The man who started it all … Sitiveni Rabuka as he was then. Image: Pacific Scoop

Pacific Scoop:
Commentary – By Graham Davis

The 26th anniversary of the first 1987 Coup has revived some traumatic memories for many of us who lived through it – the shock, the air of menace, the violence, the feeling that Fiji would never be the same again.

Tens of thousands of our best and smartest people simply decided there and then that there was no future for themselves and their families and packed up and left. The exodus was so dramatic that it soon altered the entire racial balance in Fiji.

The Indo-Fijians – or Indians as they were then called – were once in the majority. But so many of them fled to New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the US that the “Fijians” – as the i’Taukei were then known – gained the ascendancy and remain the dominant racial grouping. Read more »

West Papuan Benny Wenda and PNG student journalist Henry Yamo … “Pacific Scoop deserves praise for keeping an eye on Papua and other trouble spots in the Pacific.” Image: Del Abceded/PMC

“Journalism is in crisis in the Pacific region and this is reaching a new level of intensity,” says one editor. But independent Pacific Scoop challenges the status quo. Jane Jeffries reports for Asia-Pacific Journalism.

Pacific Scoop
Report – By Jane Jeffries

Pacific Scoop exposes New Zealand to Pacific issues and gives a fresh voice to people in the region on a wide range of topics including health, human rights, media and social justice, say journalists and media commentators.

This regional independent news website provides a strong platform for Pacific issues to be heard and debated. Mainstream media no longer report widely on Pacific issues so it plays a vital role, say the media analysts.

Pacific Scoop and its founding partner, Wellington-based Scoop Media Limited, last month announced a new $5000 internship to fund a postgraduate student journalist to report and edit for the service. Read more »

West Papuan journalist and peace negotiator Octovianus Mote and Pax Christi’s Kevin McBride at AUT’s WPFD address. Image: Del Abcede/PMC

More than 600 journalists have been killed globally in the last decade — 121 died last year alone. They had one thing in common. They were killed for doing their jobs. Greg Asciutto reports for Asia-Pacific Journalism.

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Greg Asciutto

Across the Pacific, advocates of media freedom hosted many World Press Freedom Day celebrations this year.

Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and the Solomon Islands were among the countries to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the UNESCO event on May 3, which focuses upon securing freedom of expression in all forms of media.

According to UNESCO, more than 600 journalists have been killed globally in the last decade — 121 died last year alone. Read more »

Fiji’s Voreqe Bainimarama … scathing of political opposition in radio interview. Photo: Graham Davis

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Graham Davis

Fiji interim Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama has spoken of waging a “battle of ideas” to win next year’s election after all three major established parties – Labour, the National Federation Party, and SODELPA, the former SDL – were cleared to register as political entities to contest the poll.

Speaking in an interview on Auckland-based Indo-Fijian station Radio Tarana, Commodore Bainimarama has restated his intention to form his own party to seek a democratic mandate to continue as prime minister.

In comments that clearly indicate that his campaign for the September 2014 poll has already begun, Bainimarama appeared to welcome the formal registration of his opponents, saying it was up to the Fijian people to choose who was best capable of taking Fiji forward. Read more »

Professor Mark Pearson last night … disturbing trends for journalists’ protection of their confidential sources. Image: PMC/AUT On Demand

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Anna Majavu

A leading journalism academic has voiced concern at the high levels of digital surveillance facing journalists today and has urged journalists to adopt a new ethical model of reporting for social good.

Dr Mark Pearson, professor of journalism and social media at Griffith University in Australia and the Australian correspondent for Reporters Without Borders, spoke last night at the inaugural UNESCO World Press Freedom Day 2013 lecture, organised by AUT’s Pacific Media Centre.

The lack of press freedom in the Asia-Pacific region was well documented with media in Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei and Fiji needing government licences to operate, and journalists in Malaysia facing 53-year-old “internal security” laws under which they could be detained for long periods for “prejudicing national security”. Read more »

Finance Minister Bill English … outvoted by “sustainable development” vision. Image: NZ Parliament

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Michael Sergel and Finian Scott

Pacific leaders have overwhelmingly rejected a push from the World Bank and New Zealand to free up trade and loosen regulations in the region.

About 60 delegates from 18 countries heard World Bank economist Tim Bulman and New Zealand Finance Minister Bill English argue for higher economic growth and smaller governments, during the Pacific Parliamentary and Political Leaders Forum in Wellington this weekend.

But a majority of the leaders – representing governments, oppositions and NGOs – have committed themselves to sustainable development over economic growth and to sound and balanced governance over more severe austerity measures. Read more »

Mutton flaps banned in New Zealand and the US but not in the Pacific. Image: Kiva.org

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Michael Sergel and Finian Scott in Wellington

New Zealand must stop the export of fatty foods to Pacific countries if it wants to deal with the region’s record high rates of obesity and diabetes, a Samoan MP told a forum of Pacific leaders today.

Gataoloaifa’na Amataga Alesana Gidlow told delegates at the Pacific Parliamentary and Political Leaders Forum in Wellington that New Zealand is largely to blame, for failing to stop the exporting of fatty meats and other products.

“In the true spirit of supporting each other, we ask our developed brother, partner and neighbour, New Zealand, to stop exporting to your poor and less developed neighbour in the Pacific all your fatty products that are not for sale in your country because they are not consumable,” she demanded. Read more »

Fiji’s Faye Volatabu … “four coups and no women”. Image: USP

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Michael Sergel and Finian Scott in Wellington

The key to ending decades of coups and political instability in Fiji is to appoint more women to positions of power, says the head of the Fiji National Council of Women.

General-secretary Faye Volatabu has turned heads with her statements at a Pacific politics forum meeting in Wellington.

She was one of many speakers yesterday to make a commitment to achieving better rights for women across the region. Read more »

Papua New Guinea’s Peter O’Neill (left) and Fiji’s Voreqe Bainimarama … leading their countries into a new Melanesian era. Image: Fijigrowth

Pacific Scoop:
Commentary – By Graham Davis in Suva

There is elation in Fijian government circles over the highly successful outcome of this week’s visit to Papua New Guinea by the Prime Minister, Voreqe Bainimarama, at the head of the biggest Fijian trade and investment mission ever to visit another country.

The original aims of the visit were ambitious enough – to lay more of the foundation for the creation of a single, integrated market for the countries of the Melanesian Spearhead Group.

Yet the results exceeded even the most ambitious expectations of the Prime Minister, his Foreign Minister, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, and the trade delegation of 65 Fijian business leaders from 47 companies. Read more »

Samoan master carver Tuailevaoola Pio Timu creating frangipanis on the Cook Island column. Image: Alistar Kata/PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Alistar Kata

A new early childhood centre will keep South Auckland’s culture alive by erecting pieces of artwork on its Mangere campus.

Six columns, or pou mamanu, will be designed and carved especially for the school, representing some of the main islands in the Pacific, including the Cook Islands, Fiji, Niue, Samoa, Tonga and New Zealand (Aotearoa).

This display will coincide with the opening of the learning centre in November this year. Read more »