Café Pacific | Media freedom and transparency

Hepi Krismas - and political fallout from the Moti affair

2009-12-23T19:43:00.000-08:00

AS Café Pacific has been on "vacation" - a rare event - over these past few weeks, many significant happenings have passed without comment from this blog. Issues such as the unravelling of the Indonesian "case" over the Balibo Five murders in the wake of new pressures from the film Balibo, developments over the embryonic Fiji media decree and the views of the detractors and the more critically

'Godfather' indicted after worst journalist massacre in Philippines

2009-12-03T22:36:00.000-08:00

EIGHT members of the clan accused of being responsible for the obscene slaughter of 57 people - including up to 30 journalists - in the southern Philippines province of Maguindanao late last month have been rounded up and charged.The accused include the so-called "Godfather" of the clan. Hundreds of police and security agents have been detained and reports say the entire police force of the

Criminal libel case dropped against Tempo Semanal

2009-11-21T19:43:00.000-08:00

How Pacific Scoop reported José Belo's presidential award.From Tempo SemanalA YEAR ago Tempo Semanal published a series of stories that became known as the "SMS Scandal" in which it alleged corruption by Timor-Leste's Justice Minister Lucia Lobato, along with Timorese and Indonesian business people, in relation to projects under her ministry. These projects included the Becora Prison, uniforms

Freddie's second bite at Post-Courier ethics

2009-11-18T20:45:00.001-08:00

WHAT has happened to Papua New Guinea's Post-Courier, the once fearless and crusading newspaper that set the tone for professionalism and ethics in the South Pacific? Yes, we know standards have been slipping for some time. But what is it with the Filipino "aliens" fiasco last week? Is an anti-Asian bias getting in the way of the facts? Media commentators around the region have reacted strongly

Post-Courier's Filipino 'aliens' story condemned as fabrication

2009-11-12T11:33:00.000-08:00

By ALFREDO P HERNANDEZ in Port MoresbyFILIPINOS in the capital of Port Moresby and across Papua New Guinea woke up on Tuesday, November 10, to find themselves in the midst of 16,000 "illegal Pinoys".Well, that is, if you are to believe what the Post-Courier, a second-rate Australian-owned daily newspaper, headlined on that day on the front page: "16,000 aliens", with the subhead, "More than 80

Dictatorships and double standards - Tough on Fiji, soft on Iran

2009-11-08T23:26:00.000-08:00

By Stephen F. Hayes of The Weekly StandardON NOVEMBER 4, protesters gathered outside the gates of the US embassy in Tehran to mark the 30th anniversary of the hostage-taking. There were the usual government-backed "Death to America" protests--celebrating the then-young revolutionaries and their enduring fanaticism.But there were other protests, too. Nearly six months after the fixed Iranian

Fiji: What I tell you three times is true

2009-11-06T13:58:00.000-08:00

By Patrick Craddock“THE QUESTION,” said Humpty Dumpty, “ which is to be master – that’s all.” Fiji’s Commodore Bainimarama is the Master, and has been since he took over the country in his coup of December 2006.But Bainimarama is no fantasy story and his reality is getting more painful for Fiji as he publicly tries to humiliate Fiji-born academic Brij Lal, and Australia and New Zealand. At the

PFF makes a blue with the Fiji regime's propaganda

2009-11-03T01:19:00.000-08:00

MEDIA lobby group Pacific Freedom Forum shot itself in the foot this week with an over-the-top media release shorn of its usual measured tone. Aghast at the Fiji Attorney-General being given an “unchallenged” platform at the University of the South Pacific’s regional journalism programme to peddle the regime’s usual spin, the PFF fired off a media missile claiming that Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum had “

Suai massacre accused slips out of East Timor across border

2009-11-02T02:31:00.000-08:00

SO it's finally official: After weeks of accusations and denials that one of the most wanted men for crimes against humanity in East Timor has been smuggled out of the country, the Indonesian Foreign Ministry has finally come clean. Maternus Bere, the former militia leader accused of a massacre of dozens of women, children and priests in a church at Suai a decade ago is now safely back in

The politics of Fiji news media under scrutiny

2009-10-21T05:40:00.000-07:00

A MAJOR question about publication of the latest edition of Fijian Studies dealing with “media and democracy” (the cover actually says, incorrectly, development) is why did it take so long to surface in public? It took a year for the November 2008 edition to be published and launched in a Suva restaurant.Nervousness about how the authoritarian post-coup 4.5 Fiji regime might react? Where does a

High points in media coverage of the Samoa tsunami

2009-10-16T21:44:00.000-07:00

MEDIA reflections on the New Zealand media coverage of the September 29 earthquake in the two Samoas and in Tonga’s northerly Nuias have been few and sketchy.

Fiji Times (the creative satire) offers an optimistic message

2009-10-15T04:05:00.000-07:00

INTRIGUING to have a slightly satirical local edition of the "Fiji Times" on hand at this month's week-long exhibition featuring inspiration and oppression in the Salon in Auckland's funky K Road zone. Nothing like the real rag (fortunately), apart from a fleeting typographical resemblance to a masthead of yesteryear. Café Pacific dropped in to the launch and was pleased to see friends and

Obama, a Huli warrior and the image nincompoop

2009-09-28T22:59:00.000-07:00

By Alfredo P HernadezIT SIMPLY took a nincompoop to ignite the ire of many Papua New Guineans here in Port Moresby - and those living in the US, the Pacific and elsewhere across the globe. Although only those Papua New Guineans residing in the US are directly affected by the raging healthcare issues that of late have divided the American people, their global compatriots feel that their cultural

The commodore's Fiji from a refreshing angle

2009-09-18T03:26:00.000-07:00