APMN
The 2024 Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) Conference with the theme “Media Construct and Constructive media” was held from 31 October to 2 November at the Vietnam National University in Ho Chi Minh City.

Vice-president, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University, Dr Lê Hoàng Dũng, welcomed participants to the event which was jointly hosted by ACMC and the University of Social Sciences and Humanities at Vietnam…

For almost six decades photographer John Miller (Ngāpuhi) has been a protest photographer in Aotearoa New Zealand.

From his first photographs of an anti-Vietnam War protest on Auckland’s Albert Street as a high school student in 1967, to Hīkoi mō te Tiriti last week, Miller has focused much of his work on the faces of dissent.

He spoke of his experiences over the years in an interview broadcast at the…

ANALYSIS: By Catherine Gegout, University of Nottingham
The International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, his former Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, and Hamas leader, Mohammed Deif.

The court says both sides have committed crimes against humanity and war crimes from the day Hamas attacked Israel on October 7 onwards.

Although a warrant was issued for Deif, Israel has said he was killed in an air…

Fijian newsrooms are under pressure to adapt as audiences shift away from traditional media such as newspapers, radio, and television, in favour of Facebook and other social media platforms.

Asia Foundation research showed that Fijians ranked Facebook as their third most significant source of information about covid-19 during the pandemic, surpassing newspapers and “word of mouth”, despite recognising social media as their least trusted…

NEW ZEALAND HERALD
"In the Media Council’s view, the NZ Herald has erred in describing aspects of Muslim dress as that of a terrorist."

The NZ Media Council has ruled that it was inaccurate to describe wearing traditional Islamic dress as being dressed as an Islamic terrorist.

The Herald published a story on 10 September 2024 headed “Avondale College student dresses up as Islamic terrorist, does fake bomb attack stunt on culture…

Pacific Media, our new APMN publication is underway, since the 30th anniversary of Pacific Journalism Review.

The Pacific Media publication series offers journalists, journalism academics and community activists and researchers an outlet for quality research and analysis in a long-form article of up to 15,000-25,000 words, or a series of papers, and more opportunities for community collaborative publishing.

While associated with Pacific Journalism Review and modelled on an earlier title…

SPECIAL REPORT: By Wendy Bacon

In a decision delivered last Thursday, Justice Desmond Fagan in the NSW Supreme Court ruled in favour of state police who applied…

ANALYSIS: By Julie Posetti, City St George’s, University of London and Waqas Ejaz, University of Oxford
Press freedom is a pillar of American democracy. But political attacks on US-based journalists and news organisations pose an unprecedented threat to their safety and the integrity of information.

Less than 48 hours before election day, Donald Trump, now President-elect for a second term, told a rally of his supporters that he wouldn’t mind…

COMMENTARY: By Gavin Ellis
This morning, I am afraid. I am very afraid.

I fear that by the time I go to bed democracy in the United States will be imperilled by a man, the nature of which the Founding Fathers could never envisage when creating the protective elements of the constitution.

The risks will not be to Americans alone. The world will become a different place with Donald J Trump once…

ANALYSIS: By Jonathan Cook

Israel knew that, if it could stop foreign correspondents from reporting directly from Gaza, those journalists would end up covering events in ways far more to…

SPECIAL REPORT: By Andreas Harsono in Jakarta
In December 2008, I visited the Abepura prison in Jayapura, West Papua, to verify a report sent to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Torture alleging abuses inside the jailhouse, as well as shortages of food and water.

After prison guards checked my bag, I passed through a metal detector into the prison hall, joining the Sunday service with about 30 prisoners. A man sat…

Congratulations Heather!
Our chair, Dr Heather Devere, has just received word that her new book, Making Connections: Friendship and Politics, has been published by Palgrave Macmillan. 

This book is a historical review of literature and ideas that make the connections between friendship and politics. Using pertinent quotations from a wide variety of sources, the book is divided into three main parts. Firstly, it explores interpretations of the concept of friendship, tracing…

By Teagan Laszlo, Queensland University of Technology
For Samantha Magick, journalism isn’t just a job. It is a lifelong commitment to storytelling, advocacy, and empowering voices often overlooked in the Pacific.

As the managing editor and publisher at Islands Business, the Pacific Islands’ longest surviving news and business monthly magazine, Magick’s commitment to quality reporting and journalistic integrity has established her as a leading figure in the region’s news industry.

Magick’s…

The Commonwealth Heads of Government adopted the Commonwealth Principles on Freedom of Expression and the Role of the Media in Good Governance at their summit meeting in Apia, Samoa, last week.

These Principles highlight the importance of freedom of expression and media freedom to democracy.  They state that Commonwealth governments “should consider repealing or amending laws which unduly restrict the right to freedom of expression”.

The Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative…

ANALYSIS: By Denis Muller, The University of Melbourne
In February 2017, as Donald Trump took office, The Washington Post adopted the first slogan in its 140-year history: “Democracy Dies in Darkness”.

How ironic, then, that it should now be helping to extinguish the flame of American democracy by refusing to endorse a candidate for the forthcoming presidential election.

This decision, and a similar one by the second of America’s big three…

COMMENTARY:  By David Robie in Taipei
It was a heady week for the Paris-based global media freedom watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF) — celebration of seven years of its Taipei office, presenting a raft of proposals to the Taiwan government, and hosting its Asia-Pacific network of correspondents.

Director general Thibaut Bruttin and the Taipei bureau chief Cedric Alviani primed the Taipei media scene before last week’s RSF initiatives with an op-ed…

ANALYSIS: By Andrea Jean Baker
Lee, the feature film debut from director Ellen Kuras, explores the rawness of authentic image making and the impact of gender in war reporting.

Kate Winslet stars as the world weary photojournalist Elizabeth “Lee” Miller — better known for featuring in an iconic photograph, rather than taking one.

The same day Adolf Hitler committed suicide at his Berlin bunker in 1945, photojournalist David E. Scherman took…

Pacific Media Watch
Asia-Pacific correspondents and staff of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) made a "grand" statement on the vast staircase of the iconic Grand Hotel of Taipei, Taiwan, last week.

On the seventh anniversary of the assassination of Maltese investigative journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, representatives of RSF gathered in nine cities around the world - including Taipei - in memory and solidarity over her brutal killing on 16 October 2017.

So…

Pacific Media Watch
This week marked the grim one-year anniversary of the surprise October 7 Hamas attack on Israel and the beginning of the Israeli war on Gaza — a conflict that has taken a devastating toll on journalists and media outlets in Palestine, reports the International Press Institute.

In Gaza, Israeli strikes have killed at least 123 journalists (The Gaza Media Office has recorded 178 killed) — the largest number of…