Pacific Journalism Review (Pacific Media Centre, School of Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology)
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FRONTLINE: Reversing silences in West Papua: Interdisciplinary research and (audio) documentary
No full textJournalism about West Papua is in many ways an act of translation. It involves not only translating between languages, but also disciplines, audiences and knowledges. This article examines how interdisciplinary research—such as anthropology and history— might intersect with journalism as a means to understand and challenge existing gaps in translation, or ‘silences’ about West Papua in the past and present. It also reflects on how audio documentaries carry out such translation work on misunderstood and underreported issues. To illustrate this, the author reflects on the process of making the audio documentary #Illridewithyou, West Papua for ABC Radio National’s Earshot documentary programme as well as a companion long-form article for the ABC’s website. 
REVIEW: The sacking of an editor: How the editor of the New Zealand Listener was dismissed after a row with the Board
No full textCommentary: On 25 July 1972, the Board of the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation decided to terminate the editorship of Alexander MacLeod with three months' pay, effective immediately. The Listener had only had three editors since its launch as a broadcasting guide in 1939. Its founder Oliver Duff and successor Monty Holcroft, the revered editor of 18 years, built it up as a magazine of culture, arts and current events on top of its monopoly of listings of radio and television programmes. Both men managed to establish a sturdy independence for the magazine which was still the official journal of the New Zealand Broadcasting Service, later to become the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation. So, the dismissal of the editor was a sizable event. The National government of the day in New Zealand ordered a Commission of Inquiry into whether the sacking was above board and whether it was politically influenced. This article is the story of the commission's findings.
 
The politics of local government environmental evaluations: Assessing bureaucracy in post-Reformasi Indonesia
Get PDFThis article argues that bureaucracy plays politics in Indonesia, not only during the electoral periods, but also in public service. Using the case of environmental evaluation in local government, where natural resources comprise most of the local economy, this article discusses the politics of bureaucracy in undergoing daily governing processes. The environment and natural resource businesses are two opposing fields. Environmental evaluation becomes a contentious area and is usually highly political. This article identifies the bureaucracy’s politicisation in environmental evaluation as occuring in at least in two forms—in measurement and in project implementation. In terms of measurement, bureaucracy tends to use minimum standards, while in project implementation, there are some occasions where bureaucracy tends to sub-contract the work to the third party, usually NGOs, especially in relations to sensitive issues, so that it is politically safer for them, once the result is not as pleasing as expected. This article uses some cases in Central Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, Central Java, and Bangka Belitung, and applied case study as research approach
A common conception of justice underlies Pacific churches’ message on climate change
Get PDFThis article presents an overview of the role mainstream churches can play in mitigating the climate change crisis in the Pacific and their role in facilitating climate induced migration. It builds on earlier work by the author (Cass, 2018; 2020) with a focus on Fiji, Tonga and Papua New Guinea. Both Catholic and Protestant churches share a concern for the future of the planet based on the principles of economic, social and climate justice, which complement moral and ecumenical imperatives. The article examines what message the churches convey through the media and the theology that underlines them
Key Melanesian media freedom challenges: Climate crisis, internet freedoms, fake news and West Papua
Get PDFMelanesia, and the microstates of the Pacific generally, face the growing influence of authoritarian and secretive values in the region—projected by both China and Indonesia and with behind-the-scenes manipulation. There is also a growing tendency for Pacific governments to use unconstitutional, bureaucratic or legal tools to silence media and questioning journalists. Frequent threats of closing Facebook and other social media platforms and curbs on online freedom of information are another issue. While Pacific news media face these challenges, their support networks are being shaken by the decline of Australia as a so-called ‘liberal democracy’ and through the undermining of its traditional region-wide public interest media values with the axing of Radio Australia and Australia Network television. Reporting climate change is the Pacific’s most critical challenge while Australian intransigence over the issue is subverting the region’s media. This article engages with and examines these challenges and also concludes that the case of West Papua is a vitally important self-determination issue that left unresolved threatens the security of the region
Scott Waide, Maseratis and EMTV … how a public outcry restored media freedom
Get PDFCommentary: ‘It’s like we are operating in a bubble,’ says EMTV deputy news editor Scott Waide from Papua New Guinea at the Melanesia Media Freedom Forum (MMFF). ‘But when you start reaching out, talking to others in the region, you find that you are not actually alone in this. The experiences are similar. The intensity varies, but the take home for me is that nobody should be alone to handle their problems on their own.
Solidarity statement by academics attending MMFF
Get PDFDelegates to the Melanesia Media Freedom Forum express their solidarity with media workers in Melanesia in their struggle for freedom of expression, security, and professional recognition. Delegates note the words of Secretary-General of the Pacific Islands Forum Dame Meg Taylor who told the Asia Lecture at Griffith University, Brisbane, on 11 November 2019: ‘We live in unprecedented times of change which will test our abilities to respond.
REVIEW: Noted: Lockdown sanity and survival in the age of Zoom: Review of Lockdown Lawyers, edited by Emma Trevett and Jon Whitfield
No full textLockdown Lawyers: A Collection of COVID-19 Poetry, edited by Emma Trevett and Jon Whitfield, QC. London, UK: Legal Action Group. 2020, 96 pages. 978-1-913648-00-8
I ACCEPTED the invitation from my son-in-law (a barrister in London) to contribute to this anthology, with an antipodean poem I had written reflecting on COVID-19 and ANZAC day 'They shall grow…'. When the anthology, commissioned as a fundraiser for a particularly vulnerable group during the pandemic, came out, I was simultaneously delighted, honoured, enlightened, angered, saddened, and then amused by the whimsy of some of the poems in the collection.
 
FRONTLINE: Jill Emberson: A lifetime of bearing witness to help others
No full textJill Emberson, an award-winning Australian journalist of Tongan heritage died in 2019. She achieved national attention for her campaign to provide a voice for all women suffering from ovarian cancer and for more and fairer funding for ovarian cancer research. Through an analysis of her programmes and interviews with colleagues, this article focuses on Emberson’s journalism from daily news coverage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander protests in 1982 for public radio to her Meet the Mob podcast series in 2014. It focuses on her significant radio documentaries on women in the Pacific for the ABCs’ feminist Coming Out Show (1986) and Ties that Bind, which was about Tonga, including the Tongan diaspora in Australia (2009). It argues that Emberson’s own journey to discover her cultural identity shaped her as a reflective journalist whose work was underpinned by a concern for social justice, marginalised communities, the impacts of colonisation and gender discrimination. 
West Papuan journalists today: An alternative human rights perspective from Indonesia
Get PDFThis article examines the curiosity of journalists in West Papua about the notion of human rights. The selection of this theme as a focus of research can be seen as a concern for the role of journalists in the enforcement of human rights. The selection of West Papuan journalists for research departs from the position of journalists as perpetrators of journalism activities. The author has proposed four disciplines of writing news about human rights violations in West Papua: 1) the level of curiosity of the notion of human rights by West Papuan journalists; 2) the intellectual attitude of West Papuan journalists; 3) the terms of reference for practising journalism skills in writing news about human rights violations in West Papua; and 4) news about human rights violations in West Papua. To test the level of curiosity about human rights of West Papuan journalists, the author carried out indepth interviews with Benny Mawel (a journalist with tabloidjubi.com) and Arnold Belau (a journalist with suarapapua.com). The findings are discussed in terms of journalists as professionals. The author argues that that the focus on the notion of human rights in West Papua has begun to diminish