[pima.nius] New Year Honours: Lighting the way for Pasifika people chasing their dreams

SOURCE: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/christianity/news/article.cfm?c_id=500818&objectid=10617941

New Year Honours: Lighting the way for Pasifika people chasing their dreams

6:00 AM Thursday Dec 31, 2009

What started off as a small goal to help a few friends settle into a foreign country grew into what is now one of the biggest Pacific Island churches in Auckland.

More than 30 years later, the man who began helping new Pacific Island migrants settle into New Zealand life is being honoured for his services to the Pasifika community.

Toleafoa Kirisimasi Aiolupotea has been given the Queen's Service Medal in the New Year's Honours list - something that came as a complete surprise, he says.

"It was out of the blue but I'm so excited and humbled to get this award. Thank you so much to whoever nominated me for it."

The 68-year-old, who hails from Samoa, has been a well-known face and first point of contact for many in the Auckland - particularly South Auckland - Pacific community for the past 30 years.

Mr Aiolupotea stepped up to help his people after the huge influx of Pacific Island migrants that arrived in Auckland in the 1960s and 1970s.

"Those days, [there weren't] many Pasifika people and you don't know where to go. I used to be the travel agent, the one helping people at court - anything any Pasifika person needed, I would help.

"Later, it wasn't just Pacific people who came to me, but Indian, Asians too. And what can you do? Welcome them with open arms."

Mr Aiolupotea was made a Justice of the Peace in 1980.

He is a founding member of the Otara Pacific Island Church in South Auckland, where he now acts as the session clerk for the Cook Islands, Niuean and Samoan groups.

He is also an executive member of the Fono Samoa Pacific Island church synod and also served with the Pacific Island Church synod of the Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand.

With up to 2500 members of the congregation - around 150 of those making up the Sunday School - Mr Aiolupotea says it is young people who continue to inspire and motivate him to keep doing what he does.

"Us parents, we come here with nothing and with little education. But it is in the hope that our children achieve highly and live greater lives."

Copyright ©2010, APN Holdings NZ Limited

[pima.nius] Café Pacific’s awards to spice up the new decade

Café Pacific's awards to spice up the new decade

SOURCE: http://cafepacific.blogspot.com/2010/01/cafe-pacifics-awards-to-spice-up-new.html

CAFÉ PACIFIC'S scribes have been on leave so we are a bit slow off the mark for our New Year honours. Still, better late than never. Here is a brief lineup as 2010 starts cruising:

Newspaper of the year – The Fiji Times: As a crusading daily under the helm of battling Netani Rika, it is hard to go past this Australian-owned publication – the strongest daily newspaper in Fiji in spite of its past political baggage and track record that goes right back to its colonial days in Levuka. While Bainimarama's regime regularly chokes for breakfast over this Murdoch paper and blames it (along with Fiji Television) for the "need" to impose its promised/threatened new media law, the rest of the region can thank Rika and his team for keeping up the good fight and exposing life under media censorship.

But we should not get carried away with the accolades. The Times still has plenty of flaws in both its coverage and strategy. The region also needs to acknowledge the courage of many other journalists in Fiji and the resolve and commitment of other media in tackling the regime in rather more subtle and intriguing ways. Things need to be kept in perspective globally too, there is a quantum leap between the relatively mild (but inexcusable) press freedom abuses in Fiji and the truly repugnant violence against media in such countries as Burma and even in a democracy such as the Philippines where 30 journalists can be assassinated by private militia in one dreadful killing field obscenity and when Filipino radio talkback broadcasters or reporters, in particular, can be murdered with near impunity for exposing corruption.

Media film – Balibo: The on screen version of the murder of five journalists working for Australian news media – two Australians, two Britons and a New Zealander – by Indonesian special forces invading East Timor on 16 October 1975 has revived controversial and painful memories. Not only has the Robert Connolly film reflected on the wounds of the past, and even stirred the wrath of the widow of the lead journalist killed, Greg Shackleton, it has triggered debate about journalistic professionalism in an age when bravado was perhaps more important than the safety concerns dominant today.

In a recent clandestine showing of the film – banned in Indonesia – to journalists in Jakarta the emphasis was on the "journalism" rather than the human rights issues. Warief Djajanto Basorie of the Jakarta Post wrote:

Balibo can be labelled a political film, a war film, a human rights film, or a journalism film.

After the Makassar screening, discussion focused on the journalism. The question asked: As journalists, what can you learn from the film?

In covering a conflict, it tells you to make a choice. Either you stay or you go, replied one participant.

"I would go," he said emphatically.

Most of the 31 journalists present agreed. The majority argument was to leave the war zone, prioritising safety and the ability to continue reporting in the future.

At least two participants, however, insisted they would stay for the story because it was "too big a story to miss".

Basorie claimed the five murdered newsmen were "embedded journalists" – embedded with Fretilin.

Independent newspaper – Wansolwara: The student journalism newspaper published by the University of the South Pacific deserved to win the Ossie Award for regular publications this year for publishing under a state censorship regime. Not only did the courageous students publish a special edition examining the media in Fiji under a military regime, but they also reported global warming, environmental issues and human rights in the region.

Wansolwara, which has not only won the most Ossie awards of any publication in Australia, NZ or the Pacific (10, plus it scooped the pool in 2000 with the online and print coverage of the George Speight coup). For 13 years, the newspaper has been self-funded by the students themselves through advertising revenue. But this year, the students brought off a coup themselves – with a deal to publish their newspaper as a liftout in the daily newspaper Fiji Sun. This immediately lifted their circulation from 2000 to more than 20,000.

Unfortunately the Reader's Digest judge surprisingly overlooked this newspaper's achievements and quality and awarded the "best regular publication" prize to AUT University's Te Waha Nui instead.

Media monitoring agency – Reporters sans frontières (RSF): This award is well-deserved globally for 2009, but RSF needs to beef up its Pacific content, not just concentrate on Fiji and one or two other higher profile issues. In its roundup for the year, RSF highlighted the Ampatuan massacre – largest ever killing of journalists in a single day - and the unprecedented wave of arrests and convictions of journalists and bloggers in Iran. The agency's summary for the year:

76 journalists killed (60 in 2008)
33 journalists kidnapped
573 journalists arrested
1456 physically assaulted
570 media censored
157 journalists fled their countries
1 blogger died in prison
151 bloggers and cyber-dissidents arrested
61 physically assaulted
60 countries affected by online censorship

Check out the full report.

Incidentally, for those with special concerns on internet freedoms, it is good news that Lucie Morillon has been appointed as the new head of RSF. She established the RSF office in New York five years ago and has long been a champion of online free speech.

The efforts of the new Pacific Freedom Forum, the International Federation of Journalists and the Pacific Media Centre's Pacific Media Watch also deserve praise for their specifically Oceania work.

Independent blog – Croz Walsh's Fiji: Crosbie Walsh is not actually a journalist. However, as an adjunct professor and retired founding director of the University of the South Pacific's Development Studies programme, he is an acute observer and commentator about facts and falsehoods about Fiji. Thrust into blogging almost by accident (he became rather frustrated over poor media coverage of the realities in Fiji), he established his own excellent and reliable information and analysis website in a bold attempt to make sense of the complexities of Fiji's political, social and economic order since the 2006 coup.

In the process, his blog has embarrassed many leading journalists who profess to be "experts" on Fiji by repeatedly exposing the shallowness of their reporting. He has also been a counterfoil for some of the rabid anti-Fiji regime blogs (including several run or contributed to by journalists) and their propaganda and lies. The context and complexities may be frequently missing from mainstream media coverage, but Croz is filling many of the gaps and balancing the misrepresentations. A comment in a recent posting has taken AAP's Tamara McLean to task:

A Tamara McLean article in the NZ Herald/AAP provides readers with a rehash of what was once news, and "fresh" comments from "an Auckland University academic sympathetic to Bainimarama" (Prof Hugh Laracy) countered by three "Pacific specialists (Dr Jon Fraenkel, Jone Baledrokadroka and Prof Brij Lal) at the Australian National University" who are not." The use of "academic" and "specialists" tells readers where Tamara is coming from, but it's neither subtle nor accurate for all four are academics and specialists.

Special freedom of speech award - José Belo: For remaining defiant in the face of threats and a legal onslaught over his exposes of corruption that could have led to imprisonment in East Timor. He was ultimately saved by the collapse of the trumped up "criminal defamation" case against him and Tempo Semanal.

Pictured: A National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) protest against the killing of media workers (Photo: Bayanihan Post) and José Belo of East Timor at work (Photo: Etan).

• One dangerous place for reporters
• Ampatuan massacre map and timeline
  
• How should we respond to Balibo?
• Wansolwara's hot press deal
• Wars and disputed elections: The most dangerous stories for journalists
• Croz Walsh on Fiji snippets and the media
• Bainimarama winner in Fiji's darkest hour
• Croz Walsh's PIPSA paper on Fiji blogs
• Criminal defamation case dropped against Tempo Semanal

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[pima.nius] Moti case: When the media falters and shames the fourth estate

- Pacific.scoop.co.nz - http://pacific.scoop.co.nz -

Moti case: When the media falters and shames the fourth estate

Posted By selwyn On January 2, 2010 @ 9:49 am In Articles, Columns, Solomon Is | No Comments

^[1]

Julian Moti, former attorney general of the Solomon Islands. Photo: Solomon Times.

Pacific Scoop:
Opinion – By Thakur Ranjit Singh

Fallout from the Julian Moti trial ^[2] and a permanent stay order on his court case in Brisbane has raised questions on whether the media was complicit in fabricating a case against the former Solomon Islands' attorney general.

In this item, Thakur Ranjit Singh accuses, in particular, the Australian media of being unprofessional, compromising media ethics, and wanting in not revealing dubious activities of the Australian Government as it pursued Moti, when seeking to extradite him from the Solomon Islands to Australia on child sex charges, accusations of which Moti had already been acquitted.

Perhaps except for AUT's Associate Professor David Robie's blog site Café Pacific and the Pacific Scoop, few, if any of New Zealand's media reported on this historic trial of the Indo Fijian Julian Moti who was " framed" by the Australian government which saw him as a threat to the operations of Australian imperialism in the Pacific. This media blackout on this controversial trial has not being an exception but has become a rule, as very few Australian media gave it the prominence it deserved.

If anybody who has been shamed in this sordid affair, (of course apart from the Australian government, aided and abetted by its federal police) it is the media which had been implied as being the lapdog of the government by becoming their tool and happily throwing elementary principles of professional journalism out the window to become mere copy journalists, fed with information by the Australian authorities which they wanted peddled.

The media, including the Murdoch Empire and the ABC have come into prominence not for its reporting, but for not reporting what they should have reported. It is a classical case of what media failed to tell.

When Julian Moti initially came into prominence, it was when he was lined to be appointed as the Attorney General of the Solomon Islands and he was seen as a threat to Australia's domination in the Solomon Islands through Australian government's flagship intervention project, the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands (RAMSI). Australians feared that Moti's legal expertise as Solomon's Attorney General could be used to strip RAMSI personnel of their immunity from Solomon's laws, thereby threatening the operation's collapse.

The World Socialist Web Site reported Justice Debra Mullins as acknowledging that the Australian Federal Police (AFP) investigation began not because a complaint was received from the alleged victim "but because of the political calculations of Australia's High Commissioner in Solomon Islands, Patrick Cole." In a memo written in October 2004, Cole had warned of Moti's "anti-Australian and anti- RAMSI perspective" and that his appointment would make it difficult for Australia and RAMSI to continue with its domination in the Solomons. While Moti was initially charged for an alleged sex case in Vanuatu in 1998, he was cleared by the courts in Vanuatu in 1999. However, the Australian press commenced with its heavy coverage when Moti was announced to be appointed as Attorney General of Solomon Islands in 2006. The then Prime Minister in Solomons, Manasseh Sogavare's government came under intense pressure from Australia for their apparent anti-RAMSI stance and also with the announcement of yet another Indo Fijian, Jahir Khan, to be their new Commissioner of Police. The Australian Commissioner of Police was deported by Sogavare for allowing his office to be searched by the Australian Police while he was attending Pacific Islands Forum meeting in Fiji.

The political orchestration by the Ministers in calling Moti as an alleged "child sex" offender was stepped up in media as part of an anti-Sogavare campaign to oust him, in which the conspiracy succeeded. Patrick O'Connor of the World Socialist website reported that virtually every Australian newspaper published front-page reports written by senior journalists while television and radio news networks also prominently featured the initial story.

What the media failed to highlight was that this was not an offense that took place in Australia. It happened in Vanuatu, it was investigated, Moti was charged and ultimately the charges were dismissed and he was cleared in 1999. Moti told World Socialist Web Site that he found it surprising that some seven years after his discharge, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) took an interest in him on the eve of his appointment as Attorney General of Solomon Islands. He accused the AFP of dredging up the unfounded allegation through bribery of the witness. The court had heard that while minimum wage in Vanuatu was just $240 a month or $2880 per year, it was revealed that the Australian government had spent some $150,000 on the victim and the family for their personal expenses as well as for entertainment and business ventures. The judge is reported as saying that the conduct of AFP in taking over the financial support of those witnesses who live in Vanuatu was an affront to the public conscience.

Moti was critical of media for not fulfilling its professional and ethical obligations. He accused the media of not doing its job properly in not exposing what had been revealed during the court hearings which were also very sparsely reported. While the media contributed to the government's vendetta in sensationalising the sexual assault allegation, they were prominently absent from the courtroom to report on the abuse of office by AFP and unethical and immoral bribery and other claims. Media virtually imposed news blackout when things were in Moti's favour and he was "absolved" of any wrongdoing.

The media failed to pursue evidence that were revealed during the course of the case. Apart from the witness bribery claim of $150,000, the other one was a texted mobile message from the alleged victim to an AFP officer where she had threatened to say she was used as a tool by the Australian government for political and neo colonial reasons if her conditions were not met. These stories never made it to the front pages of Murdoch and other papers which had taken front-page frenzy in publicising about the Indo Fijian paedophile when the Australian government brought the dubious and questionable case against him.

None of the above details including the flawed process have been revealed and Patrick O'Connor of World Socialist website feels that this extraordinary omission was only explainable as a conscious decision to suppress the truth about the Moti case. He accused the media of simply ignoring the significant evidence of involvement of Australian police and other officials in dubious, if not unlawful activity throughout their pursuit of Moti. The entire episode served as a case study in the media's role as a critical partner of Australia imperialism's filthy operations in the South Pacific. The Australian media remains accused of placing itself at the government's disposal when critical strategic and economic interests were at stake, and in case of Moti, simply burying unpleasant truths that pointed to the real agenda of Canberra in imposing neo-colonialism in the Pacific.

The issue that we have on our doorsteps is: what happens when the fourth estate fails to honour its principled ethics and compromises basic media principles? Is there then a need for a fifth estate to be the watch dog of the watchdog that the fourth estate was intended to be in the first place?

While that question is left to the media fraternity and academics to answer, the available evidence suggests that dubious Australian imperialism in the Pacific is not merely confined to the government, but extends to the mainstream Australian media as well.

Café Pacific items on  'Motigate' ^[2]

See also, Scoop background items:

• Audio: Selwyn Manning On BBC – The Australia/Melanesia Stoush (2006) ^[3]
• Scoop Analysis: Selwyn Manning – Australia's Dominance Drives Wedge Among Pacific Nations (2006) ^[4]
• MSG Release: MSG Leaders Condemn Raid on Solomon Islands Prime Minister's Office (2006) ^[5]
• Scoop Analysis: Selwyn Manning – Pacific Leaders Announce Review Of RAMSI (2006) ^[6]
• Scoop Analysis: Selwyn Manning – Schmoozing Toward An Australasian Pacific (2003) ^[7]

Thakur Ranjit Singh is from AUT's postgraduate Communication Studies programme and is a volunteer at the Pacific Media Centre at AUT University.

---

URL to article: http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2010/01/moti-case-when-the-media-falters-and-shames-the-fourth-estate/

URLs in this post:

[1] Image: http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/JULIAN-MOTI-COMPLIMEMTS-OF-SOLOMON-TIMES.jpg

[2] Julian Moti trial: http://cafepacific.blogspot.com/search/label/motigate

[3] Selwyn Manning On BBC – The Australia/Melanesia Stoush (2006): http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0610/S00408.htm

[4] Selwyn Manning – Australia's Dominance Drives Wedge Among Pacific Nations (2006): http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0610/S00347.htm

[5] MSG Leaders Condemn Raid on Solomon Islands Prime Minister's Office (2006): http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0610/S00493.htm

[6] Selwyn Manning – Pacific Leaders Announce Review Of RAMSI (2006): http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0610/S00370.htm

[7] Selwyn Manning – Schmoozing Toward An Australasian Pacific (2003): http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0308/S00115.htm

Click here to print.

Copyright © 2009 pacific. All rights reserved.

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[pima.nius] Dictators must not hold sway in Pacific

Dictators must not hold sway in Pacific

Last updated 05:00 04/01/2010

OPINION: Prime Minister John Key wants to renew engagement with Fiji. Good. The relationship is

certainly in need of repair.

Fiji and New Zealand have a long history of strong links. Those links have been loosened in recent years,

and relations reached a nadir in November when New Zealand and Australia's top diplomats in Fiji were

told to leave, accused of meddling in Fijian affairs.

Last month, Mr Key said he was in the process of sending Commodore Frank Bainimarama a letter, "trying

to engage in more dialogue", and that New Zealand was not "anti-Frank Bainimarama". Thankfully, he

added "we do want to see democracy restored in Fiji".

The New Zealand Government has a fine line to tread between trying to build a relationship with Fiji's

leaders and making it clear that the current situation there is unacceptable. Mr Key should never forget that,

whatever his motives, and whatever the wrongs he felt he was righting, Mr Bainimarama took power at the

point of a gun and deposed a democratically elected government.

Nor should Mr Key forget what has happened since. Mr Bainimarama promised the restoration of elections,

but broke his promise.

Instead, he has tightened his grip on the country. Last April, after a court ruling that the 2006 coup was

illegal, President Ratu Josefa Iloilo effectively tore up the constitution. As Human Rights Watch Asia director

Brad Adams commented, despite claims that basic rights would be respected under the new order, "it

appears that the only current guarantees are ones of impunity, prolonged military rule, and reprisals against

those who attempt to exercise basic rights".

Inconvenient judges were replaced. Opponents continued to be intimidated. Fiji's media remain under the

control of the military. Mr Bainimarama now rules by decree. Elections are now not due till 2014.

It would be a shame if Mr Key's desire for a renewal of engagement or his statement that "we are not anti-

Frank Bainimarama" were to be seen as any sort of endorsement of the commodore's regime.

The problem is that few options are open to Mr Key. The stick of sanctions has not worked. The Pacific

Islands Forum and the Commonwealth have suspended Fiji from membership. The United Nations has

ruled out using its soldiers in future peacekeeping operations. The European Union has cut sugar subsidies.

New Zealand and Australia have denied government officials, the military and members of their families,

entry to their territories.

Whatever else he does, Mr Key should not accept advice such as that from Auckland academic Hugh

Laracy, who believes Mr Bainimarama should not get heavy-handed treatment "when he should be trusted

that he's doing the best for his country". That is what defenders of dictators always say.

Mr Key is right to try to make a new start with the commodore in the new year. However, that does not

mean forgetting that he is a dictator. The aim must be that dictatorships do not become the "Pacific way".

The Dominion Post

Dictators must not hold sway in Pacific | Stuff.co.nz Page 1 of 1

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/opinion/editorials/3204024/Dictators-must-not-h... 5/01/2010

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Re: [pima.nius] Scholarship: Learning Exchange in Feminist Development Communications

. . .

"... to and from Fiji ..." ???

ha!

Since when did coup-coup land again become the desired choice of Feminist discourse? What about the rest of the Pacific?

jas

. . .

2010/1/4 pima news <pima.nius@gmail.com>

Pacific Regional Office

 

Scholarship: Learning Exchange in Feminist Development Communications Deadline for applications: 14 January, 2010

 

The United Nations Development fund for Women (UNIFEM) works with National Governments and Civil Society Organizations for the Empowerment of Women and Gender Equality.  The Goal of UNIFEM's Strategic Plan 2008-13 is the implementation of national commitments to Gender Equality. UNIFEM programmes in 3 Strategic areas: 1) Enhancing Women's Economic Security and Rights 2) Reducing the prevalence of Violence Against Women (VAW) and HIV/AIDS among Women and Girls.  3) Achieving Gender Equality and Justice in Democratic Governance in times of Peace and Conflict. Expected results of UNIFEMs partnerships and programmes include incorporation of Gender Equality into National Development Strategies, constitutions, laws, formal and informal justice systems, plans, policies, budgets at national and local level and in the operations and service delivery of key institutions and media. UNIFEM also programmes to support effective organization, representation, advocacy and dialogue of all women, including the most excluded women in society. UNIFEM documents lessons learnt from the most innovative and promising of community-level initiatives for gender equality, building knowledge to inform policy, scaling up, replication and learning through South-South exchange. 

 

___________   _________________________________________

 

 

 

The UNIFEM Pacific Regional Office is piloting a South-South Learning Exchange in feminist development communications. UNIFEM will initially offer one scholarship for a person currently working in a communications/media post in a Pacific Island organization working to advance the empowerment of women and gender equality. The successful applicant will participate in a 2-month intensive learning exchange hosted by Isis International in Manila, Philippines and learn by working as part of the experienced ISIS team in the Philippines, and also in Bangalore and Ahmedabad, India. (Two UNIFEM Pacific staff will be participating in the same learning exchange programme.)

 

 

Topics to be covered

·         Introduction to Feminism, Gender and Development Theory and Practice

o    Introduction to key concepts and terms

o    History of the women's movement and links with the UN Human Rights system

o    Introduction to gender in the context of: climate change/sustainable development; conflict prevention/peace building; leadership/governance; political participation/representation; ending violence against women; reducing HIV/AIDS among women and girls; economic security and rights/informal economy.

o    Movement and network building.

·         Feminist Development Communications

o    Media training  (print and radio)

o    Use of new media (YouTube and digital radio)

o    Best practices for media campaigns to promote women; human rights.

 

 

Duration:

Two months in Philippines and India from February to March, 2010.

 

 

Scholarship details:

The grant covers tuition, round-trip airfares for travel to and from Fiji, accommodation and food costs.

 

The scholarship recipient will be expected to:

·         attend all sessions/events scheduled for the training, as required by Isis International

·         complete a Training Report, documenting the new knowledge and skills acquired during the training and the relevance for the applicant's organization and work to promote women's human rights in their country

·         prepare an Action Plan to utilize new knowledge and skills in the participant's own organization in 2010-2011

·         submit three Progress Reports six monthly (for 18 months) after the training to share experiences and results from the application of the new learning. 

 

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants must:

a)       be in a volunteer or paid communications-related post with an NGO or government that is actively promoting the empowerment of women and gender equality through communications/media programmes

b)      be a national of a Pacific Island country served by UNIFEM Pacific, and currently a resident in the islands

c)       have a guaranteed post (for the next 18 months) in the applicant's organization or home organization, working specifically in communications/media

d)      have excellent writing and oral communication skills in English

e)       have the full approval and endorsement of their organization (in writing)

f)       previous training and a history of work in the area of women; human rights is an asset.

 

Application forms and further information can be requested from Sheryl Ho, email: sheryl.ho@unifem.org, or tel +679 330 1178 (Fiji), or by picking up a form at the front desk of your national UNIFEM office. Please note that late applications will not be accepted.

 

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[pima.nius] Scholarship: Learning Exchange in Feminist Development Communications

Pacific Regional Office

 

Scholarship: Learning Exchange in Feminist Development Communications Deadline for applications: 14 January, 2010

 

The United Nations Development fund for Women (UNIFEM) works with National Governments and Civil Society Organizations for the Empowerment of Women and Gender Equality.  The Goal of UNIFEM's Strategic Plan 2008-13 is the implementation of national commitments to Gender Equality. UNIFEM programmes in 3 Strategic areas: 1) Enhancing Women's Economic Security and Rights 2) Reducing the prevalence of Violence Against Women (VAW) and HIV/AIDS among Women and Girls.  3) Achieving Gender Equality and Justice in Democratic Governance in times of Peace and Conflict. Expected results of UNIFEMs partnerships and programmes include incorporation of Gender Equality into National Development Strategies, constitutions, laws, formal and informal justice systems, plans, policies, budgets at national and local level and in the operations and service delivery of key institutions and media. UNIFEM also programmes to support effective organization, representation, advocacy and dialogue of all women, including the most excluded women in society. UNIFEM documents lessons learnt from the most innovative and promising of community-level initiatives for gender equality, building knowledge to inform policy, scaling up, replication and learning through South-South exchange. 

 

___________   _________________________________________

 

 

 

The UNIFEM Pacific Regional Office is piloting a South-South Learning Exchange in feminist development communications. UNIFEM will initially offer one scholarship for a person currently working in a communications/media post in a Pacific Island organization working to advance the empowerment of women and gender equality. The successful applicant will participate in a 2-month intensive learning exchange hosted by Isis International in Manila, Philippines and learn by working as part of the experienced ISIS team in the Philippines, and also in Bangalore and Ahmedabad, India. (Two UNIFEM Pacific staff will be participating in the same learning exchange programme.)

 

 

Topics to be covered

·         Introduction to Feminism, Gender and Development Theory and Practice

o    Introduction to key concepts and terms

o    History of the women's movement and links with the UN Human Rights system

o    Introduction to gender in the context of: climate change/sustainable development; conflict prevention/peace building; leadership/governance; political participation/representation; ending violence against women; reducing HIV/AIDS among women and girls; economic security and rights/informal economy.

o    Movement and network building.

·         Feminist Development Communications

o    Media training  (print and radio)

o    Use of new media (YouTube and digital radio)

o    Best practices for media campaigns to promote women; human rights.

 

 

Duration:

Two months in Philippines and India from February to March, 2010.

 

 

Scholarship details:

The grant covers tuition, round-trip airfares for travel to and from Fiji, accommodation and food costs.

 

The scholarship recipient will be expected to:

·         attend all sessions/events scheduled for the training, as required by Isis International

·         complete a Training Report, documenting the new knowledge and skills acquired during the training and the relevance for the applicant's organization and work to promote women's human rights in their country

·         prepare an Action Plan to utilize new knowledge and skills in the participant's own organization in 2010-2011

·         submit three Progress Reports six monthly (for 18 months) after the training to share experiences and results from the application of the new learning. 

 

Eligibility Criteria

Applicants must:

a)       be in a volunteer or paid communications-related post with an NGO or government that is actively promoting the empowerment of women and gender equality through communications/media programmes

b)      be a national of a Pacific Island country served by UNIFEM Pacific, and currently a resident in the islands

c)       have a guaranteed post (for the next 18 months) in the applicant's organization or home organization, working specifically in communications/media

d)      have excellent writing and oral communication skills in English

e)       have the full approval and endorsement of their organization (in writing)

f)       previous training and a history of work in the area of women; human rights is an asset.

 

Application forms and further information can be requested from Sheryl Ho, email: sheryl.ho@unifem.org, or tel +679 330 1178 (Fiji), or by picking up a form at the front desk of your national UNIFEM office. Please note that late applications will not be accepted.

 

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pacific islands media association
pima.nius@gmail.com
aotearoa, new zealand
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[pima.nius] The Asia-Pacific Climate Change Video Contest

The Asian Development Bank is pleased to announce a new video competition: 

My View: The Asia-Pacific Climate Change Video Contest

to promote awareness of climate change, stimulate debate, and encourage
climate change solutions following
the 2009 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen.

Anyone from an ADB member country can enter!
(see our full list of members at <http://www.adb.org/About/membership.asp)

To participate, all you need to do is:

(1) Make a 1-5 minute video in any format and language--English is
preferred;
(2) Upload it to YouTube (or Youku in the People's Republic of China); and

(3) Fill out a simple online registration form.

Remember: the video must be about climate change in the Asia-Pacific
region.

Entries must be submitted by January 31, 2010!

More than US$ 10,000 in prizes will be awarded in March, 2010.

A grand prize of US$ 2,500 and 1st-3rd place cash prizes will be given.

Three categories of prizes:

(1) Youth (under 21) from an ADB Developing Member Country <
http://www.adb.org/Countries/>;
(2) Open (21+) from an ADB Developing Member Country <
http://www.adb.org/Countries/>; and
(3) Citizens of all other ADB member countries.

Flip-cams will also be awarded as consolation prizes.

Contest Judges include

Cannes and Venice International Film Festival

award-winning directors!

* * *
To learn more about the contest, visit the ADB Climate Change Video
Contest website at:
<
http://www.adb.org/Documents/Events/2009/Climate-Change-Video-Contest/default.asp

Questions? Need more information?
Contact:
- Jason Rush, ADB Video & Multimedia Team Manager, at <jrush@adb.org>
- Katherine Ferrey, External Relations Officer for North America, at
<kferrey@adb.org>

__._,_.___


--
Ulamila Kurai Wragg
Rangiatea Village
Cook I

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----------------------------------------
pacific islands media association
pima.nius@gmail.com
aotearoa, new zealand
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The pima.nius googlegroup is a facility for discussion and distributing information. Content sent by this googlegroup are forwarded from various networks and media publications.
 
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