Welcome to the fifth Annual General Meeting of the Asia Pacific Media Network Te Koakoa.  I’m Heather Devere, Chair of APMN.

 

As many of you will be feeling, each time we meet there seems to be more mayhem, disruption, uncertainty as we survey the continued spread of wars of impunity.  We know that journalists who are providing us with the information about these wars are being increasingly targeted.  So I would just like us to think about the seriousness confronting those whom we respect and admire in their search for the truth.

 

Meanwhile, we are attempting to hold together quite a small group of people as APMN survives to continue the endeavour of bringing together journalists, researchers and community activists who are focusing on our own region in the Asia Pacific.  We are hoping to provide education on media issues and to help promote spaces where people and perspectives often ignored by the mainstream media can find a presence. 

 

I’ll just give a brief summary of some of the activities that APMN has initiated, sponsored or assisted with over the past year.  I gave my last report exactly one year ago – 24th April 2025, which was the date of our last AGM.  Some of these activities we have had to do are quite bureaucratic, and some have been more productive and inspirational.

 

I’ll start with the unexciting but essential bureaucratic issues that have had to be dealt with this year:

1.         Ensuring that our organization confirms with the changed legislation on charities and incorporated societies.

a.        Statutory requirement to review governance every three years.

b.        Revision of Constitution/Trust Deed.

c.        Confirming ‘officers’ of the organization.

2.        Membership and membership fees.  There is a requirement that we have a certain number of ‘financial members’ in order for us to continue as an Incorporated Society.  This has required a lot of follow up, as some who come to meetings forget to pay their fees, and some who are interested do not get around to registering.  We do need more members, and as I have said each year – please some young people!

1.        Pacific Media

First two issues of our new publication Pacific Media are out!  Thank you to Khairiah for taking on the position of Editor, and of course thanks to David and Del for ensuring that the publications came to fruition.  So much for them trying to bow out of working so hard for APMN!  The two issues are:

                                                                                         a.         Pacific Media 1(1) July 2025 ‘Pacific Media Challenges and Futures’ edited by Shailendra Singh and Amit Sarwal.

                                                                                         b.         Pacific Media 1 (2) Nov 2025 ‘Media Construct, Constructive Media’ edited by Khairiah Rahman and Rachel E. Khan.

 

2.        Nuclear Free and Independent Pacific Exhibition

In July 2025, a very successful exhibition was held at the Ellen Melville Hall in Central Auckland.  Opened by the Honourable MP Phil Twyford, opposition spokesperson on disarmament, the focus was on 'Legends of the Pacific' and stories related to continuing to advocate for a nuclear-free moana.   We are grateful for the help of lots of people with this event, including Del and David, Nik, Rach and Talanoa TV, Anthony Phillips, Tharron Bloomfield, Leela Bhai, Rev. Mua Strickson-Pua, Te Vaerua O Te Rangi Dance group, and the women from WILPF (Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom) who provided the delicious kai (food), Pax Christi and the Quakers.

3.        Launch of David Robie’s book Rainbow Warrior 40th anniversary edition

For the 40th anniversary of the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, an updated 4th edition of David Robie’s book, Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage and Legacy of the Rainbow Warrior, was launched.  Hilari Anderson who was on the first ship named as the Rainbow Warrior was among those who gave an address. Among public talks, David presented a seminar on Pacific decolonization and media issues in Wellington for the Fabian Society that is now on YouTube.

 

4.        International Peace Research Association Conference 

Heather Devere was part of the organizing committee of the International Peace Research Association Conference (IPRA) held in November 2025 in New Plymouth/ Ngāmoto. This was the first time this prestigious international peace conference had been held in Aotearoa and it was also the first time that IPRA has had a theme that focused on Indigenous peace.  In conjunction with Parihaka, the conference attracted over 200 scholars and activists, many of them Indigenous, from many different countries.  Maata Wharehoka, a staunch advocate for Parihaka and a respected kaitiaki, who passed away the year before, was acknowledged throughout the conference.

 

5.        West Papua Documentary World Premier

On 7th March 2026, at the Academy Cinema in Tamaki Makaurau was the world premiere of the documentary Pesta Babi (Pig Feast), and a question-and-answer session with Victor Mambor (Papuan journalist and founder of Jubi News Group) and Dandhy Laksono (Documentary filmmaker and Director of Pesta Babi). David Robie introduced the filmmakers and also took part in a panel with the filmmakers on media coverage of West Papua at an all-day West Papua Solidarity Forum earlier in the day at the University of Auckland.

 

6.        Media Kōrero on West Papua

APMN were privileged to be able to host Victor and Dandhy on 9 March 2026 at the Whānau Centre where they gave an enlightening and inspiring talk on ‘West Papua; Journalism of Resistance’. 

7.        APMN members regularly attending frontline protests in Auckland and Sydney and organising and reporting on these include Wendy Bacon, Chris Nash, David Robie and Del Abcede.

Other APMN members who continue to analyse media issues include: Gavin Ellis who writes a weekly column at his The Knightly Views website and is an honorary research fellow in the School of Social Sciences at the University of Auckland and a media consultant. Wendy Bacon contributes investigative journalism regularly to Michael West Media and other media outlets, and both she and Chris Nash are heavily involved in Green and inner Sydney community campaigns, Lee Duffield writes on media for the Independent Australia, and USP’s Shailendra Singh maintains his research and media profile. Shailendra and David are the reps for the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) in Fiji and New Zealand. Del continues her community communication activism with WILPF, Pax Christi and PSNA,  and the Whānau Hub’s Nik Naidu has expanded beyond his crucial Fiji Business Network’s coordination and community networking with developing the Talanoa TV video initiative with Face TV. 

 

8.        Academic research and publications have also been continuing by our APMN members.  Our secretary Khairiah Rahman has been on sabbatical doing research in Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.  Khairiah and Adam Brown also presented papers at the First Muslim Asia Pacific Conference with presentations on Islamaphobia in the media and Muslim Media Watch Aotearoa. Another prominent member of APMN, Professor Camille Nakhid continues to publish her research on issues such as support for queer young people in Aotearoa (2025) and the silence around the racialized experience of Indigenous, Brown and Black female athletes in Aotearoa (2024).

Heather Devere presented a paper with Mahdis Azarmandi at the Oceania Comparative and International Education Society in Ōtautahi Christchurch on resistance and relationship and the legacy of Maata Wharehoka.  She also wrote for the Elgar Concise Encyclopedia of Law and Peace on positive peace and the law, and with Kelli Te Maihāroa a chapter on Indigeous methodologies in peace studies in the Sage Handbook of Peace and Conflict Studies. 

 

9.        Pacific Media Watch, Asia Pacific Report continue to provide news and analysis both from around the region and further afield, again thanks largely to David Robie.

 

10.  APMN Newsletter.  Again David updates us on APMN activities in this online newsletter.

 

11.   Last and by no means least, we would like to acknowledge David as being included in the New Zealand King’s Birthday Honours List, appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for “services to journalism and Asia-Pacific media education”. He was invested on May 2025.  Just in case any of you don’t know his past achievements, this is where you can find the official announcement: https://www.dpmc.govt.nz/honours/lists/kb2024-mnzm#robieda