Green Left Show
Indigenous Kanaks in Kanaky (New Caledonia) have sprung into revolt in the last two weeks in response to moves by the colonial power France to undermine moves towards independence in the Pacific territory.

Journalist David Robie from Aotearoa New Zealand spoke to the Green Left Show in Sydney yesterday about the issues involved.

We acknowledge that this video was produced on stolen Aboriginal land. We express solidarity with ongoing…

Sir Anthony O’Reilly, who died on May 18 aged…

RNZ Pacific
A New Zealand author, journalist and media educator who has covered the Asia-Pacific region since the 1970s says liberation “must come” for Kanaky/New Caledonia.

Dr David Robie sailed on board Greenpeace’s flagship Rainbow Warrior until it was bombed by French secret agents in New Zealand in July 1985 and wrote the book Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior.

He has also been arrested at gun…

ANALYSIS: By David Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report (Published APR, 17 May 2024)
Jean-Marie Tjibaou, a revered Kanak visionary, was inspirational to indigenous Pacific political activists across Oceania, just like Tongan anthropologist and writer Epeli Hao’ofa was to cultural advocates.

Tragically, he was assassinated in 1989 by an opponent within the independence movement during the so-called “les événements” in New Caledonia, the last time the “French” Pacific territory…

Asia Pacific Report
Barangay New Zealand’s Rene Molina has interviewed the country’s first Filipino Green MP Francisco Hernandez who was sworn into Parliament on Friday as the party’s latest member.

This is the first interview with Hernandez who replaces former Green Party co-leader James Shaw after his retirement from politics to take up a green investment advisory role.

Hernandez talks about his earlier role as a climate change activist and his role…

RNZ News/PacificMediaWatch
Television New Zealand has breached its collective agreement with the E tū union when deciding on discontinuing programmes, the Employment Relations Authority has ruled.

It was announced in March that 68 staff members who work for news programmes Midday and Tonight, consumer justice programme Fair Go, current affairs programme Sunday, and the youth programme Re: and in-house video content production were affected by redundancy.

Last month, the company confirmed…

1News Reporters
Television New Zealand Pacific Correspondent Barbara Dreaver has been made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to investigative journalism and Pacific communities in a ceremony at Government House today.

She has been the Pacific Correspondent for 1News since 2002, breaking many stories uncovering social and economic issues affecting Pacific people living in New Zealand and the Pacific Islands.

Her investigative journalism has exposed major fraud…

By Kaneta Naimatu in Suva
Journalists in the Pacific region play an important role as the “eyes and ears on the ground” when it comes to reporting the climate crisis, says the European Union’s Pacific Ambassador Barbara Plinkert.

Speaking at The University of the South Pacific (USP) on World Press Freedom Day last Friday, Plinkert said this year’s theme, “A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the face of the environmental crisis,”

RNZ Pacific
In a first of its kind in Samoa, Apia Broadcasting channel TV3 is moving its station completely to online streaming because it can no longer afford to broadcast traditionally.

The station had its final broadcast last week on Samoa’s digital television platform.

General manager Michael Aisea said Samoa was a small market with many players.

“To run a TV station you…

Asia Pacific Report
Haggai Matar, executive director of the independent +972 Magazine, has described the Tel Aviv government’s decision to shut down Al Jazeera in Israel as “an attack on free speech and freedom of the press”.

The Israeli journalist told Al Jazeera the ban on the global network was “clearly a criminal and very dangerous decision”.

He described the move as an attack on Israel itself because it denies the…

Pacific Media Watch
New Zealand has slumped to an unprecedented 19th place in the annual Reporters Without Borders 2024 World Press Freedom Index survey released today on World Press Freedom Day — May 3.

This was a drop of six places from 13th last year when it slipped out of its usual place in the top 10.

However, New Zealand is still the Asia-Pacific region’s leader in a part of the world…

Koi Tū
New Zealand cannot sit back and see the collapse of its Fourth Estate, the director of Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures, Sir Peter Gluckman, says in the foreword of a paper published today.

 

The paper, “If not journalists, then who?” paints a picture of an industry facing existential threats and held back by institutional underpinnings that are beyond the point where they are merely outdated. 

It…

Pacific Media Watch
US President Joe Biden has spoken at the annual White House Correspondents’ dinner in Washington in spite of protests over alleged “complicity” of media about Israel’s war on Gaza, offering a toast to “press freedom and democracy” but ignoring the death toll of Palestinian journalists.

Demonstrators targeted the Washington Hilton hotel which hosted the dinner, denouncing the Biden administration’s handling of the war and urging guests — especially media…

Pacific Media Watch
Journalists who report on environmental issues are encountering growing difficulties in many parts of the world, reports Reporters Without Borders.

According to the tally kept by RSF, 200 journalists have been subjected to threats and physical violence, including murder, in the past 10 years because they were working on stories linked to the environment.

Twenty four were murdered in Latin America and Asia — including the Pacific, which…

RNZ News
Melissa Lee has been ousted from New Zealand’s coalition cabinet and stripped of the Media portfolio, and Penny Simmonds has lost the Disability Issues portfolio in a reshuffle.

Climate Change and Revenue Minister Simon Watts will take Lee’s spot in cabinet.

Simmonds was a minister outside of cabinet.

Pictured: Melissa Lee . . . under pressure after Warner Bros Discovery announced it would stop producing local news in New Zealand…

Pacific Media Watch
Australians are being urged to stay united following the horrific events in Sydney last week, reports the ABC’s Saturday Extra programme.

Five women and one man were killed in a mass stabbing at Bondi Junction last Saturday by a man with a history of mental illness, and a nine-month-old baby baby was among the eight people wounded.

The attacker was shot by a police officer and died at the…

Asia Pacific Media Network
Media analyst and commentator Dr Gavin Ellis, who is also an honorary research fellow of Koi Tū : The Centre for Informed Futures at the University of Auckland, has reflected on how he sees the state of New Zealand media in the wake of last week' devastating cuts of Newshub and slashed editorial staff at Television New Zealand. 

Speaking at today's third annual general meeting of the…

Agenda of APMN AGM, 19 April 2024
Whānau Community Centre and Hub
Unit 7A/165 Stoddard Road,
Mount Roskill, Auckland 1041 (Opposite Harvey Norman)
10.00am-12noon (NZDT), 9.00am (FT), 8.00am (AET), 3pm Thursday (CST)
Friday, April 19. AGM Live and Zoom Meeting1. Welcome and introductions (Heather)
2. Guest Speaker (10am – 10.30am): Dr Gavin Ellis, Honorary Research Fellow of Koi Tū: The Centre for Informed Futures.  He is a media consultant…

COMMENTARY: By Myles Thomas, Better Public Media Trust
The announced closure of Television New Zealand’s last primetime current affairs programme seems to be the final nail in the coffin for New Zealand’s television credibility. Coming a day after the announcement of the closure of Newshub, it shows that Kiwis have the worst television and video media in the Western world.

Let’s compare ourselves with our mates across the ditch. Australia’s ABC…

COMMENTARY: By Gavin Ellis, Knightly Views 
In the wake of the announcements on Newshub’s closure and TVNZ’s cuts, I received an email from Pat, who lives in the Auckland suburb of Orakei. The email asked a simple question: “Is there anything a member of the public can do to register shock and horror at the loss of current affairs programmes and the talented people who make and present those programmes?”