Current Issue
Abstracts of Vol 12(2), September 2006
Edited by David Robie
Editorial
Lies, gags and the future
David Robie pp 5-8
Theme:
ECO-JOURNALISM AND SECURITY:
1. Anti-terror laws and the media after 9/11: Three models in Australia, NZ and the Pacific
Mark Pearson and Naomi Busst pp 9-27
Abstract: This article reviews some of the main anti-terrorism laws in Australia and New Zealand and assesses their impact upon the media in the five years since the terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001. It also makes some observations about anti-terrorism laws in the Pacific Islands and recommends further research on this important topic. It identifies the main intrusions into press freedom emanating from such laws and finds quite different approaches with resultant impacts on media freedoms. Australia, while claiming to be a liberal democracy, has taken tough measures against terrorism at the expense of some press freedoms. New Zealand, with freedom of expression protected in its Bill of Rights, has implemented counter-terrorism measures without major limitations on media freedoms. Pacific Island nations, many troubled by internal strife, appear to have been slow to comply with even the very basic international protocols on counter-terrorism.
2. Looking behind the terror curtain: A developing world journalism perspective
Kalinga Seneriratne pp 29-45
Abstract: This article explores and challenges the hypocrisy and misrepresentations surrounding Western media reportage of the global ‘war on terror’. While the so-called Coalition of the Willing has introduced a rash of new anti-terror laws since 11 September 2001, many of the very freedoms which President Bush said the terrorists were out to destroy, have now been severely curtailed. This article is also a critique of the dangers of anti-terrorism laws for media seeking to report a complex truth about nationalist struggles.
3. From Fiji to Fallujah: The war on Iraq and the privatisation of Pacific security
Nic Maclellan pp 47-65
Abstract: Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, private security companies from the United Kingdom and United States have been seeking personnel for their operations in the Middle East, and many hundreds of Fijians have signed up. The privatisation of security, a growing trend in the Middle East and Africa, has reached the shores of the South Pacific and governments have little control over former army personnel employed by private military contractors. This article documents the recruitment of Fijian military personnel for service in Iraq and Kuwait, and the casualties that they have faced. The engagement of former military personnel as private military contractors has spilt over into the Pacific as well—from the 1997 Sandline crisis to current events in Bougainville. Since November 2005, the governments of Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands have tried to resolve a crisis caused by the presence of former Fijian soldiers in Bougainville.
4. Politics, democracy and the media: Case studies in Fiji, Tonga and the Solomon Islands
Shailendra Singh and Som Prakash pp 67-85
Abstract: This article looks at three South Pacific Island nations—Fiji, Tonga and the Solomon Islands—in terms of some landmark changes occurring in their political arenas. Fiji, beset by racial and political problems culminating in three coups, is experimenting with a multiracial, multiparty cabinet that could be emulated by other multiethnic countries. Tonga, a Polynesian monarchy, has recently seen an unprecedented number of protest marches against the ruling elite, the death of its King, and is in experiencing palpable democratic changes. In the Solomons, the strong desire for a fairer political system was manifested in the 2006 riots in Honiara. It caught the Regional Assistance Mission to the Solomon Islands (RAMSI) napping and brought into question the sufficiency and focus of Australia’s intervention policy in the country. The media has been a key player in these events. Regularly accused of adding fuel to fire in its coverage of crises, the media faces constant government pressure in all three countries. This article argues that rather than the media, the sources of discontent and instability are self-serving leaders clinging to outdated political systems. The authors believe political reform, not media control, is needed.
5. West Papuan ‘independence’ and the Papua New Guinea press
Patrick Matbob and Evangelia Papoutsaki pp 87-105
Abstract: This article explores the West Papua issue through the Papua New Guinea news media. It seeks to identify the reasons behind the decline in coverage of West Papua in the PNG press. It provides an historical background to the West Papua conflict and PNG’s relationship with Indonesian-ruled West Papua and it presents the results of a comparative content analysis of three PNG newspapers—Post-Courier, The National, and Times of Papua New Guinea—on their coverage of West Papua, in-depth interviews with journalists and West Papuan refugees in Papua New Guinea.
6. Reporting sustainability in the English-language press of Southeast Asia
Chris Nash and Wendy Bacon pp 106-135
Abstract: This article reports on a preliminary scan of six English-language newspapers in Southeast Asia, with a side comparison to a leading Australian newspaper, regarding their coverage of environmental sustainability issues over a two month period in 2005. It identifies the ownership and key politico-economic issues for each masthead, and does a detailed quantitative analysis of their subject matter and use of sources, followed by two case studies of complex, multisourced stories critical of corporate or government activities. The analysis draws on field theory, and canvasses debates about the power relations among journalists and sources. It concludes that there is a common set of journalistic practices across the sample regardless of national and political differences, but considerable diversity of approaches within that commonality. Patterns of ownership, particularly state vs non-state offer little general explanatory power for this diversity. Protection of the environment had ‘motherhood status’ in the reporting, but precisely because of this status no assumptions can be made about the quality of the coverage.
7. Television and environmental sustainability: Arguing a case for a code of standards in NZ
Ian S. Spellerberg, Graeme D. Buchan and Nick Early pp 137-147
Abstract: This article explores the portrayal of the environment and environmental sustainability by free-to-air network television in New Zealand. The results are based on a three-month survey of a) the portrayal of the use and treatment of the environment, and b) the reporting of environmental news. While television includes environmentally-oriented programmes (eg. some BBC Horizon documentaries), there are no regular programmes about the state of the environment, sustainable use of resources and energy, and there is no regular environmental slot in the news in New Zealand. Some programmes and advertisements are environmentally unfriendly and a few trivialise resource abuse. It is argued that the media has an ‘orchestrational’ influence on social norms and behaviours, and that to eliminate counter-messages requires the addition of a new ‘environmental standard’ to the Code of Broadcasting Practice. It is also argued that coverage of environmental news is quite narrow and, in the case of Television New Zealand, inconsistent with the stated aims of the Television Charter. New Zealand television could and should make a valuable contribution to environmental sustainability.
8. Commentary: ‘Islands of understanding’: Environmental journalism in the South Pacific
Samir S. Patel pp 148-153
Photoessay
Ben Bohane’s portrayal of spirit and war in Melanesia Bec Dean pp 157-174
Abstract: “As a photojournalist, writer and producer of television documentaries, Ben Bohane has spent the past 12 years posting stories about life on the islands of Melanesia to the Western media—illuminating the struggles and the spirit worlds behind the news. Melanesia is as close to Australia as a 150km cruise from the tip of Cape York across the Torres Strait to Papua New Guinea, connecting Australasia to the rest of Oceania and Asia. Until recently, though, these islands have seemed distantly removed from Australia and New Zealand’s notion of an international community.” – Bec Dean
Dialogue
Reporting the Chinese economic juggernaut and justice Alison McCulloch pp 175-182
Abstract: The recipients of the 2006 Pulitzer Prize for international reporting were two correspondents for The New York Times, Joseph Kahn and Jim Yardley, who won for their series of articles on legal issues in China. While visiting New York in May for the awards ceremony, Kahn and Yardley, who are based in Beijing, took part in two roundtable discussions at the Times to talk about the series as well as about some of the rewards and challenges of covering China.
Reviews
Feet to the Fire: The Media after 9/11
Edited by Kristina Borjesson. Reviewed by Andrea King pp 183-187
News Zero: The New York Times and the Bomb
By Beverly Ann Deepe Keever. Reviewed by Giff Johnson pp 188-191
Memoirs of a Rebel Journalist: The Autobiography of Wilfred Burchett
By George Burchett and Nick Shimmin. Reviewed by David Robie pp 192-196
Polynesian Panthers
Edited by Melani Anae. Reviewed by Mona Papali’i pp 196-199
The Great War for Civilisation: The Conquest of the Middle East
By Robert Fisk. Reviewed by Jon Stephenson pp 200-202
Noted: Speight of Violence: Inside Fiji’s 2000 coup (Michael Field, Tupeni Baba and Unaisi Nabobo-Baba); Freedom Next Time (John Pilger); Web Journalism (James Glen Stovall). Reviewed by Christine Gounder, Peter Griffin and David Robie pp 203-207
Vol 16(1) May2010
Vol 15(2) Oct2009
Vol 15(1) May2009
Vol 14(2) Oct2008
Vol 14(1) Apr2008