Professor David Robie speaks at the PINA Pacific Media Summit in Fiji. Photo: Wansolwara

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Pacific Media Watch in Deuba, Fiji

University journalism schools and communication studies programmes have a duty to provide independent news media, says a leading Pacific journalist and educator.

Professor David Robie, director of the Pacific Media Centre at New Zealand’s AUT University, said journalism schools should foster their own news publications that interacted with social media and carried out their own investigations.

“Universities should ensure they produce independent news that is never locked away behind a paywall,” he told the second PINA Pacific Media Summit this week. Read more »

Dandhy Dwi Laksono’s documentary on the Freeport strike miners. Video: Watchdoc

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Ika Krismantari in Jakarta

The voices of local workers in the world’s largest gold and copper mine controlled by the US-based mining giant Freeport McMoRan in West Papua can be heard loud and clear in a new documentary that chronicles the biggest strike in the company’s history.

Alkinemokiye is the latest feature documentary from filmmaker Dandhy Dwi Laksono. It captures the fight of 8000 workers for increased wages in what is believed to be the longest and most widely joined strike since the mining company began operations in Indonesia in 1967.

It is estimated that more than a third of Freeport’s 22,000 local workers joined the strike, which lasted from September to December last year. Read more »

Henry Yamo, one of the new communication and society book authors, presents a signed copy to PNG High Commissioner William Dihm in Auckland. Photo: Del Abcede / PMC

Pacific Scoop:
Report – Pacific Media Watch

Communicators in Oceania have a duty not only to inform and investigate but also to interpret the impact of global and local future trends in the region, says New Zealand’s only professor of Pacific studies.

They need to interpret how they influence daily life in Papua New Guinea and the region, said Tagaloatele Professor Peggy Fairbairn-Dunlop.

Speaking at the launching of a new book at AUT University’s Pacific Media Centre, Tagaloatele said the role of the media in developing countries needed to be examined given the diversity of languages, cultural values and beliefs. Read more »

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By John Pulu of Tagata Pasifika

Senior Tongan church ministers are calling for a freeze on big donations and new church buildings as concern grows over spending, reports Tagata Pasifika.

It follows news that a new church in Australia has folded, owing NZ$27 million (A$21 million).

The Free Wesleyan Church of Tonga in Sydney was opened by King George Tupou V three years ago, but is reported to be in voluntary administration and receivership. Read more »

West Papuan miners at Freeport's Grasberg mine during last year's strike. Photo: AFP

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Rangga D. Fadillah

The US-owned Freeport Indonesia company has temporarily halted operations at the giant Grasberg gold and copper mine in Timika, West Papua, following clashes between union workers and employees who did not join last year’s strike.

“We are experiencing work interruptions in connection with our efforts to resume normal operations at the mine,” company spokesperson Ramdani Sirait said in a press statement.

“Certainly, returning workers have engaged in acts of violence and intimidation against non-striking workers and supervisory personnel,” he said. Read more »

Fiji regime prime minister Voreqe Bainimarama ... believes Australian policy - especially shunning Fiji - has weakened Canberra's influence in the Pacific region. Photo: Graham Davis / Grubsheet

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Graham Davis in Suva

Frank Bainimarama – Fiji’s prime minister and the current chair of the four-nation Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) – has joined the chorus of criticism of Kevin Rudd in advance of Monday’s leadership vote in Australia, accusing him of having neglected the Pacific as foreign minister.

He said Canberra’s lack of attention to the region – and especially its policy of shunning Fiji – had weakened Australian influence in the Pacific and had created a vacuum that bigger powers were moving to fill.

Countries such as China and Russia were building relations with the smaller island states and strengthening their presence in Australia’s backyard. Read more »

US troops on guard at the controversial Hajigak mine in Afghanistan's central Bamiyan province. Photo: PMC

Pacific Media Centre:
Report – By Jon Stephenson and Ali Safi in Kabul

An Afghan-American company that failed to win a multibillion-dollar contract to develop one of Afghanistan’s most lucrative mines alleges that the bidding process was riddled with irregularities and that the winning bidders may not be able to meet production targets.

The claims, which were backed by a former senior Afghan mining official, suggest that a potential key source of revenue for the Afghan government — which will be saddled with massive bills after US forces withdraw from the country — could be in jeopardy.

The Afghan-American firm, Acatco, was one of about two dozen bidders that competed for the right to extract minerals from the Hajigak iron ore mine in Afghanistan’s central Bamiyan province. Industry experts have called Hajigak the jewel of Afghanistan’s mining sector. Read more »

Novelist Charles Dickens ... his characters in the fog of English law exposed oppression. Image: PMC archive

Pacific Scoop:
Analysis – By Yohanes Sulaiman and Phillip Turnbull

Charles Dickens was born 200 years ago and remains one of the most famous English novelists, if for no other reason than that his books have never been out of print. No doubt this is so because his novels appeal to a wide audience.

He achieved this because his work adheres to a simple formula: The author describes an ordinary situation or ordinary people in an extraordinary way, so as to engage people’s imaginations and lead them to identifying, in their own lives, with that situation or that person.

We read Dickens and we know what he is talking about. His scenes and characters are familiar. Read more »

650 Kostrad troops from Battalion 142 being deployed from Palembang to Paniai in West Papua. Photo: West Papua Media

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Nethy Dharma Somba in Jayapura

The repeated shooting incidents in West Papua and the fact that none of the perpetrators has been caught have severely hampered development in the province, according to a local legislator who has called on the police and military to immediately solve the cases.

“The shootings in Papua, especially in Timika and Puncak Jaya, must be immediately stopped to create a conducive climate in the province, so as not to hamper development and create a positive condition to accelerate development,” said Papua Legislative Council speaker John Ibo at the opening of a plenary session in Jayapura.

The shootings, taking place since 2009 at the PT Freeport Indonesia (FI) mining concession area in Timika, Papua, have killed 15 people and injured at least 59 others. Read more »

War heroes and heroines are East Timor's leaders. .. the former head of the armed struggle for independence, Xanana Gusmao, is prime minister. Photo: PMC archive

Pacific Scoop:
Analysis – By Agus Wandi in Dili

While talking to fishermen on Areia Branca Beach, hanging out with taxi drivers, getting lost cycling in Dili with its new street names, catching up with friends working for the United Nations there, having dinner with a Nobel laureate and coffee with a presidential candidate, it was clear that there is one common feeling among East Timorese – despite the misery of the past, despite the persistent problems of unemployment and poverty, the country is looking forward to a better future.

The country, which will elect a new president next month, however, is struggling to attract investment. It is also working hard to make the most of its oil revenues, foreign aid and other revenue sources to rebuild the nation.

Chinese investment is noteworthy — the most visible contributions being the Presidential Palace, the Ministry of Defence, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and some other key buildings in the capital. But future investment needs to deal with human development and social capital, especially for East Timor’s youth. Read more »