Cars swept away in dramatic tsunami scenes in Sendai, north-eastern Japan. Photo: RT

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Pacific Media Watch

Many South Pacific countries and territories have lifted tsunami warnings after Japan’s catastrophic 8.9 magnitude earthquake, but Tahiti is still ordering many residents to stay ashore.

The death toll from Friday’s 8.9 magnitude earthquake reached 202 on Saturday in nine prefectures, including Tokyo, with the toll likely to rise to well over 1000 as some areas suffered devastating damage, according to the National Police Agency.

Emergencies were declared at two nuclear power plants crippled by the quake. Read more »

Top journalism graduate: Lenny Delavera of the Solomon Islands, winner of the Fiji Sun/Newsroom Tanoa Award at the University of the South Pacific prize-giving event last night. Photo: Fiji Sun

Pacific Scoop:
Report – Special correspondent in Suva

The University of the South Pacific takes its role as leading journalism educator in the region seriously – and continuously invests in learning and teaching, the annual student journalism awards event heard last night.

Outlining plans to improve facilities and further boost teaching capacity, the head of journalism at USP, Shailendra Singh, said a teaching assistant would be recruited and renovations to a broadcast lab were in the pipeline.

“This will mean more one-on-one support for students and an improved broadcasting studio,” said Singh. Read more »

Pacific Press Release |  The University of the South Pacific

The New Zealand Acting Head of Mission Mr Phillip Taula and Vice Chancellor and President of the University of the South Pacific, Professor Rajesh Chandra, have signed a Partnership Funding Agreement which confirmed New Zealand’s funding support to the USP for the 2010-2012.
Read more »

Ministers at the first Pacific disability policy conference at ministerial level in Rarotonga last year. Photo: MFAT

Higher profile attention from the top to the needs of Pacific people with disabilities is welcome but the situation on the ground remains perilous.

Pacific Scoop
Report – By Adrian Hatwell

Disabled people make up an estimated 10 percent of the Pacific population. They are the region’s poorest and most at-risk people but a mix of political, cultural and geographical factors means their needs have long gone unmet.

This has begun to change as Pacific leaders commit to agreements like the Pacific Regional Strategy on Disability (PRSD) and the United Nations’ Biwako Millennium Framework, which aim to build a barrier-free, inclusive Pacific. Read more »

Aisake Casimira, programmes coordinator for the Pacific Conference of Churches: “This is a social problem.” Photo: Joe Yaya/PCC

Church leaders at this month’s Pacific Conference of Churches meeting were called on to help deal with the issue of HIV and AIDS in the Pacific, with a focus on family and discouraging “outdated” cultural norms.

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Alex Perrottet

Church leaders must face the facts about HIV/AIDS in the Pacific and drop long-held prejudices about those living with the virus, says a regional advocate.

Steven Vete of UNAIDS said prejudice and discrimination prevent access to treatment for those most in need. Read more »

Barbara Dreaver: She believes more involved in "power imbalance" than dollars. Photo: SamoaNews/File

Issues such as growing foreign ownership of Vanuatu land, funding cuts to Pacific campaigns against domestic violence and specifics on inter-island trade all remain “unvoiced”. The biggest issue left unaddressed was allegations of human rights abuses against West Papuans.

Pacific Scoop
Report – By Hamish Fletcher

Australasian dominance and stress on formalities continue to straitjacket the Pacific Islands Forum, say many regional commentators.

Leaders from around the Pacific met in Port Vila, Vanuatu, last week for annual discussions that try to find solutions to issues plaguing the Pacific. Read more »

Savali editor Tupuola Terry Tavita. (Photo courtesy of Savali.)

Pacific Scoop:
Perspective – By Tupuola Terry Tavita.

Despite all the bleak talk on the future of the Forum, one thing is clearly coming across here in Port Vila, the Pacific Islands Forum will always remain.

And despite all of Commodore Frank Bainimarama’s huff-and-puff and underhanded efforts to break up the Forum, it will always be the September platform the 14 member nations – big and small, rich and poor – can talk to each other and make collective decisions that will benefit their economies and peoples.

However, a major concern has become what is perceived as a growing imbalance of power in the Forum. Read more »

Press Release:
Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.

Leaders of the Pacific Islands Forum Smaller Islands States (SIS) held their 19th meeting in Port Vila, Vanuatu today with climate change issues dominating the meeting.

It was attended by Leaders from the Cook Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Niue, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Republic of Palau. A special envoy of the Prime Minister of Tuvalu also attended the meeting. The Ulu o Tokelau attended as an observer. Read more »

PIF Secretary General Tuilaoma Neroni Slade. (Photo by Josephine Latu, in Port Vila.)

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Josephine Latu, in Port Vila, Vanuatu.

Climate change remains a top priority for the seven Small Island States (SIS) members of the Pacific Island Forum (PIF), although they have seen little of the pledged funding agreed to in the 2009 Copenhagen Accord.

Secretary General for the Pacific forum Tuiloma Neroni Slade convened the SIS session this morning in Port Vila, saying that despite the “disappointments of Copenhagen to divert attention from the dangers of climate change”, SIS will push through for binding global commitments on the issue. Read more »

Tokelau's atolls are vulnerable to cyclones and storms that are becoming more severe due to climate change. On Nukunonu Atoll, near the school playgrounds, the waves from Pacific storms have washed right over the top of the land. Photo by Selwyn Manning.

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By PMC Newsdesk.

A claim by a scientist that some Pacific islands and atolls are growing in size rather than being eroded by climate change has been criticised by an Auckland-based Pacific photographer.

The claims suggest storm surges and severe cyclones that are linked to climate change are actually pushing coral up onto atolls and causing them to increase in size. The findings were published in New Scientist magazine and were co-written by Paul Kench of Auckland University’s School of Environment. Read more »