scholarly journals Media ownership in Oceania: Three case studies in Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Tonga

2004 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 47-68
Author(s):  
Shailendra Singh
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
News Media ◽  
English Language ◽  
Good Governance ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
The Media

The news media in Oceania are small but remarkably diverse and vigorous. Ownership ranges from large transnational corporations and robust local media companies, as in Fiji and Papua New Guinea, to local entrepreneurial and Government media interests, such as in Tonga and smaller South Pacific nations. News Corporation, through its South Pacific subsidaries, owns the two largest English-language dailies, The Fiji Times and the PNG Post-Courier, while the Malaysian timber company Rimbunan Hijau is a major media investor in Papua New Guinea (The National) as well as having interests in New Zealand and South-East Asia. Australia's Channel nine owns PNG's national TV broadcaster, EMTV, and New Zealand has played an important role in the development of Fiji Television. All three countries have had constitutional freedom of expression guarantees under assault in recent years and the role of the media in good governance has been an emerging theme. Three authors, prominent journalists (and, in the case of two, now also media edcators), analyse the trends in their countries. 

scholarly journals Community, Demagogues and the South Pacific News Media

1998 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-121
Author(s):  
David Robie
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
News Media ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
General View ◽  
The South ◽  
Constitutional Review ◽  
The Press ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
The Media

On 19 October 1995, the Governor-General of Papua New Guinea issued the terms of reference for a Constitutional Review Committee's (CRC) Subcommittee on Media Accountability: to examine ‘whether changes need to be made to ensure that, while freedom of the press is maintained, owners, editors and journalists of all elements of the media are accountable and that persons aggrieved by media abuses have reasonable redress’. The CRC held a public seminar in January 1996 to explore the issues and the Media Council of Papua blew Guinea held a ‘freedom at the crossroads’ seminar the following month. Public responses were overwhelmingly in favour of the traditional ‘free’ press in Papua New Guinea, as guaranteed under Section 46 of the Constitution. The report of the Subcommittee on Media Accountability to Parliament in June 1996 essentially came to the same conclusion. However, the CRC introduced three draft media laws in November which introduced a controversial system involving a Media Commission, registration of journalists, licensing of media organisations and serious penalties for transgressors. The proposed legislation was widely condemned and was eventually shelved in February 1997, A general view is that the media debate was manipulated by a small group of politicians out of self-interest. This paper examines the developments in the context of the erosion of the news media and free expression in the South Pacific generally.

scholarly journals Six Oceania microstates: The genesis of media accountability

2005 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shailendra Singh
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Code Of Ethics ◽  
Solomon Islands ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Pacific Island ◽  
South Pacific Island ◽  
The Media ◽  
Pacific Island Countries ◽  
Similar Body

Media accountability systems (M*A*S) have been slow to take root in Oceania. Apart from Papua New Guinea, Fiji is the trend-setter in the region. Following the establishment of the Fiji Media Council in the mid-1990s, several other South Pacific island countries were keen to the follow the lead. Tonga now has a similar body with a code of ethics and which includes public members empowered to receive and adjudicate on complaints against the media. In Samoa, a study has been carried out in order to establish a media council-type body. The Solomons Islands Media Council (SIMC) is an industry organisation that does not yet have a complaints procedure. It is considering including this mechanism in line with the Papua New Guinea Media Council with which it shares a website and has a cooperative agreement. This article examines the debate in six South Pacific island countries that have adopted, or are in the process of adopting, self-regulatory M*A*S mechanisms following government pressure. They are the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu. The article also argues that there are other M*A*S that regional media can adopt besides media councils and this action would make it harder for governments to intervene and introduce regulation.

scholarly journals Good news media book in regional bad news year

2019 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 211-212
Author(s):  
Patrick Craddock
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
News Media ◽  
National Development ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Bad News ◽  
Good News ◽  
Journalism Education ◽  
Media Ownership ◽  
The Media

Media, Information and Development in Papua New Guinea is one of the most interesting books I have on Pacific media. It is a collection of different writers, some of whom are current or former journalists. Several of the authors have direct media links as staff working with the Divine Word University in Madang, a private Christian institution. For the uninitiated, the opening chapter gives an outline of the media landscape in PNG. Other chapters explore media ownership, journalism education and the role of media national development. 

scholarly journals REVIEW: Challenges over Pacific 'free media'

1995 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 148-150
Author(s):  
Robbie Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Mass Media ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
News Media ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Media Freedom ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Free Media ◽  
Port Moresby

Review of Nius Bilong Pasifik: Mass Media in the Pacific, edited by David Robie. Port Moresby: University of Papua New Guinea Press. This is the first comprehensive resource book on the South Pacific news media. Its foreward, by Tongan Futa Helu, sets the agenda. 'Media freedom in the Pacific islands,' he declares, 'is in the balance'.

scholarly journals ‘Stifled aspirations’: The 2014 General Election under restrictive laws

2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
pp. 108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mosmi Bhim
Keyword(s):  
Political Parties ◽  
News Media ◽  
Political Party ◽  
Prime Minister ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
Television News ◽  
General Election ◽  
Government Accountability ◽  
Media Companies ◽  
The Media

On 17 September 2014, eight years after the 5 December 2006 coup, Fiji held a General Election under repressive laws curtailing freedom of expression and the media, government accountability and the judiciary. A notable number of 248 candidates aspired for the 50 parliamentary seats under the 2013 Constitution and an Electoral Decree released a few months prior to elections. In an atmosphere of lavish campaign advertisements on billboards, public transport vehicles and the print and television news media by the post-coup Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama’s political party FijiFirst, recently activated political parties struggled to have their voices heard. Two daily media companies—the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation and the Fiji Sun—displayed bias towards the FijiFirst party by providing them with excessive and preferential coverage and portraying other parties in a negative light; other media organisations attempted to give fairer coverage. The debate heated up amid crackdowns by police on ‘trouble-makers’ vandalising FijiFirst posters. The country headed for the polls as celebrations marked the release of 45 Fijian soldiers held hostage by Al-Nusra in the Golan Heights. Amid complaints by five political parties, the election was declared ‘free and fair’ by the Electoral Commission. This article, through analysis of media materials, campaigning, polling and results calculations, contends that the elections only satisfied part of the international criteria for ‘free and fair elections’.

scholarly journals Pacific journalism education and training - the new advocacy era

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 93-110
Author(s):  
Mackenzie Smith
Keyword(s):  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
News Media ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Journalism Education ◽  
The South ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
National University ◽  
Institute Of Technology ◽  
The University

For years, journalism education training in the Pacific has relied on donor funded short courses and expatriate media educators but in recent times this has been changing with the growth of more journalism schools at both universities and technical institutes and a more home grown actively qualified staff and proliferating research programmes. These changes can be reflected with the establishment of the new advocacy group, Media Educators Pacific (MEP). This is chaired by Misa Vicky Lepou, the president and she is also the head of journalism at the National University of Samoa. This body has a mission to promote and deliver the highest professional standards of training, education and research in media and journalism education relevant to the Pacific and beyond. In a region where the news media and journalism education have been forced to confront major hurdles such as military coups, as in Fiji; ethnic conflict, as in the Solomon Islands; and two rival governments and the ruthless crushing of student protests in Papua New Guinea in June 2016, major questions are faced. Along with critical development issues such as climate change and resources degradation, what are the challenges ahead for teaching contemporary journalists? These were some of the issues explored by this panel at the Fourth World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC) conference in Auckland in July 2016. The panel was chaired by the Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie. Speakers were Emily Matasororo of the University of Papua New Guinea, Shailendra Singh of the University of the South Pacific, Misa Vicky Lepou of the National University of Samoa and Charlie David Mandavah of the Vanuatu Institute of Technology. Eliki Drugunalevu of the University of the South Pacific provided a summing up.

scholarly journals Pacific freedom of the press: Case studies in independent campus-based media models

2010 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-126
Author(s):  
David Robie
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
News Media ◽  
Freedom Of Expression ◽  
New Guinea ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
Online Publishing ◽  
Daily Newspaper ◽  
Independent Publishing ◽  
The Press

South Pacific university-based journalism school publications were innovative newspaper publishers from 1975 onwards and among early pioneers of online publishing in the mid-1990s. Several publications have become established long-term with viable economic models and have had an impact on Oceania’s regional independent publishing. All have been advocates of a free press and freedom of expression under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Among early trendsetters were Uni Tavur, Liklik Diwai in Papua New Guinea, and Wansolwara and Pacific Journalism Online in Fiji. Wansolwara and its online edition was also the flagbearer for independent publishing under the pressure of two coups d’état in 2000 and 2006 in Fiji. All newspapers have contended with censorship in various forms. Now Wansolwara has embarked on a publishing partnership with a leading post-coup Fiji daily newspaper. This article analyses the independent media published by communication studies educational programmes in Fiji and Papua New Guinea. It examines how a variety of niche publishing formula have boosted independent coverage and issues-based journalism on wide-ranging topics such as human rights, news media facing censorship and freedom of information.

Literary Histories

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eva-Marie Kröller
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Collective Identity ◽  
Literary History ◽  
English Language ◽  
South Pacific ◽  
The South ◽  
Cultural Elite ◽  
Historical Methodology ◽  
Literary Histories

This chapter discusses national literary histories in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the South Pacific and summarises the book's main findings regarding the construction and revision of narratives of national identity since 1950. In colonial and postcolonial cultures, literary history is often based on a paradox that says much about their evolving sense of collective identity, but perhaps even more about the strains within it. The chapter considers the complications typical of postcolonial literary history by focusing on the conflict between collective celebration and its refutation. It examines three issues relating to the histories of English-language fiction in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the South Pacific: problems of chronology and beginnings, with a special emphasis on Indigenous peoples; the role of the cultural elite and the history wars in the Australian context; and the influence of postcolonial networks on historical methodology.

Constructing the myth of protest masculinity in Chinese English language news media

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yating Yu ◽  
Mark Nartey
Keyword(s):  
Critical Discourse Analysis ◽  
News Media ◽  
English Language ◽  
Critical Discourse ◽  
Social Harmony ◽  
Chinese Media ◽  
Research Attention ◽  
Discursive Strategies ◽  
News Reports ◽  
The Media

Although the Chinese media’s construction of unmarried citizens as ‘leftover’ has incited much controversy, little research attention has been given to the ways ‘leftover men’ are represented in discourse. To fill this gap, this study performs a critical discourse analysis of 65 English language news reports in Chinese media to investigate the predominant gendered discourses underlying representations of leftover men and the discursive strategies used to construct their identities. The findings show that the media perpetuate a myth of ‘protest masculinity’ by suggesting that poor, single men may become a threat to social harmony due to the shortage of marriageable women in China. Leftover men are represented as poor men, troublemakers and victims via discursive processes that include referential, predicational and aggregation strategies as well as metaphor. This study sheds light on the issues and concerns of a marginalised group whose predicament has not been given much attention in the literature.

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