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| NIUSbeatPACIFIC Pacific Media Newsletter |
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June 23, 2011
Welcome to the Pacific e-bulletin of happenings, events, information and resources for Pacific journalists and media practitioners. Follow the latest news on media and development trends, people on the move, agency and regional organisation news and more. This regional media newsletter is aimed at keeping readers in touch with the 'Niusbeat' in our Pacific community.
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Inaugural Pacific media freedom report updates: Writers for the first ever regional media freedom report, to be launched later this year as part of the IFJ Pacific Media Human Rights and Democracy Regional Roundtable in Honiara, are beginning the work and research involved on assessing the context and situation of media workers and freedom of expression in Pacific countries. Report writers from all subregions of the Pacific have stepped up to register interest and contributions are welcome.
Contact: IFJ Project Co-ordinator Lisa Williams-Lahari via lisa.lahari@gmail.com
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Media regionalism: Public broadcasters launch new regional network: The lion's share of Pacific broadcasters launched a new regional media group with the voice of a mouse this month in Vanuatu. Public broadcasters representing the largest audience share in the region have decided to claim their own networking space and launch a new regional Pacific Public Broadcasters Association (PBA). State-owned national broadcasters from Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Tonga and the Solomon Islands met to discuss content, technical and engineering development issues. Among other agenda items such as access to funding, viability and commercial pressures confronting state-owned public service broadcasters, participants noted their lack of voice and representation as a regional body. While it sorts through its founding strategies and structure, the PBA is led by Tonga Broadcasting board chair Eseta Fusitu'a and General Manager of Solomon Islands Broadcasting Corporation Cornelius Rathamana. As they say in broadcasting, stay tuned for more.
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On the MAP—regional code of ethics, regional media database take priority: Still on media regionalism, a new Media Alliance of Pacific networks, dubbed MAP, launched in May from Samoa's UNESCO Pacific World Press Freedom Day event. Hosted by the National University of Samoa's Journalism program, the event was facilitated by Australia's Media Alliance federal president Peter Lewis and Pacific media specialist Ulafala Aiavao. Network leaders from the fledgling Pacific Alliance of Development Journalists (PAD-J), the Pacific Freedom Forum (PFF), the Pasifika Media Association (PasiMA), the Pacific Islands Media Association (PIMA), and the Pacific WAVE Media Network are the starting point for MAP. PAD-J network leader Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson was nominated as the lead contact for the group and confirmed in their launch statement that the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) and other evolving media networks in the region are welcome to join. A Pacific regional code of ethics and regional media database for Pacific journalists and media workers are two top targets for the new alliance. The inaugural regional media networks meeting for the Pacific, aimed at promoting dialogue and partnership, was organised by the IFJ Pacific Project co-ordinator Lisa Williams-Lahari with support from UNESCO Pacific and AusAID's Pacific Media Assistance Scheme, PacMAS.
Contact Cherelle Jackson here: Samoanwriter@yahoo.com
See: http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=31372&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html
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PNG, Vanuatu take the lead on media monitoring/ethics work – On the heels of completing the a national media monitoring workshop for journalists in Papua New Guinea under the IFJ Pacific Media, Human Rights and Democracy Project, media consultant and journalist Titi Gabi travelled to Vanuatu this week to conduct training designed to increase awareness of violations of journalists' rights and establish networks that can issue alerts and increase monitoring skills. The Vanuatu national workshop, organised by Media Asosiesen blong Vanuatu (MAV) in collaboration with Transparency International Vanuatu, also focused on increasing awareness on codes of ethics, with the IFJ project concentrating on supporting the incorporation of media rights monitoring.
Contact: Cathy Nunn, MAV Administration and Advocacy volunteer via nunn.cat@gmail.com
See: http://www.pacificfreedomforum.org/2011/06/pff-welcomes-ethics-focus-in-vanuatu.html
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PacMAS jobs, July 1 deadline: Time is running out to apply for positions on the AusAID Pacific Media Assistance Scheme (PacMAS), which has been redesigned and is tipped to launch soon. Program Manager and Program Officer positions are both based in Vanuatu. Want to strengthen media capacity, innovation and regional cooperation by fostering regional media development?
See:
Program Manager Position: http://abcinternationalprojects.net.au/pacmas-program-manager-vanuatu
Program Officer Position: http://abcinternationalprojects.net.au/pacmas-program-officer-vanuatu
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Freedom of expression online: Internet access is a human right, and efforts by states to control the internet and regulate it undermine freedom of expression. If you agree, a new global declaration on freedom of expression on the internet will come as good news. It provides a timely set of standards to help guide legislators, judges and civil society groups grapple with the difficult question of how to preserve freedom of expression online. Most of the document, prepared with the assistance of IFEX members the Centre for Law and Democracy and ARTICLE 19, sets out detailed standards regarding freedom of expression and the internet, and includes a call on states to walk the talk and promote universal access – something already mentioned in the regional Digital Strategy for the Pacific Plan on regional development.
www.law-democracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/11.06.Joint-Declaration.Internet.pdf
Contact: Toby Mendel Executive Director, Centre for Law and Democracy via toby@law-democracy.org
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Producer rights up in air after Palau copyright ruling: Palau Supreme Court Chief Justice Arthur Ngiraklsong ruled this month in favour of Sen. Alfonso Diaz in a copyright infringement charges filed by Roll 'Em Productions. The Senator's broadcasting company, which runs Medal Belau TV, aired a video produced by Roll 'Em which was commissioned by government of Palau to highlight government projects in 2008. Diaz aired the video on his station and cut off the end credits which would have showed who the program was produced by. Roll 'Em sent Diaz an invoice in the amount of $2,047.50 as broadcast license fees but his refusal to pay set the copyright infringement case in motion. In coverage of the judgement by Tia Belau on June 6, Roll 'Em had claimed that in broadcasting the CIP video, "defendants violated plaintiffs' exclusive right to display the video publicly. Plaintiff also alleged that by playing the video without showing the credits, defendants violated their moral rights and they sought declaratory, injunctive relief and damages. But the seven-page ruling by the Chief Justice ruled that Roll 'Em has no case because "they have neither economic nor moral rights under the Copyright Act." It noted that under the law in Palau, the person who ordered or commissioned the work is the copyright owner.
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Media ethics training available – no travel needed: Pacific journalists can join colleagues around the globe this month for an online J-Ethinomics course starting on June 27. Organised by the Centre for International Media Ethics (CIME), this no-fee, five-day activity is open to both media professionals and students interested in media ethics issues. Participants can log in at any time of the day, and must log in at least four days out of the five and also complete all the daily assignments, which are expected to take about an hour each. Participants will 'blog' their assignments under their profiles. Interested?
Contact: CIME public relations associate Simona Campidano simona@cimethics.org
See: www.cimethics.org .
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Monitoring Pacific media freedom – Vanuatu spotlight: The Pacific media monitoring radar in May highlighted new progress and challenges stemming from the drawn out investigations into the March 4 assault of Vanuatu Daily Post publisher Marc Neil Jones. Police investigators were treading on sensitive ground – the allegations of the widely-reported and globally condemned assault against a group of men who confronted Neil Jones at his offices in the Daily Post premises involve cabinet minister Harry Iauko – who's since been toppled along with the Kilman government in the latest leadership stoush, with Edward Natapei returned as interim Prime Minister. The case, involving a list of charges against Iauko and seven other men, is due to be heard by the Magistrates Court in Vanuatu on June 28.
See: http://www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/sites/default/files/file_bin/201105/Neil-JonesMediaFreedomspeech_3May11.pdf
Media on the move: Regional media leadership is on the move with UNESCO's Office for the Pacific welcoming its new Communications Adviser Gunther Cyranek and farewelling Paul Hector, who heads to UNESCO HQ in Paris where his predecessor Abel Caine has spent his first year in his new ICT's-related position. Pacific WAVE Media Network coordinator Ulamila Wragg steps out from her founding leadership of the Pacific women in media network to remain an ordinary member while she takes on founding leadership of another regional network on Pacific Climate Change and Gender. Fellow founding member Lisa Williams-Lahari is taking up the interim co-ordination role of WAVE in the meantime. And in media freedom circles, netiquette issues sparked the resignation of columnist Susuve Laumaea as the founding chair of the Pacific Freedom Forum, PFF. PFF co-chair Monica Miller of American Samoa continues in her role while the process for nominations and terms of reference for the co-chairs are refined. PINA vice-president and Media Council PNG Executive Director Nimo Kama was stood down from his post in mid-May, according to a statement by Media Council of PNG President Joe Kanekane, who also announced the appointment of Lavui Bala as acting executive director of the council. Over in Vanuatu, the ABC's Francis Herman is doing the farewell rounds as he completes his work for the Vois Blong Yumi project with Vanuatu Broadcasting and TV. Herman will based in Melbourne for the ABC from July. In the Solomons, another regional information post shutdown – this time at the Forum Fisheries Agency in Honiara - means that Anouk Ride returns to her freelancing and media consultancies. Ride is leading media services for the Parties to the Nauru Agreement, or PNA, as part of her freelance work. Fiji Sun publisher and CEO Peter Lomas announced a series of appointments of University of South Pacific graduates to key roles as part of continuing growth of the daily. With Saturday editions of up to 188 pages, the Sun now publishes the region's biggest newspapers. Under the appointments, experienced broadcast and print editor Epineri Vula moves from the Fiji Times to be deputy editor/production of the Sun while internal appointments see Sudeshna Prasad promoted to North manager based in Labasa and responsible for all the Northern Division and Ilisapeci Marama promoted to Bula Sun/Travel and Lifestyle editor in charge of tourism publications. The Bula Sun is a tourist-focused daily edition going into hotels, on cruise boats and on Air Pacific/Pacific Sun flights. Still in Fiji, MAI Life magazine publisher and photographer Judith Wragg faces the painful end of a media dream as the magazine is forced onto the market because of cross-media ownership clauses in Fiji's Media Decree. Husband Richard Broadbridge will continue as owner of MAI TV as the company lets go of the monthly magazine, launched only a few years ago. On other Fiji media leaders, PINA's coordinator Matai Akauola joins the media freedom council of the global monitoring body, the International Freedom of Expression eXchange (IFEX). See http://www.flickr.com/photos/63060154@N05/5792570097/in/photostream/ . In Tonga, former broadcast journalist Heti Fifita starts her new job as Parliamentary Editor at the Legislative Assembly of Tonga. Fifita exited TBC shortly after being shuffled from news reporting to marketing in Tonga Broadcasting in 2009 after her coverage of the Ashika enquiry described to Tonga's audiences how former Prime Minister Fred Sevele went red in the face during questioning.
There's always new moves in Pacific media - let us know by dropping a line to lisa.lahari@gmail.com - our best Niusbeat wishes go out to all of our Pacific media colleagues who are taking their work in new directions.
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Pacific media meets in 2011: Just when you thought the three upcoming regional media meets for the Pacific were providing a rather busy schedule, add one more. Apart from the AIBD Pacific media partnerships meeting in Port Moresby this August, the IFJ Pacific Regional Roundtable in Honiara this September and the PINA Pacific Media Summit this November in Port Moresby, Pacific area newspaper publishers are preparing for a Sydney meeting in August. The PANPA Future Forum, will run from August 18-19 at Darling Harbour and will include the 2011 PANPA Newspaper of the Year Gala Dinner and feature plenary sessions and master classes for newsroom management, journalism, photography, sales and marketing, and print and production. Media trends and challenges will also be covered during the Forum. Pacific members to PANPA include news outlets in Fiji, Guam, NZ and Australia.
See: http://panpa.org.au/2011/01/10/2011-panpa-future-forum-and-newspaper-of-the-year-awards/
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Verbatim: "To you all my colleagues, let me ask us all to be visionary, let's be inclusive, let's be positive ….Let's go back home with so much positivity and enthusiasm to develop and better our Pacific journalists, our very own Pacific media, our very own Pacific people, our very own Pacific future." – Ulamila Wragg, founding coordinator of the Pacific WAVE Media Network, at the Inaugural Media Networks summit in Apia, Samoa 2-4 May 2011.
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On the NIUSbeat: Got something you want to share with other Pacific newshounds and media workers? Want to guest-edit a NIUSbeat edition? Feel there's something missing or want to contribute under any of the above headings? Drop the NIUSbeatPACIFIC editor a line at lisa.lahari@gmail.com
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NIUSbeat is part of the IFJ Asia-Pacific project, Media for Democracy and Human Rights in the Pacific, supported by the European Union and UNESCO IPDC. The IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 125 countries. Find the IFJ on Twitter: @ifjasiapacific or on Facebook here
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Lisa Williams-Lahari
Media Freelancer
Regional Coordinator, IFJ Pacific Media for Democracy and Human Rights
Project
Ph Mobile: 677-7574230
Skype: lisalahari
* "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that
matter."-- Martin Luther King Jr. *
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pacific islands media association
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aotearoa, new zealand
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pacific islands media association
pima.nius@gmail.com
aotearoa, new zealand
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