Pacific Journalism Review (Pacific Media Centre, School of Communication Studies, Auckland University of Technology)
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The politics of the media: A cynical synopsis
Get PDF"The power of the pen (or keyboard nowadays) can be used to inflame conflict, justify evil, create goodness, undermine political power, 'murder' as well as destroy; inform as well as misinform. Journalists compete to master these set of social and moral dichotomies for diverse reasons: to please their bossess and thus ensure easy social mobility up the busy corporate laddar; make their stories marketable and generate public legitimacy; make a political point or two; or simply to 'survive'. This complex interplay of social and ethical dichotomies provide the basis for media politics and thus the environment within which journalists 'survive' and sometimes 'die'. 
REVIEW: Courageous media catalyst fuelling change behind kingdom's facade: Review of Island Kingdom strikes Back: The Story of an Independent Island Newspaper- Taimi 'o Tonga, by Kalafi Moala
No full textReview of Island Kingdom strikes Back: The Story of an Independent Island Newspaper- Taimi 'o Tonga, by Kalafi Moala. Auckland: Pacmedia Publishers, 2002, 304 pp. ISBN: 0 473 08687 5.
If publisher Kalafi Moala had wanted to bring attention to Tonga's lopsided political system he couldn't have done it better than writing Island Kingdom Strikes Back. Since its release in late 2002, the book has continued to fuel debate about the way Tonga is governed by providing a window through which we can see behind the kingdom's friendly facade. Obviously the book isn't a favourite reading in Tonga's royal palace and in the months that followed its release no effort was spared by the kingdom to strike back. 
REVIEW: The legitimising of terror fears: Research or Psy Ops? Review of Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror, by Rohan Gunaratna
No full textReview of Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror, by Rohan Gunaratna. Melbourne: Scribe Publications, 2002.
Gunaratna's book is on the surface a very impressive collection of much of the data about Al Qaeda. It contains a description of the origins and goals of Al Qaeda, a profile of its main members, a country-by-country description of the 'global network' said to have been developed by Al Qaeda, and a review of the prospects of the international responses to it. 
A genuinely free press: The challenges for the Pacific
Get PDFPacific Journalism must be able to thrive in an environment which allows debate and discussion, such as through a Press Club where speakers are invited and issues can be discussed off the record. A robust discussion sometimes frees up the logjams in thinking. 
EDITORIAL: Free media rhetoric
Get PDFAt this time of the year, there are the usual platitudes and rhetoric about "media freedom" in the Pacific. The Fiji Times, for example, complained in an editorial about politicians with a "misguided theory" that Fiji was not ready for a critical and aggresssive media because of the traditional system of values and its developing nation status. 
News media ownership: How NZ is foreign-dominated
No full textIf the concentration of media control in Australia in 1993 was leading to a loss of liberty to dissent at a critical time in Australia, it is even more true of New Zealand today. This article shows that ownership of NZ media is very concentrated in the hands of large overseas media organisations
Freedom of speech: PIMA Conference 2
No full textIn spite of the hot air about governments pressuring the media in Pacific countries—and this does happen all too frequently—I believe a greater threat to press freedom comes from a small clique of media veterans, many of whom are of palagi origin, who have disproportionate influence. [Keynote address at the inaugural Pacific Islands Media Association (PIMA) conference in Auckland, 5-6 October 2001.
Truth and the SS: Satire on the Speight Crisis 1
No full textTruth is always the first casualty in conflict, aided and abetted by half or part truth plus the blundering hands, heads, and pens of the less intellectual revolutionaries. ...The hostage government is paying for poorly written propaganda. 
REVIEW: Welcome new face for critical media studies in South Pacific: Review of Tokwin, edited by Nash G Sorariba
No full textReview of Tokwin, edited by Nash G Sorariba, Information and Communication Science in association with UPNG Journalism Studies, University of Papua New Guinea.
The editor, Nash G Sorariba, is well-known in the region for his short story telling gifts (A Medal without Honor was review by PJR). But here he has gathered together a rather eclectic collection here of 11 serious pieces about media issues, ranging form a reprint from The National of a defence Frank Morgan over the need for the UPNG course to continue when it was under threat in 1999 to former Post-Courier reporter Brian Tobia's treatise on PNG's sex workers and H G Mannur on PNG' widening econmic gap: "What went wrong?...
REVIEW: An engaging analysis of core issues: Review of Government by the Gun: The unfinished Business of Fiji's 2000 Coup, by William Sutherland and Robbie Robertson
No full textReview of Government by the Gun: The unfinished Business of Fiji's 2000 Coup, by William Sutherland and Robbie Robertson, Sydney: Pluto Press.
Government by the Gun starts with a brief overview of the events of May 2000: the seizure of Parliament and government hostages; the military takeover, abrogation of Fiji's 1997 Constitution and dismissal of President Ratu Mara; weeks of tension, as the hostages are kept in Parliment for 56 days..