Frontline investigative articles on Aotearoa New Zealand’s 23-day Parliament protester siege, social media disinformation and Asia-Pacific media changes and adaptations are featured in the latest Pacific Journalism Review.
The assault on “truth telling” reportage is led by The Disinformation Project, which warns that “conspiratorial thought continues to impact on the lives and actions of our communities”, and alt-right video researcher Byron C Clark.
Several articles focus on the Philippines general election with the return of the Marcos dynasty following the elevation of the late dictator’s son Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr and the crackdown on independent media, including Nobel Peace Prize co-laureate Maria Ressa’s Rappler.
Columbia Journalism School’s Centre for Investigative Journalism director Sheila Coronel writes of her experiences under the Marcos dictatorship: “Marcos is a hungry ghost. He torments our dreams, lays claim to our memories, and feeds our hopes.”
But with Marcos Jr’s landslide victory in May, she warns: “You will be in La-La Land, a country without memory, without justice, without accountability. Only the endless loop of one family, the soundtrack provided by Imelda.”
The themed section draws on research papers from a recent Asian Congress for Media and Communication conference (ACMC) hosted by Auckland University of Technology (AUT) introduced by convenor Khairiah A Rahman with keynotes by Asia Pacific Report editor David Robie and Rappler executive editor Glenda Gloria.
In the editorial titled “Fighting self-delusion and lies”, Philip Cass writes of the surreal crises in the Ukraine War and the United States and the challenges for journalists in the Asia-Pacific region:
“Similarly, there are national leaders in the Pacific who seem to truly want to believe that China really is their friend instead of being an aggressive imperialist power acting the same way the European powers did in the 19th century.”
With the Photoessay in this edition, visual storyteller and researcher Todd Henry explores how kava consumption has spread through the Pacific and into the diasporic community in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Pacific Journalism Review … the latest edition cover. Image: PJR
His “Visual peregrinations in the realm of kava” article and images also examine the way Pasifika women are carving their own space in kava ceremonies.
Unthemed topics include Afghanistan, the Taliban and the “liberation narrative” in New Zealand, industrial inertia among Queensland journalists, and Chinese media consumption and political engagement in Aotearoa.
Pacific Journalism Review, founded at the University of Papua New Guinea, is now in its 28th year and is New Zealand’s oldest journalism research publication and the highest ranked communication journal in the country.
The latest edition of the journal, now produced by the Asia Pacific Media Network (APMN), is published today.
Fires and clashes with police as protesters are removed from New Zealand's parliament grounds on 2 March 2022. Image: Screenshot Guardian video https://youtu.be/pFOWPUoDkVc
Fires burned across Aotearoa New Zealand’s Parliament grounds, and violent clashes broke out between protesters and police on the day the law enforcement officers moved to quell a 23-day anti-vaccination mandate siege of the House in February-March 2022 in scenes rarely witnessed in this country.
The riot climaxed a mounting campaign of disinformation and hate speech on social media fuelled by conspiracy theorist New Zealand activist media such as Counterspin, which emulated their counterparts in the United States.
Vitriolic death threats against political leaders and attacks on journalists and the media on an unprecedented scale were a feature of the protests.
Anti-government messages were imported alongside white supremacist ideologies. Researchers have described the events as a ‘tectonic shift’ that will have a significant and lasting impact on Aotearoa New Zealand’s democratic institutions
This article introduces three perspectives about the protests and disinformation ecology framed in the journal’s reflexive series Frontline.
This keynote commentary at the Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) conference with the theme Change, Adaptation and Culture: Media and Communication in Pandemic Times is addressed through a discussion of three main issues:
The Covid-19 Pandemic and how it is being coped with;
A parallel Infodemic—a crisis of communication, and the surge of ‘disinformation’ and truth challenges in an ‘age of hatred and intolerance’; and
The global Climate Emergency and the disproportionate impact this is having on the Asia-Pacific region.
Finally the author concludes with an overview of some helpful strategies for communicators and educators from his perspective as a journalist and media academic with a mission.
Cover photograph from the new West Papua report “Don’t Abandon Us”: Preventing mass atrocities in Papua, Indonesia. Image: EWP cover
By Asia Pacific Report editor David Robie
A lively 43sec video clip surfaced during last week’s Pacific Islands Forum in the Fiji capital of Suva — the first live leaders’ forum in three years since Tuvalu, due to the covid pandemic.
Posted on Twitter by Guardian Australia’s Pacific Project editor Kate Lyons it showed the doorstopping of Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare by a melee of mainly Australian journalists.
A doorstop on security and China greets Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare (in blue shirt) at the Pacific islands Forum in Suva last week. Image: Twitter screenshot @MsKateLyons
But Lyons made a comment directed more at questioning journalists themselves about their newsgathering style:
“Australian media attempt to get a response from PM Sogavare, who has refused to answer questions from international media since the signing of the China security deal, on his way to a bilateral with PM Albanese. He stayed smilingly silent.”
Prominent Samoan journalist, columnist and member of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) gender council Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson picked up the thread, saying: “Let’s talk western journalism vs Pacific doorstop approaches.”
Lagipoiva highlighted for her followers the fact that “the journos engaged in this approach are all white”. She continued:
‘A respect thing’
“We don’t really do this in the Pacific to PI leaders. it’s a respect thing. However there is merit to this approach.”
A “confrontational” approach isn’t generally practised in the Pacific – “in Samoa, doorstops are still respectful.”
A thread⤵️
Let’s talk western journalism vs. Pacific journalism doorstop approaches. You will see in this, that the journos engaged in this approach are all white. We don’t really do this in the Pacific to PI leaders. It’s a respect thing. However there is merit to this approach. https://t.co/GcsJVDICFb
But she admitted that Pacific journalists sometimes “leaned” on western journalists to ask the hard questions when PI leaders would “disregard local journalists”.
“Even though this approach is very jarring”, she added, “it is also a necessary tactic to hold Pacific island leaders accountable.”
So here is the rub. Where were the hard questions in Suva — whether “western or Pacific-style” — about West Papua and Indonesian human rights abuses against a Melanesian neighbour? Surely here was a prime case in favour of doorstopping with a fresh outbreak of violations by Indonesian security forces – an estimated 21,000 troops are now deployed in Papua and West Papua provinces — in the news coinciding with the Forum unfolding on July 11-14.
In her wrap about the Forum in The Guardian, Lyons wrote about how smiles and unity in Suva – “with the notable exception of Kiribati” – were masking the tough questions being shelved for another day.
“Take coal. This will inevitably be a sticking point between Pacific countries and Australia, but apparently did not come up at all in discussions,” she wrote.
“The other conversation that has been put off is China.
“Pacific leaders have demonstrated in recent months how important the Pacific Islands Forum bloc is when negotiating with the superpower.”
Forum ‘failed moral obligation’
In a column in DevPolicy Blog this week, Fiji opposition National Federation Party (NFP) leader and former University of the South Pacific economics professor Dr Biman Prasad criticised forum leaders — and particularly Australia and New Zealand — over the “deafening silence” about declining standards of democracy and governance.
While acknowledging that an emphasis on the climate crisis was necessary and welcome, he said: “Human rights – including freedom of speech – underpin all other rights, and it is unfortunate that that this Forum failed in its moral obligation to send out a strong message of its commitment to upholding these rights.”
Back to West Papua, arguably the most explosive security issue confronting the Pacific and yet inexplicably virtually ignored by the Australian and New Zealand governments and news media. The final PIF communiqué failed to mention West Papua.
Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre coordinator Shamima Ali and fellow activists at the Morning Star flag raising in solidarity with West Papua in Suva last week. Image: APR screenshot FV
In Suva, it was left to non-government organisations and advocacy groups such as the Australia West Papua Association (AWPA) and the Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre (FWCC) to carry the Morning Star banner of resistance — as West Papua’s banned flag is named.
The Fiji women’s advocacy group condemned their government and host Prime Minister Bainimarama for remaining silent over the human rights violations in West Papua, saying that women and girls were “suffering twofold” due to the increased militarisation of the two provinces of Papua and West Papuan by the “cruel Indonesian government”.
Spokesperson Joe Collins of the Sydney-based AWPA said the Fiji Forum was a “missed opportunity” to help people who were suffering at the hands of Jakarta actions.
“It’s very important that West Papua appears to be making progress,” he said, particularly in this Melanesian region which had the support of Pacific people.
Intensified violence in Papua
The day after the Forum ended, Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) general secretary Reverend James Bhagwan highlighted in an interview with FijiVillage how 100,000 people had been displaced due to intensified violence in the “land of Papua”.
Pacific Conference of Churches general secretary Reverend James Bhagwan … “significant displacement of the indigenous Papuans has been noted by United Nations experts.” Image: FijiVillage
He said the increasing number of casualties of West Papuans was hard to determine because no humanitarian agencies, NGOs or journalists were allowed to enter the region and report on the humanitarian crisis.
Reverend Bhagwan also stressed that covid-19 and climate change reminded Pacific people that there needed to be an “expanded concept of security” that included human security and humanitarian assistance.
In London, the Indonesian human rights advocacy group Tapol expressed “deep sorrow” over the recent events coinciding with the Forum, and condemned the escalating violence by Jakarta’s security forces and the retaliation by resistance groups.
Tapol cited “the destruction and repressive actions of the security forces at the Paniai Regent’s Office (Kantor Bupati Paniai) that caused the death of one person and the injury of others on July 5″.
“Acts of violence against civilians, when they lead to deaths — whoever is responsible — should be condemned,” Tapol said.
“We call on these two incidents to be investigated in an impartial, independent, appropriate and comprehensive manner by those who have the authority and competency to do so.”
“Don’t Abandon Us”: Preventing mass atrocities in Papua, Indonesia. Image: EWP cover
“In both, atrocities would be committed by militia with tacit support or acquiescence from Indonesian security forces, in response to increasing protests and/or rebel attacks by Indigenous Papuans demanding independence from Indonesia.”
The report praised the role of two independent indigenous media, Jubi and Suara Papua, for providing “balanced news about Papua” in contrast to Indonesian “mouthpiece” media.
“Jubi and Suara Papua are often seen as representing the views of Indigenous Papuans. However, the Indonesian government and security forces view Jubi and Suara Papua as tools of the separatists,” the report said.
“In April 2021, Jubi’s editor-in-chief, Victor Mambor, who [has] often received threats and intimidation, had his car vandalised by unknown people. Suara Papua’s website has repeatedly been hacked and its editors regularly harassed and intimidated.
“Media like Jubi and Suara Papua mitigate mass atrocity risk in Papua because they strive for objective journalism and represent the views of the Papuan people, who are often portrayed negatively by national and local media.”
“Without journalists who will tell it like it is no matter the consequences, the future will continue to be one of alternate facts and manipulated opinions” - Rappler executive editor Glenda Gloria. Image: Asia Pacific Media Network
Asia Media Centre
Journalists and journalism are waging a global struggle for survival and for “truth” against fake news and alternative facts, say two Asia-Pacific media commentators.
“Without journalists who will tell it like it is no matter the consequences, the future will continue to be one of alternate facts and manipulated opinions,” Rappler executive editor Glenda Gloria told about 135 media scholars, journalists and researchers at the opening of the Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) in Auckland this week.
“As we’ve experienced at Rappler, the battle to save journalism cannot be fought by journalists alone, and cannot be fought from our laptops alone. The battle for truth is a battle we must share — and fight — with other groups and citizens
“Each time our freedoms are threatened, we should have no qualms engaging other democracy front-liners and participating in collective efforts to resist authoritarianism.”
However, she told the virtual conference hosted at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) she believed that journalists had the motivation and enough understanding now to “stop the tide of disinformation” that fueled the spread of authoritarianism.
“In this environment, make no doubt: Journalism is activism,” added the award-winning investigative journalist and author who heads the digital website that has repeatedly angered Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte with its exposés.
Another keynote speaker, Dr David Robie, founding director of the Pacific Media Centre and retired professor of Pacific journalism at AUT, condemned a “surge of global information pollution”.
Disinformation damaging democracy
He outlined how disinformation was damaging democracy and encouraging authoritarianism across the Pacific, singling out Fiji and Papua New Guinea for particular criticism.
Dr Robie cited how authorities in PNG had been forced to abandon mobile health clinics and teams of health workers carrying out covid-19 vaccination and awareness programmes because of the increasingly risky attacks against them.
He said much of the content used by anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists which framed the covid-19 response as a fight between the individual and the allegedly “treacherous” state had been repackaged from US and Australia vested interests.
Dr Robie said universities could do far more in the fight against disinformation and praised initiatives such as the RMIT fact-checking collaboration with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), The Conversation news and academia project, The Juncture journalism school website, and the new Monash University backed 360info wire news service.
“The challenge confronting many communication programmes and journalism schools located in universities or tertiary institutions is what to do about authoritarianism, how to tackle the strain of an ever-changing health and science agenda, the deluge of disinformation and the more rapid than predicted escalation of climate catastrophe,” he said.
Professor David Robie is a New Zealand author, journalist and media educator who has covered the Asia-Pacific region for international media for more than two decades. Image: AUT
“One of the answers is greater specialisation and advanced programmes rather than just relying on generalist strategies and expecting graduates to fit neatly into already configured newsroom boxes.
“The more that universities can do to equip graduates with advanced problem-solving skills, the more adept they will be at developing advanced ways of reporting on the pandemic — and other likely pandemics of the future — contesting the merchants of disinformation and reporting on the climate crisis.”
Dr Robie, who was awarded the 2015 AMIC Asian Communications prize, pioneered several student journalist projects in the region such as intensive coverage of the 2000 Fiji coup and the 2011 Pacific Islands Forum, and more recently the 2016-2018 Bearing Witness and 2020 Climate and Covid project in partnership with Internews.
Journalism Nobel Peace Prize
Glenda Gloria said her entire editorial team had been delighted when their chief executive Maria Ressa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize – along with Russian editor Dmitry Muratov. Ressa was the first Filipino Nobel laureate and “some of us started calling our office the Nobel newsroom”.
“This immense pride that we feel isn’t just because Maria is our CEO, it is that the prize went to two journalists who have faced the toughest challenges imposed by authoritarian states,” Gloria said.
Filipino-American journalist and author Maria Ressa, co-founder and CEO of Rappler, and the first Filipino Nobel Prize laureate. Image: APR
“More than that, the Nobel prize puts a global spotlight on the extraordinary dangers that we journalists face today.
“To many of us in the Global South, journalism has always been considered a dangerous profession long before media watchdogs started ranking countries around the world according to the freedoms enjoyed by their press.
“And yet, despite all that we have seen and experienced, it’s no exaggeration to say that this is the most challenging period for journalism.
“At stake today is our very existence, our relevance, and our ability to speak truth to power.”
The conference was opened following a traditional mihi by AUT’s acting dean of the Faculty of Design and Communication Technologies, Professor Felix Tan, and ACMC president Professor Azman Azwan Azamati of Malaysia.
Master of ceremonies duties are being shared by AUT’s Khairiah A. Rahman, the chief conference organiser, and Dino Cantal of Trinity University of Asia.
More than 40 media and communication research papers are being presented over three days with the conference ending on Saturday afternoon.
This keynote commentary at the Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) conference with the theme Change, Adaptation and Culture: Media and Communication in Pandemic Times.
It is addressed through a discussion of three main issues: 1. The Covid-19 Pandemic and how it is being coped with; 2. A parallel Infodemic—a crisis of communication, and the surge of “disinformation” and truth challenges in an “age of hatred and intolerance”; and 3. The global Climate Emergency and the disproportionate impact this is having on the Asia-Pacific region.
Finally the author concludes with an overview of some helpful strategies for communicators and educators from his perspective as a journalist and media academic with a mission.
The keynote speech at the ACMC conference. Video: Café Pacific
Censured or punished? Conflicting reports about the alleged punishment of the two Indonesian Air Force military policemen who stomped on the head of young Papuan Steven Yadohamang at Merauke last week. Image: Yumi Toktok Stret
SPECIAL REPORT: By David Robie
It is open season again for Indonesian trolls targeting Asia Pacific Report and other media with fake news and disinformation dispatches in a crude attempt to gloss over human rights violations.
Just three months ago I wrote about this issue in my “Dear editor” article exposing the disinformation campaign. There was silence for a while but now the fake letters to the editor — and other media outlets — have started again in earnest.
The latest four lengthy letters emailed to APR canvas the following topics — Jakarta’s controversial special autonomy status revised law for Papua, a brutal assault by Indonesian Air Force military policemen on a deaf Papuan man, and a shooting incident allegedly committed by pro-independence rebels — and they appear to have been written from a stock template.
And they all purport to have been written by “Papuan students” or “Papuans”. Are they their real names, and do they even exist?
The latest letter to Asia Pacific Report, dated July 30, was written by a “Paulus Ndiken” who claims:
“I’m a native Papuan currently living in Merauke, Papua, Indonesia. I would like to address your cover story about Indonesia apologises for ‘excessive force’ against deaf Papuan man.
“One day after the incident, the Indonesian Air Force had detained and punished severely 2 members … that had roughly apprehending [sic] Esebius Bapaimu in Merauke, Papua province.”
Dubious reputation
The letter linked to Yumi Toktok Stret, a website with a dubious reputation with accuracy. The report was sketchy and the correct name of the assaulted man, according to reputable news media and Papuan sources, is actually Steven Yadohamang.
“We regret that this kind of rough-housing [sic] happened on the street,” wrote correspondent “Ndiken”, “but we, as Papuans, [are] also glad to know that these perpetrators have received sound punishment …
“Responding to the unfortunate events, the Indonesian netizens had asked for the Indonesian military to immediately take action against the guilty party and were glad that the institution had addressed the people’s concern in a very fast manner.”
A more nuanced and accurate article was written for Asia Pacific Report by Brisbane-based West Papuan academic Yamin Kogoya who compared the “inhumane” assault to the tragic killing of George Floyd in the United States after a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for nine minutes as he lay face down in the street on 25 May 2020.
Excerpt from one of the spate of questionable letters received by Asia Pacific Report about Papua. Image: Screenshot
How Tabloid Jubi reported the assault on 29 July 2021.
Another letter writer, “Michael Wamebu” … “a native West Papuan living in Merauke”, said on June 29 he would like to bring our attention to West Papua, “which has been painted as if the whole island is in conflict, when actually [there are] only a few small areas [that] were invaded by the Free Papua terrorists that had been exposed to enormous violence.
“I would like to assure the world that there [is] nothing like a full-blown war.”
In the lengthy letter about an incident on June 4 when four civilians were killed in a shooting and two were wounded, “Wamebu” provided alleged details that are likely to have been provided by military sources and at variance with actual news reports at the time.
‘Spike’ over special autonomy
“Yamkon Doleon”, a “student from West Papua and currently studying in Yogyakarta, Indonesia” wrote on July 19 that there had been “a spike in the topic of Papuan special autonomy in social media and also [in] a few international media”.
Launching into a defence of the new Special Autonomy for Papua law for the governance of the two Melanesian provinces of Papua and West Papua for the next two decades – adopted by the House of Representatives in Jakarta last month without consultation with the Papuans, “Doleon” wrote:
“The Special Autonomy itself is a law that guarantees every Papuan to be the leader of their region, to have free education, free health service, and a boost I [the] economy … So which article is not in favour of the people?”
In a comment about the spate of Indonesian troll messages to some media outlets, West Papua Media Alerts said:
“Indonesian intelligence bots, go away. You are being banned and reported and deleted everytime you post, so go away.”
The engaged media advocacy and news service continued: “It is clear we are telling the truth, otherwise you wouldn’t have to spend so much money trying to counter it with a transparent influence exercise. Go home, invaders.
“Friends, there are literally over a hundred sock accounts using random Anglo names, and the same script response. These accounts all come from the BIN-run FirstMedia in Jakarta, and were all created after March 2.
West Papua Media Alerts message to “Indonesian bots”. Image: Screenshot
Report fake accounts
“If you see a comment, please click through on the account name, click the 3 dots and report them as a fake account and going against community standards. We will obviously delete and ban these fake accounts.”
Meanwhile, the London-based Indonesian human rights watchdog Tapol has strongly condemned the two Air Force military policemen who severely beat the disabled man, Steven Yadohamang, in Merauke, Papua, on 27 July 2021.
Video footage which has been widely shared on social media, shows the two personnel beating up a man and crushing his body into the ground and stamping on his head.
Tapol said in a statement: “It is clear from the footage that Yadohamang does not possess the capacity to defend himself against two individuals who appear to be unconcerned with possible consequences.”
A similar incident in Nabire took place the following day, said the statement. A West Papuan man, Nicolas Mote, was suddenly smacked on the head repeatedly during his arrest despite not resisting.
“The incident follows a spate of previous violent incidents committed by the security forces against civilians in West Papua province and is likely to raise further questions about what purpose increasing numbers of military personnel are serving in West Papua,” Tapol said.
Although the Air Force had apologised, it had suggested that the two military policemen, Second Sergeant Dimas Harjanto and Second Private Rian Febrianto, alone should bear responsibility for the incident, said the watchdog.
‘Pattern of violence’
“They, and the Indonesian media, have described the soldiers as ‘rogues’. This assessment is not consistent with a pattern of violence committed against civilians that has been allowed to go unpunished in recent months and years,” Tapol said.
“Indeed, had there not been such indisputable visual evidence of security force violence, it is entirely possible that the incident would not now be subject to further investigation by the authorities.
“But despite facing punishment, the perpetrators are likely to only to receive light sentences because they will be tried in military courts.”
Following the end of the New Order period, civilian politicians were not pushing for military personnel to be tried in civilian courts.
Since 2019, there had been a steady build-up of military and police personnel in the two provinces of Papua and West Papua, said Tapol.
“Deployments and security force operations have increased further since April 2021, when the Coordinating Minister for Politics and Security, Mahfud MD, designated the armed resistance movement, TPNPB, as a ‘terrorist’ group.
“West Papuans and Indonesians have raised concerns that the designation would further stigmatise ordinary West Papuans.
“We would also highlight that in West Papua there are significant underlying problems with institutionalised racism by the authorities.”
Tapol called on President Joko Widodo and the House of Representatives of Indonesia to finish the post-Suharto agenda of reforming the military to combat a culture of impunity over human rights violations in West Papua.
The Facebook prime minister: how Jacinda Ardern became New Zealand’s most successful political influencer ... as reported in The Conversation. Image: Screenshot The Conversation
By David Robie, book chapter in Racism and Politicization
In contrast to disastrous Western exceptionalist trends in Europe and the United States in countering the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, New Zealand was influenced by the success of Asian countries such as Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam. New Zealand was conscious of its strategic responsibility for vulnerable Pacific Island nations and launched a bold ‘go hard and go early’ offensive.
After an impressive two-month lockdown period that gave the country time to strengthen its public health defenses, health experts predicted a 97 percent chance of COVID-19 being eliminated. However, there was a relapse in August 2020 when a sudden cluster emerged in the country’s largest city which threatened New Zealand’s COVID-free status. This cluster in turn was contained and eliminated.
But the health issue dominated the economic recovery debate until the general election on October 17 when Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s youngest and most popular political leader, won re-election with a landslide victory. The news media initially played a decisive support role in Ardern’s ‘kindness’ model in rallying a united nation, but later this fragmented.
It really is bizarre. After 26 months of wrangling, stakeholders’ representations and appeals by the Pacific Media Centre participants to Auckland University of Technology management, in the end the innovative unit remains in limbo.
In fact, sadly it seems like a dead end.
In my 28 years as a media educator across four institutions in four countries I have never experienced as something as blatant, destructive and lacking in transparency as this.
Six weeks after I retired as founding director of the centre last December, the PMC office in AUT’s Sir Paul Reeves building was removed by packing up all the Pacific taonga, archives, books and files supporting student projects without consulting the stakeholders.
And then the award-winning staff running the centre on a de facto basis were apparently marginalised.
As former Green Party MP Catherine Delahunty noted: “I am really shocked that a vibrant well developed centre is being treated like this – what is wrong with this institution?”
Academics such as Waikato University’s former associate professor in film and digital studies Geoff Leyland, who produced several landmark research studies on the nature of New Zealand journalism and journalists, complained: “AUT have acted woefully [and the PMC’s heritage] has been treated shamefully.”
Across the Tasman, former Monash University head of journalism and creator of Australia’s first doctorate in journalism programme, Professor Chris Nash, said: “Disgusting … A focus on so-called ‘new’ or digital media is a stalking horse for displacing journalism with apolitical communications studies.” He is author of the challenging What is Journalism? The Art and Politics of a Rupture.
And in the Pacific, the doyen of Polynesian publishing, Tonga’s Kalafi Moala, Taimi ‘o Tonga founder and author of The Kingdom Strikes Back, remarked: “That’s unbelievable. What kind of people are running AUT now? We are still trying to get over the Gestapo-style deportation of the [University of the South Pacific vice-chancellor] from Fiji, and now this? Without any consultation? How shameful!”
Head of the Pacific’s regional journalism programme at the University of the South Pacific, Associate Professor Shailendra Singh, wrote: “It’s a cruel irony that at a time when Pacific journalism is at the crossroads – if not on its knees – and needs to be better understood to be helped and strengthened to face new challenges, specialised Pacific journalism and research programmes in one of the centres of excellence in the region face an uncertain future. It just feels sad and surreal.”
In a perceptive article arguing that the Pacific Media Centre : Te Amokura “must break free to survive”, media analyst Dr Gavin Ellis, a former editor-in-chief of The New Zealand Herald, wrote that it ought to be “re-established as a stand-alone trust. It should continue its original remit … It may be time, however, to find a new university partner. I fear AUT has damaged its associations beyond repair.”
Assistant Vice-Chancellor (Pasifika) Luamanuvao Dame Winnie Laban of Victoria University, who opened the PMC as a cabinet minister a decade earlier in 2007, and director Professor David Robie at the 10th anniversary celebration in 2017. Image: Del Abcede/APR
Opened by then Pacific Affairs Minister Luamanuvao Dame Winnie Laban in October 2007, the centre embarked on a vibrant, high profile campaign over 13 years with award-winning student media productions; projects such as Pacific Media Watch on media freedom and Bearing Witness on climate change; student internships in the Asia-Pacific region stretching from Beijing, China, to Suva, Fiji, Port Vila, Vanuatu, and the Cook Islands; partnerships with the University of the South Pacific and Universitas Gadjah Mada journalism and communication programmes and others; book and journal publications such as the SCOPUS-ranked Pacific Journalism Review and Pacific Journalism Monographs; and quality research (two out of the School of Communication Studies’ three A researchers ranked by the Performance-Based Research Fund [PBRF] in 2018 were based in the centre). (1)
Conflict, Custom & Conscience: Photojournalism and the Pacific Media Centre 2007-2017 . . . published to mark PMC’s 10th anniversary.
It celebrated a decade of achievement in 2017 with the publication of a photojournalism book, Conflict, Custom & Conscience (Marbrook, Abcede, Robertson & Robie) (2), and an international media freedom conference featuring Philippine Centre for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) executive director Malou Mangahas and RNZ Melanesian affairs editor Johnny Blades as the keynotes.
A short video about the Pacific Media Centre made by graduate Sasya Wreksono to mark the 10th anniversary of the centre.
The development communication kaupapa of the centre (established by the faculty as part of the Creative Industries Research Institute based on a Pacific media and politics research cluster in the 2006 PBRF) was: “Informed journalism and media research contributes to economic, political and social development and [the centre] … seeks to stimulate research into contemporary Māori, Pasifika, Asia-Pacific and ethnic/diversity media and culture production.”
The last PMC 2020 Annual Report.
However, the elephant in the room was, as Professor Mark Pearson noted in a comprehensive external review of the centre in 2013, that while the centre had become a research and education “jewel in the AUT crown”, its operations “will not be sustainable beyond the tenure of the current director, Professor David Robie, without institutional, faculty and school commitment”. (3)
Sadly, that long-term commitment was not sustained in spite of various management promises, especially under the current school leadership in the past two years. The centre has been effectively derailed by a series of inept decisions.
We fear for the centre’s future in spite of the hard and dedicated work by the voluntary team at PMC, my former colleagues, over many months.
Consider the following:
In April 2019, a deputation from the centre’s cross-disciplinary advisory board (PMCAB) met the faculty dean, Professor Guy Littlefair, then also acting as head of school (HOS), and then deputy HOS Dr Frances Nelson to discuss the future of the centre following the deputation’s appeal to the vice-chancellor. Representing the centre were me as then director; the chair of the PMC Advisory Board Associate Professor Camille Nakhid – who has helped guide the centre since it began; and senior board member Khairiah Rahman.
We were assured that the PMC would continue as a “named” research centre, but my proposed succession plan which would have guaranteed the recruitment of a high profile Pacific-born media researcher, educator and journalist to continue the work of the centre was ignored.
Instead, I left New Zealand in July 2019 on a half-year research sabbatical in Europe, the Middle East and Asia with the management failing to provide any staff relief for the centre with a view to the future.
In March 2020, after I returned from sabbatical, the PMC provided the head of school with a “voice of the voiceless” vision statement and operations plan for the centre (prepared by advisory board member and Bearing Witness climate project documentary co-leader Jim Marbrook, Khairiah Rahman, A/Professor Camille Nakhid and me). Nothing was done.
Funding was cut for one of the core Pacific Media Centre projects, the award-winning Pacific Media Watch, by a change in policy without consultation. (However, the PMC negotiated in June 2020 a climate and covid project to fill the gap with a US$10,000 international climate change and covid-19 grant by Internews/The Earth Network).
On 18 December 2020 – the day I officially retired – I wrote to vice-chancellor Derek McCormack (after earlier letters in the previous three years), expressing my concern about the future of the centre, saying the situation was “unconscionable and inexplicable”. I never had the courtesy of a reply.
On 16 February 2021, the Pacific Media Centre office was closed on the instructions of the head of school, Dr Rosser Johnson, and emptied of its archives and Pacific taonga without consultation with any staff involved in the centre. This action prompted a “please explain” letter being sent by the Australia Asia Pacific Media Initiative (AAPMI) watchdog to vice-chancellor McCormack. This prompted journalist Michael Field of The Pacific Newsroom to ask: “Who is killing top Pacific journalism – and why?”
It took the school management three months after I retired to come up with a job description and call for expressions of interest in the director’s role on March 19. The EOI criteria had no reference to any specialist knowledge of “Asia-Pacific” research or publication being required.
Some of the PMC team with faculty dean Professor Guy Littlefair (second from left) at a creative showcase in 2019. From left: Del Abcede, Dr David Robie, Dr Philip Cass, Khairiah Rahman and Associate Professor Camille Nakhid. Image: The Junction
When the AAPMI wrote to McCormack, the watchdog’s co-convenor Jemima Garrett, a former Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Pacific business correspondent and long a leading journalist and trainer in the region, was quite blunt.
But she was also generous about what AUT had contributed to Pacific media and journalism – “at a time when Pacific journalism is under existential threat and Pacific journalism suffer from underfunding” – and called on the university to continue to play a globally pre-eminent role in supporting journalism education, research and collaboration.
“AUT’s Pacific Media Centre (including its associated projects in audio, video and online production and its engagement with Asia and Pacific academic institutions and communities within New Zealand) is the jewel in AUT’s crown,” wrote Garrett.
“As you know, the PMC is the world’s leading Pacific journalism programme [and] is looked to by media professionals and academics from around the world, including in the Pacific and here in Australia. The centre’s research publications and staff and postgraduate student journalism websites (such as PMC Onlinewww.pmc.aut.ac.nz) are valued highly by Australian media professionals and they are frequent contributors.”
The AAPMI thanked the PMC Advisory Board, our volunteers and me for our “pioneering work” in developing the PMC.
“Since Professor Robie’s long expected retirement (at age 75) we are concerned to see the centre without a director and its office relocated without adequate consultation with its stakeholders,” Garrett wrote. “To continue to play its cutting-edge role we believe the Pacific Media Centre needs a world-class director and urge you to advertise the role globally.”
Dr David Robie with books produced at the PMC during his 13-year tenure. Image: Laurens Ikinia/APR
Communication Studies head Dr Rosser Johnson replied on behalf of the vice-chancellor and faculty dean on February 26, saying that “everything that the school is planning will, we believe, enhance its status and increase its visibility”.
Dr Johnson wrote that as part of an office relocation plan involving “16 staff” (none actually directly involved in the PMC), the centre was being relocated from the 10th floor in the Sir Paul Reeves Building (where it had been since 2013, next door to its postgraduate student stakeholders) to the 12th floor (near the administration and staff offices, far from the students and the PMC newsroom).
“This move will mean a one hundred per cent increase in the dedicated PMC office space (from two single offices to two double offices) and guarantees at least as much space for postgraduate students enrolled in research degrees related to Pacific media topics as there was on WG10),” Dr Johnson claimed.
Gone … the Pacific Media Centre office as it was.
“The school staff who moved the items did so under my direction and with the utmost care and professionalism, and the items are safely stored in a locked office in WG12,” wrote Dr Johnson. (There was no inventory drawn up and no consultation with the stakeholders).
“There is no plan to advertise the role of the director of the PMC globally,” continued Dr Johnson.
“Finally,” he said, “let me reassure you that there is no plan to downplay the importance of the Pacific Media Centre.”
Dr Johnson later told the AUT student magazine Debate in its May edition that the PMC office had been relocated for “security reasons” and that the “new leadership” would be announced in April.
Departing Professor David Robie with singing West Papuan students at the final PMC public seminar in December 2020. Image: Del Abcede/APR
That was more than two months ago – and the centre team is still awaiting any word. Kudos to Jim Marbrook, Khairiah Rahman and Camille Nakhid for keeping the fight alive.
Does the Pacific Media Centre still actually exist? And where? Ask the AUT School of Communication Studies. And, if it doesn’t, why not? Let us be honest about the fate of this enterprising journalism research and publication venture.
Dr David Robie is a former head of journalism at the University of Papua New Guinea (1993-1998) and University of the South Pacific (1998-2002), and was founding director of the Pacific Media Centre and the first journalism professor at Auckland University of Technology. He retired from AUT in December 2020 after 18 years at the institution. This article was first published on the author’s blog Café Pacific.
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