Indonesia’s military confirms one soldier was killed and more are unaccounted for after clashes with the West Papua National Liberation Army (TPNPB-OPM) rebels holding New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens hostage.
The West Papuans claim at least six soldiers were killed and a number taken prisoner during the Indonesian military’s rescue operation to find the civilian pilot for Susi Air captured on February 7.
An escalation of Indonesian actions has been flagged, with West Papuans claiming there were retaliatory helicopter airstrikes.
CPJ’s executive director Joel Simon warns of a sinister new threat . . . and this is in some respects more troublesome than the old style dictatorships. Image: Columbia School of Journalism/CPJ
This is part of a keynote address by Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie at the 2015 University of the South Pacific (USP) annual journalism awards. Part one of this address is here.
By David Robie
While there appear to be far more democracies in the world than ever before, the CPJ’s executive director Joel Simon says there is a sinister new threat.
And this is in some respects more troublesome than the old style dictatorships. Simon describes this new scourge in a recent book, The New Censorship: Inside the Global Battle for Press Freedom, as the “democratators”, those leaders who profess to be democratic but are actually subverting their mirage of open governance. As Simon says:
“What are these differences between dictators and democratators? Dictators rule by force. Democratators rule by manipulation. Dictators impose their will. Democratators govern with the support of the majority.
Dictators do not claim to be democrats – at least credibly. Democratators always do. Dictators control information. Democratators manage it.”
Simon points out that democratators win elections yet while they may be free, they are not really fair, meaning they are decided by fraud.
He has a growing list of leaders that fit this label, including Latin American “populists” like Rafael Correa of Equador and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, “European backsliders” like Viktor Orban of Hungary and Viktor Yanukovych, the deposed former president of Ukraine, and African leaders such as Paul Kagame of Rwanda and Jacob Zuma of South Africa.
Also high on Simon’s list of media threats is the way terrorism has impacted on how big media groups currently go about their global news-gathering. Conscious of the ever-present threat of ritualised kidnappings and bombings, journalists are sometimes forced to report from bunkers and are less enthusiastic about meeting uncertain sources in case they might be abducted.
Journalism under duress. Video: Pacific Media Centre
‘There is a sinister new threat’
Even the appearance of journalists sometimes makes them look like an extension of the military — with helmets, flak jackets and camouflage fatigues. This accentuates their targeting by fundamentalist groups who regard them as an extension of the “state”.
China is the elephant in the room when it comes to freedom of information. While China’s leaders embrace the internet, they believe they can, and ought to, control the web. It is clear that China has the technological means and resources to make internet control a reality.
Chinese authorities use monitoring and filtering to keep a lid on the cyberspace “conversation” to prevent repercussions.
United States responses to the Wikileaks scandal in 2013 and the massive surveillance revelations by Edward Snowden encouraged allegations of hypocrisy from critics pointing out that Washington’s commitment to internet freedom dragged when its own geopolitical interests appeared threatened.
Earlier this month in 2015, I had the good fortune to be in Brussels as one of the people giving feedback at a stakeholders meeting for a massive European Union-funded research project on the media reporting on six major violent conflicts around the world, including the Syrian civil war and conflict in Burundi.
Story of an editor
While there I happened to pick up a new “Euro” style newspaper called Politico, which steered me to a remarkable media development in Spain with the headline: “He brings news of the future”
“Who was he?” asks the subeditor in me when it was always drummed into us to have a name in the headline. (The online version changed the headline).
This was the story of Pedro J. Ramírez, one of the leading editors in Spain, who had been in charge of El Mundo for 24 years. But he was sacked by his newspaper’s owners.
Why? Because under his leadership, El Mundo pursued a robust investigation into corruption implicating the governing Popular Party and the Prime Minister [Mariano Rajoy].
When he was fired, Ramírez used his massive €5.6 million pay-out to help fund a new online newspaper, El Español. His pay-out plus record-breaking crowdfunding doubled what had been previously raised by a new Dutch publishing venture, De Correspondent.
Another interesting success story has been in France, where investigative journalist Edwy Plenel, famous for his Rainbow Warrior bombing investigation in 1985 for Le Monde, founded Mediapart.
He has assembled a team of some 60 journalists and his fearless brand of investigative journalism is shaking up the establishment.
Innovative ventures
Even in New Zealand, where the mediascape is fairly dire with hundreds of jobs cut in recent years — and a loss of 180 jobs in a recent shake-up at Fairfax New Zealand, the country’s biggest news publisher, there are stunningly innovative things happening.
Pacific Scoop talks to Dr David Robie. Video: Pacific Media Centre
This brings me to the achievements of the University of the South Pacific and its talented new crop of graduates. Close to 200 USP journalism graduates are now contributing to the Fiji and the Pacific region’s media and related careers.
Through its long-standing award-winning newspaper Wansolwara — now 19 years old, surely a remarkable accomplishment for any journalism school in the Australasian and Pacific arena, the student journalists have played an important role in independent, engaging and truth-seeking journalism.
Personally, I shall always remember with pride my experiences with USP and Wansolwara over the five years I was with the campus — the longest by far of any expatriate educator. Wansolwara was founded by student editor Stan Simpson and lecturer Dr Philip Cass. And Pat Craddock of the USP Media Centre was another key person in building up the programme.
One of the highlights for me was the reporting of the George Speight coup in May 2000 by the courageous USP students. They won many awards for this.
It was thanks to the groundwork and experience that I gained at both USP and previously UPNG as a journalist turned academic that I was able to go to the next level at the Pacific Media Centre.
Blending media studies, journalism
There I have been able to blend some of the best elements of academic media studies and practical journalism that makes a difference.
A tribute too to Dr Shailendra Singh and his team, Irene Manarae, Eliki Drugunalevu and Dr Olivier Jutel. Shailen was recently the first home-grown academic at USP to gain a PhD in journalism at the University of Queensland with the first major survey of the Fiji mediascape for more than a decade. Congratulations Shailendr for a very fine thesis!
My concluding message to graduating student journalists is that no matter what government, political or industry pressure you face, you should hold on strongly to your core values of truth, accuracy, honesty and courage in the public interest.
Our communities deserve the best from their media in these deceitful times. University media are among the few that can still be trusted and they should do their best to contribute to democracy with integrity.
So go for it and change the world to the way it should be!
French Ambassador Michel Djokovic (third from left), head of USP Journalism Dr Shailendra Singh (fourth from left) and Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie (fifth from right) with the prizewinners at the 2015 University of the South Pacific journalism awards. Image: Lowen Sei/USP Journalism
In a keynote address at the 2015 University of the South Pacific (USP) journalism awards, Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie, formerly head of USP’s South Pacific regional journalism programme in its early stages, reflects on the progress and challenges facing media in the Pacific and worldwide. This is the first in a two-part report of his speech. Part two is here.
By David Robie
As I launched these awards here at the University of the South Pacific in 1999 during an incredibly interesting and challenging time, it is a great honour to return for this event in 2015 marking the 21st anniversary of the founding of the regional Pacific journalism programme.
Thus it is also an honour to be sharing the event with Monsieur Michel Djokovic, the Ambassador of France, given how important French aid has been for this programme.
France and the Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme de Lille (ESJ) played a critically important role in helping establish the journalism degree programme at USP in 1994, with the French government funding the inaugural senior lecturer, François Turmel, and providing a substantial media resources grant to lay the foundations.
I arrived in Fiji four years later in 1998 as head of journalism from the University of Papua New Guinea and what a pleasure it was working with the French Embassy on a number of journalism projects at that time, including an annual scholarship to France for journalism excellence.
These USP awards this year take place during challenging times for the media industry with fundamental questions confronting us as journalism educators about what careers we are actually educating journalists for.
When I embarked on a journalism career in the 1960s, the future was clear-cut and one tended to specialise in print, radio or television. I had a fairly heady early career being the editor at the age of 24 of an Australian national weekly newspaper, the Sunday Observer, owned by an idealistic billionaire, and we were campaigning against the Vietnam War.
Our chief foreign correspondent then was a famous journalist, Wilfred Burchett, who at the end of the Second World War 70 years ago reported on the Hiroshima nuclear bombing as a “warning to the world”.
Human rights, justice
By 1970, I was chief subeditor of the anti-apartheid Rand Daily Mail in South Africa, the best newspaper I ever worked on and where I learned much about human rights and social justice, which has shaped my journalism and education values ever since.
I travelled overland for a year across Africa as a freelance journalist, working for agencies such as Gemini, and crossed the Sahara Desert in a Kombi van. It was critically risky even then, but doubly dangerous today.
Eventually I ended up with Agence France-Presse as an editor in Paris and worked there for several years. In fact, it was while working with AFP in Europe that I took a “back door” interest in the Pacific and that’s where my career took another trajectory when I joined the Auckland Star and became foreign news editor.
The point of me giving you some brief moments of my career in a nutshell is to stress how portable journalism was as a career in my time. But now it is a huge challenge for you young graduates going out into the marketplace.
You don’t even know whether you’re going to be called a “journalist”, or a “content provider” or a “curator” of news — or something beyond being a “news aggregator”– such is the pace of change with the digital revolution. And the loss of jobs in the media industry continues at a relentless pace.
Fortunately, in Fiji, the global industry rationalisations and pressures haven’t quite hit home locally yet. However, on the other hand you have very real immediate concerns with the Media Industry Development Decree and the “chilling’ impact that it has on the media regardless of the glossy mirage the government spin doctors like to put on it.
We had a very talented young student journalist from the Pacific Media Centre here in Fiji a few weeks ago, Niklas Pedersen, from Denmark, on internship with local media, thanks to USP and Republika’s support. He remarked about his experience:
“I have previously tried to do stories in Denmark and New Zealand — two countries that are both in the top 10 on the RSF World Press Freedom Index, so I was a bit nervous before travelling to a country that is number 93 and doing stories there ….
“Fiji proved just as big a challenge as I had expected. The first day I reported for duty … I tried to pitch a lot of my story ideas, but almost all of them got shut down with the explanation that it was impossible to get a comment from the government on the issue.
“And therefore the story was never going to be able to get published.
“At first this stunned me, but I soon understood that it was just another challenge faced daily by Fiji journalists.”
Pacific leaders speak out with ‘one voice’ on climate change. Video: Niklas Pedersen/Pacific Media Centre
Climate storytelling
This was a nice piece of storytelling on climate change on an issue that barely got covered in New Zealand legacy media.
Australia and New Zealand shouldn’t get too smug about media freedom in relation to Fiji, especially with Australia sliding down the world rankings over asylum seekers for example.
New Zealand also shouldn’t get carried away over its own media freedom situation. Three court cases this year demonstrate the health of the media and freedom of information in this digital era is in a bad way.
• Investigative journalist Jon Stephenson this month finally won undisclosed damages from the NZ Defence Ministry for defamation after trying to gag him over an article he wrote for Metro magazine which implicated the SAS in the US torture rendition regime in Afghanistan.
• Law professor Jane Kelsey at the University of Auckland filed a lawsuit against Trade Minister Tim Groser over secrecy about the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership (the judgment ruled the minister had disregarded the law);
• Investigative journalist Nicky Hager and author of Dirty Politics sought a judicial review after police raided his home last October, seizing documents, computers and other materials. Hager is known in the Pacific for his revelations about NZ spying on its neighbours.
There is an illusion of growing freedom of expression and information in the world, when in fact the reverse is true
Legacy media failure
Also, the New Zealand legacy media has consistently failed to report well on two of the biggest issues of our times in the Pacific — climate change and the fate of West Papua.
One of the ironies of the digital revolution is that there is an illusion of growing freedom of expression and information in the world, when in fact the reverse is true.
These are bleak times with growing numbers of journalists being murdered with impunity, from the Philippines to Somalia and Syria.
The world’s worst mass killing of journalists was the so-called Maguindanao, or Ampatuan massacre (named after the town whose dynastic family ordered the killings), when 32 journalists were brutally murdered in the Philippines in November 2009.
Philippines : Testimonies of the Maguindanao massacre Video: Reporters Without Borders
But increasingly savage slayings of media workers in the name of terrorism are becoming the norm, such as the outrageous attack on Charlie Hebdo cartoonists in Paris in January. Two masked gunmen assassinated 12 media workers — including five of France’s most talented cartoonists — at the satirical magazine and a responding policeman.
In early August this year, five masked jihadists armed with machetes entered the Dhaka home of a secularist blogger in Bangladesh and hacked off his head and hands while his wife was forced into a nearby room.
According to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists in figures released this year, 506 journalists were killed in the decade between 2002 and 2012, almost double the 390 slain in the previous decade. (Both Reporters Sans Frontières and Freedom House have also reported escalating death tolls and declines in media freedom.)
Asia Pacific Media Network chair Dr Heather Devere presents a bouquet to Tuwhera's Donna Coventry at the Asia Pacific Media Network's AGM yesterday. Image: Nik Naidu/PMW
A media network publishing an international research journal has vowed to expand its activities into community media and training initiatives.
The non-profit Asia Pacific Media Network, publisher of the ranked Pacific Journalism Review, says media and community advocates believe there is a need for minority and marginalised groups that feel neglected by the mainstream.
Network chair Dr Heather Devere told the annual general meeting of the publishing group in Mt Roskill yesterday that now that APMN had been consolidated it could turn to some of its wider community goals.
The Asia Pacific Media Network’s AGM yesterday. Image: PMW
Members from Australia, Fiji and Tahiti joined their New Zealand colleagues via Zoom in discussing many plans, including community media mentoring and training for diversity groups.
A proposal for a media conference in Suva, Fiji, next year by Pacific journalism associate professor Shailendra Singh was tabled and adopted in principle.
Dr Devere told the members that the network, established in 2021 to fill the void left by the closure of the Pacific Media Centre and to take on publication of PJR, had made great progress.
The ad hoc group was registered as an incorporated society last year.
“This first year of APMN we have concentrated on establishing a sustainable network that maintains the respected reputation that had been established at the Pacific Media Centre,” Dr Devere said.
“And I am happy to report that thanks to the commitment of a number of people who have the skills and expertise to continue some of this work, APMN is in a good place to look at moving forward into the coming year from a firm base.”
Members of Asia Pacific Media Network at their annual general meeting in the Whānau Hub in Mt Roskill yesterday. Image: David Robie/PMW
Pressing need
Community advocate Nik Naidu, an APMN member from the host Whānau Community Centre and Hub, said there was plenty of potential for the new network and there was a pressing need for media skills training to empower marginalised groups.
Retired Sydney journalism professor Chris Nash lamented that journalism schools had become very conservative and were “failing journalism”.
Pacific Journalism Review founder Dr David Robie and network deputy chair said he was encouraged by the developments and believed that APMN was consolidating its innovative role.
Current editor Dr Philip Cass said work on the July 2023 edition of PJR was underway.
“We have received a number of submissions that fall far outside our frame of reference from very distant countries,” he said.
“While this is slightly puzzling, it does indicate how far our name has travelled.”
‘Excited’ by developments
This second AGM of the network attracted new supporters, including Filipino media educator, filmmaker and PSTv5 podcaster Rene “Direk” Molina and broadcaster and community social media campaigner Ernestina “Tina” Bonsu Maro.
Some of the publications on AUT’s Tūwhera platform, including Pacific Journalism Review and Pacific Journalism Monographs. Image: PMW
Maro, of Pacific Media Network, who works with Cook Islands and African communities, said she was “excited” by the developments.
“We need more opportunities to tell our own stories,” she said. “The mainstream media isn’t interested in us or our stories.”
Pacific Journalism Review, founded at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1994, has published two independent editions with the APMN, and hopes to celebrate its 30th year in Suva next year.
A presentation was made to AUT scholarly communications librarian Donna Coventry and the Tūwhera digital journals platform team in gratitude for the “tremendous” support for PJR since the online edition was launched in 2016.
Broadcaster and community campaigner Ernestina “Tina” Bonsu Maro . . . “We need more opportunities to tell our own stories.” Image: David Robie/PMW
A West Papuan leader has accused Indonesia of imposing a “martial law” on the Melanesian region in response to the kidnapping of a New Zealand pilot by rebels fighting Jakarta’s contested rule.
“It is clear that Indonesia is using the kidnap of New Zealand pilot Philip Mehrtens as a pretext to strengthen their colonial hold on West Papua,” said United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) interim president Benny Wenda.
Mehrtens was taken hostage on February 7 in the Papuan Highlands and has featured in video demands for independence.
“[Indonesian security forces] are creating and exploiting violence to further depopulate our villages and create easier access to our resources through corporate developments like the Trans Papua Highway.
“This is all part of a 60-year colonial land grab,” claimed Wenda in a statement.
He said that in Intan Jaya, Puncak Jaya, and Nduga, Indonesian soldiers were “roaming the countryside, conducting arbitrary house searches, beating Papuan civilians, and even murdering women and children”.
Papuan shot dead
Wenda said that near Wamena, a Papuan named Stefanus Wilil was shot dead at random while crossing a road.
“Women and young girls have been raped, churches have been burnt by soldiers, and 16 villages in the Intan Jaya Regency have been abandoned by terrified inhabitants.
“My people are living in mortal fear of the next beating, the next murder, the next massacre.
“Everyone is a target: whether it is because they have a beard or Rasta culture, wearing dirty clothes, or carrying an axe or shovel to tend their gardens — every Papuan is under automatic suspicion.
“Hundreds have been forced to flee their homes by roving military bands acting with total impunity.”
Taking refuge
Wenda said they were taking refuge in the forests, where they lacked food, water, and “basic medical facilities”.
“But even there they are not safe, with armed police occupying every corner of the Papuan countryside, transforming the land into a hunting ground for Indonesian troops.”
“Indonesia killed us with guns and bombs dropped from helicopters, but also with malnutrition and crop destruction.
“Even as a child I knew that my life was worthless to the colonial forces. The genocide and ethnic cleansing of West Papua is still neglected, as the massacre of 10 Papuans in Wamena in February proves.”
Up to 100,000 displaced
According to UN figures, between 60,000 and 100,000 West Papuans have been displaced over the past four years.
Wenda said his movement’s peaceful demands to Indonesia were:
Allow aid agencies to treat victims of forced displacement;
Allow the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights into West Papua, as had been demanded by more than 84 countries;
Allow international journalists to report on the situation in West Papua;
Draw back Indonesian troops to allow civilians to return to their lives; and
Release all political prisoners — including 80 activists who had been arrested for handing out leaflets demanding political activist Victor Yeimo be freed, Victor Yeimo himself, and three students detained without charge last year.
Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson . . . he might soon have a largely new TVNZ board, as well as new CEO, as he refines his public broadcasting strategy. Image: Matthew Scott/Newsroom
Axing the proposed merger of TVNZ and RNZ saved the New Zealand government a significant amount of money but left it with the problems the merger was supposed to fix. Newsroom co-editor Mark Jennings looks at Labour’s new slimmed down approach to public media.
ANALYSIS: By Mark Jennings
Until weeks ago, the future of Aotearoa New Zealand’s public media organisations was looking so grim the government was prepared to spend $370 million over four years to merge TVNZ and RNZ and future proof the new entity it was calling ANZPM.
Last December, when the merger plan was under intense scrutiny, then Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern said RNZ “could collapse” if the merger did not go ahead.
Last week, Labour unveiled a very modest plan to strengthen public media. The old, very expensive one, had been thrown on the policy bonfire back in February.
The “burn it” decision had been widely anticipated after new PM Chris Hipkins’ started dumping unpopular policies to focus on cost of living issues.
Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson stayed on message when he released the new public media plan last week. “We have listened to New Zealanders and now is not the right time to restructure our public media.”
Under the new plan RNZ will get $25 million more a year, NZ On Air will get a one-off boost of $10m for 2023/24 and TVNZ will get nothing.
Jackson claims the extra money will “deliver world class public media for all New Zealanders.” This seems improbable given the earlier dire predictions.
The additional $25 million a year for RNZ represents a 60 percent increase in its funding. It sounds a lot but the broadcaster has been under resourced for the past 15 years.
Coping with pandemic
When National came to power in 2008 it froze RNZ funding for 9 years. The state broadcaster did get an increase from the Ardern government but it has had to contend with the additional costs of reporting on and coping with the covid-19 pandemic.
Lately, the demands of covering the Auckland floods and cyclone Gabrielle have stretched it further. Newsroom understands RNZ is currently running a deficit of close to $5 million.
The lack of funding is illustrated by the rundown premises RNZ occupies nationwide, its ageing equipment and out-of-date IT systems. Under constant financial pressure it has struggled to attract and keep top journalists.
Some of its best and brightest have been lured away to TVNZ, Newshub, Newsroom and Stuff.
Jackson’s media release said $12 million of the extra funding was for current services and $12 million for a new digital platform. $1.7 million is to support AM transmission so people can access information during civil emergencies.
Stuff, the NZ Herald and RNZ itself all reported (presumably from the media release) on the funding for the new multimedia digital platform. But there is no new platform. This was either clumsy language or a clumsy attempt at spin from Jackson and his comms people.
RNZ’s chief executive Paul Thompson told Newsroom the money would be used to make improvements to RNZ’s existing web platform and mobile app.
‘Fixing things’
“It is kind of fixing things that should have been fixed a long time ago. Our website and app are serviceable and do a good job but if we are going to be relevant in the future we need to be better than that.”
Thompson says the increase in the amount of baseline funding was calculated to restore RNZ to its former state, more than anything else.
“How much would it take us to stabilise our current operations and get them to where they need to be, so that’s well overdue. It is everything from our premises through to our content management systems, to our rostering — just having enough staff to do the job we do. It’s sufficient but we are going to have to spend every penny very wisely.”
A big part of the government’s reasoning for the merger was that minority audiences are under-served by the media.
Jackson now seems to expect RNZ to do the heavy lifting in this area. His media release quoted him saying the funding would allow RNZ to expand regional coverage and establish a new initiative to prioritise Māori and Pacific coverage.
Asked how he planned to do this, Thompson was circumspect. “It has got to be worked out . . . we are going to have to prioritise, we can’t do it all at once.”
Jackson wants other media to play an (unspecified) role in reaching these audiences. He has restored $42 million of funding to NZ On Air. Under the merger plan this money, which was the amount NZOA spent funding TVNZ programmes (mainly drama, comedy and off-peak minority programmes), was being handed to ANZPM to decide how it should be spent.
Production community upset
The local TV production community was upset by this as it far preferred NZ On Air to be the gatekeeper and not TVNZ executives who would likely end up working for the merged organisation.
Jackson has also given NZOA a one-off boost of $10 million for 2023/2024.
“The funding will support the creation of high-quality content that better represents and connects with audiences such as Māori, Pasifika, Asian, disabled people and our rangatahi and tamariki. It is vital that all New Zealanders are seeing and hearing themselves in our public media,” he said in his media release.
One-off funding can be of limited benefit. It usually has to be project-based rather than supporting ongoing programming and the staff that go with it. It is possible Jackson is hoping or expects NZ On Air to use more of its baseline funding to sustain new shows and programmes for minorities.
On the same day as Jackson’s announcement, but with less fanfare, NZOA released its own revised strategy.
The document says, above all, funded content must have a “clear cultural or social purpose.”
Priority will be given to songs and stories that contribute to rautaki (strategy for) Māori, support a range of voices and experiences, including those of people from varying ages, races, ethnicities, abilities, genders, religions, cultures, and sexual orientations.
Unclear about TVNZ
It is unclear where Jackson’s plan B leaves TVNZ. Throughout the merger discussions TVNZ executives, while saying they embraced the idea, were critical of the draft legislation, the level of independence the new entity would have and they often emphasised TVNZ’s commercial success.
Jackson has, on a number of occasions, linked TVNZ to the National Party which opposed the merger and was committed to rolling it back if elected in October.
When he became frustrated in an interview with TVNZ’s Jack Tame, before the merger was abandoned, Jackson used the line “your mates in National”.
During question time in Parliament last week, when asked what more he was doing to strengthen public media, Jackson said he was going to “sit down with Simon and the National Party mates over there.”
He was referring to TVNZ CEO, and former National Party minister, Simon Power.
Jackson said he wanted TVNZ to play a more active role in public broadcasting and, “we are going to traverse things with Simon in terms of a way forward.”
Power recently announced his resignation and will leave TVNZ in June. With many of the TVNZ board, including its influential chair Andy Coupe, likely to retire or be replaced in the next month, Jackson will, in reality, be sitting down with a new board and CEO to discuss his public media ambitions for TVNZ.
If he is interested in the job, RNZ’s Thompson must now be in with a real chance.
Thompson unequivocally endorsed the merger idea and was almost the only advocate able to clearly articulate its benefits. A new board, eager to take the company in a direction more sympathetic to its owner’s vision, might find that attractive.
Mark Jenningsis co-editor of Newsroom. Republished with permission.
Jackson claims the extra money will “deliver world class public media for all New Zealanders.” This seems improbable given the earlier dire predictions.https://t.co/pzd1Ukw5JD
Nour Odeh, political analyst and former spokeswoman for the Palestinian National Authority, on Al Jazeera's Inside Story . . . "it is relentless . . . and one factor that remains constant is that Israel can get away with all of this." Image: AL screenshot APR
COMMENTARY: By John Minto
The last fortnight has seen a series of brutal, deliberately provocative Israeli attacks on Palestinian worshippers at Al Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Needless to say, Israel had no business interfering in Muslim worship at Al Aqsa, the third holiest shrine for Muslims after Mecca and Medina, and an area which is not under their authority or control.
Despite this, Israeli attacks on Al Aqsa have intensified in recent years as the apartheid state strives to undermine all aspects of Palestinian life in Jerusalem. It is applying ethnic cleansing in slow motion.
Inevitably missile attacks on Israel from Gaza and Southern Lebanon followed and Israel has reveled in once again trying to portray itself to the world as the victim.
There is an excellent 10-minute video in which former Palestinian spokesperson Hanan Ashrawi more than held her own against a hostile BBC interviewer here.
📽️ WATCH | A masterclass by @DrHananAshrawi illuminating the everyday violence & aggression Palestinians endure at the hands of Israel’s occupation, the inevitable local resistance to it & Israel’s ongoing impunity while also fending off @BBCWorld‘s spurious line of questioning. pic.twitter.com/eTpvXV7QbI
There is also an excellent podcast produced by Al Jazeera which backgrounds the increase in violence in the Middle East.
Inside Story: What triggered the spike in violence? Video: Al Jazeera
Nour Odeh – Political analyst and former spokeswoman for the Palestinian National Authority.
Uri Dromi – Founder and president of the Jerusalem Press Club and a former spokesman for the Israel government.
Francesca Albanese – United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories.
Further background on the politics around Al Aqsa is covered in this Al Jazeera podcast.
I strongly condemn Israel’s excessive use of force against Palestinian Muslims praying at #AlAqsaMosque during Ramadan, & its breaches of the #StatusQuo. This recklessness risks bringing further devastation to both sides of the Green Line.
Full statement: https://t.co/ys58j0bIzthttps://t.co/mWfJiHSVaT
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) April 6, 2023
Initially reporting here in New Zealand was reasonable and clearly identified Israel as the brutal racist aggressors attacking Palestinian civilians at worship. However, within a couple of days media reporting deteriorated dramatically with the “normal” appalling reporting taking over — painting Palestinians as terrorists and Israel as simply enforcing “law and order”.
At the heart of appalling reporting for a long time has been the BBC which slavishly and consistently screws the scrum in Israel’s favour. The BBC does not report on the Middle East – it propagandises for Israel.
Journalist Jonathan Cook describes how the BBC coverage is enabling Israeli violence and UN Special Rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories, Francesca Albanese, called out the BBC’s awful reporting in a tweet.
Renewed violence against Palestinian worshippers at #AlAqsaMosque on yet another Ramadan turned into suffering,must be condemned,investigated & accounted for.
Misleading media coverage 👇contributes to enabling Israel’s unchecked occupation & must also be condemned/accounted for https://t.co/JI6YzNgCju
— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) April 5, 2023
It’s not just the BBC of course. For example The New York Times has been called out for deliberately distorting the news to blame Palestinians for Al Aqsa mosque crisis.
It’s not reporting — it’s propaganda!
Why is BBC important for Aotearoa New Zealand? Unfortunately, here in Aotearoa New Zealand our media frequently and uncritically uses BBC reports to inform New Zealanders on the Middle East.
Radio New Zealand and Television New Zealand, our state broadcasters, are the worst offenders.
For example here are two BBC stories carried by RNZ this past week here and here. They cover the deaths of three Jewish women in a terrorist attack in the occupied West Bank.
The media should report such killings but there is no context given for the illegal Jewish-only settlements at the heart in the occupied West Bank, Israel’s military occupation across all Palestine, the daily ritual humiliation and debasement of Palestinians or its racist apartheid policies towards Palestinians — or as Israeli human rights groups B’Tselem describes it “A regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea: This is apartheid”.
Neither are there Palestinian voices in the above reports — they are typically absent from most Middle East reporting, or at best muted, compared to extensive quoting from racist Israeli leaders.
The BBC is happy to report the “what?” but not the “why?”
Needless to say neither Radio New Zealand, nor TVNZ, has provided any such sympathetic coverage for the many dozens of Palestinians killed by Israel this year — including at least 16 Palestinian children. To the BBC, RNZ and TVNZ, murdered Palestinian children are simply statistics.
RNZ and TVNZ say they cannot ensure to cover all the complexities of the Middle East in every story and that people get a balanced view over time from their regular reporting.
This is not true. Their reliance on so much systematically-biased BBC reporting, and other sources which are often not much better, tells a different story.
For example, references to Israel as an apartheid state — something attested to by every credible human rights groups, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch — are always absent from any RNZ or TVNZ reporting and yet this is critical to help people understand what is going on in Palestine.
Neither are there significant references to international law or United Nations resolutions — the tools which provide for a Middle East peace based on justice — the only peace possible.
Unlike their reporting on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, RNZ and TVNZ reporting on the Middle East leaves people confused and ready to blame both sides equally for the murder and mayhem unleashed by Israel on Palestinians and Palestinian resistance to the Israeli military occupation and all that entails.
John Minto is a political activist and commentator, and spokesperson for Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa. This article is republished from the PSNA newsletter with the author’s permission.
“Divide and Dominate” . . . how Israel’s apartheid policies and repression impact on Palestinians. Image: Visualising Palestine
When Tahlea Aualiitia talks about hosting the ABC’s new Pacific-focused news and current affairs TV programme, The Pacific, her voice breaks and she becomes emotional.
Personally, it’s a career milestone, anchoring her first TV show after a decade working mostly in radio, producing ABC local radio programmes and presenting Pacific Mornings on ABC Radio Australia. But it’s also much more than that.
Aualiitia grew up in Tasmania and is of Samoan (and Italian) heritage. She has strong connections to the country and the Pacific Islander community in Australia.
ABC’s Tahlea Aualiitia . . . presenter of the new The Pacific programme. Image: Natasha Johnson/ABC News
What moves her so profoundly about The Pacific is that the 30-minute, weekly programme is being broadcast across the Pacific on ABC Australia, the ABC’s international TV channel, as well as in Australia (on the ABC News Channel and iview), and is produced by a team with a deep understanding of the region and features stories filed by local journalists based in Pacific nations.
“For me, it’s representation and I think that is really important,” she says.
“I’m probably going to cry because for so long I feel that in Australia and on mainstream TV, Pacific Islanders have been, at best, under-represented and, at worst, misrepresented.
“Given the geopolitical interest, there is more focus on the Pacific but my hope for this show is that it will highlight Pacific voices, really centre those voices as the people telling their stories and change the narrative.
‘The ABC cares’
“It shows the ABC cares, we are not just saying we decide what you watch, we’re involving you in what we’re doing, and I think that that makes a difference.”
The Pacific presenter Tahlea Aualiitia is of Samoan heritage and has worked at the ABC for more than a decade . . . “For me, it’s representation and I think that is really important.” Image: Natasha Johnson/ABC News
Aualiitia’s father was born in Samoa and moved to New Zealand at the age of 12, then later to Australia. Her mother’s brother married a Samoan woman, so Samoan culture was celebrated in her immediate and extended family.
She recalls a childhood shaped by Samoan food, dance and song, and the importance of family, faith and rugby. But from her experience, “the narrative” about the Pacific in Australia has tended towards being negative or patronising.
“I think people tend to see the Pacific as a monolith and there are a lot of stereotypes about what a Pacific Islander is, especially in view of the climate change crisis — there’s this idea everyone’s a victim and they should all just move to Australia,” she says.
“There’s a lot of stuff you carry as a brown journalist. When I hear a story on the news about a Pacific Islander and a crime, I brace myself and think about what that might mean for my day, is it going to make my day harder when I walk out onto the street, will it make my day at work harder?
“I’ve had people say to me when they learn I have an arts degree, ‘oh, your parents must be so proud of you because you’re the first person in your family who has gone to uni’. And that’s not true, my dad has a PhD in chemistry.
“It’s indicative of ideas that people have of what you’re capable of, what you can do, and that’s the power of the media to shape those narratives and change those narratives.
Facebook ‘reality’ check
“When I started presenting Pacific Mornings, I would interview people from across the Pacific and people would find me on Facebook, message me, saying, ‘I didn’t know any Pacific Islanders were working at the ABC’.
“I was just doing my job, but they said they were proud of me, of the visibility and that it was a good thing that it was happening. So, I hope this programme re-frames things a little bit by showing the rich diversity of the Pacific, its different cultures, resilience, and the joy of being Pacific.”
The Pacific is a weekly, news and current affairs programme about everything from regional politics to sport. Image: Natasha Johnson/ABC News
The Pacific is being produced by the ABC’s Asia Pacific Newsroom (APN), based in Melbourne, with funding from ABC International Broadcast and Digital Services.
While the scope of the ABC’s international services has fluctuated over the years, depending on federal government funding levels, an injection of $32 million over four years to ABC International Services allocated in the 2022 budget has enabled this first-of-its-kind programme to be made, among a suite of other initiatives under the Indo-Pacific Broadcast strategy.
“The APN has been a trusted content partner for the ABC’s International Services team for many years and already has deep Pacific expertise,” says Claire Gorman, head of international services.
“We have been working with the APN to produce our flagship programmes Pacific Beat and Wantok for ABC Radio Australia and have been wanting to produce a TV news programme for Pacific audiences for some time, but until now have not have the funding for it.
“The Pacific is the first of many exciting developments in the pipeline. We believe it is more important than ever before for Australians and Pacific audiences to have access to independent, trusted information about our region.”
Journalist Johnson Raela at rehearsals. Image: Natasha Johnson/ABC News
Pacific-wide team
Joining Aualiitia on air is long-serving Pacific Beat reporter and executive producer Evan Wasuka and journalist Johnson Raela, who previously worked in New Zealand and the Cook Islands.
Correspondent Lice Movono, based in Suva, Fiji, and Chrisnrita Aumanu-Leong in Honiara, Solomon Islands, are contributing to the programme as part of a developing “Local Journalism Network”, also funded under the Indo-Pacific Broadcast strategy, to use the expertise of independent journalists located in the region.
Lice Movono has worked as a journalist in FIji for 16 years and is now filing stories for The Pacific. Image: ABC New
Behind the scenes are APN supervising producer Sean Mantesso, producers Gabriella Marchant, Dinah Lewis Boucher, Nick Sas and APN managing editor Matt O’Sullivan.
“The ABC has covered the Pacific for decades but largely for the Pacific audience,” says O’Sullivan.
“In recent years, that’s mostly been via Pacific Beat and increasingly through digital and video storytelling. We’ve felt for some time that there’s growing interest in the Pacific within Australia and there’s also a massive Pacific diaspora in Australia with strong links to the region.
“So, we’ve felt a need to share our content more broadly. The Pacific programme will cover the breadth of Pacific life beyond palm trees and tourism, from politics to jobs and the economy, climate change, culture and sport.”
Supervising producer Sean Mantesso and Johnson Raela discussing plans for the programme. Image: Natasha Johnson/ABC News
Lice Movono has been working as a journalist in Fiji for 16 years and has previously filed for the ABC. She believes elevating the work of regional journalists across the ABC programs and platforms, through the Local Journalism initiative, will help provide more informed coverage of Pacific affairs.
“I believe it’s critical for journalists from within the Pacific to be at the centre of storytelling about the Pacific,” she says.
“A few years ago, while working in a local media organisation, I had the opportunity to attend a conference in Europe and it shocked and saddened me to find that there are people on the other side of the world who have little or no understanding of what it means to live with the reality of climate change here in the region.
“So, it means everything for me to work with the ABC, which has one of the widest, if not the widest reach in the Pacific region and to have access to a platform that tells stories about the Pacific and Fiji, in particular, to the rest of the world, to tell authentic stories through the lens of a Pacific Islander, and an Indigenous one at that, about the realities of what Pacific people face.”
While the covid pandemic and various lockdowns curbed a lot of international news gathering, it provided an opportunity to showcase the work of locally based reporters on ABC domestic channels.
“We’ve often used stringers in the region, but covid showed us the value journalists in country can offer,” says O’Sullivan.
“Because we couldn’t fly Australian-based crews into the region during the pandemic, we relied more on journalists in the Pacific telling their stories, for example during the 2021 riots in Solomon Islands.
“We are now building on that foundation of local expertise and knowledge by establishing the Local Journalism Network of independent journalists to report for the ABC.
“We’ve had producers doing training with them, teaching them how to shoot good TV pictures and we’ve provided mobile journalism kits that enable them to quickly do a TV cross.
“In filing for the ABC, they can tell stories local media often can’t but the challenge for us is protecting them.”
Support and protection from the ABC has been welcomed by Movono. Renowned for her tough questioning, she has endured personal threats and harassment over the course of her career, but the country is now moving into a new era of openness with the newly-elected Rabuka government repealing the controversial Media Industry Development Act that was introduced under military law in 2010 and has been regarded as a restraint on media freedom.
In an international scoop, Movono landed an interview with the new Prime Minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, for the first episode of The Pacific.
Lice Movono secured an exclusive interview with the new Prime Minister of Fiji, Sitiveni Rabuka, for the first episode of The Pacific. Image: ABC News
“When I knew that there was going to be a segment of The Pacific where we could Talanoa with leaders of the Pacific, it was important for me to position the ABC as the one international organisation that Rabuka would do an interview with,” she says.
“I knew, with the new government only weeks into power, it was going to be a challenge. The government is dealing with a failing economy, a divided country, high inflation, high levels of poverty, the ongoing recovery from covid and trying to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
“But he has made progress as a Pacific leader, as the leader of a country just coming out of a military dictatorship, and he’s done some significant work in the region. So, it was a very significant interview, probably one of the most important assignments of my career.”
In addition to new content and engagement of local journalists, ABC International Services is also expanding the FM footprint for ABC Radio Australia and enhancing media training across the region.
As she prepared for the first episode of The Pacific to go to air, Tahlea Aualiitia was keen to hear the feedback from the audience and — with some trepidation– from family and friends in Samoa.
“I think that’s the part that I’m most nervous about,” she says.
“I know that they will lovingly make fun of my struggling to pronounce Samoan words properly, given I grew up in Australia, but I know they’re already proud of me because of the work I’m doing here.
“Having said that, my brother is a doctor, so I don’t think I’ll ever reach that level of family pride but I’m getting closer!”
Flashback to a cover story in African Development magazine in April 1974. The Trans-African Highway (TAH) was expected to ease trade and other contacts between East and West Africa when completed in 1976. But the amount of work to be done on the road in the different countries through which it passed varied greatly, as David Robie found when he travelled in his Kombi across more than 6400 kilometres from Mombasa (Kenya) to Lagos (Nigeria). This was part of Robie’s epic African odyssey in the blue Kombi named “Tūhoe” in honour of the Te Urewera people from Cape Town to Algiers and then on to Paris via Ceuta, Morocco.
By David Robie
Africa’s prestige road, the Trans African Highway (TAH) from the Kenyan port of Mombasa on the shores of the Indian Ocean to the hectic Nigerian capital Lagos on the Atlantic, is taking shape mile by mile.
The 4000 mile (6438 km) route through Kenya, Uganda, Zaire, Central African Republic, Cameroon and Nigeria will be completed within four years, according to experts at the highway’s coordinating conference in Mombasa last year.
Dr Robert Gardiner, executive secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa, is even more optimistic. “With determination and readiness,” he says, “the first inaugural trip to Lagos will be made in 1976.”
The projected route for the Trans-African Highway between Mombasa (Kenya) to Lagos (Nigeria) in 1972. Map: Gemini News Agency/With David Robie’s article.
The projected route, starting in Kenya, climbs from Mombasa to Nairobi, follows the highlands to Eldoret and drops away to the Ugandan border. Through Uganda it crosses the Victoria Nile to Kampala and then skirts the Ruwenzori — the fabled Mountains of the Moon.
Yaoundé bypassed
In Zaire, the route penetrates almost 1000 miles of tropical jungle, including the wild Ituri forest, home of the pygmy tribes. It meets the Zaire river (former Congo) at Kisangani, the dreary capital of Upper Zaire province. From Bangassou, the route crosses rolling countryside of the Central African Republic to chic Bangui and on to the Cameroon border.
Across Cameroon it is ill-defined. The major port of Douala and the capital Yaoundé are being bypassed in favour of a route further north through Tibati, crossing several old Fon kingdoms and straddling the Cameroon highlands. From the Nigerian border it carries on through scrubland to Enugu, Onitsha, across the mighty Niger river, and into the forest again to Benin City and Lagos.
Kenya and Uganda’s share of the roads are mainly asphalt and little needs to be done. Nigeroa’s roads are mainly asphalt, too, but many of them were badly damaged during the three-year Nigerian civil war (6 July 1967 – 15 January 1970) fought with the secessionist republic of Biafra. Most of the rest of the route — particularly through Zaire — is in a bad way.
The article header on David Robie’s African Development article about the Trans-African Highway, 1974.
At independence in 1960, Zaire had a comprehensive system of roads in the north-east region. However, the roads have been severely neglected in the last decade and some are now the worst on the whole Trans-African route.
For nine month of the year heavy rain turns roads in the Zaire basin into treacherous slush. For the other three months the tracks dry out a little but many sections remain difficult, if not impassable, for vehciles without four-wheel drive (even Land-Rovers often find them too much).
I crossed Zaire during December, one of the “drier” months. There was no rain in 15 days of driving , but the worst leg of the highway — between the tiny village of Tele and the derelict town of Buta — was 50 miles (80 km) of 3ft (1m) deep mudholes and scoured out ridges.
It took almost three days to battle my way through the worst part — nine hours to go merely one mile (1.6 km). I picked up a soldier and a labourer (they were seeking a lift to their village) for extra pushing power. They were invaluable for recruiting whole groups of villagers to help out in trouble spots — for negotiated fees of 10 makuta a head (about 9p), bars of soap, bags of sugar, old sandals or shorts, or something similar.
But even with 20 men pushing and preparatory swork with tree trunks cut from the forest and a high-lift jack it took three hours of solid work getting through the worst holes.
The road is considered a “hell run” by Zairean drivers. It is only 200 miles (322 km) from Kisangani to Buta, but they prefer to drive 840 miles (1352 km) through Isiro than to tackle the Tele road.
Yet trucks continually get bogged elsewhere. Midway between Mambasa and Nia-Nia I encountered a truck which had been trapped in a 4ft (1.2m) deep mudhole for 14 hours. Rescuers struggled to free it, but on each attempt it was sucked deeper into the putrid mire so that the tray was level with the track.
A road gang eventually arrived, towed out the truck and filled in the giant hole — but not before 30 trucks had piled up waiting to get through. Image: David Robie/African Development/Trans African scrapbook
On one side 12 trucks were held up waiting to get through and on the other side there were eight. There was no way around because the jungle grew right to the edge of the road.
A road gang eventually arrived, towed out the truck and filled in the giant hole — but not before 30 trucks had piled up waiting to get through.
The drivers take these episodes in their stride. An everyday hazard of Zairean roads.
Bridges in Zaire are also neglected. When planks rot , they are often not replaced and many bridges have gaping holes; north of Kisangani there are makeshift bridges of split logs.
Four river ferries ply the route north of Kisangani, too. Across the Aruwimi River at Nanalia there is a modern 30-tonner, at Bondo there is a 20-tonner, and one near Monga is poled across the river.
The ferry across the Ubangi River from Ndu to Bangassou is operated by a 24-volt electrical system — but the batteries have been stolen (three years ago). Travellers or truck drivers must provide their own batteries or hire a pirogue (dugout boat) to borrow batteries from the mission at Bangassou.
Zairean government ferries are free, but many crews, especially on the Ubangi, take advantage of their isolation to coerce fat tips from passengers.
Huge trees sometimes tumble across roads and travellers have to force a trail through the forest until a path has been cut through the trunk.
Conditions are generally far better in the other highway countries. The Central African Republic has mainly good roads with a few eroded patches and sand drifts in border areas.
Cameroon’s roads in the Tibati region are extremely bad, but better than in Zaire. Kenya and Uganda have first-class roads.
Nigeria has a mixed bag — excellent roads in some places and badly chopped up roads elsewhere.
A 2021 TAH news item on the New Africa Channel.
£200m — £300 being spent
Finance for development of the highway is being provided mainly by grants and sft loans from Belgium, France, Italy, Japan, United States, West Germany, the African Development Bank and the World Bank. Conflicting estimates on total spending vary between 200 million and 300 million pounds sterling.
About 50 percent of the road studies have been completed, 40 percent are assured of financial backing and only 10 percent remain outstanding.
Highway specifications call for 24ft-wide (7.4m) roads with 9ft (2.7m) shoulders capable of supporting vehicles driving at 60 mph (97 kph). Maximum loadings are not yet determined. French-speaking countries support 13 tonnes and the English-speaking nations prefer 10 tons.
Zaire has embarked on a £50 million programme (including an £8 million IDA loan) to develop 1300 miles (2010km) of roads in its north-eastern region. Most of this money will be spent on the Trans African Highway yet the Offices des Routes gives some priority to regional roads such as a new one being prepared from Kisangani through Walikale to Goma on Lake Kivu.
The Belgian-Zaire company Sonozatra has begun improving most of the rioad from Beni to Kisangani. It has already upgraded 205 miles (330 km) from Nia-Nia to Kisangani. Dumez-Zaire, a French company, is working on the on the Kisangani to Buta sector and a yet to be named Japanese comoany will this year begin work from there to the border.
Cameroon also has wide-ranging plans for developing the highway. In a bold move, the Transport and Planning Ministries preferred to ignore the existing reasonable road through Yaoundé and Douala. Instead, it has chosen to construct a road through Tibati to open up bauxite-rich areas near the railhead town Ngaoundere and to develop areas around the Adamaoua foothills which have a high potential for cattle ranching, and rice and maize cultivation.
West German consultants DIWI are studying the possibility of routing the road through the Mbam valley to Magba. The Italian company SIPAC has started work on Meidouga to Tibati. Garoua-Boulai to Meidouga will be left for the moment because highway funds have been diverted to buold a good road from Tibati to Ngaoundere.
The Highways Department is at present constructing a new road from Mamfe to Bamenda and tenders will soon be called for the Bafousem to Foumban road.
About £40 million is being allocated (mainly through USAID, West German and Italian loans) for these projects.
In the Central African Republic, funds are short but 70 miles (113 km) of asphalt is expected to be laid between Damara and Sibut and the French company BCEOM is upgrading 200 miles (322 km) from Bossemtele to Garoua-Boulai.
Uganda will lay asphalt on the last earth road remaining on its share of the route — about 100 miles (161 km) between Kampala and Fort Portal. Kenya generally has good tarmac roads up to the highway specifications.
Nigeria is spending up to £80 million in an impressive programme, including the Lagos to Shagamu leg of a planned freeway to Ibadan. Monier is rebuilding war-damaged bridges and Dumez-Nigeria will construct others between Shagamu and Benin City.
The cover of the Trans African Highway edition of African Development magazine, April 1974.
Dumez-Nigeria has just completed the $4.5 million Benin to Onitsha road and repairs to the Niger bridge will be completed this year. Tenders will soon be called for the shell-pocked Onitsha to Enugu and Enugu to Bamilike roads. A feasibility study is being carried out on the Bamileke to Ekok earth road which becomes impassable during the rains.
Connecting the giant highway will be the two proposed Trans West African Highways and feeder roads in the east from the Somali capital Mogadishu to Nairobi (800 miles — 1290 km), the Zambian capital Lusaka to Nairobi (1500 miles — 2415 km), the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa to Nairobi (1000 miles — 1600 km), the Sudanese capital of Khartoum to Kampala (1350 miles — 2173 km), and Bujumbura in Burundi to Kasindi in Uganda (500 miles — 800 km).
More than 4000 miles (6438 km) of similar roads will link the main urban centres of Chad, Congo, Gabon and Niger with the highway.
Some of these roads, such as from Lusaka to Nairobi, already have lengthy asphalt stretches up to standard. Work on others, such as Mogadishu to Nairobi, will largely be started from scratch. And when the roads are completed there is the difficulty of maintenance. Many of the highway countries are budgeting adequately for road construction but there the money ends.
“The trouble is that many African countries don’t understand the importance of maintenance,” said one engineer in Yaoundé. “They think that once you’ve built a good road, it will look after itself.”
Map of Trans-African Highways 2022. Source: Wikimedia/Michelin Afrique/Google Earth
Common customs, immigration procedures
Perhaps a greater problem than the roads themselves will be persuading the six countries to agree on common customs and immigration procedures, extension of in-bond facilities for transit goods between ports and landlocked nations, vehicle insurance, road regulations, and perking up border efficiency.
When I was leaving Zaire, a couple who had broken down and overstayed their eight-day transit visa had a torrid time with the immigration official. He insisted they must return more than 500 miles (800 km) across bad roads to Kisangani to straighten out the issue.
At last he relented — for a bribe of US$4 and tucked the greenbacks inside the flyleaf of a Bible.
Nigerian customs officials refused me entry at first because my Kenyan-issued international driver’s permit did not include Nigeria in the list of countries on the cover. And then they refused to accept that there was such an vehicle engine number as the one listed in my West Ger man-issued carnet de passage. It took almost three hours before the officials finally let me cross the border.
In Uganda, soldiers rifled through my gear looking fir “guns” while I was leaving the country and troops in Zaire commandeered my van at gunpoint for a joyride (to a nearby village). But these episodes are nothing compared with what many truck drivers experience.
In spite of fuel shortages in many parts of Africa there are serious difficulties only in Zaire on the highway route. When I travelled through it was only possible to buy petrol in three towns — Beni, Kisangani and Bondo – in almost 1000 miles (1600 km).
And it is difficult changing money in Zaire. Bondo,like many towns, had no banking facilities whatsoever, forcing people to resort to currency black markets merely to buy petrol.
Premium grade petrol prices vary from 27p a gallon in oil-rich Nigeria (pegged throughout the country) to nearly 70p in Bangassou, Central African Republic.
Four of the highway ciuntries drive on the right. Only Kenya and Uganda will have to be persuaded to follow suit. London consultants T P O’Sullivan and Partners and the Paris-based Bureau Central d’Etudes pour les Equipments have been commissioned by the Economic Commission for Africa to investigate this sort of problem and make recommendations on hos the six countries can adopt compatable systems. They are expected to present a preliminary report to the highway coordinating committee’s conference from April 3 to 7, 1974.
“When the concept of the highway was raised,” said Kenya’s Vice-President Daniel Arap Moi last year, “many of our friends laughed at us and thought this was one of those white elephants.”
It still has a long way to go but the Trans African Highway will certainly be no white elephant. It will give trade and contact between East and West Africa a tremendous shot in the arm.
This article was originally published by African Development magazine in April, 1974 (pp. 11-13).
The Trans African Highway in 1973 . . . difficult and incomplete but no white elephant. Image: David Robie montage FB
NZ pilot Philip Mehrtens held hostage by West Papuan rebels . . . search for his location now covers 36,000 sq km. Image: RNZ Pacific/FB
RNZ Pacific
The authorities in Indonesia’s Papua region say the search for a New Zealand pilot taken hostage by West Papua Liberation Movement freedom fighters more than two months ago has been extended.
Commissioner Rahmadani said several efforts have been carried out to rescue the pilot, including involving a negotiating team comprising community leaders, the publication reported.
However, the negotiation has not yielded any results.
The search now covers about 36,000 sq km.
Commissioner Rahmadani said the safety of Captain Merthens was the priority for his team.
In the video, which was sent to RNZ Pacific, Mehrtens was instructed to read a statement saying “no foreign pilots are to work and fly” into Highlands Papua until Papua was independent.
He made another demand for West Papua independence from Indonesia later in the statement.
Mehrtens was surrounded by more than a dozen people, some of them armed with weapons.
Previously, a TPNPB spokesperson said they were waiting for a response from the New Zealand government to negotiate the release of Mehrtens.
In February, United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) leader Benny Wenda called for the rebels to release Mehrtens.
He said he sympathised with the New Zealand people and Merhtens’ family but insisted the situation was a result of Indonesia’s refusal to allow the UN Human Rights Commissioner to visit Papua.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
The West Papua Liberation Army says they would drop the key demand that Jakarta recognise the independence of the Papua region #WestPapua#nzpolhttps://t.co/I2Vd13w66G
