scholarly journals Pacific Journalism Monographs No 1: Pacific Media Freedom 2011: A status report

Author(s):  
Alex Perrottet ◽  
David Robie

Pacific media freedom has been under siege for more than a decade, particularly since an attempted coup in Fiji in May 2000, when a television station was attacked and ransacked, a foreign journalist was shot and wounded and a local journalist ended up being imprisoned for treason. Since then various Pacific countries, notably Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu have faced various periods of media repression. Since the military coup in December 2006, Fiji has faced arguably its worst sustained pressure on the media since the original two Rabuka coups in 1987. The Bainimarama regime in June 2010 imposed a Media Industry Development Decree that enforced draconian curbs on journalists and restrictive controls on foreign ownership of the press. This consolidated systematic state censorship of news organisations that had been imposed in April 2009 with the Public Emergency Regulations that have been rolled over on a monthly basis ever since. Promised relaxation of state censorship after the imposition of the Decree never eventuated. This research monograph covers the period 1 July 2010-30 June 2011 and examines the trends in the Pacific region. In addition to Pacific Islands Forum member nations, it covers the French Pacific territories and the former Indonesian colony of East Timor and current twin provinces known collectively as West Papua.

2011 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alex Perrottet ◽  
David Robie

Pacific media freedom has been under siege for more than a decade, particularly since an attempted coup in Fiji in May 2000, when a television station was attacked and ransacked, a foreign journalist was shot and wounded and a local journalist ended up being imprisoned for treason. Since then various Pacific countries, notably Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Tonga and Vanuatu have faced various periods of media repression. Since the military coup in December 2006, Fiji has faced arguably its worst sustained pressure on the media since the original two Rabuka coups in 1987. The Bainimarama regime in June 2010 imposed a Media Industry Development Decree that enforced draconian curbs on journalists and restrictive controls on foreign ownership of the press. This consolidated systematic state censorship of news organisations that had been imposed in April 2009 with the Public Emergency Regulations that have been rolled over on a monthly basis ever since. Promised relaxation of state censorship after the imposition of the Decree never eventuated. This research report covers the period 1 July 2010-31 August 2011 and examines the trends in the Pacific region. In addition to Pacific Islands Forum member nations, the report covers the French Pacific territories and the former Indonesian colony of East Timor and current provinces known as West Papua. Professor David Robie is convenor of the Pacific Media Watch media freedom project; Alex Perrottet is student contributing editor of the Pacific Media Watch project.


Author(s):  
Ricardo Morris

Ricardo Morris, a journalist and Thomson Reuters fellow from Fiji, has studied the perceptions and practice of self-censorship among journalists from his country in the years following the military coup in December 2006. He focused particularly on the period after the 2014 general election that returned Fiji to democratic rule. In this research monograph, Morris examines how willing Fiji’s media workers are to self-censor, how self-censorship works in newsrooms, and what factors are influential on journalists’ work. The research monograph was first published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism and has been published by the Pacific Journalism Monograph series at the Pacific Media Centre by arrangement with the author and institute. Morris is the founder, publisher and editor of independent media company Republika Media Limited in Fiji, which publishes the magazine Repúblika.


Author(s):  
Steven Casey

From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima and Nagasaki, a group of highly courageous correspondents covered America’s war against Japan. Based on a wealth of previously untapped primary sources, War Beat, Pacific provides the first comprehensive account of what these reporters witnessed, what they were allowed to publish, and how their reports shaped the home front’s perception of some of the most pivotal battles in American history. In a dramatic and fast-paced narrative, the book takes us from MacArthur’s doomed defense on the Philippines and the navy’s overly strict censorship policy at the time of Midway through the bloody battles on Guadalcanal, New Guinea, Tarawa, Saipan, Leyte and Luzon, Iwo Jima and Okinawa, detailing the cooperation, as well as conflict, between the media and the military as they grappled with the enduring problem of limiting a free press during a period of extreme crisis. At the heart of this book are the brave, sometimes tragic stories of reporters like Clark Lee and Vern Haugland of the Associated Press, Byron Darnton and Tillman Durdin of the New York Times, Stanley Johnston and Al Noderer of the Chicago Tribune, George Weller of the Chicago Daily News, Keith Wheeler of the Chicago Times, and Robert Sherrod of Time magazine. Twenty-three correspondents died while reporting on the Pacific War. Many more sustained serious wounds. War Beat, Pacific shows how both the casualties and the survivors deserve to be remembered as America’s golden generation of journalists.


2021 ◽  
Vol 82 ◽  
pp. 53-78
Author(s):  
Angelina Ilieva ◽  

In February 2020, the Bulgarian government established the National Operational Headquarters for Combating the COVID-19 Pandemic in Bulgaria. General Ventsislav Mutafchiyski, a military doctor, professor at the Military Medical Academy in Sofia, was appointed as its chairman. This paper presents a case study on the public image of Ventsislav Mutafchiyski, its readings and interpretations by the audience, and the specific fan culture that emerged around his media persona during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in Bulgaria. Placed in the spotlight of the media at the very beginning of the crisis, Mutafchiyski became extremely popular as the public figure most strongly associated with the fight against the spread of the disease in the country. Around his media persona, shaped in the public imagination as a wartime leader, a fan culture has grown with all its characteristic features and dimensions: fans and anti-fans, affirmative and transformative fandom. As a fictional character, Mutafchiyski has appeared in numerous forms of vernacular creativity: poems, songs, material objects, jokes, fake news, conspiracy theories, and memes. In this way, the General has become the main character of Bulgarian pandemic folklore and the focal point of a participatory pandemic.


Author(s):  
Tina C. Touitou

The study focuses on media’s portrayal of homosexuality as a reflection of cultural acceptance in the society. The first representation of gay men in the United States to a national audience occurred in 1967 with the airing of a documentary titled “The Homosexuals,” which is filled with harmful, derogatory stereotypes etc. The fact that homosexual characters were mostly guest stars as opposed to leading characters also suggests that gay activist were taking a less radical approach by attempting to improve acceptance of homosexual. In Nigeria, homosexuality is a taboo, abnormal and not accepted. The media can and has with some degree of success helped break down the cultural taboos associated with sensitive sexual topics and bridge some gaps in our sexual knowledge. The paper adopted empirical secondary data, and employed cultivation theory. It proved that the media have power in shaping people’ believe and perception, and can form or modify the public opinion in different ways depending on what the objective is. For example, Pakistani media influenced the opinion against the Taliban in Swat by repeated telecast of a video clip showing whipping of a woman by a Taliban. Before that, the public opinion over the military action against the Taliban was divided, but repeated telecast of this short video clip changed the public opinion overnight in favor of the government to take action. The paper recommended that the media should take a firm stand, not playing two-edge sword on  the reportage of homosexuality, and should remain a ‘watchdog’ and the ‘mirror’ of the society.


Author(s):  
Hüseyin Çelik

Economy politics that were formed with neoliberalism affected media industry like it affected all the other spheres of economy. The concentration of media structures in the world, the companies which work in the media industry being worked in the other spheres of economy, the struggle of these companies against the regulations about the media and their emphasis on the cancellation of these regulations; and the international activities of media companies attract the attention of the public for the last 50 years approximately. These developments in the media industry have been experienced in Turkey and these continued to be experienced. Neoliberal politics that were applied after 1980s caused important changes in the media industry. Another important point that attracts the attention is that even though the media actors have changed; the number of the structures that are active in media is limited and this number has not been changed for years. This paper aims to put forward the changes in the media industry in Turkey and the structures that have been shaped around these changes in the framework of neoliberal policies which were started in 1980s. In this paper a qualitative research design is used and ownership structures are analysed to investigate the changes in Turkey’s media industry since 1980s. Consequently it is seen that media actors have been changed but their numbers stayed the same. Furthermore the ownership structure of the media that is formed as a result of these developments and the organic bond between the Government is underlined.


Author(s):  
Pavlо Miroshnychenko

The main objective of the study is to determine the typical and peculiar features of the sound image of regional radio station programs in the context of basic trends of development of media industry. The scientific article used the method of analysis of actual scientific information on the research topic, which facilitated to develop its concept. Also, the methods of interpreting data of sociological researches, monitoring and comparative analysis of sound image of radio programs submitted to the Tenth Context of Professional Journalism “Honor of Profession 2019” were applied. The programs of public regional broadcaster, the Internet and FM stations actively use the socalled “trends” of media industry – genre hybridity, tendency to convergence, multiplatform specifics, visualization, purely technical accessibility to the listener. The programs of the Public Radio are characterized by considerable timing that is traditional for literary and artistic programs of the former state radio and its stylistics and manner of material’s presentation. These properties of the sound image cause the questions regarding communicative effectiveness of such programs, as tempo and rhythm of the modern life have accelerated. The programs of regional online radio and FM stations have small timing and use the principle “rip and read” in their material presentations. Their sound images are less because of expressive means. The lack of regional broadcasters in the contest final can indirectly demonstrate their certain information and technological gap with the media industry leaders. The “traditions” in sound image designing of radio programs are established by the practice of daily informing that simplifies and accelerates production of information product. Simultaneously, the routine and template in the approaches to sound images designing do not encourage to heighten interest of the audience to the radio as a source of relevant and interesting information.


2021 ◽  
Vol 188 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 4-14
Author(s):  
Leyli Ali Allakhverdieva ◽  

The author measures the degree of of the public regulation of the information services provision via media (media liberalism degree), namely via printed media, and television and radio broadcasting. The methodology of measurement of media liberalism degree (media freedom subindex) is part of the index of liberalism (or dirigisme in opposite) of information services, prepared according to Professor N. Muzaffarli’s assessment of the degree of the government intervention in the economy. In order to measure the media freedom subindex, the following indicators are used: the VAT index on printed publications, the VAT index on television and radio broadcasting, the index of license fee for watching TV, the VAT index of license fee for watching TV, the index of penalty for late VAT payment, the corporate tax index, the ratio of private and the state TV channels subindex. Measuring those indices in the studied group of countries made it possible to establish that: 1) Azerbaijan and Georgia are the most liberal countries with regard to the VAT index on printed publications, Bulgaria is the most dirigiste country; 2) the minimal VAT index on television and radio broadcasting is observed in Malta, the maximal - in Hungary; 3) in most countries the index of license fee for watching TV is lowest, with Austria having the highest indicator; 4) in Azerbaijan, the Russian Federation, Georgia and Armenia there is no concept of license fee for watching TV, respectively there is no related VAT; in the UK, Ireland, Malta, the Netherlands and Sweden this type of tax is not levied either; 5) the most liberal country in terms of the index of penalty for late VAT payment is Hungary, whereas Slovenia is the most dirigiste; 6) the most liberal country with regard to the corporate tax index is Hungary, while the most dirigiste is Malta; 7) in most countries the ratio of the private and state-owned TV channels subindex is equal to zero (there are no local public TV channels), with France being the most dirigiste country in terms of the subindex mentioned above. It can be noted that the most liberal media belong to Cyprus, the most dirigiste - to France. In most of the researched countries the media are more liberal than the relative center shows. It has been found that most countries with a higher level of economic development adhere to less dirigiste media policies, and vice versa. Also, there are countries that do not lend themselves to this pattern, for example, Ireland.


2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-110 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Cass

This article describes the historic conditions governing newspaper and media ownership in the Pacific. It argues that historically there have been three kinds of media in the Pacific: Mission or church-owned or directed, governmen- owned or directed and commercial. The missions and churches were responsible for the first newspapers aimed exclusively at indigenous populations and in Papua New Guinea have continued to play a key role in the media. The commercial press could only exist when there was a sufficient population to support it and so it tended to appear in those countries with the largest expatriate populations first. The continued dominance of the commercial media by Western companies in the largest islands has been largely due to the cost of producing these commodities. Locally-owned commercial media have been on a much smaller scale, but they have nonetheless had an impact. The national or government-owned or directed media were generally inherited from the departing metropolitan powers and represent a much diluted version of the public service model. While the article argues that the dominance of the commercial press in such markets as PNG, Fiji and New Caledonia by Murdoch and Dassault- Hersant is probably commercially inevitable, it also argues that the media scene in the Pacific is actually remarkably diverse.


Author(s):  
Taberannang Korauaba

By Taberannang Korauaba Although the Pacific nation of Kiribati has been identified as one of the most vulnerable countries to the impact of climate change, little is known about the attitudes of the local media and the public toward this issue. This is in contrast to empirical study findings which have shown that the public and the media were aware of the threats posed by climate change. This monograph extracted from the author’s thesis argues that the people of Kiribati are not united over climate change. Browse the author's MCS thesis on Kiribati


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