scholarly journals Internationalisation of the 'hidden' West Papua issue: A regional media matter for Melanesia and the Pacific

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 33-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johnny Blades
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Media Freedom ◽  
Pacific People ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
West Papua ◽  
Critical Media

Auckland University of Technology’s Pacific Media Centre marked its tenth anniversary with a seminar discussing two of the wider region’s most critical media freedom crises. The ‘Journalism Under Duress’ in Asia-Pacific seminar in November 2017 examined media freedom and human rights in the Philippines and Indonesia’s Papua region, otherwise known as West Papua. In the discussion about West Papua, the PMC seminar heard that access to the Indonesian region for foreign journalists, while still restricted, remains critical for helping Papuan voices to be heard. The plight of West Papua is of major concern among Pacific people, especially Melanesians, and it is becoming a growing geopolitical and media issue.    

scholarly journals Journalism under duress in Asia-Pacific: A decade of resistance

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 12-32
Author(s):  
David Robie
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Media Freedom ◽  
West Papua ◽  
Critical Media ◽  
Culture Of Impunity

Auckland University of Technology’s Pacific Media Centre marked its tenth anniversary with a wide-ranging public seminar discussing two of the region’s most critical media freedom crises. The ‘Journalism Under Duress in Asia-Pacific’ seminar in November 2017 examined media freedom and human rights in the Philippines and in Indonesia’s Papua region, generally known as West Papua. The introduction to the PMC seminar, later presented at a Reporters Without Borders summit for Asia-Pacific freedom advocates and activist journalists in Paris in July 2018 examined the culture of impunity over crimes against journalists and journalism safety as a major factor undermining media freedom in the region.

Human Rights as Land Rights in the Pacific

1993 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D'Arcy May
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
Papua New Guinea ◽  
Land Rights ◽  
Human Community ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
West Papua ◽  
The Matrix ◽  
The One

Do human rights in their conventional, Western understanding really meet the needs of Pacific peoples? This article argues that land rights are a better clue to those needs. In Aboriginal Australia, Fiji, West Papua and Papua New Guinea, case studies show that people's relationship to land is religious and implicitly theological. The article therefore suggests that rights to land need to be supplemented by rights of the land extending to the earth as the home of the one human community and nature as the matrix of all life.

THE FORD ADMINISTRATION AND SECURITY POLICY IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC AFTER THE FALL OF SAIGON

2009 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 697-716 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANDREW J. GAWTHORPE
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Security Policy ◽  
Pacific Islands ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Regional Politics ◽  
Ford Administration ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Regional Factors ◽  
Communist Countries

ABSTRACTThis article enhances our understanding of the Ford administration's foreign policy by examining how it sought to react to a changed situation in the Asia-Pacific after the fall of Saigon in May 1975. It shows how changes in regional politics forced the administration to adapt to a situation in which allies began to look to the Communist countries for friendship and to reconsider having American forces on their soil. It illustrates this situation by looking at base negotiations in Thailand and the Philippines, and the administration's search for an alternative arrangement in the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands. It then reconsiders two crisis situations in the region to examine the relevance of the superpower competition to the administration's responses. This aids our understanding of the role that regional factors played in tactical foreign policy decisions taken by the Ford administration, extending beyond a focus on the superpower competition that has marked the historiography of the administration in the past.

Historical Wrongs and Human Rights in Sino-Foreign Relations: The Legacy of Extraterritoriality

2000 ◽  
Vol 9 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 129-146
Author(s):  
Eileen P. Scully
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
Foreign Relations ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
State Sovereignty ◽  
People's Republic Of China ◽  
Republic Of China ◽  
Universal Human Rights

AbstractIn the battle for universal human rights, it may be said that sovereignty has become “the last refuge of scoundrels.” Certainly, this is the prevailing verdict of Western liberal activists with regard to the invocations of absolute self-determination and noninterference by authoritarian regimes in the People’s Republic of China (PRC), Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines. These Asia- Pacific governments have defended their heavy-handed response to internal dissent with the position that “State sovereignty is the basis for the realization of citizens’ human rights. If the sovereignty of a state is not safeguarded, the human rights of its citizens are out of the question.”

scholarly journals Pacific Journalism Monographs No 2: Coups, conflicts and human rights

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Robie
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
News Media ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Media Ethics ◽  
The Press ◽  
Media Credibility ◽  
Critical Media ◽  
The Media ◽  
Peace Journalism ◽  
Corporate Integrity

At the heart of a global crisis over news media credibility and trust is Britain’s so-called Hackgate scandal involving the widespread allegations of phone-hacking and corruption against the now defunct Rupert Murdoch tabloid newspaper News Of The World. Major inquiries on media ethics, professionalism and accountability have been examining the state of the press in New Zealand, Britain and Australia. The Murdoch media empire has stretched into the South Pacific with the sale of one major title being forced by political pressure. The role of news media in global South nations and the declining credibility of some sectors of the developed world’s Fourth Estate also pose challenges for the future of democracy. Truth, censorship, ethics and corporate integrity are increasingly critical media issues in the digital age for a region faced with coups, conflicts and human rights violations, such as in Fiji and West Papua. In this monograph, Professor David Robie reflects on the challenges in the context of the political economy of the media and journalism education in the Asia-Pacific region. He also engages with emerging disciplines such as deliberative journalism, peace journalism, human rights journalism, and revisits notions of critical development journalism and citizen journalism.

scholarly journals Key Melanesian media freedom challenges: Climate crisis, internet freedoms, fake news and West Papua

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Robie
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Self Determination ◽  
Freedom Of Information ◽  
Fake News ◽  
Network Television ◽  
Media Freedom ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
West Papua ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Climate Crisis

Melanesia, and the microstates of the Pacific generally, face the growing influence of authoritarian and secretive values in the region—projected by both China and Indonesia and with behind-the-scenes manipulation. There is also a growing tendency for Pacific governments to use unconstitutional, bureaucratic or legal tools to silence media and questioning journalists. Frequent threats of closing Facebook and other social media platforms and curbs on online freedom of information are another issue. While Pacific news media face these challenges, their support networks are being shaken by the decline of Australia as a so-called ‘liberal democracy’ and through the undermining of its traditional region-wide public interest media values with the axing of Radio Australia and Australia Network television. Reporting climate change is the Pacific’s most critical challenge while Australian intransigence over the issue is subverting the region’s media. This article engages with and examines these challenges and also concludes that the case of West Papua is a vitally important self-determination issue that left unresolved threatens the security of the region.

scholarly journals Commentary: Embracing Culture as Essential to Pacific People

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Halaevalu F.O. Vakalahi
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
The United States ◽  
Pacific Rim ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Pacific People ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The World ◽  
Diverse Society ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Available Information

The existing written literature on Pacific people is generally limited and available information is often incomplete, inaccurate or outdated. In many geographical locations, including the United States, literature focusing specifically on Pacific people is extremely sparse because it is often subsumed within broader coverage of people throughout the Asia-Pacific region. As such, the experiences are often trivialised. The Journal of Pacific Rim Psychology is filling gaps in contemporary psychology. It is exposing the world to the phenomenally rich and diverse cultures and people of the Pacific Rim. This is not only groundbreaking; it is also a form of social justice work. It advocates the use of a cultural lens in viewing the world and human behaviour; in this case a Pacific-culture lens that emphasises inclusivity, collectivity and reciprocity. Helping to promote a social justice movement that celebrates and honours the rich and extraordinarily diverse region of the Pacific will continue to contribute to the betterment of research, services and programming in today's diverse society. Furthermore, it will contribute to the journal's quest to become a preferred forum for the ??First People of the Pacific inside and outside of their Pacific home.

scholarly journals Defending journalism and the foundations of democracy

2007 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Warren
Keyword(s):  
Press Freedom ◽  
Asia Pacific ◽  
Independent Practice ◽  
Pacific Region ◽  
Asia Pacific Region ◽  
Media Freedom ◽  
Digital Democracy ◽  
Broad Issue ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
The Way

Even as journalists look forward to the benefits that technology will surely bring to digital democracy and journalism, they need to also reflect on the approaching ‘shadows’. These shadows are cast by three fundamental crises that threaten the free and independent practice of journalism and the very craft of journalism itself. These intertwined crises are: a crisis of press freedom, a crisis of safety and a crisis confronting the way journalists work. These crises are putting pressure on all journalists. But journalists and media workers are fighting back. The two commentaries over the next few pages outline some of these issues from the broad issue of media freedom in the Asia-Pacific region to women’s ‘suitcase’ broadcasting in the Pacific.

scholarly journals REVIEW: Indonesian repression and betrayal in West Papua

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 266-271
Author(s):  
David Robie
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Human Rights Violations ◽  
The People ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
West Papua ◽  
Eyewitness Account

Papua Blood: A Photographer’s Eyewitness Account of West Papua Over 30 Years, by Peter Bang. Copenhagen, Denmark: Remote Frontlines,  2018. 248 pages. ISBN 978-87-430-0101-0 See No Evil: New Zealand’s Betrayal of the People of West Papua, by Maire Leadbeater. Dunedin, NZ: Otago University Press, 2018. 310 pages. ISBN 978-1-98-853121-2 TWO damning and contrasting books about Indonesian colonialism in the Pacific, both by activist participants in Europe and New Zealand, have recently been published. Overall, they are excellent exposés of the harsh repression of the Melanesian people of West Papua and a world that has largely turned a blind eye to to human rights violations.

scholarly journals The Philippines in 2020

Asian Survey ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 130-137
Author(s):  
Julio C. Teehankee
Keyword(s):  
Human Rights ◽  
National Survey ◽  
The Philippines ◽  
Media Freedom

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic initially threatened the populist legacy of Philippine President Rodrigo R. Duterte. Despite implementing one of the longest and strictest lockdowns globally, the country is still struggling to control the virus. While Duterte appears victorious in his assault on human rights and media freedom, his government’s record in fighting the virus is spotty at best. Yet, Duterte’s populism proved resilient. He remains extremely popular, with a September national survey reporting 81% approval of his government’s response to the pandemic and 91% of respondents expressing trust in his leadership.

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