Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Agus Sudibyo in Jakarta

Until now the media, especially television, has been regarded as being extremely influential in boosting the electability of presidential candidates or political parties, and anxiety has been raised over the role television channel owners who intensively campaign through their media outlets.

Indeed these political campaigns, disguised as news and other forms of current affairs, by election contestants who are media owners, were seen as abrogating public space for private interests and not conducive to efforts to improve the role of the press as an open space for public discourse in a democracy.

However we should not overestimate media influence. The quick-count results of the April 9 legislative elections have clearly disproven the argument that media owners contesting the elections are guaranteed public support. Read more »

The epicentre of the earthquake. Graphic: wn.com

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By the PMC news desk

Villagers in Western Province of the Solomon Island fled to higher grounds after a 7.3 magnitude undersea earthquake struck 74 km south-west of Arawa, Bougainville.

The quake struck at 6.50pm, and was strongly felt by most islands in the Western Province. The US Geological Survey reported a 7.6 magnitude quake was centred 100 km south of Kira Kira on the island of Makira at a depth of 29 km.

A tsunami warning for New Zealand was cancelled today following a downgrade of the severity of the quake. Read more »

Papuan student Alfares Kapissa … detained and beaten in police custody for 36 hours. Image: New Matilda

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Ronny Kareni for New Matilda

The brutal repression of West Papuan student protests last week is indicative of Indonesia’s approach to the region.

Wednesday 2 April marked a global day of action to call for the immediate and unconditional release of the 77 Papuan and Malukan political prisoners currently being held in Indonesian prisons. Protests were staged simultaneously in Melbourne, London, The Hague, Auckland, Wellington, Edinburgh and Jayapura,

The protest in the West Papuan capital Jayapura, at Cenderawasih University, was interrupted by armed police with four Dalmas trucks (a kind of troop carrier), two mobile brigade trucks and one police van. Read more »

Armed police officers stand guard as election officials carry ballot boxes to be distributed to polling stations at a local government office in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Image: Asian Correspondent

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Robert Yates in Banda Aceh

On Tuesday last week, unidentified gunmen opened fire on a car decked out with political banners in Indonesia’s northernmost province, Aceh. Three people were killed, including a child of 18 months.

Across most of the country, the run-up to this week’s legislative elections heralded little more than a bewildering array of campaign posters and portrait shots of various candidates being pasted on every available surface.

However, Aceh found itself plagued by a spate of violent incidents commonly held to be politically motivated, stretching back over several months. Read more »

A tale of courage … Patrick Beni now reunited with his father and other relatives, but his family lost everything in the flash floods, including the rented home. Image: Solomon Star

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Daniel Namosuaia in Honiara

A brave 10-year-old boy who survived the Solomon Islands flash floods, but lost his mother and three siblings, has recalled the dramatic moment he came close to death.

Patrick Beni said he and his mother and his three siblings – brothers Francis, 7, Junior 4, and sister Salome, 18 months – were at their Koa Hill home in Honiara the afternoon the floods came.

Their father was out at work. Read more »

Devastation and the destruction of housing from the flash flooding in the Solomon Islands. Image: World Vision

Pacific Scoop:
Analysis – By Dr Tarcisius Tara Kabutaulaka in Honolulu, Hawai’i

The loss of lives and properties from last week’s flash floods in Solomon Islands is heartbreaking.

The economic impacts will soon be felt in the country’s coffers, and the social and psychological effects will loom in our collective memories for many years to come.

This is an added burden on a country still struggling to clamber out of the negative impacts of the civil unrests nearly 15 years ago. Read more »

A Solomon Islander on a wrecked section of a bridge in Honiara watching the swollen Mataniko River surge past. Image: ABC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By PMC news desk

The international airport in Solomon Islands has reopened allowing planes carrying relief supplies to reach the flood-ravaged capital, Honiara, reports Radio New Zealand International.

The floods have severely damaged the city’s infrastructure and left 21 people dead and dozens missing.

The Solomon Star reported shop owners in Chinatown were returning at the weekend to begin the massive job of cleaning up their stores as the weather slowly improved. Read more »

Timorese protesters condemn Australian policy over the Timor Sea oil and gas reserves issue and call for justice over the disputed maritime boundary at a demonstration in Dili late last year. Image: La’o Hamutuk

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Philip Dorling

The Australian federal government has successfully blocked the release of secret archives that would reveal Australian knowledge of Indonesian war crimes in East Timor, arguing that relations with Jakarta are presently too strained to cope with the potential embarrassment for both countries.

Administrative Appeals Tribunal President Justice Duncan Kerr yesterday said that the National Archives was right to deny University of NSW Associate Professor Clinton Fernandes access to Australian diplomatic papers and intelligence on Indonesian military operations in East Timor from more than 32 years ago.

A former Australian military intelligence officer turned academic, Dr Fernandes has been engaged in a six-year bureaucratic and legal struggle to secure declassification of records relating to Indonesia’s invasion and occupation of East Timor. Read more »

A live audio report of MIDA chairman Ashwin Raj’s press conference today in Suva. Multimedia: PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Anna Majavu

The Fiji state-controlled Media Industry Development Authority (MIDA) has ruled that a Fiji Television is guilty of “hate speech” and could be fined for broadcasting a public meeting at which politicians spoke.

MIDA chairman Ashwin Raj said at a press conference in Suva today he was taking legal advice about the kind of fines that he might levy against Fiji One News, and that the television station would have to issue a public retraction after he ruled that the TV station was in breach of the Media Industry Development Authority (MIDA) decree.

Fiji faces a general election to restore democratic rule on September 17. Read more »

A West Papuan in handcuffs at last night’s “Free West Papuans” rally in Auckland. Image: Del Abcede/PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Pacific Media Watch

Protesters have taken to the streets and the gates of Indonesian embassies in West Papua, Australia and New Zealand as part of a global day of action to free West Papuan prisoners.

At least five protests took place today on the global day. Indigenous Papuans and Malukans continue to be arrested for peaceful activities such as raising the Papuan Morning Star flag or attending demonstrations and public events that express dissent.

A group of protesters supporting the call for the release of political prisoners staged a mock “imprisonment” vigil in Auckland’s Aotea Square last night with some West Papuans wearing handcuffs. Read more »