This man reportedly tried to stop reporters from the Samoa Observer taking pictures of a traffic incident. Image: Samoa Observer

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Pacific Media Watch and the Samoa Observer

Three female reporters from the Samoa Observer were threatened and one was assaulted in the presence of three police officers when covering a traffic incident this week, the newspaper reports.

The reporters are Sarai Ripine, Nicola Hazelman-Siona and Lanuaola Tupufia.

A truck with a tanker on its back tipped over on Wednesday in the village of Vailima, about 4km south of the capital Apia. Read more »

An Oxfam video marking the “Risk and resilence” report.

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By the PMC news desk

Oxfam New Zealand has called for radical  changes to the way the country engages with the Pacific and to tackle the region’s vulnerability.

“Dealing with risk and strengthening resilience requires a rethink in government policies towards the Pacific,” says executive director Barry Coates.

“We need greater coherence in our policies and interventions including more capacity development as part of responding to disasters, building resilience to risk into the core of our aid programming, addressing inequalities and a lack of social protection, and recognising the Pacific’s vulnerability in our government policies on climate change, security and trade negotiations.” Read more »

Esso Highlands Limited, operator of the PNG LNG Project, has opened the door to greater infrastructure development in Papua New Guinea. Image: LNGWorldNews.com

Poor infrastructure, poverty and taxation laws present significant challenges to New Zealand investors in Papua New Guinea. But a trade mission is this week looking at positive new opportunities, reports Greg Asciutto.

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Greg Asciutto

New Zealand is poised to join Papua New Guinea’s development surge with a batch of new infrastructure projects, if a new trade delegation takes advantage of new opportunities.

A group of 30 New Zealand representatives with public and private-sector interests yesterday began a week-long mission to Papua New Guinea.

For the fifth time in the past two years, the NZ  Papua New Guinea Business Council has organised a mission that reflects the growing economic relationship between the Pacific nations. Read more »

Doreen Kupar, a champion of Solomon Islands women rights, speaking at the launch in Honiara. Image: BC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Ingrid Leary in Honiara

For years, female survivors of domestic violence in the Solomon Islands have been afraid of saying anything in public, unable to find a way to stand up to the oppressive abuse they experience on a regular basis at home.

Now, however, all that could change, thanks to a striking display of physical theatre which is giving women the courage to come forward.

The Stage of Change theatre workshop was launched in Honiara at the weekend. Read more »

New Zealand journalist Jon Stephenson and BBC television reporter Bilal Sarwary discuss Afghanistan last night. Image: Del Abcede/PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Daniel Drageset of Pacific Media Watch

Afghan journalist Bilal Sarwary has hailed media freedom as one of the accomplishments in Afghanistan over the last decade.

The Kabul-based reporter working for the BBC expressed this view at a Pacific Media Centre seminar in AUT University last night.

In a Q&A session with New Zealand journalist Jon Stephenson, who has also done extensive reporting in Afghanistan, Sarwary noted the big steps Afghanistan has taken in media freedom. Read more »

Samoa’s Gatoloaifaana Amataga Alesana-Gidlow … seeks a NZ ban on fatty meat exports to the Pacific. Image: IISD

At last month’s Pacific parliamentary forum in Wellington, delegates from around the region called for New Zealand to stop exporting fatty meat to the Pacific. The fatty offcuts being exported have been partially blamed for the rise of non-communicable diseases in the Pacific. But Holly Ryan reports for Asia-Pacific Journalism on other concerns.

Pacific Scoop:
Backgrounder – By Holly Ryan

While non-communicable diseases in the Pacific have been on the rise over the last few decades and are partially blamed on the dumping of cheap, fatty food in the region, shortages of healthy locally grown foods are also a problem.

Fatty food supplies from New Zealand again faced controversy at last month’s Pacific Parliamentary and Politics Forum with calls for such exports to be banned.

“All we can do is keep reminding the government and ministries to not back off and to keep pushing for change,” says Cook Islands Democratic Party MP Selina Napa, who was among those at the forum. 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 »

Peace negotiator Octovianus Mote … exiled from West Papua by the Indonesian government in 1999. Image: Jamie Small/PMC

A UN Commissioner says that over the last year her office has received 26 reports of alleged human rights violations in West Papua, many of which are linked to law enforcement officials. Jamie Small reports for Asia-Pacific Journalism.

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Jamie Small

A prominent West Papuan journalist and activist has visited New Zealand to gather support for West Papua’s inclusion in the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG)  while an Indonesian government crackdown was killing and arresting Papuan demonstrators.

A former Papua regional editor of Kompas newspaper, Octovianus Mote visited in his role as chair of the five elected “peace negotiator” representatives of West Papua.

He says his visit has raised support among a solidarity group in New Zealand, but he doesn’t think the government is supportive of the cause. Read more »

Rev Uesifili Unasa … current legal definition of a Samoan is “incomplete”. Image: Public.Issues.Methodist.Blog

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Lei Shi

The Samoan government is proposing a new law that may change the current definition of national identity as a “Samoan”.

Iuni Sapolu, a Samoan-born lawyer based in South Auckland, says all Samoans should be informed about the proposed changes to what it means to be a Samoan.

“There is a distinction between a Samoan and a Samoan citizen. In this proposed draft, a Samoan equals a Samoan citizen plus Samoan blood. Read more »

Pacific Scoop:
Report – The Pacific Media Centre news desk

AUT University student journalist Michael Sergel talks to Australian academic, journalist and author Professor Mark Pearson of Griffith University, Australia, about truth-telling, culture, constitutions and media regulation.

Dr Pearson, author of The Journalist’s Guide to Media Law, delivered the inaugural UNESCO World Press Freedom Lecture at Auckland last night.

The event was organised by the Pacific Media Centre in AUT’s School of Communication Studies. Read more »