Gender activist Lisa Williams-Lahari at a media freedom conference in Samoa. Photo: PMC

Pacific.Scoop
By WAVE in Rarotonga

Pacific media and gender activist Lisa Williams-Lahari has asked the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Kamalesh Sharma to push for an independent review to uncover why she was blocked from pre-CHOGM meetings this week.

The Commonwealth Foundation, the organisers, had already offered to fund her participation which would have placed Lahari in Trinidad tomorrow leading interactive sessions on gender-based violence and disability, and HIV/AIDS.
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Press Release – Rotorua Deepawali Festival

The Rotorua Deepawali Festival 2009 was officially opened by His Worship the Mayor, Kevin Winters JP, by lighting the lamp on Saturday, 7th November 2009 at the Rotorua Energy Events Centre. Many dignitaries including Grahame Hall ex-Mayor and the current … Read more »

Gaston Flosse ... political supremo in Tahiti for more than two decades. Photo: PMC

Pacific.Scoop
Pacific Media Watch

The head of the television channel France 3, Patrick de Carolis, has been summoned to appear in a Paris criminal court in January for allegedly defaming French Polynesia’s veteran politician Gaston Flosse, Radio NZ International reports.
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Pacific Press Release – Pacific Media Watch, 25 November 2009

TWELVE REPORTERS AMONG VICTIMS OF MASS KILLING

MANILA (International Press Institute/Pacific Media Watch): As many as  12 journalists have been confirmed dead in a massacre of more than 21 people in the Philippines,  the country’s National Union of Journalists reported on Monday.
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Press Release – New Zealand Government

Tomorrow evening the Parliamentary rugby team will play an invitational diplomatic team from Embassies across Wellington. Spanish Ambassador Marcos Gomez, who issued a challenge to the Parliamentary side from the Diplomatic community, said 13 Embassies … Read more »

Speech – The Maori Party

May I say it is a joy to work with a party which is not tied down in Hide-bound ideas. In speaking to the announcement made yesterday of the proposals to reduce emissions in order to meet the Kyoto Protocol, Ngai Tahu kaiwhakahaere Mark Solomon made a … Read more »

Speech – New Zealand Government

I was delighted to accept the invitation by the President of the Wellington Regional Chamber of Commerce; Jo Bansgrove and the Chief Executive, Charles Finney, to speak to you this morning. Twenty-one years ago, in the 1988 Report of the Royal Commission … Read more »

The Fiji Sun splashes the Attorney-General's statement "balancing" the Australia/NZ media coverage.

Pacific.Scoop
Opinion – By Crosbie Walsh

It all started a month or so ago when Streamcom NZ was hired to review the use of Fiji’s airwaves.

The Fiji government was concerned about airwave efficiency and suspected earlier underhand dealings in their allocation.

They must also have been aware — but not necessarily influenced by knowing — that the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation (FBCL)  wanted an entry to TV and that Mai TV, recently awarded the 2010 Soccer World Cup television rights, could only reach some urban areas using UHF.
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Press Release – Australian Defence Force

The Commanding Officer of the Royal Australian Navy’s heavy landing ship HMAS Tobruk, Commander Peter Thompson, was honoured by the King of Tonga, George Tupou V, at a ceremony on 21 November 2009, at the Royal Villa in the Tongan capital, Nuku’alofa. Read more »

Pacific Press Release – Cook Islands Government

We, the Pacific Legislators for Population and Governance, meeting in Rarotonga; Are deeply concerned with the threat of climate change to the economic, social, cultural and environmental well-being, human rights and security of our people and our countries Read more »