She said she was accused of a malicious act by police for criticising the government’s moves to push through an indigenous Land Bill.

Critics claim that an amendment removes a protection provided via the iTaukei Land Trust Board which was set up to protect indigenous landowners’ rights.

Tabuya had given a blunt message to Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama via social media:

“We are sick and tired of all the bullying and fear mongering. We are sick and tired of all the death and destruction allowed on your watch because of your recklessness,” she said.

“We are sick and tired because you don’t give a damn. You don’t give a damn about iTaukei, you don’t give a damn about human rights.”

The Fiji government and police have been approached for comment, but there has been no response for an interview.

However, over the weekend – before the arrests were made – Bainimarama did speak out for the first time condemning his opposition leaders on Facebook.

“These are a bunch of urban elite who are nothing but stirrers. Only a few control the show, and they become the gatekeepers of what is right and what is wrong.”

Bainimarama defended the government’s planned amendment to land legislation.

“Even this amendment makes ultimately iTaukei land a lot more attractive. It removes bureaucracy without undermining any of the protections. We should not be concerned about a piddly thing such as this when we should all be happy about it.”

Meanwhile, Acting Police Commissioner, Rusiate Tudravu said his officers were not questioning the politicians for the purpose of intimidation, but as a pro-active means to find out the truth.

He was reported in local media as saying not everyone who was brought in for questioning would be charged.

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

Human rights lawyers Amal Clooney and Caoilfhionn Gallagher, who lead the international defence legal team, have call on the international community to ensure that all charges against Philippines journalist and editor Maria Ressa are dropped.

A Papua New Guinean woman accused of killing a two-year-old boy through sorcery was assaulted, tortured and killed after her limbs were chopped off in Margarima, Hela, last month, police report.

Hela’s officer-in-charge CID, Sergeant Daniel Olabe, named the dead woman as Mary Kopari who was in her late 30s.

A video obtained by The National showed a horrifying scene of a lone woman, tied spread eagled between two posts and tortured.

• READ MORE: Jo Chandler: Gender, human rights and power investigations in Papua New Guinea  – Pacific Journalism Review
• Strengthening the voices of human rights defenders in the media
• Other PNG sorcery allegations reports

The video shows the woman, dragged between the posts, hands and legs bound by barbed wire.

She screams in pain as her torturers tighten the barb wire around her ankles while other men look on with no one reaching out to assist her.

Kopari was from Halungi village, in South Koroba LLG, Koroba-Kopiago, and was married to a man from Tatape village in the Lower Wage LLG, Komo-Margarima.

The relatives of the boy suspected three women, along with Koparo, had “caused his death”. The other women escaped.

No idea what happened
Sergeant Olabe said Kopari had no idea of what had happened.

She was busy selling potatoes at the Margarima market when she was approached by the boy’s relatives. They confronted Kopari and demanded to know why she was practising sorcery (sanguma), Sergeant Olabe said.

“Mary was rounded up and taken to an area in Margarima where she was tied up between two posts and tortured, hands and legs bound by barbed wire.

The woman was tortured, assaulted and burned for nine hours before her attackers chopped off her limbs, killing her.

“Her severed limbs and body were taken to and left at Tigibi, in the Hulia local level government along the road,” Sergeant Olabe said.

‘Sorcery’ torture cases endemic
Kopari was among five women in two months who had been accused of sorcery in four different provinces of Papua New Guinea with the first reported case of a man accused of sorcery in Daru, Western province.

In Enga last week, a woman who was tortured eventually died from injuries suffered.

It was reported that the woman, who was rescued by police and taken to the Wabag General Hospital, was accused by her late husband’s family, of causing the death of a man in Kopiam.

In Eastern Highlands, a mother and daughter who were rescued by police in Goroka are still recovering with police yet to make an arrest of those implicated on the attack.

In Daru, a man accused of causing the death of five people was dragged out of his home at the Samarai settlement and tortured before police intervened.

However, he died from the injuries he suffered.

In the National Capital District, two women from Eastern Highlands were tortured and rescued by police. Both were found tied and burned after being accused of sorcery.

No arrests made
From these cases, no arrests have been made.

The National has reached out to police investigators with the same report given that while suspects had been identified, it was hard to arrest them because they lived near the accused families or they were related.

Witnesses are also too scared to come forward because of the fear of reprisal.

In a recently concluded Special Parliamentary Committee on Gender-Based Violence public hearing the committee heard about the hardships of those who continue to fight against gender-based violence (GBV) and sorcery cases.

Committee deputy chair and East Sepik Governor Allan Bird told The National that “we should not stand around while women and girls are tortured and killed on suspicion of sorcery”.

“Those who commit horrendous murder should be arrested and charged,” he said.

Miriam Zarriga is a reporter for The National. This article is republished with permission.

Indonesia is pressuring Papua New Guinea over an illegal group East Sepik claiming to form an army unit to help West Papuan pro-independence rebels fighting against Indonesian forces across the border.

Calling such armed groups as “terrorists”, Indonesia’s Ambassador to PNG, Andriana Supandy, said his country respected the sovereignty of its neighbour, PNG, and called on the PNG authorities to act over the threat.

A video of a group dressed in military fatigues and brandishing automatic rifles has gone viral on social media, prompting the Indonesian response.

• READ MORE: Other Asia Pacific Report coverage on the West Papua conflict

The men in the video, speaking in PNG “tok pisin”, claim to be from East Sepik. They say they stand with the West Papuan rebels and are ready to cross the border to support the West Papuan cause for independence.

Supandy said the Indonesian Embassy had been informed that PNG government officials were in Wewak to investigate the viral video on the social media post.

“The Indonesian government honour[s] the PNG government as a sovereign nation and leave the response to the alleged militants to the relevant authorities in PNG,” Supandy said.

“Both governments have the same understanding about the challenge and opportunity in managing the formal relations through the spirit of friendship and mutual respect.”

Gratitude over safety
Supandy said that despite the video causing uneasiness, the Indonesian Embassy would like to convey its gratitude to the government and the people of PNG for “ensuring the safety and wellbeing of Indonesians” working and living in PNG.

The embassy said the Indonesian government and people were reciprocating the gesture for PNG citizens living in Indonesia.

Supandy said the video of a vigilante group would not affect the strong relations between Indonesia and PNG.

“These armed groups in Papua and West Papua have resorted to acts, methods and practices of terrorism aiming at destruction of human rights, fundamental freedoms and democracy while also threatening the territorial integrity and security of the Republic of Indonesia,” he claimed.

Right to ‘reliable information’
Supandy said Papua New Guineans had the right to “reliable information” relating to this issue.

He said Indonesia was committed to taking measures aimed at “addressing the root causes” of the situation in Papua and West Papua provinces.

He said in this context, Indonesia advocated humane, prosperous and inclusive development approach, including:

• Respecting the basic rights of the people in Papua and West Papua provinces;
• Establishment of good governance in Papua; and
• Opportunities for Papuans to shape and direct local development strategies and regional policies.

SBS News reporting on the West Papua conflict.

Asia Pacific Report newsdesk

The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) union is reconsidering its involvement in the Australian Press Council and has appealed to members to give feedback on this issue.

Vice-president media Karen Percy has appealed to delegates on a YouTube video to take part in this consultation.

“Members have raised concerns about the lack of financial transparency at the Press Council and rulings that are increasingly out of step with community expectations,” she said.

• READ MORE: Facebook and Google deals may leave small publishers out in the cold
• Download the media bargaining code

If the MEAA leaves, it needs to give four years notice “to end our contributions”, which last year were more than A$100,000.

“That four years gives us time to look at alternative regulatory options, and that’s in line with the MEAA submission to the Senate Inquiry into media diversity which proposes a single entity for self-regulation,” said Percy.

Meanwhile, the MEAA says in a recent statement on its website that Facebook’s recent “ham-fisted handling of its news sharing ban” in Australia – which initially blocked crucial community information and health and government information sites – had revealed the real dangers of an organisation that “abuses its dominant position” and “thumbs its nose at rules and regulations”.

Last month’s decision by Facebook to unilaterally ban news on hundreds of Australian pages was “the arrogant act of a company with too much power that thinks it is beyond the reach of any government”, the statement said.

Facebook was acting in retaliation to the proposed News Media Bargaining Code, which would force it and Google to compensate media outlets for content that until now has been published on their platforms for free.

While Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code was not a silver bullet to fix the problems within the news media, it was an important step to address the “blatant imbalance between the digital giants” and those who produced public interest news content.

The Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet) – an institution concerned with freedom of expression in the digital world – has criticised Indonesia’s newly established virtual police (VP) unit formed under the national police headquarters that is tasked with monitoring the activities of netizens.

The programme, the brainchild of Indonesian police chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo, was formed to prevent indictments under the Information and Electronic Transaction Law (UU ITE).

SAFEnet executive director Damar Juniarto is concerned however that instead of providing a sense of security the virtual police would in fact give rise to new fears.

The reason being that virtual police officers would intrude too far into the private lives of citizens in the digital sphere.

“This will instead give rise to new fears, where the police can appear at any time in citizen’s private [digital] space,” said Juniarto when contacted by CNN Indonesia last week.

Juniarto said that it was if the virtual police were reviving an Orwellian state. The term Orwellian state refers to a system and public situation that is anti-freedom and anti-openness and is taken from a fictional work by author and journalist George Orwell.

One of the criteria for an Orwellian state is when the state continuously monitors what is being done by its citizens.

‘Correcting’ citizens
In such a situation, continued Juniarto, the state can directly correct citizens who are deemed to be in error. Instead of feeling protected, people will in fact feel threatened and fearful.

“Even without this direct police presence, people are already afraid of the threat of the UU ITE [being used against them], never mind with methods such as this,” he said.

Not only that, Juniarto emphasised that the virtual police negate the space for people to defend themselves if a posting on the internet is deemed to be hate speech or violate the ITE Law.

The virtual police, according to Juniarto, would in fact negate the judicial process so people would only have one option – to obey or be punished.

Juniarto revealed that the virtual police’s presence have already turned people’s discussions in digital space into something has to be treated or cured. He is also concerned that they would destroy the climate of discussion and debate on digital media.

“So the VP needs to be corrected so their implementation prioritises education, not appearing as a figure which wants to punish disobedient citizens,” said Juniarto.

Earlier this week, the police officially launched the virtual police unit to monitor potential violations of the ITE Law on the internet.

Healthy cyber world
According to national police spokesperson Inspector General Argo Yuwono, the virtual police’s presence in digital space is a form of maintaining security and public order so that activities in the cyber world can be clean, healthy and productive.

“Through the virtual police, the police will provide education and notifications if what is written is a criminal violation, request that it not be written again and be deleted,” Yuwono told journalists.

According to Yuwono, the virtual police had already sent warnings to three accounts recently. One of the accounts had posted a picture with the caption “Don’t forget I’m a thief”.

“Virtual police alert. Warning 1. The content on your Twitter account uploaded on February 21, 2021, at 3.15 pm local time has the potential to be criminal hate speech.

“In order to avoid further legal proceedings you are asked to make a correction to the social media content after you have received this message. Salam Presisi [predictability, responsibility, transparency, justice],” said Yuwono reading out the contents of the warning.

Translated by James Balowski for IndoLeft News. The original title of the article was “SAFEnet Kritik Aksi Virtual Police Terobos Ruang Privat Warga”.

On 10 December 2020, the Australian Senate established an inquiry into a government bill proposing a “mandatory bargaining code” between news media organisations and digital platforms including Google and Facebook. The Conversation Australia & New Zealand made the following submission. Asia Pacific Report frequently republishes – and its authors contribute – Conversation articles.

About The Conversation
The Conversation is a unique global journalism project that in just 10 years has become the world’s leading publisher of research-based news and analysis. We pair professional editors with academics to publish articles that share new research and explain issues in the news.

All our content is free to republish, with the aim of sharing trusted information with the widest possible audience.

Since it was founded in Melbourne in 2011, The Conversation has expanded to operate across Australia, New Zealand, the UK, US, France, Spain, Africa, Indonesia and Canada.

• READ MORE: Australia’s draft News Media and Digital Media Platforms Bargaining Code bill

It is read by more than 25 million people a month directly and more than 64 million a month via republication. In Australia, our editors have collaborated with more than 17,540 academic authors.

A unique Australian not-for-profit start-up, our global impact is guided by a clear purpose: to provide access to trustworthy explanatory journalism essential for a healthy democracy.

We place a high value on trust. All authors and editors sign up to our Editorial Charter. Contributors must abide by our Community Standards. We only allow academic authors to write on subjects on which they have expertise. Potential conflicts of interest must be disclosed.

Our funding comes from partners from the university and research sector, some philanthropic organisations and more than 19,400 individual donors.

Public interest news in Australia
Quality information is as important to democracy as clean water is to health. Democracy is a decision making process, and without reliable information, voters, bureaucrats, civil society leaders and politicians cannot make informed decisions with surety and integrity.

Public interest journalism is the primary means by which quality information is communicated to the Australian public. It provides essential context to help people make sense of a complex and confusing barrage of information.

It provides essential insights that help us understand our politics, our environment, our culture and our history. It underpins the health and wellbeing of society.

That is why The Conversation was founded – to ensure citizens and decision makers can freely access quality information written by experts in their field.

The consequences of uninformed decision-making can be dire and, indeed, deadly. A BBC investigation into the effects of coronavirus misinformation found that online rumours led to mob attacks in India, mass poisonings in Iran, physical and arson attacks against telecommunications engineers in the UK, and people swallowing fish tank cleaner and other harmful chemicals in the US.

Needless to say, this is not the kind of information environment we want to see in Australia or New Zealand.

The Conversation’s reliance on digital platforms
In Australia, a large proportion of The Conversation’s readership arrives via digital platforms. Google accounts for 53 percent of traffic and Facebook 8 percent.

When Google changes its algorithm, or Facebook changes the way in which it presents news, it can have a big impact on our onsite audience. It should be noted, however, that onsite audience is only one measure of overall reach (albeit a very important one).

Engagement from audiences on platforms like Facebook and Instagram is also very high when measured in terms of likes, shares, follows and comments. As of January 2021, The Conversation Australia has 325,735 Facebook followers and more than 21,000 Instagram followers.

Many people interact with The Conversation news content on these platforms without clicking through to read the full article.

Our editors are increasingly translating news articles into short images and tiles for a younger and more diverse audience on social platforms.

Where we once might have thought of information presented in this way as an advertisement for the journalism and a driver of onsite traffic, we now recognise that for many harder-to-reach audiences it is a form of journalism itself.

This social media journalism is costly to produce but it is also vital, given the problems we have seen with misinformation and disinformation on social platforms.

The growing reliance on social media as a source of news, particularly among younger audiences, makes it even more important that publishers turn their attention to presenting reliable information on the platforms where the audiences are spending their time.

Currently there is a global effort to eradicate misinformation though fact checking. While this is undeniably important work, we believe that debunking misinformation is only a partial solution.

To achieve a healthy media ecosystem, you need to do more than eliminate contaminants – it is important to have a critical mass of quality information in the mix to dilute, counterbalance and drown out false claims.

This is particularly important to maintain an informed citizenry that is necessary for our democracy to remain healthy, but that is not the sole value. Digital platforms such as Google and Facebook would have a significantly diminished product in the absence of the work of journalists and other professional content creators who create reliable and high quality content.

While Google is right to argue that there is a value exchange, and commercial publishers do derive value from the traffic Google directs to them, it is also true to say that digital platforms derive a significant value from journalism, particularly in comparison to other forms of user-generated content.

Without the journalism, and other forms of professionally curated content, Google search results would be wildly unreliable.

Funding from digital platforms
Digital platforms have provided funding via grants to The Conversation over the past two years, which included access to expertise, tools and techniques that are helping us grow and monetise our audience via reader donations.

As a not-for-profit, public interest news provider, The Conversation exists not to create a financial return to shareholders but rather to provide quality and reliable information for the public good.

News products and platforms such as Google News Showcase or Facebook news tab, which can help us extend our reach and impact with audiences, are valuable.

It should be noted that the work of the ACCC and the Digital Platforms Inquiry has played a role in encouraging collaboration and knowledge-sharing between publishers and digital platforms. It is a welcome development.

Recommendations
Overall, we believe the Treasury Laws Amendment (News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code) Bill 2020 (the News Media Bargaining Code) can make a positive contribution to the maintenance and development of a healthy media ecosystem in Australia. It does this by creating a more level playing field for negotiations over appropriate compensation between digital platforms and publishers.

We also welcome the inclusion of the ABC and SBS, which will enable the bargaining code to support public broadcasters and their crucial contribution to the Australian media.

We agree with concerns expressed in other submissions that the restriction that news businesses must have annual revenue of over $150,000 might rule out some new and smaller media players and agree the cut-off could be reduced.

We have also previously expressed concerns regarding the three part test that ACMA will use to determine whether a news business can participate in the Mandatory Bargaining Code. However we are encouraged by the Bill defining “core news content” as content that “reports, investigates or explains” issues that are relevant to “engaging Australians in public debate and in informing democratic decision making”.

This definition appears to cover the type of explanatory journalism produced by The Conversation and many other independent media outlets that focus on the timely analysis of news that is directed at better informing Australian citizens.

While we welcome the News Media Bargaining Code’s proposed algorithm notification provisions as useful to all publishers, we accept prima facie the arguments made by Google and Facebook that the currently proposed approach may be unworkable and require compromise.

We thank the Senate Economics Legislation Committee for their careful consideration of this important topic, and we welcome the opportunity to address these issues in more detail.

By Misha Ketchell, editor & Executive Director, The Conversation. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

The notion that the covid-19 pandemic was “the great equalizer’ should be dead and buried by now. If anything, the lethal disease is another terrible reminder of the deep divisions and inequalities in our societies.

That said, the treatment of the disease should not be a repeat of the same shameful scenario.

For an entire year, wealthy celebrities and government officials have been reminding us that “we are in this together”, that “we are on the same boat”, with the likes of US singer, Madonna, speaking from her mansion while submerged in a “milky bath sprinkled with rose petals,” telling us that the pandemic has proved to be the “great equalizer”.

• READ MORE: Covid-19 vaccine roll out starts in parts of the Pacific

“Like I used to say at the end of ‘Human Nature’ every night, we are all in the same boat,” she said. “And if the ship goes down, we’re all going down together,” CNN reported at the time.

Such statements, like that of Madonna, and Ellen DeGeneres as well, have generated much media attention not just because they are both famous people with a massive social media following but also because of the obvious hypocrisy in their empty rhetoric.

In truth, however, they were only repeating the standard procedure followed by governments, celebrities and wealthy “influencers” worldwide.

But are we, really, “all in this together”? With unemployment rates skyrocketing across the globe, hundreds of millions scraping by to feed their children, multitudes of nameless and hapless families chugging along without access to proper healthcare, subsisting on hope and a prayer so that they may survive the scourges of poverty – let alone the pandemic – one cannot, with a clear conscience, make such outrageous claims.

Not only are we not “on the same boat” but, certainly, we have never been. According to World Bank data, nearly half of the world lives on less than US$5.5 a day. This dismal statistic is part of a remarkable trajectory of inequality that has afflicted humanity for a long time.

The plight of many of the world’s poor is compounded in the case of war refugees, the double victims of state terrorism and violence and the unwillingness of those with the resources to step forward and pay back some of their largely undeserved wealth.

The boat metaphor is particularly interesting in the case of refugees; millions of them have desperately tried to escape the infernos of war and poverty in rickety boats and dinghies, hoping to get across from their stricken regions to safer places.

Sadly familiar sight
This sight has sadly grown familiar in recent years not only throughout the Mediterranean Sea but also in other bodies of water around the world, especially in Burma, where hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have tried to escape their ongoing genocide. Thousands of them have drowned in the Bay of Bengal.

The covid-19 pandemic has accentuated and, in fact, accelerated the sharp inequalities that exist in every society individually, and the world at large. According to a June 2020 study conducted in the United States by the Brookings Institute, the number of deaths as a result of the disease reflects a clear racial logic.

Many indicators included in the study leave no doubt that racism is a central factor in the life cycle of covid.

For example, among those aged between 45 and 54 years, “Black and Hispanic/Latino death rates are at least six times higher than for whites”. Although whites make up 62 percent of the US population of that specific age group, only 22 percent of the total deaths were white.

Black and Latino communities were the most devastated.

According to this and other studies, the main assumption behind the discrepancy of infection and death rates resulting from covid among various racial groups in the US is poverty which is, itself, an expression of racial inequality. The poor have no, or limited, access to proper healthcare. For the rich, this factor is of little relevance.

Moreover, poor communities tend to work in low-paying jobs in the service sector, where social distancing is nearly impossible. With little government support to help them survive the lockdowns, they do everything within their power to provide for their children, only to be infected by the virus or, worse, die.

Iniquity expected to continue
This iniquity is expected to continue even in the way that the vaccines are made available. While several Western nations have either launched or scheduled their vaccination campaigns, the poorest nations on earth are expected to wait for a long time before life-saving vaccines are made available.

In 67 poor or developing countries located mostly in Africa and the Southern hemisphere, only one out of ten individuals will likely receive the vaccine by the end of 2020, the Fortune Magazine website reported.

The disturbing report cited a study conducted by a humanitarian and rights coalition, the People’s Vaccine Alliance (PVA), which includes Oxfam and Amnesty International.

If there is such a thing as a strategy at this point, it is the deplorable “hoarding” of the vaccine by rich nations.

Dr Mohga Kamal-Yanni of the PVA put this realisation into perspective when she said that “rich countries have enough doses to vaccinate everyone nearly three times over, while poor countries don’t even have enough to reach health workers and people at risk”.

So much for the numerous conferences touting the need for a “global response” to the disease.

But it does not have to be this way.

While it is likely that class, race and gender inequalities will continue to ravage human societies after the pandemic, as they did before, it is also possible for governments to use this collective tragedy as an opportunity to bridge the inequality gap, even if just a little, as a starting point to imagine a more equitable future for all of us.

Poor, dark-skinned people should not be made to die when their lives can be saved by a simple vaccine, which is available in abundance.

Dr Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr Baroud is a non-resident senior research fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). This article is republished with permission. His website is www.ramzybaroud.net

Twenty years ago, the Solomon Islands government put restrictions on the media during and after the State of Public Emergency. This included preventing journalists from attending militant peace meetings and Prime Minister Sogavare demanding that all media reporting of the conflicts/Tensions be approved by the Office of the Prime Minister.

The Media Association of Solomon Islands (MASI) fought back against the government – the media attended the peace conferences and they refused to buckle to PM Manasseh Sogavare’s illegal demands for him to approve their reports.

That was real journalism.

• READ MORE: Solomons to ban Facebook but claims ‘media freedom to remain’
• Solomon Islands Facebook ban under attack
• Brazen attack on media freedom in the Solomon Islands
• MASI’s statement on the Facebook ban

Now, this same Prime Minister is again trying to restrict the free media by banning Facebook – the most widely used social media tool used in Solomon Islands and also around the world. It is reported that only other countries to ban Facebook are China, Iran, North Korea and Syria.

So where is MASI? Why the silence from our top media association?

When they received donations from China and USA they were quick to put out press releases. But when the free media is threatened for all of us MASI goes silent. Why?

Amnesty International and Transparency International immediately wrote reports condemning cabinet’s decision to suspend Facebook.

Global media reports
Global media organisations have reported it in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, China, England, India, Russia and many more countries.

Locally, the opposition, independent group, government MP’s, Chamber of Commerce and even the Visitors Bureau have publicly condemned the Facebook ban.

Yet not a word from MASI?! What is going on?

On one of MASI’s Facebook pages its states its “vision” is “the Solomon Islands media industry is a respected leader across the Pacific in the promotion, observance and protection of human rights and liberties including the protection of the rights of access to information, transparency and accountability.”

“Protection of Human rights”? The world’s leading human rights organisation has actually stated cabinet’s decision is “a blatant and brazen attack on human rights”.

What about MASI’s vision of “rights to access of information”? if Facebook is suspended we will not receive a lot of critical information including updates on covid-19.

So where is MASI? Why are they so quiet on such an important media issue?

MASI’s position on this major decision
This might be the answer:

In 2017, MASI’s then vice-president, Douglas Marau, was removed from the executive of MASI because of his perceived conflict of interest since he was an employee in the Office of the Prime Minister.

In July this year at a MASI general meeting, Douglas Marau made himself available again as the vice-president of MASI, with Georgina Kekea as president.

Before and after the announcement of cabinet’s decision to suspend Facebook I asked the MASI executive, including Marau, about their position on this major decision.

One of the basic rules of a free society is that the media must be separate from any and all forms of government so that they can freely report upon events.

In fact, it is stated in MASI’s own constitution that its objective is for MASI to be “an independent organisation”.

I call on MASI to consider and abide by your very own constitution, vision and mission as an organisation and make your position clear about cabinet’s decision to suspend Facebook.

Please also take immediate action to remove conflicted members from the executive.

Wendy Amangongo is a social justice issues commentator and activist in the Solomon Islands. Since this column was first written, MASI president Georgina Kekea has made a statement criticising the ban

Struggling businesses have expressed concerns and international media rights groups have condemned the Solomon Islands government’s proposal to temporarily ban Facebook.

The Solomon Islands Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SICCI), as the peak body representing private sector in Solomon Islands, is particularly concerned with the negative impacts this decision will have on the country’s micro businesses, entrepreneurs and those in the informal sector dependent on social media for marketing and advertising.

“It is the government’s prerogative to make such a decision, but as a chamber we believe that there are other pressing issues that require our collective focus,” SICCI board chair Jay Bartlett said.

• READ MORE: Solomons to ban Facebook but claims ‘media freedom to remain’
• Solomon Islands Facebook ban under attack

Members of the business community shared their concerns with SICCI today while others opposed the decision to temporarily ban Facebook.

Paula Brake, managing director of Tower Insurance Pacific said Facebook was the most widely used social media platform in the Pacific Islands and was an important communication tool relied upon by individuals, businesses and communities.

“Tower uses Facebook to engage with customers and their communities regarding a variety of matters, most importantly those relating to the preparation for and response to severe weather events.

“The most engagement Tower has on Facebook is relating to claims processing following major events. As such, Tower strongly opposes any proposal to ban Facebook usage in the Solomon Islands,” Brake said.

Important marketing strategy
Seventy percent of SICCI’s membership was made up of small medium enterprises (SMEs), one of them SAMEDIA Limited and director Gloria Hong said that for small businesses interacting with consumers on social media was an important marketing strategy.

“Using social media helps us to build brand awareness, increase our customer base, and connect with customers,” she said.

“In my view, banning Facebook is a threat to businesses, especially the small businesses [that] cannot afford to run advertisements on radio, newspapers and on TV,” Hong said.

Tongs Corporation have invested a lot of time and effort to launch and grow their Facebook presence as a mode of communication with their customers.

Sales and marketing manager John Wopereis said Facebook had been an effective tool in building relationships with the wider community to grow product knowledge and showcase the inspiring stories of builders, contractors and homeowners.

“In terms of our planning for 2021 onwards, it’s important for us to be clear on what to expect as we have outlined facebook as a key marketing tool and have content lined up ready to go. We need to know what’s happening so we can be clear on where to invest our time and effort,” Wopereis said.

As with the covid-19 global pandemic, the tourism sector would be most affected by the Facebook ban.

Heavily reliant on Facebook
Sunset Lodge based on the island of Savo relies heavily on social media to attract customers.

Owner Bernard Kemakeza has taken every opportunity presented by the government and SICCI to improve his business’ online presence and sees this move as a setback.

“Coming into 2020 we did not anticipate the global pandemic impacting on the tourism industry the way that we’re experiencing at the moment,” he said.

“For small operators such as ourselves, we are struggling to pay our workers, to pay tax to government, help our nearby communities and we look forward to when things get back to normal.”

Anthony Fargas, managing director of Coral Sea Resort and Casino, said advertising in the traditional media was not viable in a depressed economic landscape on a regular basis.

“There is a high uptake of Facebook with Solomon Islanders and freedom of expression and information should be encouraged in any democracy or competitive landscape.”

Unjustified media freedom attack
Responding to the Facebook ban plan, the Auckland-based Pacific Media Centre condemned the move, saying that it was an unjustified attack on media freedom and freedom of information.

“This is a cynical assault on fundamental human rights launched by ministers with thin skins and bruised egos and it is naive to claim that while Facebook would be banned media freedom would be retained,” said centre director Professor David Robie.

“Many small Pacific media, including in Solomon Islands, have integrated social media and news publishing platforms and strategies. An arbitrary ban on Facebook – even short-term – would be damaging to both the public right to know and the media business models putting at risk their viability.”

Amnesty International’s Pacific researcher Kate Schuetze said: “To ban a social media site simply because people are posting comments that the authorities don’t like is a blatant and brazen attack on human rights.

“Protecting the sensitivities of government officials is not a justifiable reason to limit freedom of expression, which is also a right under the Constitution of the Solomon Islands.”

Robert Iroga is editor of Solomon Business Magazine (SBM). This article is published with permission.

New Zealand churches with US links are being blamed for spreading covid-19 misinformation.

Health Minister Chris Hipkins has said some of the 43 people linked to the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship church “mini-cluster” in Auckland were sceptical about the seriousness of the pandemic, as church and community leaders say they face a battle to check the spread of false information.

Pakilau Manase Lua grew up in the Seventh Day Adventist church and said his own friends and family were guilty of spreading conspiracies and false information about covid-19.

• READ MORE: Al Jazeera coronavirus live updates – Trump knew coronavirus was ‘deadly’, but downplayed it – Woodward book
• New covid-19 cases in Tahiti raise tally to 820

“I’ve personally received lots of private messages regarding information that people think is useful but is purely disinformation, either about the virus itself or fear around the vaccine,” he said.

Pakilau, who is the chairman of the Pacific Leadership Forum’s Pacific Response Coordination Team, said this spread was especially rife among those with links to conservative evangelical or pentecostal churches in the United States.

“It’s been spreading like wildfire through social media.”

Losing the battle
Media chaplain and Wesleyan Methodist minister Frank Ritchie said some ministers were losing the battle to stem the flow of misinformation among their congregations.

“What I’m seeing is ministers who are doing the right thing, but their people are being indoctrinated online.”

Some congregation members were angry their minister did not agree with what they were reading on the internet about covid-19, he said.

A study by Te Puunaha Matatini found there was a spike in mainstream media coverage of conspiracy theories following the fresh outbreak of covid-19 in August.

Researcher Kate Hannah said they were often spread by marginalised people who were historically distrustful of science or government.

But there was hope.

“Good news spreads just as fast as bad news does on social media and on mainstream media,” she said.

‘We can share and talk’
“So we can share and talk about positive things that help people reinforce their trust public health interventions.”

Hannah said the key was to use role models relevant to those communities affected by conspiracies and misinformation, in order to rebuild trust.

Pakilau, who set up an online Kava Club during the March lockdown, said the forum was often used to spread fear and misinformation about the coronavirus.

But he was also using it as a space to challenge that, with some success.

“We tell them straight up ‘that’s rubbish’ and ‘here’s the other side’,” he said.

“So we give them the information and evidence and every now and then we’ll have a win, but it is hard because there is so much disinformation out there.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health has asked for all 332 members of the Mt Roskill Evangelical Fellowship, and anyone who has been in close contact with them, to be retested for covid-19.

This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.

• All RNZ coverage of covid-19
• If you have symptoms of the coronavirus, call the NZ Covid-19 Healthline on 0800 358 5453 (+64 9 358 5453 for international SIMs) or call your GP – don’t show up at a medical centre.

North Fly MP James Donald yesterday made an appearance in Papua New Guinea’s Waigani Committal Court to face cyber crime charges for allegedly publishing defamatory materials against a lawyer and the management team of OK Tedi River Development Foundation.

Magistrate Garry Unjo, reading the MP’s charges, said Donald, from Gasuke village in North Fly district in Western Province, had allegedly published defamatory materials against Young and Williams principal lawyer Greg Sheppard and Ok Tedi River Development Foundation (OTRDL) chairman Steven Bagari, and Samson Jubi.

• READ MORE: Cybercrime and cybersecurity in PNG

Donald was charged with a count each of attempting to pervert the court of justice, and publishing defamatory materials.

Police alleged that Donald had posted a false and misleading defamatory article titled “Where is the money?” on his personal Facebook page on July 26, alleging that Sheppard and Bagari had misappropriated more than K250 million ($110 million) in funds that belonged to the Ok Tedi landowners.

Other articles also signed and approved for release by him were allegedly published in the two daily newspapers, the PNG Post-Courier and The National.

According to the police summary of facts, Donald had allegedly posted defamatory materials against Sheppard, Bagari and Jubi intentionally to tarnish the reputation of the three men without factual evidence to support his claims on Facebook.

Police further alleged that Donald’s defamatory publications were made despite him knowing there was a writ of summons, filed by Young and Williams Lawyers on behalf of OTFRDL in the High Court of Singapore (HC/S628/2020 between OTFRDL and others, Vs James Donald).

His alleged accomplice, Phillip Baindridge, is the chairman of PNG Sustainable Development Progamme (PNGSDP).

The summons sought to retrieve funds worth more than K250 million (NZ$110 million) back to PNG and put into the control of foundation and the people affected.

Trevor Wahune is a University of Papua New Guinea journalism graduate and reporter on the PNG Post-Courier.

The Indonesian government has submitted an appeal against the Jakarta Administrative District Court’s (PTUN) decision that found President Joko Widodo and the Communication and Information Minister guilty of imposing an internet blackout in the Papua and West Papua provinces last August.

“On June 12, 2020, Defendant I filed an appeal against the Jakarta Administrative Court Decision’s ruling No. 230/G/TF/2019/PTUN-JKT dated June 3, 2020,” wrote the copy of the appeal letter received by Tempo on Friday.

In this case, the Communication and Information Minister Johnny G. Plate acts as Defendant 1, while President Jokowi acts as Defendant 2.

READ MORE: Jokowi ‘violates the law’ for banning internet in Papua

The plaintiffs are the Independent Journalist Alliance (AJI) and the Southeast Asia Freedom of Expression Network (SAFEnet).

AJI advocacy coordinator Sasmito Madrim confirmed that his side also received the appeal letter.

“Yes, I have (received it),” said Sasmito via short message to Tempo on Friday.

As widely reported, the government throttled the internet bandwidth in the West Papua region due to the unrest in August 2019 following mass demonstrations against racism against Papuans.

In early June, the court declared the government guilty of violating the law on emergency conditions.

Moreover, there was no initial announcement regarding the dangerous situation.

The panel of judges then sentenced the government defendants to each paying the court fee of Rp457,000 (NZ$50).

Dewi Nurita is a Tempo reporter, Dewi Elvia Muthiariny is the story English langiage translator and Markus Wisnu Murti editor.

Fiji police have raided the headquarters of Fiji’s National Federation Party, apparently in search of information related to social media posts.

In a video shared to the party’s social media, it showed several plain clothes officers rifling through files, papers and storage last night.

Speaking to RNZ Pacific shortly after the raid, leader Professor Biman Prasad said the officers from the Suva CID spent about an hour searching.

READ MORE: Police threaten arrests over USP protests

Professor Prasad said a warrant was provided, but he was not sure what exactly the raid was in relation to.

“We don’t really know what this is about,” he said.

Professor Prasad said the officers said they were looking for documents relating to the party’s social media posts, and possible payments regarding them.

“We don’t pay people to do our media,” he said, adding the party was weighing its next options.

With the Sodelpa party suspended, the NFP and its three MPs are the only opposition still in the Fiji Parliament.

Some of the scenes from the search earlier this evening. #teamnfp #nfpfiji #fijipol pic.twitter.com/pw3togGgSU

— NFP (Fiji) (@FijiNfp) June 9, 2020

This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.

The New South Wales Court of Appeal has dismissed an appeal which sought to challenge a finding that operators of Facebook pages may be publishers of defamatory comments made by third-party users on news items posted on those pages.

This ruling could have far-reaching media implications in the Pacific.

Three defendant media companies – The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and the Centralian Advocate had appealed against the finding of the NSW Supreme Court that they are the publishers of third party comments on their Facebook posts for the purposes of defamation law.

READ MORE: Court confirms media companies liable as publishers of third party defamatory Facebook comments

Three other non-defendant media companies (Bauer Media, Dailymail.com Australia and Seven West Media) also applied to the court to have the decision overturned on separate legal grounds.

Some commentators say the implications for Pacific Island nations and “authoritarianism” could be worse because it would mean politicians could hold media companies responsible for postings on social media. 

Although the ruling is yet to be appealed to the High Court, it has sent shivers through  Pacific Islands media circles which are faced with authoritarianism.

“The precedent could be followed in rulings in Pacific island countries with commonwealth jurisdictions,” the head of journalism at the University of the South Pacific, Dr Shailendra Singh, told Pacific Media Watch.

Collective speech rights
“Collective free speech rights versus individual rights. Under defamation, traditional media are accountable/answerable for reporting defamatory statements, regardless of who makes them. If media propagate defamatory statements, they can be charged as a culpable party.  

“A similar principle now applies to media organisations’ social media accounts. In Fiji, in a landmark case an individual was recently convicted of defamation on Facebook. 

“This is a clash between free speech and defamation. We have the right to free speech but not the right to defame people,” Dr Singh said.

“It’s like another axe hanging over the media. Media companies are now more exposed, including the Pacific. 

“They have to be more vigilant in moderating social media comments. Not many media organisations in the Pacific can afford legal fees, let alone pay. Damages.”

Pacific development analyst Dr Tess Newton Cain believes that publishing companies need to be more careful how they use social media but is not so pessimistic about the impact in island countries.

“Media companies in New South Wales will need to review their practices about publishing  comments in order to make sure that they don’t leave themselves open to liability. 

Not precedent for Pacific
“This case does not create a precedent in Pacific island countries – they are their own jurisdictions and so no-one can rely on this decision other than as a persuasive  authority,” she said. 

“Defamation cases aren’t very common in the Pacific – Solomon Islands is one place where politicians have used defamation or the threat of defamation to get the media to retract stories or not run them in the first place.

“Their ability to do so appears to stem from one or two occasions in the past where they have been successful and secured big pay-outs rather than there necessarily being any actual defamation involved,” she explained. 

But she was open-minded about it being possibly “misused” as Pacific countries tend to do when it comes to Australian or New Zealand law.

“It could be used as persuasive authority I suppose. The only case that bears any resemblance to this in the region that I’m aware of was a Fiji case”

“If politicians wanted to go down this route in Pacific Island countries it would depend on what the legislation and rules are in each jurisdiction and then it would be up to the courts to decide whether they considered comments by a third party to have been ‘published’ by the media company – as I say this case may provide persuasive authority but no court in the Pacific is bound to follow it,” she said 

“Governments don’t sue in defamation – it is a personal action,” Dr Newton Cain said. 

Even before the coronavirus arrived to turn life upside down and trigger a global infodemic, social media platforms were under growing pressure to curb the spread of misinformation.

Last year, Facebook cofounder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg called for new rules to address “harmful content, election integrity, privacy and data portability”.

Now, amid a rapidly evolving pandemic, when more people than ever are using social media for news and information, it is more crucial than ever that people can trust this content.

READ MORE: Social media companies are taking steps to tamp down coronavirus misinformation – but they can do more

Digital platforms are now taking more steps to tackle misinformation about Covid-19 on their services. In a joint statement, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Reddit, Twitter, and YouTube have pledged to work together to combat misinformation.

Facebook has traditionally taken a less proactive approach to countering misinformation. A commitment to protecting free expression has led the platform to allow misinformation in political advertising.

More recently, however, Facebook’s spam filter inadvertently marked legitimate news information about Covid-19 as spam. While Facebook has since fixed the mistake, this incident demonstrated the limitations of automated moderation tools.

In a step in the right direction, Facebook is allowing national ministries of health and reliable organisations to advertise accurate information on Covid-19 free of charge.

Twitter, which prohibits political advertising, is allowing links to the Australian Department of Health and World Health Organisation websites.

Twitter has also announced a suite of changes to its rules, including updates to how it defines harm so as to address content that goes against authoritative public health information, and an increase in its use of machine learning and automation technologies to detect and remove potentially abusive and manipulative content.

Previous attempts unsuccessful
Unfortunately, Twitter has been unsuccessful in its recent attempts to tackle misinformation (or, more accurately, disinformation – incorrect information posted deliberately with an intent to obfuscate).

The platform has begun to label doctored videos and photos as “manipulated media”. The crucial first test of this initiative was a widely circulated altered video of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, in which part of a sentence was edited out to make it sound as if he was forecasting President Donald Trump’s re-election.

It took Twitter 18 hours to label the video, by which time it had already received 5 million views and 21,000 retweets.The label appeared below the video (rather than in a more prominent place), and was only visible to the roughly 757,000 accounts who followed the video’s original poster, White House social media director Dan Scavino.

Users who saw the content via reweets from the White House (21 million followers) or President Donald Trump (76 million followers), did not see the label.

Labelling misinformation doesn’t work
There are four key reasons why Twitter’s (and other platforms’) attempts to label misinformation were ineffective.

First, social media platforms tend to use automated algorithms for these tasks, because they scale well. But labelling manipulated tweets requires human labour; algorithms cannot decipher complex human interactions. Will social media platforms invest in human labour to solve this issue? The odds are long.

Second, tweets can be shared millions of times before being labelled. Even if removed, they can easily be edited and then reposted to avoid algorithmic detection.

Third, and more fundamentally, labels may even be counterproductive, serving only to pique the audience’s interest. Conversely, labels may actually amplify misinformation rather than curtailing it.

Finally, the creators of deceptive content can deny their content was an attempt to obfuscate, and claim unfair censorship, knowing that they will find a sympathetic audience within the hyper-partisan arena of social media.

So how can we beat misinformation?
The situation might seem impossible, but there are some practical strategies that the media, social media platforms, and the public can use.

First, unless the misinformation has already reached a wide audience, avoid drawing extra attention to it. Why give it more oxygen than it deserves?

Second, if misinformation has reached the point at which it requires debunking, be sure to stress the facts rather than simply fanning the flames. Refer to experts and trusted sources, and use the “truth sandwich”, in which you state the truth, and then the misinformation, and finally restate the truth again.

Third, social media platforms should be more willing to remove or restrict unreliable content. This might include disabling likes, shares and retweets for particular posts, and banning users who repeatedly misinform others.

For example, Twitter recently removed coronavirus misinformation posted by Rudy Guilani and Charlie Kirk; the Infowars app was removed from Google’s app store; and probably with the highest impact, Facebook, Twitter, and Google’s YouTube removed corona misinformation from Brasil’s president Jair Bolsonaro.

Finally, all of us, as social media users, have a crucial role to play in combating misinformation. Before sharing something, think carefully about where it came from. Verify the source and its evidence, double-check with independent other sources, and report suspicious content to the platform directly. Now, more than ever, we need information we can trust.

Dr Tobias R. Keller is visiting postdoctoral researcher at the Queensland University of Technology and Dr Rosalie Gillett is a research associate in digital platform regulation at the Queensland University of Technology. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article.

• Meet ‘Sara’, ‘Sharon’ and ‘Mel’: why people spreading coronavirus anxiety on Twitter might actually be bots

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern spoke to her followers on Facebook today from her office in Premier House.

Her chat lasted about 15 minutes and garnered more than 310,000 views.

She discussed wage subsidies for full-time and part-time workers, personal protection equipment (PPE) supplies for frontline workers among a host of other Covid-19 concerns put forth by those watching the livestream.

READ MORE: Al Jazeera live updates – US confirmed coronavirus cases top 100,000

• Curfew across all of French Polynesia from tonight
• New Caledonia Covid-19 tally rises to 15
• No change in Australian stance over out-of-work New Zealanders

Earlier today, Air New Zealand said eight employees – who work on the airline’s long haul fleet and operated sectors to Los Angeles or London – had tested positive for Covid-19.

One of the staff had now recovered.

Air New Zealand said it was unable to reveal when or where in the world the eight employees were tested for Covid-19, or if the infected staff came into contact with passengers.

But it said from a health perspective, all procedures were followed in each case including appropriate contact tracing by the Ministry of Health.

There are now 83 new cases of Covid-19 – made up of 78 new confirmed cases and five probable cases. Two people are in intensive care in a critical condition.

The total number of confirmed and probable cases in New Zealand is now 451, with overseas travel and links to confirmed cases still being the most significant infection path.

Volunteers are using 3D printers to make tens of thousands of face shields for health workers helping in the Covid-19 coronavirus crisis across the country.

South Island communities have been rallying to help those in need during the lockdown.

The South Pacific reports at least 96 infection cases – excluding the high number in the US Pacific state of Hawai’i – in five countries or territories, with one death – in Guam.

Numbers were growing in New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Guam.

New Zealand volunteers are using 3D printers to make tens of thousands of face shields for health workers helping in the Covid-19 coronavirus crisis across the country.

South Island communities have been rallying to help those in need during the lockdown.

This article is republished by the Pacific Media Centre under a partnership agreement with RNZ.

• If you have symptoms of the coronavirus, call the NZ Covid-19 Healthline on 0800 358 5453 (+64 9 358 5453 for international SIMs) or call your GP – don’t show up at a medical centre.

• More RNZ Covid-19 news

Rappler CEO Maria Ressa is among Time‘s “100 Women of the Year”, the news magazine has revealed ahead of International Women’s Day on Sunday.

Time‘s “100 Women of the Year,” a list of the most influential women of the past century, puts the spotlight on “influential women who were often overshadowed”.

“This includes women who occupied positions from which the men were often chosen, like world leaders Golda Meir and Corazon Aquino, but far more who found their influence through activism or culture,” the magazine said.

READ MORE: Time magazine’s ‘100 women of the year’ – and the century

Time recognised Ressa as its Woman of the Year for 2018, noting her already impressive career in news before starting Rappler in 2012.

“But the news site turned into a global bellwether for free, accurate information at the vortex of two malign forces: one was the angry populism of an elected president with authoritarian inclinations, Rodrigo Duterte; the other was social media,” the magazine wrote in its article about Ressa.

Time said that, since naming her as a 2018 “Person of the Year,” Ressa “has continued to navigate the murk between social media and despotism, calling out her findings to the rest of us at the risk of her life”.

Other women from Southeast Asia who made it to the list include late Philippine president Corazon Aquino (1986) and Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi (1990).

Aquino was named Woman of the Year in 1986 after the democracy icon won the presidency and ended the nearly 21-year dictatorship of Ferdinand Marcos.

Former Time editor-in-chief Nancy Gibbs said of the project: “The women profiled here enlarged their world and explored new ones, broke free of convention and constraint, welcomed into community the lost and left behind.

“They were the different drummers, to whose beat a century marched without always even knowing it.”

“Women,” Gibbs writes, “were wielding soft power long before the concept was defined.”

For the complete list of Time’s “100 Women of the Year,” click here.

Republished from Rappler news website.

I stumbled on the scene by chance. Our host family in Iran’s second city Mashhad, a modern and beautiful metropolis that would comfortably fit in New Zealand’s entire population, was taking us on a drive to the outskirts to visit the tomb of the famous poet and chronicler Abolqasem Ferdowsi.

It just so happened that this was the very day that a new section of the surrounding gardens was being opened and the red carpet was being rolled out for a visiting cultural affairs minister.

Shortly after we arrived, the political scrum began – a mass of photographers, press people and ceremonial guards pressing.

READ MORE: Iran a hugely ‘friendly’ country behind the sabre-rattling

Bodyguards whisked the minister, Ali Asghar Mounesan, head of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts and Tourism, into the cavernous tomb among the sculptured friezes of mythical hero Rostam fighting off dragons and monsters in defence of ancient Persia.

The hero’s exploits are featured in the 10th century epic Shahnameh: The Book of Kings, penned by Ferdowsi and comprising some 50,000 couplets.

Ferdowsi is the hometown literary giant and one of Iran’s best universities and medical schools is in the city and named after him. It was opened in 1949.

Modern day Iran is steeped in massive historical and intriguing cultural icons, and also a swathe of mosques and other religious shrines, dating back to the secular Achaemenian empire founded by Cyrus the Great five centuries before Christ and ancient pre-Islam Zoroastrianism (fire-worshipping), one of the world’s oldest continuously practised religions  believed to have its roots some 4000 years ago.

Impressive attractions
Some critics say that Iranian authorities since the 1979 Islamic Revolution spend far more and devote greater attention to the religious artefacts and buildings of Islam to the neglect of some historical sites. However, whatever the truth about that Iran boasts a never-ending range of impressive and attractive places to visit.

The tragedy is that not enough is known about the country’s cultural and historical wonders in the West because of the regime’s pariah political status and the refusal of many mainstream travel companies to run regular tours.

Some homegrown Iranian tour operators, worried about the downturn in tourist numbers – a fall in spite of Iran’s plans to boost tourism and visitors by fivefold to 20 million a year by 2025 (blame Donald Trump for the fall) – have now recruited social media “influencers” to tour the country and blog about the attributes.

One group of 12 Instagram global posters with about 16 million combined followers are this month visiting Iran on a familiarisation trip organised by Iranian traveller Hoda Rostami and social media “influencer” who is trying encourage foreign tourists to “discover” Iran’s fascinations.

Iran embarked last year on ambitious plans to boost tourism. Neighbouring Azerbaijan, Egypt, Georgia, Lebanon, Syria and Turkey have been added to the list of countries whose nationals can get visas on arrival. Getting an e-visa for New Zealanders is now far more straight forward than it used to be – thank goodness for us not being American or British.

Iran also has plans to revive passenger sea lines, including routes between the country and Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Saudi Arabia – or at least that was the idea before the recent tensions over the Persian Gulf and sanctions-busting for vital Iranian oil exports.

Also there have been reports on plans to build a railway from Iran’s southwestern Khuzestan province, travelling west through Iraq and ends at the Syrian port city of Latakia. This is expected to boost religious tourism, including the massive annual pilgrimage to Karbala.

Having just toured Iran myself while on sabbatical, I highly recommend the country as an absolute must visit.

My bucketlist
Here is my bucket list of 10 reasons why you should go to Iran – but there are also many other reasons. The brief notes link to more images on my Instagram diary:

1. Imam Reza shrine, Mashhad
   The incredibly impressive Haram-e Razavi, the Imam Reza shrine in Mashhad, is widely regarded as the ‘heart of Shia Iran’. More than 28 million religious tourists visit this vast shrine each year. Affluent Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city with a population comfortably equivalent to New Zealand’s total, thrives on “religious tourism”. The city is in northeastern Iran, close to the border with Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.” https://www.instagram.com/p/B3l-hEWJnKY/

2. Tomb of Ferdowsi, Mashhad
   Abolqassam Ferdowsi, Iran’s greatest and one of the world’s most renowned poets. He penned the epic mythical and historical Shahnameh: The Book of Kings, the world’s longest poem in the 10th century. With some 50,000 couplets, the original book weighs 75 kilos and chronicles the saga of the early Persian empires until the seventh century Arab invasion and conquest. Ferdowsi’s tomb and museum at Toos are today one of Mashhad’s inspiring attractions. https://www.instagram.com/p/B3cTYgInf2F/

3. Naqsh-e Jahan Square, Esfahan
   Esfahan’s impressive and peaceful Naksh-e Jahan Square is the world’s largest after Tiananmen. It is indeed a spectacle. Once a vast polo field, the hewn stone goalposts are still at one end. Designed and laid out in 1602 under the reign of Shah Abbas (Safavid epoch) when Esfahan was capital of Iran, it is today a popular place of family picnics and horse-drawn carriage rides. The square is ringed by a maze of fascinating shops and traditional Sheikh Lotfallah bazaar. https://www.instagram.com/p/B3WQmSVpCQf/

4. Khaju Bridge, Esfahan
   The 133m Khaju Bridge and weir is one of several historical bridges across the Zayandeh River, which has started flowing again after being dry for several years. Built about 1650 by Shah Abbas II, the bridge has 23 arches and a place in the middle for a throne for the shah to admire the water flowing by. https://www.instagram.com/p/B3R4fdYpTPN/

5. Milad Tower, Tehran
Iran’s impressive Tehran Milad Tower, is at 435m the 6th tallest TV tower in the world. It also has the world’s biggest head structure of any telecommunications tower. The top floor of the 12-level head structure can be reached by high speed lifts within 50sec. https://www.instagram.com/p/B2-CDGDpBwd/

6. Persepolis, near Shiraz
One of the seven great wonders of the ancient world, Persepolis was the extraordinary capital of Darius the Great in 520BC, conceived and established following the vast Persian empire forged by Cyrus the Great. The ruins near Shiraz are still very impressive from the Gate of all Nations onwards. https://www.instagram.com/p/B3IMiH7Jdo0/

7. Karim Khan Citadel, Shiraz

The 18th century Karim Khan Citadel was once a political prison for 40 years. It has a strange “leaning tower” where the impressive bathhouse outflows eroded the foundations over a couple of centuries. The nearby Bazar-e Vakil traditional bazaar network and Hammam-e Vakil bathhouse, which has a display of traditional ablutions, are also fascinating and worth visits. https://www.instagram.com/p/B3GhUs7pXwe/

8. Tombs of Hafez and Sa’adi, Shiraz
   My Instagram diary posting shows a student singing a popular Iranian love ballad outside the famous tomb of Hafez, the mecca for poets and romantics in Shiraz. He is singing Age Ye Rooz Beri Safari (If You Ever Leave Me) by Faramarz Aslani. This and the tomb of Sa’adi are major pilgrimage sites for Iranians, and they ought to be for Westerners too. https://www.instagram.com/p/B3Gh-KwHt9h/

9. Golestan Palace, Tehran
   An elegant complex standing as a reminder of the glories and opulence of Iran’s Qajar dynasty in the 19th and early 20th centuries. It is where the coronation of Reza Shah took place on a Marble Throne on display and where his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, was also crowned in the Museum Hall before being deposed in the 1979 Revolution. https://www.instagram.com/p/B296vRpJJ_W/

10. Sa’ad Abad Museum Complex, Tehran
    The Mellat, or White Palace, is the largest mansion in the Sa’ad Abad forest museum complex in north Tehran. This was built in the 1930s and has bullet proof windows. It was used by Mohammad Reza Shah (Pahlavi dynasty), and empress Farar, as a summer palace before he was deposed in the 1979 Revolution. Farar now lives in Paris. Among the more interesting museums in this complex are one devoted to the exploits of the Iranian adventurer brothers Omidvar and the brilliant contemporary artist Mahmoud Farschian. https://www.instagram.com/p/B3Avil2J5lK/

This is a mere introduction to places in Iran to visit, and thanks to Zahra Ebrahimzadeh (our former homestay student), her family and friends for such a wonderful start. I haven’t even mentioned the amazing United Nations heritage old mudwalled town of Yazd on the edge of a desert, or the northwestern mountain city of Tabriz with one of the finest bazaars, and a host of other fascinating places.

When I return, I would love to go to the north of the country and around the Caspian Sea.

Visit Iran and enjoy.

Dr David Robie travelled independently and with no political “minders”.

• Part 1: Iran a hugely ‘friendly’ country behind the sabre-rattling
• Part 2: 10 reasons why tourists must visit Iran
• Part 3: Iran’s great global adventurers
• Feel Iran – a project promoting Iran tourism

Social media and tech industries have been replicating the ugliest aspects of capitalism from the 1800s, according to an AUT computer science lecturer.

Associate Professor Tony Clear says that social media and tech executives are taking advantage of unregulated markets in a similar way as the wealthy industrialists or “robber barons” that exploited abundant resources and cheap labour in the 19th century.

Only now according to Dr Clear, the resources are not gold, coal or silks managed out of London or New York. Now it’s data out of Silicon Valley.

READ MORE: Bring ethics into global smart tech, warns UN cyber expert

“The world of the robber barons has come back to life again with data as the gold dust,” he says.

While the resources might have changed, he says the masses of “manipulated” people are still needed to turn the cogs and drive the profits of the giant digital machine.

“They’re manipulating us through their algorithms. The more we use their platforms, the more we give them, the more they can know about us, the more they can manipulate and control our behaviour.”

“I don’t think it’s a far deal.”

A editor and columnist for computer education magazine ACM Inroads, Dr Clear has written extensively on the flaws in the tech and computing sectors.

He says a lack of ethics throughout the industry, coupled with rampant growth and innovation have made social media platforms dangerous environments where hate – such as that which lead to the Christchurch Mosque Attack – can fester and spread rapidly.

Letter to PM

Which is why after that atrocity, he penned a letter to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s office urging for a “regulatory regime” to be imposed on social media platforms in New Zealand.

While the “robber barons” comparison is not a new one, Clear believes that regulation is key to moderating the potentially dangerous whims of industry heads.

“Because these guys [social media executives] have no moral base we need to regulate the hell out of them,” he says.

Governments appear to have taken steps on this. At the May 15 “Christchurch Call” in Paris, Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron implored social media platforms to take more of a hand in regulating their content.

It’s not as simple as just asking however, as according to Dr Clear, few industry heads actually know what harmful or bigoted content looks like.

“They don’t know the difference between free speech and hate speech,” he says.

“They neatly wrap it around the US constitution and freedom of speech idea which means you can say any hateful bloody thing that you like.”

While globally Facebook deletes 66,000 posts per week which breach its own definition of hate speech, Clear argues that the platform hides behind the argument that it is not a publisher and does not need to take a strong moral position like newspapers would.

Domestic regulation

This grey area with freedom of speech is the reason some countries are regulating platforms based on their own laws.

Massey University’s Professor Paul Spoonley is an advocate of such a move. An expert on hate speech, he doesn’t think the “Christchurch Call” will make much difference. However, he praises some European countries for already taking the initiative and regulating social media platforms based on domestic law.

“See what the Germans have done which is quite successful. The ethics is not that of Facebook, it is that which has been deemed important by an individual country, in this case Germany,” he says.

Introduced in January 2018, the German law as known NetzDG puts the onus on Facebook and Twitter to differentiate between hate speech and free speech, requiring them to remove any “obviously illegal” hate speech from their sites within 24 hours or face a potential 50 million Euro fine.

As a result Facebook now has 1200 reviewers based in Essen and Berlin deleting at least 15,000 posts each month in Germany.

While regulation appears to be the most obvious tool to fix the tech sector’s ethical vacuum, there is one option that targets the root of the issue. And it starts in the universities.

Ethics in schools

Dr Clear says that young computer science students need to be exposed to more “social good” or ethics papers which can help lay down sound moral foundations on which they will build their careers.

“Its about teaching young computer scientists that there is a bigger world than what they see technically,” he says.

This comes with challenges however.

Along with other leading academics, Dr Clear wrote a paper on value-driven computer science education. It found that many students do not see a link between computer science and societal benefit as they would in careers like nursing and teaching. This also discourages more women from enrolling in computing courses.

“Many avoid taking CS classes because they do not perceive a computing career as having the power to do good and make a difference,” the paper read.

It also read that if there are papers on ethics or social good available, they are usually not introduced until the third or fourth year of studies, long after many students with such inclinations have become discouraged and dropped out of the courses.

Wellington-based computer programmer Oliver Bridgman agrees, saying he couldn’t recall many ethics papers during his studies a decade ago.

“If they were there they were optional and only made up about 5 of 200 points” he says.

He too, draws comparisons between low and mid-level computer science workers and the proletariat of old.

“In my opinion the coders on the front lines are basically your coal miners in the early 1900s except now they get paid a ton more so have to care even less.”

“So your real ethics conundrum is the money behind it all, which is almost always driven by the same capitalism.”

‘Careless’ code

Senior software developer Alex Frere expressed a similar opinion, citing such incidents as the recent Boeing 737 jet malfunction as a result of carelessly written code.

“It’s staggering really that no real code of ethics, or industry standard regulation exists across the tech sector, despite how deeply it’s rooted in modern society.”

However, he points out that there are big players addressing the ethics issue within the industry such as Robert Martin, or Uncle Bob – renowned as one of the fathers of computer science.

“Uncle Bob has coined a bullet point list called the “Programmers Oath”,” Frere says.

“It’s of a similar vein to a doctors Hippocratic Oath, or a lawyer being sworn in after passing the bar.”

While Frere couldn’t recall much ethics being taught in his university course, he hopes that more grassroots teaching along with an increased focus on societal good from an “enlightened youth” will eventually revolutionise the industry.

Industry changes

Such changes are already taking place, with Facebook reportedly introducing artificial intelligent to block and remove violent content like the video that was live streamed from the Christchurch Mosque Attack.

According to Tony Clear, these types of changes are inevitable as more end users begin to comprehend the insidious perils of technology and the price that must be paid to enjoy it.

“We’ve got a pact with the devil at the moment,” he says.

“But I think the people realise when they’re being exploited.”

By RNZ Pacific

Papua New Guinea’s police minister claims there is a plot involving the former prime minister to have him arrested.

Police Minister Bryan Kramer said high ranking police officers were plotting his arrest after a complaint by the former Prime Minister, Peter O’Neill.

Writing on Facebook yesterday, Kramer said he had received intelligence reports detailing the plot, although he has not released them.

READ MORE: Sacked police chief claims he will challenge his removal

Kramer said they included a complaint filed by a journalist who he claimed to have exposed accepting payments from an MP.

The police minister said he would not be going into hiding and would make himself available for police interviews.

“Since taking office, I have declined police close protection, police escort or even a designated driver,” he said.

“I regularly get asked about the risks that come with what I do. My response has always been and will continue to be I have no question of doubt I will eventually get killed for what I do.

“It goes without saying when you get in the way of those stealing billions in public funds, they will do whatever it takes to get rid of you.”

Kramer last week replaced police commissioner Gary Baki and his two deputies, prompting Baki to apply through the courts for a restraining order against the move.

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

Journalists have gathered for a three-day event at the University of the South Pacific in Suva to discuss the rise of social media and fake news in the Pacific, reports FBC News.

The annual Pacific Update brings together policymakers, academics and development partners to present and discuss research relating to economic and social issues throughout the region.

Founder of the Melanesia News Network, Solomon Islands-based Dorothy Wickham said social media is a challenge that they are learning to work with, in particular calling out fake news when it arises.

READ MORE: Media celebrated as ‘backbone of democracy’ in Pacific

“As people in our country and people in our region learn to use social media responsibly and also to understand that when you post up something, it’s not only among your friends that can be seen, it’s shared, it can be screenshot and it can be sent on as a message without you even knowing whatever you sent and put up is past on.

“It just goes global without you realising and this is the challenge we face back home is the lack of understanding of the internet.”

General manager of the Pacnews region Pacific news agency Makereta Komai said the rise of social media was already cutting into profits of media organisations.

She said one national paper had already begun charging the public to read its online content.

“The impact of social media is already more visible now and a lot of our media organisations are already feeling the impact on their profitability and on their bottom line.”

Former ABC journalist and now journalism trainer Jemima Garrett spoke about the possibility of joining forces and getting the social media giants to do more in the region.

“Ask Facebook to have a Pacific office,” she said.

“Facebook offers fact checking, you know they talk a lot of their ability to identify fake news, to change the algorithms to downgrade it, but they need people who speak the language, tok pisin, speak Fijian, speak Tongan, speak Samoan to do this, there’s none of that in the Pacific.”

“So at the moment, Facebook which everyone knows is huge has got everything to gain from the Pacific and is contributing nothing.”

The Pacific Update is being held at USP’s Laucala campus and will conclude Friday, June 5.

Other focus areas will include Pacific climate risk, gender empowerment, labor mobility, health, and foreign aid.

Following the election of James Marape’s as Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister, on Sunday, he issued a declaration on Facebook that soon had the foreign media (and social media) agitating over just one phrase.

“Work with me,” he wrote, “to make PNG the Richest Black Christian Nation on earth.”

True, they were rather provocative words, and they were repeated in his statement, but there was more – much more – that Marape had to say.

READ MORE: A message to PNG’s Prime Minister James Marape

And in that more was plenty for the rest of us, and indeed for the world beyond Papua New Guinea, to chew on.

But before I move to that, let me pause for a moment and be a bit grateful that Papua New Guinea now has a Prime Minister willing to commit his thoughts, values and aspirations to social media.

Marape promises to continue to “communicate with the nation using this medium”.

I guess it’s inevitable he will attract the usual low life trolling, mocking, attacking and denigrating, but let’s hope he does manage to find the time and patience to communicate in this way.

It will make a big difference to both the governors and the governed to know what the Prime Minister has on his mind.

So what were the most significant ideas and issues Marape decided to open with?

Marape ‘up for change’
First of all, he said he is up for change. There is no indication in the statement that he sees his role as anything other than a disconnect from the O’Neill era.

And in handing down a number of explicit commitments, he offered the PNG people a checklist by which he and his administration – now being formed – can be judged in the coming weeks and months.

“I am set for the bigger and greater challenges, in changing the course our country must travel on for better development for our people,” he said.

“I have a band of like-minded leaders sitting on both sides of the national parliament and we are driving an agenda to grow the economy in a safe, secured and educated country where all citizens are making an honest productive living…”

It is a clear indication of his intent to draw talent from “both sides of the aisle”, as the Americans say.

Unity government
This is good news for PNG because, if the Marape era is to be characterised by something akin to a “unity government”, it will have the opportunity to work in a more Melanesian style than the adversarial style of the Westminster system upon which its Parliament is structured.

And, as Martyn Namorong writes, if this Melanesian form can be successfully achieved it will be culturally and politically more congruent with the how Papua New Guinean society functions.

Marape also showed astuteness in explaining why he had chosen particular members of the caretaker cabinet ahead of appointing a full ministry, anticipating commentators like me whose eyebrows had soared at this group that seemed to pay more tribute to the immediate past than the future.

“I did a caretaker arrangement to appreciate the political structure we had,” he said, “but this week I will fill in ministers I assess can work in key sectors for productivity and not just for political convenience.”

How this eventuates in practice will provide the rest of us with an early marker of whether the promised bipartisan approach to Parliament will be implemented. Much talent rests among those steadfast MPs who, at some considerable cost, refused to join O’Neill in his depredations – people like Juffa, Kua, Kramer and Morauta.

Corruption
Now let me turn to the word that dare not pass DFAT’s lips – corruption.

Marape dared let it pass his lips, and its presence hovered over much of his declaration, especially here: “I will instruct the new justice minister to bring Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in the first instance, so let us all play by the rules now going forward.”

He told both private and public sectors what the new regime would mean for them in this context.

“Our contractors now have a Prime Minister who expects nothing in return for giving state contracts. All we expect is: do your fair bidding with the right price and get your job done.

“Don’t offer inducement to me or any ministers or public servants in the chain of procurement and contract management.”

And further: “Public servants and politicians, earn your salary and don’t ask for special favours. It must start now if it hasn’t started yet!”

Warning to multinationals
And for the big guys, a long distance early warning: “To multinational companies who operate in our resources sectors, I am not here to chase you away but to work with you so that we can add value to the benefits that emanate from the harvest of our natural endowment.

“All projects agreements that are in compliance (with) and congruent to all our laws will be honoured (and) I will be meeting with key resources sector and I request you all to assist me as to how we must grow my Papua New Guinea economy.”

Marape said he has a fresh team of PNG advisors looking into all resource laws and that he intends to tailor new legislation for implementation in 2025. Thus having neatly assuaged any fears about sovereign risk, he took a step towards a different future for resource exploitation in PNG.

At the same time, Marape said he will ask the National Procurement Commission to ensure contracts under K10 million (NZ$4.6 million) are “strictly” reserved for citizens and local companies and that contracts above that threshold must also have local partnership involvement.

“To local (small to medium sized enterprises) and contractors, we have a special incentive plan for you,” he said.

“Tidy your company books, pay your honest tax and, if you want to go the next phase of your business, we will inject very soft term loans (possibly 5 percent repayment rate over a 40 year period)…. Prepare to be part of our programme to resuscitate our businessmen and women.”

‘Take back PNG’
Marape added that he will be asking “all young educated PNG citizens” for their views on Governor Gary Juffa’s motto to “Take Back PNG”.

“We will organise for your voices to be heard,” he said. “I don’t buy into outside advisers, we have in the intelligent and experience pool in country, let us mobilise into cohesive units.”

Calling himself the “chief servant of my country, Papua New Guinea,” he said he was willing to make hard calls and asked of citizens to offer him “a good law and order environment” including stopping tribal fights (with an plea to his own province, “my Hela, please!”).

Tonight, at a time to be advised but surely ahead of the State of Origin rugby league clash, Marape is expected to deliver a state of nation address on radio and television.

“But for now,” he stated, “you can see where my mind is and those of you who want to work with me please align here or offer me better solution to make PNG the Richest Black Christian Nation on earth, where no child in all part of our country is left behind.”

• This article is republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission and was originally published by Keith Jackson’s blog PNG Attitude.
• More PNG stories

A Vanuatu Daily Post newspaper reader has protested over Facebook addiction, describing it as ruining the lives of teenagers and youth who spend most of their time on smartphones.

The reader says that Facebook and other social media are undermining the constitution and its preamble that calls for the cherishing of cultural diversity and tradition.

The “concerned citizen” calls on internet providers, Malvatumauri (Council of Chiefs) and communities to “train and teach” social media users to make the “right choices in life” and to restore storytelling in nakamals (meeting places for drinking of kava). The letter said:

READ MORE: The Nakamal Diaries

“Dear Editor,

“As a native Ni-Vanuatu citizen, I wish to appeal to the government and Malvatumauri Council of Chiefs to take up an active participative (sic) regular awareness over the use of social media, particularly Facebook.

“As stated by one of our former Ministers, “Ol generation blo today, hemi ol generation blo lukluk down”!

“Today as you can see around our different societies in Vanuatu, teenagers and youth spend most of their valuable time with their smartphones to access Facebook, playing games, and accesing other social media apps.

“The present era of technology has changed the attitude and behavior of Vanuatu teenagers and youth compared to the past, and it results to (sic) many social problems in our societies.

“These behaviors defeat the purpose of our preamble, that is cherish our cultural diversity and traditional Melanesian values and Christian principles. Our cultural norms such as sitting with our parents for family talk, and listening to cultural and historical stories and a frequent “Storian tuketa” in our various nakamal time has been replaced by the high use of smartphones and social media.

“Given that, I am suggesting that our government should work closely with the internet providers, Malvatumauri and the communities to train and teach its users, especially teenagers and youth, to understand the causes and effect, in order to make right choices in life and also to reduce disrespectful attitudes.”

A Concerned Citizen
Vanuatu Daily Post

The reason why politicians in Papua New Guinea are afraid of Facebook is because it has done more in the last 10 years to hold them to account than mainstream media outlets.

Facebook has become the most important tool that provides the verification for so-called infrastructure projects that MPs claim have been completed but have not.

Facebook has been used to hold the former Health Minister Puka Temu to account for the medicine shortages in the country. It has been used to correct misconceptions that Tuition Free Fee (TFF) money has been going to schools.

READ MORE: Scott Waide’s articles on Asia Pacific Report

Teachers from remote schools who have not been paid for months sent their details using the social media network for verification.

With crowdsourced information from Facebook, Papua New Guineans have been able to see the problems in health, education and the economy.

Dr Sam Yokopua, Dr Glen Mola, two of the most senior doctors in the country use Facebook to highlight the most critical shortages affecting Port Moresby General Hospital.

Is it fake news? No.

Business on Facebook
In case you haven’t noticed, thousands of Papua New Guineans use Facebook for business transactions. That’s where they make their money from.

Large businesses use Facebook as a way to reach out to their customers.

How do PNG politicians plan to compensate for the 12 month disconnection with their customer base?

Banning Facebook, will be a huge embarrassment for the country that hosted the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) last November. The high ideals of “digital connectivity” and “digital inclusiveness” will be thrown out the window.

A lot of governments want to ban Facebook. But it really has not worked. China, North Korea, Iran are among the list.

While Iran has a ban on Facebook, people, including the Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani, uses Twitter as an alternative. Point is, you can’t get away from social media.

There is a general agreement that there are a lot of people who use Facebook to spread fake news. They should be investigated and prosecuted using the Cybercrime Act if law enforcement has the capacity to do it.

But to ban Facebook has wide-ranging implications including direct government interference on the freedom of speech of Papua New Guineans and their right to hold their leaders to account.

The best thing to do is:

• Do the right thing by the people
• Be transparent. If there is a problem acknowledge it, fix it and correct misinformation.
• Be truthful. You can’t go wrong in the age of social media.
• Scott Waide’s blog columns are frequently published by Asia Pacific Report with permission. He is also EMTV deputy news editor based in Lae.
• PNG politicians, journalists condemn O’Neill social media ‘crackdown’ plan

The Papua New Guinea Prime Minister’s call to “crack down” on social media has created immediate controversy, with politicians and journalists calling it unconstitutional.

Peter O’Neill made the announcement on Monday following a cabinet reshuffle, saying that social media spreads false and misleading information, reports the PNG Post-Courier.

Governor of Oro province Gary Juffa said the Prime Minister’s call “threatens to destroy the very fabric of the freedom of the people which is enabled by the constitution,” Papua New Guinea Today reports.

READ MORE: Marape accuses PNG government of ‘sabotage ploy’ to delay vote

“The constitution provides for the people to have the right to be free, they also have the freedom to express, their opinions, beliefs, religion, ideas and information.

“Even the US President is subject to false news and does not attempt use that as a reason to control social media in the USA.”

Consolidating support
The announcement comes at a time when O’Neill is consolidating support in an attempt to defeat an impending vote of no confidence against him.

Papua New Guinea Today also reported O’Neill justifying the announcement:

“Fake news is destroying our country. Recently we had a young person killed in Boroko. So this must be put to an end.”

In a blog written on Monday, PNG columnist Sylvester Gawi defended social media, writing that the person killed in Boroko “was a result of undertrained and under resourced police force that continually discharged firearms without any accountability”.

He also claimed that the proposed crackdown on social media was “adopted from Communist China” and undermined the role of democracy.

He wrote that the prime minister had delayed tabling an Independent Commission Against Corruption Bill.

“Be a leader. Table it Mr Prime Minister,” he wrote.

“If you really wanna (sic) listen to people of Papua New Guinea than you will start by having faith in our people. Stop relying on foreign advisors who control your cabinet to court house and in public space.

“We know who you are, you are a real neo-colonialist preying on our people. It’s time for change, we are taking back PNG from your Chinese and Australian friends.”

O’Neill said the cabinet would review social media platforms when it convenes tomorrow.

• PNG plans crack down on social media

Cabinet will review social media platforms in Papua New Guinea when it convenes on Thursday, says Prime Minister Peter O’Neill.

Speaking at Government House yesterday after announcing four new ministers and a mini reshuffle, O’Neill said the government would crack down on fake news that was being spread on social media.

He was adamant that the government would review social media platforms and this would be the first task of the new Communications and Information Technology Minister Koni Iguan.

READ MORE: PNG plans to shut down Facebook for a month

He said there was too much fake news that was sending bad signals and destroying the nation and its people and this must stop.

“Cabinet will have a complete review of social media in the country, led by Minister for Communications,” O’Neill said.

“There is a lot of fake news destroying our people, destroying our society. We have lived without social media for thousands of years before.”

O’Neill said too much fake news and false information was being circulated which was destroying the government, the nation and its people.

Minister’s first task
“Government will review the social media platform and that will be the first task of the newly appointed Communication Minister,” O’Neill said.

“I want to assure you that the Communications Minister’s first responsibility will be to review that so we can make sure that the correct information and the truth are put forward to the nation so that they can be well informed on what is happening in the country.

“Fake news is destroying our country and recently one of our young people got murdered in Boroko because of fake news. This cannot continue, we must put an end to it so I want to assure you that cabinet at its first NEC (National Executive Council) meeting which will be held on Thursday we will look at how we can manage this going forward.”

O’Neill said that the Attorney-General had now been directed to make sure he brought the ICAC Bill to Parliament in the next session so that people are comforted on the fact that our government is working in making sure that this bill saw the light of the day.

“Our officials have been very slow, we are frustrated by that but I can assure you that we are trying to get it through on the floor of Parliament as quickly as possible so we can address some of the fake news and fake allegations that are going around in the country,” O’Neill said.

“It is our responsibility, the government’s responsibility, so we will review that so we can make sure that the correct information and the truth and facts put forward so everyone will be well informed of what is happening in the country.”

Gorethy Kenneth is a senior Post-Courier journalist.

• More PNG stories

Pacific Media Watch Newsdesk

After the Easter Sunday bombings, social media was blocked in Sri Lanka. Was it needed? Did it work? These are the questions put by Al Jazeera’s Listening Post presenter Richard Gizbert yesterday.

Plus, yellow vest protesters tussle with French media was also highlighted.

The multiple church and hotel bombings in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, which killed an estimated 253 people, represented the worst violence the country has seen since the end of the civil war a decade ago.

READ AND VIEW MORE: Al Jazeera’s Listening Post

In the immediate aftermath, the government shut off access to social media – Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Viber. The rationale? To stem the spread of hate speech and misinformation.

There’s a complex debate to be had, however, on the benefits of a social media shutdown versus the costs.

Millions of Sri Lankans couldn’t contact friends and family, while evidence suggests that shutting off social media does little to monitor the spread of false rumours.

And, in a country where politicians and the mainstream media often deal in misinformation themselves, an internet shutdown makes it harder to separate truth from fiction.

Lead contributors:
Nalaka Gunawardene – author and media analyst
Sanjana Hattotuwa – founder, Groundviews
Yudhanjaya Wijeratne – author and researcher
Dharsha Jegatheeswaran – research director, Adayaalam Centre

On our radar
Richard Gizbert speaks to producer Meenakshi Ravi about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pre-election interview by a Bollywood star, and US President Donald Trump’s tete-a-tete with Twitter’s CEO.

Yellow fever: The ‘gilets jaunes’ and the mainstream media
This past week, President Emmanuel Macron announced a tax cut of $5.6 billion. It was one of several policy changes that amount to a victory of sorts for “les gilets jaunes”, or the yellow vest protesters, who first hit the streets almost six months ago over the price of fuel, the cost of living and tax inequality.

The media are more than a sub-plot in this story. Protesters complain about the under-reporting of police violence and sensationalising of the demonstrations.

Reporters have, for their part, been restricted, manhandled by both demonstrators and police, and subjected to arrest. And in their suspicion of the mainstream media, the yellow vests have taken to producing their own coverage – live-streaming across social networks.

The Listening Post’s Marcela Pizarro reports on the tussle between the media, the state, and the yellow vest protestors.

Featured contributors:
Edwy Plenel – editor-in-chief, Mediapart
Anne Saurat Dubois – political correspondent, BFM TV
Fabrice Epelboin – media scholar, Sciences Po Paris
Xenia Fedorova – editor-in-chief, RT France
Jean-Jerome Bertolus – political editor, France Info

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced that NZ and France will lead global efforts to try to end the use of social media to organise and promote terrorism.

The announcement comes in the wake of the March 15 Christchurch terror attacks.

Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron will lead a meeting in Paris on May 15, that will bring together other world leaders and tech companies.

READ MORE: Sri Lanka blasts: Authorities wary over linking attacks to Christchurch and ISIS

Leaders and the chief executives of tech companies will be asked to agree to a pledge called the ‘Christchurch Call’ to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online.

“The March 15 terrorist attacks saw social media used in an unprecedented way as a tool to promote an act of terrorism and hate. We are asking for a show of leadership to ensure social media cannot be used again the way it was in the March 15 terrorist attack,” Ardern said.

“We’re calling on the leaders of tech companies to join with us and help achieve our goal of eliminating violent extremism online at the Christchurch Summit in Paris.

“We all need to act, and that includes social media providers taking more responsibility for the content that is on their platforms, and taking action so that violent extremist content cannot be published and shared.

‘Tool for terrorism’
“It’s critical that technology platforms like Facebook are not perverted as a tool for terrorism, and instead become part of a global solution to countering extremism. This meeting presents an opportunity for an act of unity between governments and the tech companies.”

Ardern told RNZ Morning Report that since the attacks, there had been a clear call for New Zealand to take on a leadership role in combating violent extremism online.

“There is a role for New Zealand to play now in ensuring we eradicate that kind of activity from social media, in particular to prevent it from ever happening again. We can’t do that alone,” she said.

Ardern said she has met with a number of social media CEOs, including Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, and is making progress on what can be done in practical terms.

“When we actually distil this down, no tech company, no country, wants to see online platforms used to perpetuate violent extremism or terrorism. We all have a common starting point.

“It all then comes down to what it is we are each prepared to do about it.

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

Facebook has taken down 200 pages and accounts organised by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s social media manager in his 2016 campaign, Nic Gabunada, the company has announced.

The 200 pages and accounts found on Facebook, Instagram, and Facebook groups were removed for their proliferation of fake accounts.

These fake accounts pushed political messaging that promoted their candidate or attacked political opponents.

READ MORE: The ‘amazing’ fake social media network of Nic Gabunada

The fake accounts behaved as if they were real people, and majority of the time, those who followed the fake accounts or saw the comments of these fake accounts believed that they were real, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy, Nathaniel Gleicher, told news media.

“[The pages] frequently posted about local and political news, including topics like the upcoming elections, candidate updates and views, alleged misconduct of political opponents, and controversial events that were purported to occur during previous administrations. Although the people behind this activity attempted to conceal their identities, our investigation found that this activity was linked to a network organised by Nic Gabunada,” Facebook said in a blog post.

The pages are influential, with 3.6 million users following at least one of the pages.

The 200 pages include 67 Facebook pages, 68 Facebook accounts, 40 Facebook groups and 25 Instagram accounts. About 1.8 million accounts joined at least one of these groups and around 5300 accounts followed one or more of these Instagram accounts.

Political messaging
While Facebook says the network was run by Gabunada, and that the pages pushed political messaging, they call the network “a non-government actor”, saying they don’t have anything concrete linking the Gabunada-run network to the government.

Gabunada said he was surprised with the takedown, and called the move “unfortunate”, in a phone interview with ABS-CBN. He said he was just among the people who share content and invited to join certain groups, and also said he plans to appeal the takedowns.

The Gabunada takedown follows similar Facebook action in January when the company took down Twinmark Enterprises for similar violations on Facebook’s policies on what it calls coordinated inauthentic behaviour.

Gleicher notes that in the case of the Gabunada network, they noticed that the fake accounts operated more prominently in Facebook groups, misleading people to believe that they were interacting with real people with real political beliefs, when in fact they were part of social media campaign designed to influence and manipulate.

Gleicher adds that in the Twinmark case, traditional pages were used more as opposed to Facebook groups.

Gleicher, as the company has always emphasised in the past, said that when looking for violations against their policy on coordinated inauthentic behavior, it was the behavior they were looking for and not the actual content being pushed.

It was the fact that fake pages were created to appear as real that triggered the takedown, and not the messaging or the political content being pushed by the pages, he said.

Independent looking, but coordinated
“[The pages] were designed to look independent, but they were coordinated. They post about political news: pro-content about their candidates, while some attack the opponents of those political candidates. They conceal their identity,” said Gleicher.

One of the tricks used by the network used included combining authentic and inauthentic accounts.

The pages also made use of Facebook ads, spending a total of about $59,000, with the first ad appearing in January 2014, and the last, just this March 2019.

The ads were paid for in Philippine peso, Saudi riyal and US dollars.

Gleicher also said they would be working with policy makers after the takedown. A third-party report about the Gabunada network is also forthcoming from a US-based company, which Gleicher said should come out soon after their own report.

Gelo Gonzales is a Rappler journalist.

• The Philippines faces midterm elections for Congress on May 13.

Facebook announces a takedown of 200 pages and accounts organised by Nic Gabunada,  Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s social media manager in his 2016 campaign. Video: Rappler

The attack in Christchurch has forced New Zealand news media to rethink the way they work, whose voices they amplify – and why.

Telcos, bloggers, advertisers and the government have all reacted in ways that could change what we see see, hear and read in our media in the future – and we have also had a stark reminder of the power of the big online platform.

LISTEN: RNZ Mediawatch Podcast

Calling Facebook to account

Questions about Facebook’s livestreaming moderation failure were met with deafening silence at first and then a few written statements.

And not just here in New Zealand.

“No-one on any continent has gone on camera to answer any questions”, said Channel 4 News in the UK last Tuesday.

It couldn’t get a response from Facebook’s head of global affairs Nick Clegg.

He was Deputy Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2010 to 2015. He is perfectly capable of handling questions from the media.

He was following the lead of Facebook’s actual head of global affairs – CEO Mark Zuckerberg- who has not said, or posted, a word.

It took five days for a “VP of Product Management” to come up with this.

One spokesperson eventually told RNZ some people may have shared the video “for good reasons”.

“Such an absence of respect and engagement from a company whose tools were fundamental parts of a plan to inflict such pain and savagery in this country are an intolerable insult,” wrote long-time business reporter Pattrick Smellie.

Facebook eventually said the offending livestream had only 4000 views while it was live.

But it also said 1.5 million attempts to post it later were blocked, and it was reposted in many other places online by thousands of people.

Clearly there is a problem – one that the company top brass have not addressed.

But it’s not just here that the demands for Facebook to act have been long and loud. It’s a global story and it could be a big moment in tech history.

New rules for criminal digital content
The gunman’s sickening live-streamed video and his “manifesto” have now been deemed “objectionable” by the Office of The Chief Censor.

While it does not sound like a strong condemnation, it’s effectively made possessing and distributing them a crime.

But long before that – indeed before the PM had confirmed at least 40 people were dead on Friday, March 15 – some people had already seen bits of it on screen here in the media.

Many media organisations weren’t sure what to do when they discovered the content online not long after the shooting.

In Australia, the two most popular mainstream TV channels ran small sections of the video and told their viewers they would see no more, but both went on to air more of it in their evening news.
Rolling news operation Sky News Australia ran footage from inside the mosque with the bodies blurred, prompting Sky TV here to take the whole channel off air for four days.

TVNZ’s head of news John Gillespie told Mediawatch 1 News showed a few non-violent seconds of the footage to show “the high degree of pre-meditation and planning . . . and judiciously since then in light of the national discussion on gun reform”.

Newsroom.co.nz – which urged Mark Zuckerberg to shut down livestreaming – said it erred by posting footage for a short time. It was pulled down after complaints came in.

Australia’s public broadcaster the ABC said it would not make the manifesto public, but a correspondent read aloud from it on air.

RNZ’s Checkpoint special that day also detailed key claims in the manifesto and described the images of weapons. RNZ decided not to broadcast or publish those details after that.

In Turkey – which was mentioned in the manifesto – state-backed English-language news channel TRT made a video about it people could watch it they really wanted to know more.

That was posted the day after the shootings – after some time for reflection.

There’s no shortage of articles pointing out the gunman’s digital stuff was “made to go viral”.

Hopefully media that ran the content will now have in-house rules to rule it out in future – or at least wait until they’re sure they know what they’re dealing with and why they think the public needs to see it or hear about it.

Internet providers club together to reduce the risk
New Zealand’s biggest ISPs jointly blocked access to websites circulating the video and manifesto, including notorious forums 4Chan and 8Chan.

It was a bold but unprecedented move driven by the big social media companies failure to stop the spread of the propaganda.

But some internet and media freedom activists will be wondering whether legitimate use of the internet could be curbed in the future when they concur that a crisis demands extra-ordinary action.

The next day they wrote to the bosses of Facebook, Twitter and Google.

“We call on you to be to join at the table and be part of the solution,” they said.

They haven’t taken up the invitation.

Advertisers pull back – and ponder a change of direction
In a joint statement the the Association of New Zealand Advertisers and the Commercial Communications Council pointed out that “advertising funds social media”.

“Businesses are already asking if they wish to be associated with social media platforms unable or unwilling to take responsibility for content on those sites,” they said.

Some big brands here took action this week themselves suspended their social media promotions.

But none said how extensive the pull-back will be – or for how long. Some – like big spender Lotto for example – said it was all about tone and not really a moral move.

Ad agency boss James Mok said it was time to better reflect cultural change in New Zealand

“Our work should represent New Zealanders with respect. We can no longer avoid the responsibility to be diligent about every little choice we make. The stories we tell and the people we feature in advertising are our chance to show New Zealanders who we really are,” he said.

Government to pull the plug on digital ads?
The biggest spender on social media advertising here is the New Zealand Government.

On Monday, Jacinda Ardern was non-committal when Newsroom’s Bernard Hickey asked if the spending of an estimated $100m a year would be withheld from the platforms she’d criticised.

But on Wednesday the Minister for State Services Chris Hipkins told media the government has asked for urgent advice on its advertising spending with Facebook.

It would not cripple what Toby Manhire called “the world’s first genuinely megalithic media company” (in one of several unanswered – and probably unopened – open letters) but the gesture would be noticed here and overseas.

Cash-strapped mainstream media companies would welcome some of that spending if it was siphoned away from social media in their direction.

But our media companies – public and private – also pay Facebook to host and boost their content. Maybe it’s time for a rethink to match this week’s editorials excoriating the company and its leader.

Soapbox-style media reflects on itself
This week National Business Review journalist Brent Edwards wrote this about the upcoming official inquiry into the Christchurch attack:

“It might include the role of news media, particularly of media personalities who used public platforms to promote intolerance. And was the news media too focused on Islamic terrorism to notice the threats here at home?”

That’s a surprising suggestion from a journalists’ union stalwart and committed media freedom guardian.

But the media he had in mind may be reassessing themselves already.

For example, Newstalk ZB deleted a 2017 opinion column in which its Christchurch-based host Chris Lynch asked “Does Islam have any place in public swimming pools?”

Last Wednesday, he apologised for it.

But there has been plenty more on Newstalk ZB where that came from in recent years.

NZME head of talk radio Jason Winstanley told Stuff several items had been pulled from ZB’s websites because – he said – it was “upsetting people.”

Some of that content was there for precisely that purpose in the first place.

Katie Hopkins was an occasional guest on NZTB, until she was sacked by her paper and radio station in the UK after calling for a “final solution” in the wake of the Manchester bombing in May 2017 – and for Western men to “rise up.”

When news reached ZB morning host Leighton Smith that the UK police were investigating her, he was furious about the incursion into free speech.

But that was fake news from Infowars, the mouthpiece of anti-Islamic, far-right radio host Alex Jones, who was kicked off every major global online social media platform last year.

Leighton Smith isn’t on the air any more, but NZME hosts and promotes his weekly podcast and the Weekend Herald prints his opinions on the op-ed page every Saturday.

Heather du Plessis-Allan is a current host and when she tweeted that she was “standing with our Muslim community” at the vigil in Wellington last weekend, some followers reminded her she called the Pacific Islands “leeches on us” last year – and doubled down on the comment when criticised.

“Our priority is to do the best we can for all New Zealanders, and honour those who have lost their lives,” NZME’s head of talk radio Jason Winstanley said this week.

It remains to be seen what that means on air at Newstalk ZB, and whether other talkback radio hosts and opinion writers with a track record of stirring up controversy over race and immigration will be more moderate.

“Let’s build this amazing country into a truly multicultural power base with our actions. Words only do so much, but actions last a lifetime,” wrote Duncan Garner enthusiastically in this weekend’s Dominion Post.

Fourteen months ago, a majority of the Media Council upheld a complaint against his fretful column about “Indians, Pakistanis, Sri Lankans, Syrians, and many others” in a snake-shaped queue at Kmart under the headline: Dear NZ: How do we want to look in 20 years?

Dialing down the comments
Comments sections in mainstream media often turn toxic, even under stories which aren’t especially controversial. Stuff turned off it comments after the attack for three days.

“We’re giving a lot of thought right now to the best approach for our comments,” Stuff editor Patrick Crewdson said on Twitter this week.

“That’s also a non-committal answer, I know, because it’s still a live discussion. Extra care, yes, but exactly how that works is what we’re discussing,” he said.

Watch that space below the line
Kiwiblog – where a lot of offensive comments have been posted anonymously – is also changing its policy.

Publisher and founder David Farrar said this week only people using their real names will be able to publish comments automatically – so readers will know who they are.

Journalists step up
Another challenge for the media now is investigating extremism and communities and cultures here in which it thrives — or which may even be camouflaging it.

The day after the attack Herald senior investigative reporter Matt Nippert made this call.
Four days later, he said he had been “overwhelmed” with responses.

A pool of Herald staff was working on immediate tasks, he said, but he envisaged a journalistic project “that could run for years”.

Stories have already appeared in the Herald leading to prosecutions.

In the long run it is no easy task.

There will also be emotional debates about gun control, and internet regulation played out in the media – and more intense and divisive debates about free speech, freedom and religion.

Journalists at other media companies have been inspired to investigate too. Maybe young journalists whose names we don’t yet know will be inspired too.

We will – as the Herald’s Matt Nippert said – see where it takes us.

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

More than 50 New Zealand companies are considering pulling ads from Facebook because it allowed a livestream of the Christchurch massacre last Friday.

Some firms have already stopped advertising and the Association of New Zealand Advertisers predicts dozens of others are likely to follow suit.

To show more support after the attacks, some gun owners have been handing over semi-automatic rifles for destruction in protest.

“Until today, I was one of the New Zealanders who owned a semiautomatic rifle. On the farm they are a useful tool in some circumstances, but my convenience doesn’t outweigh the risk of misuse,” wrote farmer John Hart on Twitter.

“We don’t need these in our country.

“We have [to] make sure it’s #NeverAgain.”

READ MORE:
RNZ’s live news feed – Day 5
What you need to know
A list of the confirmed victims
Find out about vigils around the country

Meanwhile, another terror attack in the Netherlands has overshadowed efforts in New Zealand to reject individual hatreds and come together to support those affected in Christchurch.

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

• Other mosque massacre stories

Fake news and hate speech are inundating Indonesia on and offline with the country’s general election just two months away and with presidential candidates Prabowo Subianto and incumbent Joko Widodo locked in a contest for the top spot.

Jokowi, as the president is known, remains clearly in the lead with as much as 20 percent of the voters picking him despite his being the target of torrents of fake news, according to several recent surveys.

The Prabowo team claims the race is closer based on internal surveys – which they decline to share.

READ MORE: Meet the fake news trolls who influenced the US and Indonesian polls for money

A survey by the Indonesian Survey Institute (LSI) shows Jokowi and his partner, Islamic leader Ma’ruf Amin, with voter approval at 54.8 percent, while Prabowo and his running mate, businessman Sandiaga Uno, are well behind at 31.0 percent.

But in an example of the depth of misleading advertising, survey results of the Indonesian Telematics Society (Mastel) say nearly 45 percent of 1,116 respondents surveyed said they receive fake news and hoaxes every day.

Unfortunately, 30.3 percent of respondents say they have difficulty checking the truth of such reports, with more than 75 percent of respondents agreeing that false news can disrupt community harmony.

Political issues dominate the fake news transmissions, according to the survey, followed by misleading reports on religion and health.

Chat applications
They can take the form of photos, videos, and narratives, and are mostly distributed via social media (Facebook and Twitter) and chat applications such as Whatsapp.

Among Indonesia’s 265.4 million population, fully half or 132.7 million are internet users, based on research conducted by We Are Social, with almost all of them – 130 million – active social media users.

At least 192 million voters will select the president and their representatives in parliament simultaneously across the country on April 17.

The latest research by the social media monitoring site PoliticaWave found that hoaxes mostly target Jokowi.

“From the presidential elections in 2014 to 2019, it appears that Jokowi is a victim of political hoaxes,” said executive director PoliticaWave Jose Rizal at a press conference in Jakarta.

PoliticaWave also found that the numbers of hoax issues have been rising. The 10 biggest hoax issues relating to the 2019 election include a fake attack on activist Ratna Sarumpaet, who first accused the Jokowi camp of being behind it.

She later switched her allegiance to the president. Others deal with reports of very large government debt; allegations that several containers filled with ballots had been discovered as already cast for Jokowi; toll electronic transactions associated with debt to China; and fake e-KTPs from China.

Many accusations
Jokowi has been accused of being a member of the Indonesian Communist Party (PKI), of being a closet Christian, of using foreign consultants and of having a fake high school certificate.

Others include that 10 million workers from China have entered Indonesia; and that vice presidential candidate Ma’ruf Amin will be replaced by the former Jakarta governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaya Purnama, who was arrested on trumped up blasphemy charges that played an integral role in his defeat.

“The ten biggest hoax issues are aimed at attacking Jokowi,” said Yose.

Claiming that he was fed up with accusations and hoaxes against him, Jokowi in recent speeches has sought to clarify the various negative allegations and to go after his political opponents.

In early February, he hinted – without mentioning specifically – a campaign team that carried out so-called “Russian propaganda,” a name that has gained increased currency with spectacular charges over Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

The term is construed as an accusation against Prabowo’s camp.

“The problem is that there is a campaign team that prepares Russian propaganda which is (marked) at any time to issue a blast of slander and hoax,” Jokowi said while addressing thousands of supporters in the city of Surabaya.

Foreign consultants
Jokowi accused the Prabowo camp of hiring foreign consultants, who he said were only oriented to victory without considering that their strategy could potentially divide society. He also criticised the opposition for often accusing him of being pro-foreigners even though they themselves used the services of foreigners.

“Their consultants are foreign consultants,” he said. “Then who is the foreign stooge? Do not let us be treated continuously by lies. Our people are smart, whether in the city or in the village,” he said.

Gerindra deputy chairman Fadli Zon denied the allegations.

“We do not use foreign consultants. We can’t afford to pay (foreign consultants),” he said.

Prabowo’s team responded by accusing Jokowi himself of using the services of a foreign consultant named Stanley Greenberg. The accusation was based on an article on a website stating that Stanley had been a consultant to Jokowi.

“A note for all these inquiries,” Greenberg responded publicly. “I have never worked for Mr Widodo in any way. The website you mention is not accurate nor affiliated with me in any capacity.

“Accurate information on our past clients is listed on my official website,” Greenberg wrote through his Twitter account @stangreenberg, attaching his official website.

‘Russian propaganda’
The controversy about “Russian propaganda” also provoked the Russian Embassy in Jakarta to comment.

“We underline that Russia’s principal position is not to intervene in domestic affairs and electoral processes in foreign countries, including Indonesia which is our close friend and important partner,” wrote the Russian Embassy through its official Twitter account @RusEmbJakarta.

But Jokowi’s special team of Cakra 19 said it was convinced that “Russian propaganda” was now being applied in Indonesia, by adopting what is known as “firehoses of falsehoods,” an operation used by Russian hackers between 2012-2017 in the Crimea crisis, the Ukrainian conflict and the civil war in Syria.

“In Russia, this modus operandi has emerged as long ago as the 1870s through the Narodniki movement. This movement was used to bring down the Russian Czar by continually raising negative issues,” said the chairperson of the Cakra 19 team, Andi Widjajanto in a written statement.

“Operation blast of slander aims to make lies defeat the truth. This operation wants to destroy public trust in political authorities, including the media,” said the former Cabinet Secretary and defense expert.

Prabowo’s campaign team, known as the National Winning Agency (BPN), has launched allegations that the Jokowi government has used legal means to get rid of political opponents ahead of the upcoming election.

“Now people who have the potential to gain votes in the BPN circle have begun to be crushed one by one,” Gerindra Party general secretary Ahmad Muzani said.

Hate speech
He charged that a musician-turned politician, Ahmad Dhani, and a cleric leading the Movement 212 – a group of conservative Muslims who held a series of demonstrations against former Jakarta governor Basuki – named Slamet Ma’arif had been the target of what he called “criminalisation”.

Dhani was sentenced to 18 months in prison at the end of January on a charge of hate speech. Ma’arif members are now suspected of a series of alleged campaign violations.

Several other names in Prabowo’s camp were also involved in legal cases or even jailed. Muzani claimed the police were quick to investigate cases involving Prabowo’s sympathizers but not with cases involving or suspected of involving Jokowi’s supporters.

“We have submitted many reports (to the police), but it seems that there is not enough evidence. Whereas when our party was reported, (it was said) there was enough evidence. This is no longer inequality, it is bias,” Muzani said.

Presidential Chief of Staff Moeldoko denied Muzani’s allegations, emphasizing that the government did not intervene in the legal process.

“That there are (BPN members) who are entangled in legal matters, look to yourselves. It may be something that is wrong (with themselves). So don’t always blame the government,” Said Moeldoko as quoted by kompas.com

• Jakarta media activist threatens to sue Facebook for shutting accounts

Indonesian social media activist Permadi Arya has threatened to file a Rp 1 trillion (NZ$107 million) lawsuit against Facebook after the tech giant shut down his account in a crackdown on fake news in Indonesia.

Permadi, also known as Abu Janda, said Facebook had made serious allegations by accusing him of being part of fake news group Saracen and shutting down his Facebook pages and accounts.

In a video posted to his Twitter account @permadiaktivis, the activist said his lawyers had sent a legal notice to Facebook demanding that the company clear his name and restore all his pages and accounts.

“Otherwise we will take this to the court and sue Facebook for Rp 1 trillion for immaterial damages,” said Permadi, who chairs an organisation called Cyber Indonesia.

Permadi is known as a supporter of President Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, while the Saracen group is believed to have produced fake news and hate speech that attacked the sitting president.

“I am a well-known antiterrorism activist at the forefront of battling fake news. I am not a part of fake news. So obviously Facebook has made a great mistake,” he said, adding that his reputation was tarnished and freedom threatened.

Facebook announced last week that it had taken down hundreds of pages, groups and accounts with ties to Saracen, an online syndicate believed to have been involved in creating hoaxes for money, systematically engaging in “deceptive behaviour” and manipulating public debate within the platform.

The tech giant removed a total of 207 Facebook pages, 800 accounts, 546 groups and 208 Instagram accounts believed to be linked to Saracen, one of which was Permadi Arya’s Facebook page.

According to Facebook, the Saracen-linked networks worked together to manage fake accounts and mislead others about “who they are and what they are doing”. The company also removed all ways of accessing accounts related to the network.

Permadi also threatened to report Facebook to the police for allegedly violating the Electronic Information and Transactions Law.

Marguerite Afra Sapiie is media affairs writer of The Jakarta Post.

• More media stories

Fijians are counting down for their general election on Wednesday after early voting that started on November 5.

Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama’s ruling FijiFirst party is expected to win but with a reduced majority after a vigorous social media campaign to accumulate more votes before the media blackout which starts at midnight tonight.

Bainimarama has made “effective use of social media” to gain more supporters, says Pacific Media Centre journalist Sri Krishnamurthi, who returned to Fiji today to cover the election after doing a series of “preview” articles in September.

READ MORE: Krishnamurthi’s background briefing on the Fiji election

“Social media in Fiji has 85.1 percent use of Facebook and no other platform comes anywhere near close to that,” he said.

“FijiFirst is using Facebook very effectively as a tool. There is no control of the social media, whereas the Media Industry Development Decree curbs the media itself and that’s really strange.”

FijiFirst also uses Qorvis, a New York-based global corporate relations company that lobbies internationally for the Bainimarama government.

“I think FijiFirst will win having won more than 60 percent of the vote in 2014, but they also need a robust opposition, and that isn’t going to happen with [original coup leader in 1987] Sitiveni Rabuka back in court,” said Krishnamurthi.

Hampered by courts
“FijiFirst will have a majority but how much is debatable, as people once again get used to voting and exercising their democratic rights,” he said.

Another advantage for FijiFirst was that opposition leader Sitiveni Rabuka had been hampered in his election campaign by court action against him in an attempt to strip him of his eligibility to stand for Parliament.

People in Fiji were tired or frequent coups and an uncertain future.

“The people want stability, after 30 years of coups and uncertainty,” said Krishnamurthi.

Fiji-born Krishnamurthi will be in the country for the next five days to cover the 2018 Fiji election.

A former NZ Press Association news agency journalist, he is currently a digital media postgraduate student at Auckland University of Technology and will be reporting for the University of the South Pacific journalism programme newspaper Wansolwara and the PMC’s Asia Pacific Report.

Postgraduate student coverage
As well as the Fiji general election, postgraduate student journalists are also covering the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders summit in Papua New Guinea next weekend with a team including Pauline Mago-King and Rahul Bhattarai.

Centre director Professor David Robie has just returned from New Caledonia where he covered last weekend’s historic independence referendum.

“This is quite unique in New Zealand journalism schools for coverage of this kind of major events happening in the Pacific,” said Dr Robie.

He praised the USP regional journalism programme and media organisations such as RNZ Pacific and SBS that enabled PMC partnerships in the region.

• More Fiji election stories

Two new legal codes – civil and criminal – have been introduced in Nepal, threatening the medical profession and media industry, and dividing the country over the consequences.

Global and local media freedom groups have condemned the penal code because of limitations imposed on the freedom to provide news and information in the public interest.

Doctors went on strike over the new penal code earlier this month in protest against the criminalising of medical negligence and lodged a petition with more than 6000 signatures to the Nepal Medical Council.

READ MORE: Free press on edge as Nepal’s new laws take effect

The government has agreed to address the issue and opened negotiations with the Nepal Medical Association.

The Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has protested to the Nepalese authorities about the implications for news organisations, saying the new law constitutes an “unacceptable censorship tool”.

Journalists in Nepal could face up to three years in prison if they publish information deemed to be “confidential” under the new criminal code, says RSF.

Protection of privacy provisions also pose a “serious threat” to journalism.

Showing ‘disrespect’
“Sections 293, 294 and 295 criminalise publishing private information, recording conversations or taking pictures without permission,” says RSF in its review of the law.

“Under article 306.2, showing ‘disrespect’ towards someone either directly or through satire is also punishable by up to three years in prison.”

Critics of the new laws – replacing the general code, nationally known as Muluki Ain – say there was no consultation on the draft provisions before they were enacted.

Two people given the responsibility to draft the two laws were Khil Raj Regmi, a former de facto Prime Minister of Nepal and former Chief Justice Khel Kalyan Shrestha. Neither of them had discussed the the laws with relevant stakeholders before adopting them.

The two codes were implemented on August 17, replacing a 55-year-old law, which was created during the previous Panchyaat Kall self-government political system in the early 1960s.

The two new codes were passed without any formal discussion with stakeholders – journalists, lawyers and medical doctors, this has led to protests from doctors and journalists.

Doctors protest
“Halting medical services, hundreds of doctors — both government and private — participated in a protest march … The protesting doctors, who were joined by retired doctors as well, wore aprons and stethoscopes,” reports The Himalayan Times.

Reporting on the September 2 rally, The Times quoted senior orthopaedic surgeon Dr Govinda KC as saying the new law would directly affect patients rather than doctors.

“Instead of proposing tougher penalties, it will be more prudent to thoroughly investigate negligence on the part of doctors during treatment,” he was quoted as saying.

After the strike, the government agreed to start talks with the Nepal Medical Association.

But there has been some negative feedback from the public arguing that the government should not have come under pressure to change the penal code as it was undermining government credibility.

The government has also taken steps to communicate with the Federation of Nepali Journalists (FNJ) and has decided to amend certain legal provisions in the laws to protect the freedom of speech and freedom of expression.

The government had failed to discuss the laws before passing them through Parliament, says Radheshyam Adhikari a Senior Advocate at the Supreme Court of Nepal.

Stakeholders unconvinced
Also, after passing the codes, the government had failed to convince stakeholders about the new laws.

“In reality [the] penal code has not affected the civil code, although – due to the current government misusing the law by suing people under cyber law – there has been widespread panic within Nepal’s doctor community and the FNJ as well,” says Adhikari.

“Furthermore, the law regarding the press is different and this is a civil law, if we were to choose between the press law and civil law, we will have to choose the press law.

“Press law is the same old law, which clearly states that the journalists shouldn’t be prosecuted for expressing their freedom of speech,” Adhikari says.

“In the press, there is a civil law, that law is not created to target the journalists. Rather, it’s a law to change the relationship among the civilians in order to protect the right to privacy.

However, now there is a new privacy law separate from civilian law.

Government has agreed to the demands of the press and implemented more liberal provisions under the privacy law too, which should “protect the press,” says Adhikari.

‘No need for panic’
“There is no need for much panic over these laws.”

But the major concern in regard for journalists is that when an article is “shared on social media by someone once it is in the public domain, the sharer will be jailed rather than the government questioning the publisher of the content,” says Adhikari

Raju Basnet, editor-in-chief of Khojtalas Weekly and Khojtalasa.com, was arrested on September 10 over alleged cybercrime because of a report exposing an attempt to transfer the ownership of land by Harisiddhi Brick Industries in Lalitpur to a few private individuals.

It was alleged that the transaction of the land had the involvement of the Nepal Communist Party’s (NCP) lawmaker Pampha Bhusal and other leaders in the party, reports Myrepublic.

“I have spoken against this bill in the Parliament, and now the government has taken a high road and the journalist Raju Basnet has been released,” says Adhikari.

“A different person has been jailed for sharing information on social media,” he adds.

The government has taken matters into their own hands and have started prosecuting people.

Misuse of the law
“It is not right for the state to prosecute the individual by using the police force,” he says.

“Should there be an issue of defamation, we can always work under the defamation law. But without evoking the defamation law, going against the constitution is not a right thing,” says Adhikari.

“If there is an issue of defamation and if the subject doesn’t want to take a legal process, there is always an option to express your grievance to the Press Council”, says Adhikari.

“People are not being prosecuted due to the law, however, it is due to the misuse of the law, that has created panic in the country”, says Adhikari.

But Gopal Basnyat, news editor at Radio Nepal, says the new law makes a journalist “reveal their sources,” which is not only a threat to the press but also a threat to whistleblowers.

“We cannot reveal the sources as a journalist, it is our duty to protect them, it is against our press code of conduct,” says Basnyat.

Risk of prosecution
Under the new law, “if we don’t reveal the source, we risk being prosecuted.”

“It does affect free speech. The FNJ has been protesting against this law,” says Basnyat.

Many other journalists who have been protesting against this law, which some describe as more draconian than the Nepali law during the Panchyaat Kall era.

A Practising Advocate at the Supreme Court, Ashish Adhikari, says that the “Act in itself is good but the implication of the Act [by the government] part is questionable”.

He adds: “The first publisher isn’t being convicted but, the person who shares information that is already in the public domain is being charged and prosecuted.”

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

• New Nepal criminal code raises fears of curbs on free press
• 15 things in the new national law every Nepali should know about

Sia Caldwell made a big shift across the ocean at the start of this year to South Korea to teach English while completing a student exchange.

In spite of Sia’s Samoan, Tuvaluan, European heritage, she fell in love with the Korean culture during high school years.

And now the 22-year-old is regarded as a local.

“Whenever I speak, Korean people assume I’m of mixed ethnicity, and when I tell them I’m not, they assume I’ve lived in Korea since I was little. So, when people learn the truth that I’ve only been in Korea for 8 months, they’re shocked.”

In 2014, Sia said she was a target for bullying when she was younger because of her size and from there changed school for her final year.

“I met a group of Koreans at school, started going to a Korean church and before I knew it I was surrounded by Koreans.”

She says there was always the issue of a language barrier. Naturally, Caldwell decided the way to solve that problem was to learn the language through conversations with her friends.

Fluent speaker
“I can speak Korean comfortably, confidently and fluently. But I can’t read and write very well since I learnt the language through conversing with others.”

In 2015, Sia enrolled to study Korean at the University of Auckland but was told she was “too ahead” to be a first year student.

“I was told that my Korean language skills were too advanced, and I needed to move up to second year.”

There were some complications and from there she moved to Auckland University of Technology.

After a few shuffles to find the right major that fit her, Caldwell settled on a choice that combined two of her passions; English and New Media studies.

“I realised that I loved teaching English as a second language and I love media. When I found out there was a degree offering the subjects conjoined, I immediately chose that.”

This year Sia is currently on a student exchange at Soongsil University in Seoul, Korea to further her studies.

Great experience
“I think it’s been a great experience so far and has taught me a lot of lessons. It’s very eye opening to go to a country and live there and see how different the culture, people and traditions are compared to your own.”

As well as studying, Sia is teaching English as a second language to primary aged school kids which she says is an “interesting job”.

“By teaching English in Korea, you get to meet some adorable kids, you get to work flexibly, be paid really well and the rent here is very cheap.”

Caldwell has created a YouTube channel, Sia Korea, combining videos of her and animations dedicated to her experiences of living and studying in Korea.

“I decided to start a channel to show people the life of living in a foreign country and the amazing things I see – but also to share with everyone the truth and the hardships that come with living overseas.”

Although she’s enjoying her new home country, Sia admits she does miss a few things from New Zealand.

“I miss my family and friends and I miss all the dairy products.”

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

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.

Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sa’ilele Maleilegaoi has warned  that the social media site Facebook may be banned, and has told users “not to play with fire”.

But the threat earlier this year has drawn mounting criticism from Samoans online.

Public opinion online is suggesting that the Samoan government is threatening people’s right to freedom of expression and their right to free speech.

The Samoa Alliance of Media Practitioner for Development (SAMPOD) opposes any possible ban.

“The right to free expression is fundamental to a democracy like Samoa,” says SAMPOD.

SAMPOD and others who are opposed to the possible ban have cited the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights for the right of the people of Samoa to express their opinions without fear of repercussion from the government.

The Facebook threat – first made in March – is in retaliation to online criticism and scrutiny of the Samoan PM and cabinet ministers by members of the public.

Discontent with officials
Facebook and other social media platforms are being used by members of the public to voice their opinions and discontent with Samoan government officials.

“So, I advise them not to play with fire. I want them to know that no matter where you hide, you will be caught,” he told the Samoa Observer in an interview attacking “faceless writers” on blogs.

The Prime Minister has rejected the opinions and views of online commentators. He has added that these individuals are offending government leaders with their accusations.

“Because it’s all based on lies, those affected are government leaders” he told the Observer.

Although the issue about the threatened ban has been quiet in past weeks, after a recent visit to London for a Commonwealth cybersecurity conference, he renewed his attack on anonymous bloggers.

However, Samoa Observer editor Mata’afa Keni Lesa asked in an editorial why was Tuilaepa so worried and why was he making himself “look like the biggest bully” on a crusade.

The editor said Tuilaepa was “thrilled to finally have learnt that it’s not just Samoa struggling with the issue of faceless writers”.

The prime minister had found that all 53 countries of the Commonwealth had been affected by social media problems ranging from “character assassinations” to many unfounded allegations.

Family insults
The threatened ban on Facebook would be not only for criticism for political decisions, but also for comments regarding family, allegations of corruption and personal insults that are aimed at cabinet members.

“The government will do what it takes to settle this matter once and for all, even if it means banning Facebook,” he told the Observer.

Tuilaepa’s concern is with online social media sites that provide a platform for personal attacks and accusations that he believes are unfounded, misleading and untrue.

Prime Minister Tuilaepa has insisted that these posts and comments had absolutely no truth in them.

Accusation of corruption and unethical relationships are the main reasons for Tuilaepa’s belief that eventually Facebook, and other social media platforms, will be banned.

Government officials are not the only targets of online posts but also their family members.

Alleged sexual relationships between family members is one of the accusation that has provoked feelings of anger by those who are accused of such acts.

He continued by adding that if any of the accusations aimed at government officials were true, they would have been published in the Observer.

The threatened ban would include blogs and other popular social sites and apps.

The Facebook ban is being delayed, according to the Samoa Observer, but it is just a matter of time before Facebook and other online social media sites would be banned.

Blogger identities
The identities of some of the anonymous bloggers are known to the Prime Minister and police investigators, according to an article by Samoa Observer.

O Le Palemia is an anonymous blogger that has been singled out for inflammatory accusations levelled against Prime Minister Tuilaepa and other government officials.

The identity of the O Le Palemia has not yet been uncovered, or has not yet been released publicly.

Tuilaepa has warned that if its behaviour continued, he would be forced to release the names of those that he believes are responsible.

O Le Palemia last month published an attack on some Samoan media, accusing them of publishing “government propaganda”.  The blog named Newsline Samoa, Talamua Media and Samoa Planet.

Website Samoa Planet, founded by Lani Wendt Young and Tuiloma Sina Retzlaff, closed down last month.

There was hesitation in revealing the identities of the online bloggers because of fears of physical attacks by those who the accusations and comments are aimed at or by relatives and supporters.

Tuilaepa is sure that once the identities are revealed the bloggers lives would be in danger because of the severity of the online posts that had provoked anger in government officials.

The Prime Minister is adamant that when information about the identities of the anonymous bloggers is released to the public, violence would ensue in the form of reprisal attacks.

O Le Palemia was shut down in February for breaching Facebook’s community standards, reported RNZ Pacific, but apparently resumed publication.

Police investigation
Tuilaepa said in June police had filed charges against the people suspected of being behind the O Le Palemia blog but he did not name them.

In its statement against the threatened ban, SAMPOD said: “We urge the government to use existing mechanisms to address issues arising from the misuse of Facebook, but humbly caution against the banning of this essential medium of information for the people of Samoa.”

Online comments by fellow Samoans refer to government leaders as “Snowflakes” – a slang term referring to individuals that are “hypersensitive to criticism”, according Wikipedia and Merriam-Webster online.

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

• Pacific social media threats Part 1 – Papua New Guinea

The breach, thought to be one of Facebook’s biggest, reportedly used the data to influence both the United States 2016 presidential election and the Brexit campaign in the United Kingdom.

In the aftermath, Facebook announced a commitment “to reducing the spread of false news on Facebook,” by removing false accounts and using independent third-party factcheckers to curb fake news on the site.

The effectiveness of this new policy remains to be seen.

The revelation of the Cambridge Analytica scandal lead to the Papua New Guinean government threat in May that it would ban the social network for a month in the country.

Communications Minister Sam Basil was reported by news media as saying the ban decision was an attempt to enforce the Cyber Crime Act 2016.

“The Act has already been passed, so what I’m trying to do is to ensure the law is enforced accordingly… We cannot allow the abuse of Facebook to continue in the country.” Basil told the Post-Courier.

Difficult to track
According to The Guardian, Basil had raised concerns about the protection of the privacy of Papua New Guinea’s Facebook users. He had claimed that it was difficult to track those who had posted defamatory comments on Facebook using “ghost profiles”.

Basil later denied in the media that he had said he would ban Facebook, but the Post-Courier stood by its report which had sparked off the flurry of stories and speculation. So far no ban has actually taken place.

Papua New Guinea is not the only country to have banned the social media site. Facebook is already blocked in authoritarian countries such as China, Iran and North Korea.

In March, Sri Lanka blocked the site along with Viber and WhatsApp for nine days, believing it to be the cause of hate speech and violence.

Facebook was also condemned for allowing hate speech to become prominent in Myanmar during the Rohingya crisis earlier in the year.

The platform, according to Reuters, was claimed to have played an important role in the spread of hate speech when Rohingya refugees were fleeing their homeland to Bangladesh.

Other countries have made attempts to combat trolling and fake news, New Zealand included.

In 2015, New Zealand made cyberbullying illegal in an attempt to curb teen suicide. The law, passed in tandem with an amendment to the Crimes Act 1961, was designed to ensure that cyberbullies would face up to two years’ imprisonment.

‘Fake news’ conviction
In April this year, the Malaysian courts convicted its first person under a new fake news law. The Danish citizen was charged after he posted a video claiming that police were not quick to act after receiving distress calls regarding the shooting of a Palestinian lecturer.

Questions regarding free speech have circulated since the Basil reportedly made the announcement.

Only 11 percent of the Papua New Guinean population have access to the internet. The site, for those with the ability to use it, has become a news source in a place where media freedom is increasingly threatened.

PNG “news” blogs have proliferated.

While Freedom House’s most recent report on press freedom says that the press in Papua New Guinea is free, the organisation is quick to note that this freedom has become worse over recent years.

Freedom of speech, information and the press are all guaranteed and inalienable rights in Papua New Guinean law due to Section 46 of the country’s constitution.

What has caused problems, however, for the press is political pressure and violence. Over the years, journalists have been “detained without charge, and their video footage was destroyed”.

Three female journalists were sexually assaulted in 2014, the report states.

Reporters Without Borders also reported police violence against journalists in 2016. It said in a media statement that one NBC journalist had been assaulted by three police officers until another officer intervened. Others had been attacked by a plainclothes officer.

Facebook as news source
In the era of fake news, social media plays a huge role in how the people get their news.
According to Pew Research, two-thirds of American adults got their news through social media in 2017.

A report by the ABC said “more Papua New Guineans have access to social media than ever”.

“Facebook is… being cited as an important hub for news, and the audience is larger than other news websites with 53 percent of weekly users reporting the use of online social media compared to the two main newspapers’ websites,” the report said.

Daniel Bastard, Asia-Pacific director of Reporters Without Borders, said that blocking Facebook “would deprive nearly a million internet users” from news and information.

“Instead of resorting to censorship, the Communications Minister should encourage online platforms to be more transparent and responsible about content regulation.”

There is still concern about the upcoming APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) meeting in Port Moresby in November and a possible Facebook ban’s impact.

Paul Barker, director of the Institute of National Affairs, told the Post-Courier “It would be a travesty if PNG sought to close down Facebook during the APEC month… as it would be both an attack on embracing technology, undermining the information era and mechanisms for accountability, but also damaging business and welfare.”

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

• Pacific social media threats Part 2 – Samoa

He made the statement during the Ordinary Parliament sitting when responding to concerns raised by Malekula Member of Parliament, Sato Kilman regarding allegations made against him on the popular social media site.

MP Kilman referred to a post allegedly made by a fake ID that was circulated on Facebook, carrying allegations that the former Vanuatu Prime Minister had at least six bank accounts in Hong Kong with a total amount of 8 million euros.

“There are allegations that the Minister for Foreign Affairs is responsible for the post,” MP Kilman alleged.

“Does the government have resources to check such allegations before posting in public and tarnishing someone’s reputation?

“Can the police investigate if such allegations are true or not?

“You can apologise later but by then the damage has been done, a person’s credibility has been ruined. That happens to me but am sure it can happen to any of us.”

Emerging issues
MP Kilman then asked the Prime Minister if the Office of the Government Chief Information Officer (OGCIO) can use its resources to track down whoever is responsible for such posts.

In response, Prime Minister Salwai said the government was aware of emerging issues regarding Facebook.

“The government is working on a Cyber Crime Act, which will likely be ready by the next Parliament session to address this issue because Facebook has gone beyond [control],” said Prime Minister Salwai.

He said Facebook was not only a national but an international issue.

“It was the first agenda discussed during the Commonwealth Leaders meeting in London because people are using it to create a lot of social problems and attack people without substantiating information,” said Prime Minister Salwai.

He added that the issue was common in the Pacific and also in Vanuatu, people were using Facebook for political gain, attacking and making false statements or allegations about others.

“I think it is about time we should address this issue and as the Minister responsible for Telecommunications I want to announce to the House that the Cyber Crime Bill will come before this Parliament so we can control the use of social media.

“It has come to an extent where people feel free to say anything about others.”

Fake ID
On the other hand, PM Salwai said social media, especially Facebook, was a good communication tool but people were using it in the wrong way.

In a supplementary comment to the Prime Minister’s response, Foreign Affairs Minister Ralph Regenvanu confirmed seeing the post which he alleged was posted by a fake ID and not him as claimed.

Minister Regenvanu also confirmed allegations made by an adviser of a MP that he was the person behind the fake ID was false.

Minister Regenvanu said that out of all members of the House, being a regular Facebook user he had been the subject of many false allegations.

“That is what we should expect as MPs, we become figures of public scrutiny, you will find a lot of false allegations against me in Facebook,” he said.

“For example, they alleged I signed an agreement for the Chinese to build a military base here.

“I agree with the Prime Minister that we should have more control but we have to have some line so we don’t have too much control on media because freedom of expression is a constitutional right.

“We also have media freedom so we have to draw a fine line between unsubstantiated stories and balanced stories.

“Unfortunately, we don’t have that in Facebook so we have to look into that.”

The Pacific Media Centre republishes Vanuatu Daily Post stories with permission.

Like it or not, social media has become part and parcel of almost everyday discussions.

Whether it’s talk about the economy or the latest development and trends, large and influential platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and LinkedIn have become the go-to source for news and information.

Add technological advancements and accessibility to the mix, and one is left with a digitally-empowered society and a media industry grappling with a number of challenges such as fake news, citizen journalism and in some cases, harsh legislation.

Legislation that can either be viewed as a way to clamp down on journalists or to some extent, limit one’s constitutional freedom of speech, expression and publication, or it could be legislation driven by genuine concerns to ensure news and information are accurate, fair and balanced.

The advent of social media, its impact on journalism and the transforming political situations that are evidently changing the way the media operates in the Pacific were at the heart of the discussions at last month’s 5th Pacific Media Summit organised by the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) in Nuku’alofa, Tonga.

The May 7-11 event, attended by more than 100 media practitioners and stakeholders, also highlighted other pertinent issues relating to the theme, “Empowering the Media for Digital Challenges”, such as climate reporting; social media impact on financial literacy, women empowerment and the environment; international humanitarian law; gender and the digital media; the role of the media in fighting corruption; and dealing with threats against the media.

But the biggest concern by far was dealing with the change that social media brought in terms of the traditional dissemination of receiving, consuming, sharing and interpreting news and information.

Overlooking checks
The opportunities for social media users to maximise on the platforms to freely exchange information and news, often at times overlooking the checks and balances that journalists practise, have become a concern for some regional governments, who have openly advocated for legislation that curbs the deliberate act of spreading misinformation or hoax messages through traditional forms of print and broadcast news.

Take for instance, Fiji’s highly-controversial Online Safety Act 2018, which recently became law after being passed by Parliament with 27 votes on May 16. It aimed to promote responsible online behaviour and online safety as well as act as a deterrence of harmful electronic communication.

To a large extent, the Act addressed cyberbullying, cyberstalking, internet trolling, and exposure to offensive or harmful content, particularly for children. Public submissions to the Standing Committee on the Online Safety Bill included one from a former media personality, Lenora Qereqeretabua, who felt it was a tactic to scare online users rather than try to develop capacity for responsible online behaviour and online safety.

Another submission to the Bill, from the Media Watch Group in Fiji, emphasised the right to responsible free speech for Fiji citizens, saying this was a fundamental component of a truly democratic society and a must for a developing island nation in this growing digital age.

Recently, the Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Maleilegaoi threatened to ban the social media network Facebook in Samoa after what he described were “gutless anonymous bloggers” using the freedom of social media to abuse government officials and innocent members of the public.

Papua New Guinea followed suit last month by considering to block Facebook as a result of alleged defamatory publications, fake news, identity theft and unidentified users breaching the law in terms of posting pornographic materials and fake news.

During the summit in Tonga, PNG Acting Secretary for the Department of Communication and Information, Paul Korni, did not mince his words when he told participants that they would not hesitate to enforce legislation that monitored social media such as Facebook if it meant putting a tight lid on the dissemination of “fake news” and other alleged defamatory publications.

Cyberspace arena
World-renowned digital technology activist Dhyta Caturani from Indonesia put things into perspective when she made a strong statement at the summit about the internet and new media platforms that made it possible for people to do and say things that were not possible for them before in this new arena – cyberspace.

In terms of fake news, governments, civil society and even the media are still battling this issue. And one point Caturani raised was uncovering the reasons or intentions behind fake news.

This, Caturani believes, is key if media and stakeholders were to address the issue of fake news, finding the motivations and intentions of fake news and putting the fire out through due diligence and fact-checking information before publishing or broadcasting news.

She said some fake news were churned out by irresponsible internet users while others used fake news to propagate political interests or agendas – a notion shared also by senior journalists in the region when it came to identifying the purpose of fake news.

“Why has this (cyber) space now become heavily monitored, regulated, surveilled, censored and our data being stolen from us without consent or sold, not to mention the online violence?” she asked during her keynote address at the opening of the summit.

“The answer is profit. With millions of people now connected to the internet, with billions of information and data published, the capitalists realised that the internet is the new source of making limitless profits.

“The other answer is fear. Those in power realised that the internet has now become a tool for people to challenge those in power and abusing power to disrupt the status quo and to demand freedom and equality.

Censorship a global trend
“We now see censorship as a global trend. Governments all over the world are copying one another to pass draconian laws that will give them the legitimisation to censor any content, any expression, any voice published online. Some governments even shut down the internet entirely.”

Veteran journalists from Fiji, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga shared similar concerns about the fake news trend in relation to the challenge for the media in a digitally-empowered society – that fake news and social media platforms had given rise to “citizen journalism” and the circulation of unverified information, and analysis of news by the general public on popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, and that journalists and media stakeholders needed to adapt to this “new normal” or “seismic change” while maintaining their integrity and ethics.

It’s a new form of journalism that continues to grow.

Journalists Association of Samoa president Rudy Bartley said this was a challenge for journalists and media workers.

“It’s either you adapt or die. There are a lot of fake news circulating and those issues, without social media, would never have happened,” Bartley said.

Long-time PNG journalist Joseph Ealedona said they were very critical of new media and its impact on the future of journalism. While they welcomed the change in the way news and information were disseminated, the concern was maintaining journalistic integrity and ethics.

Vital solution
In the midst of these challenges and debates about new media platforms and its impact on journalism in the region, Tongan journalist Kalafi Moala summed up perhaps a vital solution when he shared his concept in dealing with this trend.

“Instead of monitoring these, we need to continue to educate people to tell the truth. It is telling the truth and authenticity that will expose the fake. I have never seen new media, social media as a threat to journalism at all. I see it as an extension of the media when it is used properly,” Moala said.

These media trends and practices continue to play a vital role in terms of getting news out first and in real time. The onus is more or less on journalists and media workers to adapt and embrace these current media practices without compromising their ethics and code of conduct as the fourth estate.

Geraldine Panapasa is editor-in-chief of Wansolwara newspaper with the University of the South Pacific journalism programme. This is a special report for Asia Pacific Report.

• Tongan PM reaffirms commitment to media freedom