Pacific Freedom Forum: October 2014

Saturday, 25 October 2014

TVNZ cuts another threat to democracy - PFF

TVNZ is kicking out Maori and Pacific Island production. Photo / Radio NZ

PFF, Rarotonga, COOK ISLANDS Sat 25 October 2014 -

Cutbacks to Maori and Pacific Islands production by TVNZ in New Zealand are a threat to democracy and claims to regional leadership, says the Pacific Freedom Forum.

“TVNZ outsourcing news, current affairs and culture to private contractors are happening against a background of years of cutbacks,” says PFF Chair Titi Gabi.

"News media are an integral part of any democracy but New Zealand is, yet again, showing that it places little value on independent journalism.”

PFF joins the Pacific Islands Media Association in New Zealand warning that these cuts could be “catastrophic."

State-owned TVNZ announced the cuts barely two months after declaring a NZD$18 million profit.

More than 30 jobs could be lost from TVNZ under the outsourcing move.

Long running programmes such as Tagata Pasifika, now in its 27th year, along with others such as Marae, Fresh and Waka Huia will be outsourced to private contractors. Any efforts to continue them will now have to compete with other contractors applying state funding bodies, which focus mainly on entertainment, not news and current affairs.

An afternoon programme, Te Karere, will be the sole surviving Maori news on TVNZ.

Maori broadcasting funder, Te Mangai Paho, welcomed the news, claiming it would create greater "transparency" and give them more control over content.

Cuts at TVNZ follow a controversial restructuring at state-funded Maori Television by a former TVNZ manager. Two award winning senior staff resigned after their news and current affairs positions were disbanded in favour of generic content and production titles.

The only other state media organisation, Radio New Zealand, has suffered a funding "freeze" for years despite accounting firm KPMG recommending increases as part of an official review of its statutory obligations.

"Successive New Zealand governments have shown long-term hostility towards journalism, news and current affairs," says Gabi.

"Talk of a journalism crisis will not be eased by these latest steps, and that is of deep and serious concern to its future as a democracy."

PFF Co-Chair Monica Miller said the cutbacks could have an equally serious impact on the identity of New Zealand as a South Seas state.

"Plans to axe the country's Maori and Pacific Island television news and culture shows risk robbing New Zealand of what makes it unique in the world.

"New Zealand's government needs to remind itself that it is founded on a partnership with its indigenous Polynesian people, with TVNZ headquartered in the world’s biggest Polynesian city."

Miller says that both TVNZ and Maori Television had done some excellent work covering not just New Zealand issues but those of the wider region.

This coverage is now at risk, she says.

"New Zealand's role as a partner to the region means little if it does not place equal importance on providing independent information."

LINKS:

TVNZ PR: Maori and Pacific Programme Production
http://tvnz.co.nz/tvnz-corporate-comms/maori-and-pacific-programme-production-6114895

TVNZ plans to outsource Māori and Pacific programmes
http://www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/pacific-media-watch/nz-tvnz-plans-outsource-m-ori-and-pacific-programmes-9026

TVNZ to outsource most of Maori unit
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=11347114

TVNZ outsourcing Maori, Pacific shows
http://www.stuff.co.nz/entertainment/tv-radio/62636713/TVNZ-outsourcing-Maori-Pacific-shows

TVNZ proposes to outsource Māori and Pacific programmes
https://www.maoritelevision.com/news/national/tvnz-proposes-outsource-maori-and-pacific-programmes

TVNZ outsourcing affects 30 jobs
https://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/newshome/25336490/maori-party-unhappy-at-tvnz-move/

NZ: TVNZ programme outsourcing plan 'catastrophic' for Pasifika, says PIMA
http://www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/pacific-media-watch/nz-tvnz-programme-outsourcing-plan-catastrophic-pasifika-says-pima-9028

Politics alleged behind TVNZ shift
http://www.waateanews.com/waateanews?story_id=ODE4MA==

PR: What next for TVNZ? Outsourcing the news?
http://campaign.labour.org.nz/what_next_for_tvnz_outsourcing_the_news

Concern at TVNZ plan to outsource Maori and Pacific programs
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/pacific-beat/concern-at-tvnz-plan-to-outsource-maori-and-pacific-programs/1382349

PR: Maori party 'shock' at cuts to TVNZ Maori programmes
http://business.scoop.co.nz/2014/10/24/party-concerned-about-tvnz-intentions-for-maori-programming/

PR: ‘Come Clean on Agenda for TVNZ’
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/PA1410/S00171/come-clean-on-agenda-for-tvnz.htm

PR: Outsourcing production provides increased transparency
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU1410/S00930/outsourcing-production-provides-increased-transparency.htm

CONTACTS

The Pacific Freedom Forum is 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, 20 October 2014

Australia and New Zealand actions on press freedoms alarming - PFF

New Zealand investigate journalist Nicky Hager has been the subject of
a police raid at his home while, in Australia, new security laws could see
jail time of up to 10 years. Photo / TV3 News

PFF, Rarotonga, COOK ISLANDS Wed 15th October 2014

Global support for investigative journalism in Australia and New Zealand is a welcome response to law changes and a police raid, says the Pacific Freedom Forum

"Particularly welcome is the call from the Freedom of the Press Foundation in the United States for worldwide fundraising for legal defence," says PFF Chair Titi Gabi.

PFF is calling on Australia and New Zealand to urgently review law changes that restrict press freedom, and a police raid on the home of an investigative journalist.

"Media freedoms in the Pacific have long been supported by Australia and New Zealand," says PFF Chair Titi Gabi.

"To now see actions against those freedoms by authorities in those countries is alarming," she says.

PFF joins the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, an organisation representing 18,000 publications in 120 countries, along with other media freedom groups around the world in calling for the new Australian security laws to be revised.

"Journalism is not a crime," says Gabi, a journalist based in Papua New Guinea.

"Australia cannot credibly condemn the jailing of Al-Jazeera journalists on security charges in Egypt while pursuing similar powers in its own country."

Concerns about the new laws were raised globally as New Zealand authorities also raise the prospect of similar laws there.

At the same time, police in Wellington raided the home of Nicky Hager, whose recent book exposed high level attacks on the country's Serious Fraud Office and political interference in the handling of information from intelligence services.

PFF Co-Chair Monica Miller says the raid raises further doubts about the neutrality of security and law enforcement in New Zealand.

"Police have yet to show that they are taking the issues raised in this expose seriously.

"Instead, they appear to be placing greater priority on investigating the messenger first," says Miller, based in American Samoa.

Hager is a member of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, and it was a recent expose of leaked emails in his book "Dirty Politics" that saw police raid the author's home.

Says Miller, "At a time when there are global concerns about extensive state surveillance of citizens, heavy jail terms and police raids raise further concerns about the always fine balance between security and liberty."

PFF is calling on the governments of Australia and New Zealand to show greater respect for the separation of powers between news media in its role as the Fourth Estate.

LINKS:

Australia passes security law, raising fears for press freedom
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/01/us-australia-security-idUSKCN0HQ2WX20141001

Second phase of Government's anti-terror measures could endanger freedom of speech, human rights advocates say
https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/25279184/second-phase-of-governments-anti-terror-measures-could-endanger-freedom-of-speech-human-rights-advocates-say/

Terror laws are a step too far - editorial
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/ct-editorial/terror-laws-are-a-step-too-far-despite-george-brandis-protestations-20141014-115r6c.html

Five reasons terror laws wreck media freedom and democracy
http://theconversation.com/five-reasons-terror-laws-wreck-media-freedom-and-democracy-32791

Australian security laws ‘a threat to future of journalism’, says press body

http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2014/oct/13/australian-security-laws-a-threat-to-future-of-journalism-says-press-body

Dirty Politics: Police raid Nicky Hager's home
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11337913

Greenwald criticises Hager raid
http://www.radionz.co.nz/news/national/257255/police-search-of-hager's-house-criticised

Nicky Hager's supporters raise thousands for legal fight
http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/nicky-hager-s-supporters-raise-thousands-legal-fight-6101255

Hager fundraising goes global
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/politics/10632074/Hager-fundraising-goes-global

British medical journal attacks corporate trolls
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/10598483/BMJ-claims-dirty-politics-not-confined-to-NZ

. . .

Tuesday, 14 October 2014

PNG abduction, assault of female journalists condemned

National Broadcasting Corporation head Memafu Kapera
briefs staff on the abduction and assault of female staff
members, promising plans for new security measures.
Photo: PNG Loop.

PFF, Rarotonga, COOK ISLANDS Wed 15th October 2014-- Regional media rights monitoring network the Pacific Freedom Forum, PFF, has called for swift and decisive action from the Papua New Guinea Police following the abduction and sexual assaults of three women journalists on Monday 13th October.

While Police say they are 'waiting' for medical findings and talks with the victims to guide their investigation, news reports say a bus doing evening drop-offs on Monday 13th October for staff working at the National Broadcasting Corporation, NBC, was taken over by a group of men in a settlement area in the national capital, Port Moresby.

The men ordered the driver and all NBC male staff out and drove off with the three females on board.

Police found the vehicle and the women abandoned by their attackers later that evening in another part of the city.

Two of the women were hospitalized with injuries from their ordeal.

"Pacific media colleagues condemn and denounce these attacks and call on Police to act swiftly to bring those responsible to justice," says PFF co-chair Titi Gabi of Papua New Guinea.

"The safety and security issues facing women journalists on the job, as well as getting to and from home, are a huge concern for women media workers in Papua New Guinea, where sexual and all other forms of violence are a major obstacle to their ability to do their jobs well."

Colleagues of the media workers employed by the state broadcaster of Papua New Guinea, the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) staged a stop work protest yesterday over their long-standing pleas for security.

Transport for workers is a key feature of job and personal safety for many, but women journalists working evening hours face increased threats to their personal safety and are often the target of sexual harassment.

"We commend the staff for stepping up their call on their bosses, and NBC's management for hearing the grievances of staff and quickly committing to support the three women as well as step up transport with private security for their bus routes," says Gabi.

"We especially commend the provision of counselling support to those affected."

PFF Co-Chair Monica Miller of American Samoa conveyed support and solidarity from regional colleagues to the victims of the attack.

"Our heart-felt thoughts are with our colleagues through their healing even as we are aware sexual assault against women is not uncommon across our societies as a whole. But our employers, the state, and all of us as individuals must do more to stop the culture of impunity when it comes to already-high levels of sexual violence against our Pacific sisters in Papua New Guinea," she says.

NBC abduction: Police await victims and witnesses
http://www.pngloop.com/2014/10/14/nbc-abduction-police-await-victims-witnesses/

NBC to engage private security firm
http://www.pngloop.com/2014/10/15/nbc-engage-private-security-firm/

CONTACTS