PasiMA's "peacemaker" deputy chair Kalafi Moala of Tonga (from right) with Michael Jackson of Niue (elected the new vice-president of PINA) and Radio Djiido's Magalie Tingal. Photo: Wansolwara/USP

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By Pacific Media Watch

An award-winning Fiji-born investigative journalist has attacked a Radio Australia news item about last month’s PINA Pacific Media Summit in Fiji, describing it as the “biggest crack at revisionism in recent Pacific media history”.

Australian-based Graham Davis, who publishes the independent blog Grubsheet, challenged RA’s Pacific Beat reporter Bruce Hill and the University of the South Pacific head of journalism, Dr Marc Edge, a Canadian, over their version of events given a month after the event.

Davis and other commentators had earlier described the summit – controversially held in Fiji in spite of the military-backed regime’s pressure on news media – as “peaceful” and a contrast with past stormy Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) conventions, especially the last one in Port Vila, Vanuatu, in 2009. Read more »

Press Release – Pacific Freedom Forum

PFF, Rarotonga, COOK ISLANDS — Pacific media watchdogs are keen to see closure and prosecution from Indonesia’s Police forces investigating the plane attack in Indonesia’s Papua province on Sunday 8 April, which killed 35 year old journalist … Read more »

Article – Michael Hammerschlag

After Joseph Smith found his holy plates (metal pages) in an 1823 cliffside in upstate New York, and wrote what became Mormon scripture, The Book of Mormon, he set up a community of true believers; but again and again, in the land of the free, from New … Read more »

Press Release – Pacific Media Watch

The winner of a journalism diversity award says New Zealand newsrooms need more ethnic diversity. Read more »

Press Release – International Federation of Journalists

Media Release: Papua New Guinea April 2, 2012 IFJ Concerned by PNG Government Official’s Comments The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins its associate the Pacific Freedom Forum in expressing its disappointment at comments made by a government … Read more »

Press Release – International Federation of Journalists

Welcome to the IFJ Asia-Pacific’s monthly e-bulletin. The next bulletin will be issued on Read more »

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 »

Kalafi Moala speaking at the PINA Pacific Media Summit in Fiji. On his right is the new PINA vice-president, Michael Jackson. Photo: Wansolwara

Pacific Scoop:
Analysis – by David Robie in Nadi

Whether it was the 21st birthday (as celebrated by the cake at a gala dinner) or 40th anniversary (as flagged by a former president in the opening speech notes), last week’s Fiji milestones for the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) were notable achievements.

There was a convivial and relaxed atmosphere at the Pacific Harbour venue – in marked contrast to the tense last Pacific Media Summit in Port Vila two years ago.

And an optimistic mood about the future. Read more »

Fiji's Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama with other government ministers, including Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, inspecting a damaged bridge and road at Navo in Nadi. Photo: Minfo

Pacific Scoop:
Report – By David Robie in Nadi

“Never a dull moment – we make waiting fun,” says a Vodafone billboard promoting its latest products in Fiji’s Nadi international airport. “Power to you.”

But for hundreds of tourists and Fiji Islanders waiting today to get on board five cancelled flights to Australia, New Zealand and beyond, there was little fun.

People told stories of anguish over ruined tropical holidays of a lifetime, ripoffs in adversity and frustration. Read more »

Press Release – The Nation

Foreign Minister Murray McCully has set out new terms under which New Zealand might relax some of its sanctions on the Fiji military Government led by Commodore Frank Bainimarama. Read more »