Monday 21 November 2011

PNG: complaints process, ethics highlighted in defamation case

PFF, Rarotonga, COOK ISLANDS -- Another defamation suit filed against a PNG media organisation has raised questions on why public complaints are not being taken up with the national media complaints committee, says regional media freedom Monitoring network, the Pacific Freedom Forum, PFF.
Major logging, trading and media interest Rimbunan Hijau (RH) has filed a defamation suit against Papua New Guinea’s Post Courier newspaper over its coverage of an official investigation into logging interest by an RH Company in the Pomio district, in the West New Britain Province. The Post Courier reported several stories of police brutality on landowners unhappy with logging operations in the area. It was alleged the police were sent there by Rimbunan Hijau.
Defamation threats were also levelled at reporters covering the sale of the former Prime Minister's  official jet. The threats were made by Air Niugini’s CEO, Wasanthra Kumarasiri when pressed to explain what the sale plans were and the cost involved.
And in August, a provincial governor named The National (which is owned by RH) in his defamation suit over stories he was unhappy with.
“The spate of defamation suits is a worrying trend. Using legal offices and language against journalists reporting the facts can lead to self-censorship by PNG media at a time when their investigative iournalism is badly needed,” says PFF chair Titi Gabi, of Papua New Guinea.
 “The national Media Council manages a complaints process on behalf of news organisations who are its members who follow a code of ethics which members of the public are able to call on in their complaints,” says Gabi. “It’s a model of self-regulation which has worked in the past and should be strengthened because it works. We encourage the current claimants, and the public – especially leaders and companies with grievances over reportage, to take up the media council complaints process.
Under the PNG Constitution, freedom of speech, press, and information are guaranteed and defamation is not a criminal offense. However, journalists can be sued for defamation in civil cases but complaints are usually settled out of court before proceeding to hearings.
PFF co-chair Monica Miller of American Samoa says the PNG Media Council serves the region’s largest nation and spread of media organisations, and provides a model from which other developing media councils can learn.
“We are all interested in taking our cue from what works and what needs improving in all our own Pacific contexts – and it’s clear that a strong and transparent public complaints process beats a costly legal battle every time,” she says.--ENDS


LINKS:

CONTACT: PFF Chair Titi Gabi | Freelance Journalist | Papua New Guinea Mail: PO Box 7776, Boroko, NCD, Papua New Guinea | Mob: (675) 7314 3929 | Email: titi.gabipng@gmail.com PFF co-Chair Monica Miller | KHJ Radio | American Samoa Mob 684 258-4197 | Office 684 633-7793 | Email: monica@khjradio.com The Pacific Freedom Forum are a regional and global online network of Pacific media colleagues, with the specific intent of raising awareness and advocacy of the right of Pacific people to enjoy freedom of expression and be served by a free and independent media. We believe in the critical and basic link between these freedoms, and the vision of democratic and participatory governance pledged by our leaders in their endorsement of the Pacific Plan and other commitments to good governance. In support of the above, our key focus is monitoring threats to media freedom and bringing issues of concern to the attention of the wider regional and international community.

Monday 14 November 2011

Fiji: Regime media bullying continues with contempt case: PFF

PFF, Rarotonga, COOK ISLANDS -- Fiji’s regime continues to cement its own repressive image with the latest contempt case filed against Fiji Times says regional media freedom monitoring network the Pacific Freedom Forum, or PFF.
Regime Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has taken offense at an article originally published in New Zealand’s Sunday Star-Times newspaper and republished in the Fiji Times on Nov 7th . The article dealt with an interview on Oceania Football staffer Dr Sahu Khan, who is appealing a regime decision disbarring him for a decade over professional misconduct charges. Oceania Football General Secretary Tai Nicholas made comments on the Fiji judiciary which have angered the military regime and offended its Attorney General.
 “Once more we have the Fiji Times bearing the brunt of a regime tantrum against freedom of expression when it disagrees with their ‘journalism of hope’ branding,” says PNG’s Titi Gabi, chair of the PFF.
“Nicholas brings a long legal career to his role in Oceania football. He was expressing his opinion on the state of the judicial system in Fiji and the story seems to have passed the checks of regime censors as per the PER regulations which put the onus on newsroom censors to ensure reportage is screened for ‘offensive’ content,” Gabi says.
PFF repeats its call on the regime to repeal the PER and Media Decree to demonstrate meaningful efforts to restore Fiji to democracy.
“We believe in direct and in mediated complaints processes for complaints over breaches of media ethics and standards is the best way forward,"says PFF co chair Monica Miller of American Samoa.
“The ability to take criticism and respond to it maturely is what pacific communities demand of their leaders. Applied well, this skill would have a tremendous and valuable influence on public perceptions around leadership more powerful that the current practice of targeting media operators such as Fiji Times”, she says.
The contempt case will be heard on Monday, November 28th. --ENDS

LINKS

CONTACT: PFF Chair Titi Gabi | Freelance Journalist | Papua New Guinea Mail: PO Box 7776, Boroko, NCD, Papua New Guinea | Mob: (675) 7314 3929 | Email: titi.gabipng@gmail.com PFF co-Chair Monica Miller | KHJ Radio | American Samoa Mob 684 258-4197 | Office 684 633-7793 | Email: monica@khjradio.com The Pacific Freedom Forum are a regional and global online network of Pacific media colleagues, with the specific intent of raising awareness and advocacy of the right of Pacific people to enjoy freedom of expression and be served by a free and independent media. We believe in the critical and basic link between these freedoms, and the vision of democratic and participatory governance pledged by our leaders in their endorsement of the Pacific Plan and other commitments to good governance. In support of the above, our key focus is monitoring threats to media freedom and bringing issues of concern to the attention of the wider regional and international community.

Tuesday 8 November 2011

Fiji: PFF condemns unionist arrests, detentions

PFF, Rarotonga, COOK ISLANDS: The arrest and detention of Fiji’s trade union movement leaders Daniel Urai and Felix Anthony continues the harassment and intimidation of citizens by the military regime, says regional media freedom monitoring network the Pacific Freedom Forum, PFF.
Fiji Trades Union Congress (FTUC) president Daniel Urai was arrested on October 29, 2011 at Nadi International Airport after returning from the Commonwealth Heads of Government events in Australia, a move condemned as politically motivated by Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Kevin Rudd.
Urai was held incommunicado at an undisclosed location for eight days until he appeared in the Suva Magistrates' Court on Monday, November 7, 2011. He has been charged with "urging political violence” under the regime’s Crimes Decree. Bail was initially refused and he was granted release on bail with curfew and other conditions on Wednesday afternoon Fiji time. 

“It took more than a week of being held without charge, with no contact from family members, friends, colleagues, and legal support, for the regime to decide what to do with Urai. This deplorable situation raises obvious questions over charges being concocted out of politically motivated harassment. There just isn't enough information to suggest a timely process of evidence and investigation has taken place prior to his arrest,” says PFF chair Titi Gabi of Papua New Guinea.
“Pacific communities outside of Fiji continue to freely express ideas and opinions which may be critical of their governments, free from the fear of being ‘disappeared’ from their loved ones at a moment’s notice. We urge the regime to cease the arbitrary detention of selected citizens on sham charges, and repeat our call for lifting of the Public Emergency Regulations of April 2009 and the Media Decree which should have replaced the PER when it was introduced last November.” says Gabi.
“We are also concerned at news that FTUC general secretary Felix Anthony has also been made incommunicado and has yet to face charges since being ‘detained’ by the military at his office in Lautoka on Friday, November 4 and taken to Suva under heavy guard the following morning.”
"The right to meet in public places, to organise, to share opinions, ideas and express them no matter how critical or unpopular they may be, is the most obvious sign that our Pacific leaders have come of age and accept criticism as an essential part of public life, “says PFF co-chair Monica Miller of American Samoa.
“As the regime leaders continue to target citizens who express ideas and opinions that do not support their views, a culture of compliance and silence is being manipulated and misrepresented to future generations as the 'Fijian' way. The  'disappearing' of citizens held without charge or court appearance, rendered incommunicado by the military, is a madness that Pacific leaders must strongly condemn."
ENDS

LINKS
ACT NOW campaign
http://www.labourstart.org/cgi-bin/solidarityforever/show_campaign.cgi?c=1155

Radio NZ International
http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=64267

http://www.rnzi.com/pages/news.php?op=read&id=64279
CONTACT: PFF Chair Titi Gabi | Freelance Journalist | Papua New Guinea Mail: PO Box 7776, Boroko, NCD, Papua New Guinea | Mob: (675) 7314 3929 | Email: titi.gabipng@gmail.com PFF co-Chair Monica Miller | KHJ Radio | American Samoa Mob 684 258-4197 | Office 684 633-7793 | Email: monica@khjradio.com The Pacific Freedom Forum are a regional and global online network of Pacific media colleagues, with the specific intent of raising awareness and advocacy of the right of Pacific people to enjoy freedom of expression and be served by a free and independent media. We believe in the critical and basic link between these freedoms, and the vision of democratic and participatory governance pledged by our leaders in their endorsement of the Pacific Plan and other commitments to good governance. In support of the above, our key focus is monitoring threats to media freedom and bringing issues of concern to the attention of the wider regional and international community.

Media pressure needed on West Papua: PFF

PFF, Rarotonga, COOK ISLANDS --Pacific journalists are urged to pay more attention to the human rights tragedy unfolding on Papua New Guinea's borders in Indonesia’s mineral-rich province of West Papua, says regional media freedom monitoring network the Pacific Freedom Forum, PFF.
Both the Melanesian Spearhead Group and Pacific Forum leaders meetings this year revealed a silence from Pacific leaders on this issue, despite strong civil society lobbying, and despite Indonesia being an Observer to the Melanesian Spearhead Group because of West Papua.
“With the killings and human rights abuses reported in recent weeks and the continued threats to journalists there, more Pacific journalists outside of West Papua should pressure their leaders to start explaining why a pocket of indigenous Melanesians are unable to freely speak, share and gather in peaceful protest, in their own land,” says PFF chair Titi Gabi, of Papua New Guinea.
The challenge comes as tensions around strike actions at the Freeport mine continue and more revelations of soldiers attacking and abusing indigenous Papuan villagers are reported in Indonesia’s Jakarta Globe. In October a pro-independence meeting in Jayapura sparked more armed force against unarmed civilians which left more than six people dead and hundreds more injured and arrested. Separately, strike actions at the Freeport mine has also sparked violence and led to armed action by security forces against unarmed civilians. The long running failure to investigate and prosecute those responsible for these crimes and breaches of Indonesia's human rights commitments has been condemned by groups in the region and across the globe, including Amnesty International.
“In solidarity with our colleagues in Indonesia and in support of the national Media Association of Vanuatu in their recent statement, PFF also condemns these brutal attacks on people determined to exercise their human their right to freely gather, and freely speak, in the province of West Papua. Journalists there are already experiencing threats and have been killed in the course of their investigations into what is happening," says Gabi.

Historically Melanesian, the province of West Papua is governed by Indonesia and classified by the UN as part of South East Asia. Indonesia’s control of West Papua was sealed during a controversial UN referendum in the 60's. Many indigenous Papuans who’ve led the call for autonomy from Indonesia have been forced to flee for their lives and live in exile in nations like Australia and Vanuatu, where a leading West Papuan NGO is housed. Vanuatu is also host country to the MSG secretariat. 
Also in the last month, the Pacific Journalism Review of the Pacific Media Centre at Auckland’s University of Technology has highlighted West Papua in a special edition on Pacific media freedom. In the last year in West Papua two journalists have been killed, there have been five abductions or attempted abductions, 18 assaults (including repeated cases against some journalists), censorship by both the civil and military authorities and two police arrests without charges.
Speaking from Pagopago in American Samoa, PFF co-chair Monica Miller described the situation in West Papua as horrifying.
 "It is hard for us in Polynesia to comprehend the horrific scale and severity of the violence destroying the lives of our sister and brother wantoks. West Papua reminds journalists of the call to ethics in seeking out the voiceless in Pacific communities, and bringing the powerful to account.”
“As Pacific journalists continue to question the impacts of our colonial past on the Pacific politics and realities of today, authorities in New Zealand and Australia also need to look past the interests of powerful investors and make human rights in West Papua a priority issue." .--ENDS

LINKS

Vanuatu Daily Post on MSG and Indonesia
Jakarta Globe articles
Pacific Scoop
Pacific Beat/Radio Australia

CONTACT: PFF Chair Titi Gabi | Freelance Journalist | Papua New Guinea Mail: PO Box 7776, Boroko, NCD, Papua New Guinea | Mob: (675) 7314 3929 | Email: titi.gabipng@gmail.com PFF co-Chair Monica Miller | KHJ Radio | American Samoa Mob 684 258-4197 | Office 684 633-7793 | Email: monica@khjradio.com The Pacific Freedom Forum are a regional and global online network of Pacific media colleagues, with the specific intent of raising awareness and advocacy of the right of Pacific people to enjoy freedom of expression and be served by a free and independent media. We believe in the critical and basic link between these freedoms, and the vision of democratic and participatory governance pledged by our leaders in their endorsement of the Pacific Plan and other commitments to good governance. In support of the above, our key focus is monitoring threats to media freedom and bringing issues of concern to the attention of the wider regional and international community.

Wednesday 2 November 2011

NZ Pacifica journos reach ten-year milestone

PFF, Rarotonga, COOK ISLANDS -- Pacifica journalists in New Zealand celebrating ten years of better networking and a space to share their concerns have reached a regional milestone, says the Pacific Freedom Forum.

PFF joins other regional colleagues in congratulating the Pacific Islands Media Association, PIMA, for reaching a decade of networking and solidarity. “Already a minority in a country which has a strong Pacific population and is host the world’s largest Polynesian centre, a relatively small cadre of Pacific Islands journalists working in New Zealand have come through a tough decade for journalists, let alone New Zealand journalists and Pacific journalists. That is inspirational,"  says Papua New Guinea’s Titi Gabi, who chairs the regional media freedom network.
“PFF is not even half the age of PIMA. But the concerns over keeping professional standards in an industry facing high turnover and lack of interest as a long term career are shared. And the networking offered by linking with other journalists is definitely something which has marked the development of Pacific media in recent years." 

The emergence and growth of institutions such as the Auckland University of Technology's Pacific Media Centre is helping to lead quality tertiary training and debates for Pacific journalists in New Zealand and the region, and continues to help boost membership and support for PIMA, says co-chair Monica Miller of American Samoa. 
"We celebrate with our Pacific colleagues this week, and look forward to more shared efforts in future," she says.
Miller was amongst those attending the May 2011 UNESCO World Press Freedom Day regional events in Apia, where PIMA formed part of the inaugural membership of the Media Alliance of the Pacific. The MAP grouping provides a common platform for the different Pacific regional media networks to come together on issues and concerns they share, such as media freedom and training actions. -- ENDS

LINKS:
PIMA website  www.pima.co.nz
Pacific Media Centre website www.pmc.aut.ac.nz


CONTACT: PFF Chair Titi Gabi | Freelance Journalist | Papua New Guinea Mail: PO Box 7776, Boroko, NCD, Papua New Guinea | Mob: (675) 7314 3929 | Email: titi.gabipng@gmail.com PFF co-Chair Monica Miller | KHJ Radio | American Samoa Mob 684 258-4197 | Office 684 633-7793 | Email: monica@khjradio.com The Pacific Freedom Forum are a regional and global online network of Pacific media colleagues, with the specific intent of raising awareness and advocacy of the right of Pacific people to enjoy freedom of expression and be served by a free and independent media. We believe in the critical and basic link between these freedoms, and the vision of democratic and participatory governance pledged by our leaders in their endorsement of the Pacific Plan and other commitments to good governance. In support of the above, our key focus is monitoring threats to media freedom and bringing issues of concern to the attention of the wider regional and international community.