National AIDS Council alarmed at drug shortage

Chairman of the National Aids Council, Sir Peter Barter is saddened and disappointed that People Living with HIV (PLHIV) in Papua New Guinea, on ART (Anti Retro Viral) treatment have suffered the indignity of having no drugs available to them at the sites where they are accessed.

He has described the situation as a national emergency as lives of people are at risk. He called on all stakeholders including international agencies to ensure ART procurement is maintained at a high level of efficiency

Sir Peter along with other council members are alarmed that people, deserving of the treatment, that is life long, are being denied the services through shortage of supplies.

As a show of this concern, he has directed the NAC and its secretariat of the moral duty as mandated coordinating authority to give as much support and assistance to the National Department of Health to ensure swift action is taken to remedy the situation.

Following discussions with the Minister for Health & HIV/AIDS, Jamie Maxtone -Graham and acting secretary for health Pascoe Kase, Sir Peter has directed the National Aids Council Secretariat to work with the NDoH and other  stakeholder partners to a ensure a rapid resolution of the drugs shortage.

The chairman maintained the council’s stance and message for patients on ARV, is that this medication should be adhered to daily and is for the life of the PLHIV.

“The Council rejects the notion in yesterday’s Post-Courier report that PLHIV on ART can have a drug holiday because of the dangers of drug resistance,” he said.

“This is technically, medically and morally wrong as between 200-500 lives as a conservative estimate are placed unnecessarily in danger because of wrong and irresponsible medical advice.”

Sir Peter emphasised the urgency of getting people back on treatment rather than waste time pointing fingers.

“Whilst it is important to know how this shortage occurred, it can be done later, firstly we need to locate a shipment of drugs that have either arrived, or about to arrive and get them to those needing treatment,” he said.

“The next step is to procure drugs for the short and long term and in doing so establish how the shortage occurred.

“I personally will not rest until everyone is back on treatment and I am confident the minister and acting health secretary will do all possible to overcome this terrible situation.”

School head: Quality of English poor

By SALLY POKITON UPNG journalism student

A SCHOOL principal says the poor standard of English used by students during the Grade 12 examinations should be a concern to everyone, The National reports.
Jubilee Catholic Secondary School principal Bernadette Ove describes the quality of English on the Grade 12 answer sheets throughout the country as very poor.
She made the comment during the school’s Grade 12 graduation ceremony yesterday.
Ove said the quality and standard of written and spoken English had drastically dropped in the country, with very poor English written by students on the examination answer sheets.
And she said the extensive use of mobile phones by students was partly to blame for the drop in the quality of English.
She said the kind of language they used in sending text messages on the mobile phones was affecting the way they write in school.
She said the kind of language young people used on cell phones was very poor and that was portrayed in their writing during exams.
 “The quality of English used made it extremely hard for the teacher markers to understand,” said Ove.
Ove told students that English was an universal language and that the type of English they used would reflect on the kind of marks they would get at the end.
Marking of the country’s OBE pioneer Grade 12 examination papers is taking place at the Grandville motel and is expected to finish today.
Meanwhile, NCD Governor Powes Parkop said the free education policy would see overcrowding in some schools in the country.
He was addressing students at the Jubilee Catholic Secondary School’s Grade 12 graduation ceremony at the Don Bosco Technical Institute.
Powes urged the students to enhance the skills and knowledge they had learnt in their 12 years of education to become professionals and contribute to nation-building even if they did not make it to university level.
He challenged the 139 graduates to be entrepreneurs and wealth creators in the work force by creating employment for themselves and not merely employees and beneficiaries of the public and private sectors.

Sinebare is new education boss

By STEPHANIE BAWO

DOCTOR Musawe Sinebare has been appointed the new secretary for the Department of Education, The National reports.
Sinebare is the former deputy director of research at the National Research Institute. He replaces Dr Joseph Pagelio.
In a hand-over ceremony at the National Library in  Waigani, Sinebare said there was a need for smart and intelligent strategies to tackle the immediate challenges faced by the department.
This includes the implementing of the government’s programmes and policies such as the phasing out of the outcome-based education, fair and equal distribution of the K70 million for the rehabilitation of the education sector infrastructure programme,  the K40 million for the improvement  of the four national High school into Schools of Excellence and teacher issues.
He said for this to happen, there must be a change of mindset and attitude towards conducting business in the department.
He also highlighted the need for information and communication technology in the department so that proper management records are kept.
 Pagelio said Sinebare was not new to the ministry and had lots of experience with a background in the education sector.
He said Papua New Guinea had seen much improvement over the last 20 years and urged all staff and stakeholders to support Sinebare in implementing the government’s education plans and policies through the department.
Meanwhile, donor agencies had given their continued support to the department in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Agiru warns of another crisis

By ISAAC NICHOLAS

SOUTHERN Highlands Governor Anderson Agiru says the suspension of the chief justice by the government has created yet another constitutional crisis, The National reports.
“If it is true that the chief justice has been suspended, it is yet another constitutional crisis. There is clear separation of powers under the Constitution,” he said yesterday.
Agiru said the appointment and removal of judges were clearly spelt out in the Constitution.
“The acting prime minister and his cabinet should not be interfering with the work of the judiciary.
“If there are any allegation against the chief justice or for that matter any other judges, then due process must apply.
“It is a very sad day for Papua New Guinea as we are setting a very bad precedent.”
Agiru said the citizens had a right to echo their concerns over such acts by government.
He warned that PNG must not go down the path of many African and Latin American countries cautioning that history did repeat itself.
“The acting prime minister, while the prime minister is away, has again created a constitutional crisis.
“The National Executive Council does not have any powers to suspend any judges.
“The citizens have a right to protest such decisions by politicians drunk with power.”

Grand Chief Somare condemns ‘shameless act’

GRAND Chief Sir Michael Somare yesterday condemned the government’s decision to suspend the chief justice, The National reports.
“It pains me greatly that this unprecedented action is being taken when the full bench of the Supreme Court is deciding on one of the most important constitutional issues to face this country,” he said in a media statement.
“Because due processes have not been followed, I doubt if any fair minded citizen would believe the NEC accusation that Sir Salamo Injia has been guilty of any wrongdoing.
“Most members of the public would be well aware that I was closely involved with the drafting of the PNG Constitution, along with other leaders of the day, such as Bougainville President John Momis.
“This is a shameless action taken at the conclusion  of hearings by the full bench of the Supreme Court on the legality of the Aug 2 parliamentary coup and the Sept 6 declaration of a vacancy for the East Sepik Regional seat. I held that seat for an uninterrupted period of 43 years.”
Sir Michael said the public would be well aware of the string of decisions taken by the O’Neill-Namah government to give themselves a pretence of legitimacy.
“You  will recall they first tried very hard to stop me from returning from Singapore so my East Sepik seat could be declared vacant on grounds I had missed three consecutive sittings of parliament.
“Then the national government threatened the use of force to get the East Sepik provincial government to withdraw its special reference to the Supreme Court, acting in contempt of proceedings that were already under way.
“Now, in a third untoward action, the government is for the very first time in our history trying to impugn the integrity of our judiciary and the judicial system.
“I categorically condemn these actions.”

It is an evil action, says Abal

ANOTHER evil action by this illegal government was how former acting prime minister Sam Abal described yesterday’s purported sacking of the chief justice, The National reports.
He said the O’Neill-Namah Government seemed set on bringing Papua New Guinea to its knees by its disregard of the law and judicial system.
“They broke the Constitution and they are quickly trying to cover up for that error by sacking the chief justice as he and four other judges are about to hand down their decision on the election of Peter O’Neill as prime minister,” Abal said in a statement.
“In our 36 years of independence we have had government changes but never has the
integrity of our judges been questioned except by this government and this cannot be allowed to continue.
“The people must rise to make their views known to the government to reverse this insane decision.
“It makes a laughing stock of PNG in the international community; we have taken a couple of steps down by interfering with our judiciary.
“We have lost the sacrosanct of this valuable institution by this action and brought PNG’s name into disrepute.”
Abal said the leaders were mandated by the people therefore they must act responsibly, not recklessly with decisions.
“What right does Belden Namah and others in government have to blatantly destroy the foundation of PNG, beginning with the Constitution and now meddling with the head of the judiciary?”

Amet: Callous and foolish move on judiciary

THE purported “suspension” of the Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia is an action that needs to be condemned unequivocally as inappropriate and contemptuous of the Supreme Court, Sir Arnold Amet said last night, The National reports.
Sir Arnold, the Madang Regional MP, said in a media statement: “This is a callous and foolish attempt to compromise the judiciary.”
“It should not be tolerated especially since the Supreme Court is presently seized on a reference regarding
the constitutionality of the change of government that took place on Aug 2.
“This action is contemptuous of the Supreme Court. The perpetrators of this action are liable to face prosecution.”
He said what transpired was a blatant attempt by the National Executive Council to interfere with the course of justice.
“The National Executive Council has appointing powers but no disciplinary powers over members of the judiciary. Any such matter should, by right, be taken up by a leadership tribunal,” he said.
Sir Arnold said after he had warned last week that the NEC was discussing moves to sack the Chief Justice, Prime Minister Peter O’Neill publicly demanded an apology from him.
He said although O’Neill was out of the country and that the NEC statement was signed by his deputy Belden Namah, the prime minister was a party to the decision.
“O’Neill flew out of the country so that he could conveniently deny participating in the decision if public sentiment was aroused.”

It is outrageous, says law society

By JULIA DAIA BORE

PAPUA New Guinea Law Society president Kerenga Kua has described the cabinet decision to suspend the Chief Justice Sir Salamo Injia as outrageous, The National reports.
He said yesterday it could only be deduced to be “a way to sabotage, disrupt and derail the delivery of the final judgment of the full bench of the Supreme Court in the Supreme Court reference No.3 of 2011, scheduled to be delivered on Dec 9 and to rule by default into the next election.”
Kua said the National Executive Council did not have the powers to suspend the chief justice.
“That power belongs to the head of state, acting on the advice of the NEC under section 182(3) of the Constitution.
“The NEC decision is merely an advice to the head of state. There is no suggestion as yet that the head of state has accepted the advice to suspend the chief justice.
“In that regard, I urge the head of state in the strongest possible term to tread on this matter with great caution and take a full independent external legal advice before making a decision.
“A rash acceptance of the NEC recommendation will create an unprecedented constitutional crisis and reduce Papua New Guinea to an outcast and pariah in the international community.”
Kua also called upon the Judicial and Legal Services Commission to intervene by the operation of law that grants a judge (in this case the chief justice) the right to continue to complete uncompleted matters (before him) before his suspension or even during his suspension – were he indeed under suspension.
“The announcement of a cabinet decision to suspend the chief justice is the single most outrageous cabinet decision and is beyond all belief.
“The judiciary has been the only one of the three arms of government that has upheld democracy in this country. We destroy its integrity now and the whole of democracy will be threatened.
“It is now far bigger than any constitutional crisis this country has had before,” he said.
“Whatever manner the members of the cabinet may dress it and spin it, the motives and objectives are very clear. It is to sabotage, disrupt and derail the delivery of the final judgment of the full bench of the Supreme Court in Supreme Court reference No.3 of 2011, scheduled to be delivered on Dec 9, and to rule by default into the next election.
“The timing of the suspension destroys any suggestion that this is genuine. This action will now go down in history as the single most direct assault on the judiciary to date.
“If the cabinet has now chosen to go down this path then who else is out there with the requisite authority to insist governance according to the rule of law?
“This decision has to be seen in the context of the parliamentary actions on Aug 2, and Sept 6, which led to the Supreme Court reference.”

Chief justice suspended

By ISAAC NICHOLAS and FRANCIS ULIAU

CHIEF Justice Sir Salamo Injia has been suspended and a tribunal appointed to investigate allegations of gross misconduct against him, The National reports.

Sir Justice Sir Salamo Injia

Instruments effecting the suspension, a first for Papua New Guinea in its 36 years as a sovereign nation, had been signed by Governor-General Sir Michael Ogio and gazetted (Gazette No. G316 of Nov 10, 2011).
Announcing the National Executive Council decision yesterday, shortly after cabinet met, acting Prime Mi­nister Belden Namah said the allegations raised against the chief justice dated back to 2009 and had nothing to do with the East Sepik Supreme Court reference, a statement re-affirmed by Attorney-General Dr Allan Marat.

The National Gazette, dated Nov 10, on the suspension of the chief justice

The opposition and the PNG Law Society immediately cried foul, saying the government was undermining the judiciary and the office of the chief justice (stories, page 2).
NEC sources last night said the suspension did not affect Sir Salamo’s post as the chair of the five-judge Supreme Court bench hearing the East Sepik reference case, of which a decision is expected on Dec 9.
Deputy Chief Justice Gibbs Salika was appointed acting chief justice while Justice Bernard Sakora would be acting deputy chief justice pending the tribunal report.
Members of the tribunal appointed to investigate the allegations against Sir Salamo were former judge Paul Akuram as chairman with justices Collin Makail and George Manuhu as members.
Namah, flanked by his cabinet ministers, told reporters that the allegations against the chief justice stemmed from complaints by the various sectors of the community and the government needed to act “to prevent further negative impact on the dignity, confidence and integrity of the judiciary”.
Government advisers also warned last night that it was “in the interest of the government and people of PNG that the matter is handled cautiously and with due care and attention because these serious allegations are levelled against a very senior member of the judiciary”.
“It is unprecedented and an informed decision is needed to minimise any disruption to the administration of justice in Papua New Guinea.”
Namah said among the grounds for suspension were the allegations of contempt charges, questionable conduct and double dipping, abuse of the salaries and remuneration commission determinations towards housing entitlements and gross mismanagement of court finances.
Other charges included misconduct and impropriety in office, practising double standards and condoning immoral behaviour of judges and corrupting, scandalising and bringing into disrepute the overall administration of the judiciary, its system and processes.
Citing a police report, Namah said Sir Salamo was facing contempt charges, along with the former registrar of the Supreme and National Courts Ian Augerea, for breaching contempt orders concerning entitlements relating to the estate property of the late judge, Justice Timothy Hinchliffe.
He said before the death of Hinchliffe in March 2009, the judge had signed a document pertaining for his will to his adopted son, Timothy Moere Sari (Jr).
Despite the cheque being cleared and paid to Sari, Sir Salamo was said to have verbally directed Augerea to recall the cheque.
“Thereafter, the cheque in question was cancelled causing presiding judge Justice Mark Sevua, who granted the Grand of Probate Order, to question why the cheque was recalled and cancelled.”
Namah said when police were in the process of interviewing Augerea and the chief justice, they took out a permanent restraining order.
“The matter had been pending.
 “There is only one law for all citizens and nobody is immune to prosecution if they breach these laws,” Na­mah said

Regional coordination the way forward for development

With four-days of reviewing technical and scientific programmes during the CRGA (Committee of Representatives of Governments and Administrations) meeting recently ending in Noumea, a recurring theme during discussions was sustainable development.

Amongst the delegates at the high-level conference being held at the headquarters of the Secretariat of the South Pacific Community (SPC) is His Excellency Mr Peter Eafare, the Papua New Guinea High Commissioner to Fiji, Kiribati, Tuvalu and Nauru, who firmly believes that the way forward for Pacific Island Countries and Territories is through an integrated, regional approach to development.

Peter Eafare

 Mr Eafare cited as an example of effective sub-regional cooperation the Parties to the Nauru Agreement (PNA) concerning cooperation in the management of fisheries of common interest, signed in 1982 by Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, Solomon Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Nauru, Palau and the Republic of Marshall Islands.

“As early as 2004, I advocated that a cost-benefit analysis needs to be done on the merits and demerits of a region- wide implementation process for sustainable development,” Mr Eafare said.

“In this way, we can clarify which agencies have the mandate to carry out programmes throughout the region, without stepping on each others’ toes. To a large extent, the implementation of programmes lies with the governments within the region, to ensure that at the national level, regional development plans impact our national development plans.

“Foreign Affairs departments need to coordinate with National Planning departments, because at the end of the day, many of these regional initiatives are related to the Paris Declaration of 2005 on Aid Effectiveness, and the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

“We need to factor these into our own medium-term development strategies, as we now have in place in Papua New Guinea’s Strategic Plan, to 2050. The global and the regional must filter down to the national level for effective implementation.” 

The eight MDGs, adopted by the 193 UN member countries, and at least 23 non-governmental organisations, include the eradication of poverty and the development of a global partnership for development.

While Mr Eafare wholeheartedly supports these goals, he does suggest that attaining them by 2015 may be unrealistic for developing Pacific island Countries and Territories, and “would like our development partners to appreciate that levels of development differ from country to country.” 

“SPC provides a catalyst, especially in the area of coastal fishing and conservation, and through the work of the SOPAC Division in seabed minerals and bathymetric surveys (or maps of the seabed), water and sanitation, and disaster risk reduction, for example.”

Mr Eafare sees the conference as a the opportunity for SPC, governments and development partners to ensure that all are “on track and aware of their mutual responsibilities, as well as the basis for further discussions, and a better understanding of and sensitivity to the national requirements of Pacific Island Countries and Territories in the pursuit of regional development goals".

Papua New Guinea and petroleum– an indelible experience

Story and picture by SECRETARIAT of the Pacific Community Applied Geoscience and Technology Division (SOPAC)

 Having spent much of his working life in Papua New Guinea, petroleum geologist Michael McWalter has seen the development of the petroleum industry within PNG, and has come to call that country his home.

“I haven’t lived in England for oodles of time, so yes, PNG is very much home,” said McWalter, advisor to the PNG Department of Petroleum and Energy while attending the annual directors’ meeting of the Circum-Pacific Council, held this year in conjunction with the mid-October SPC/SOPAC Division’s STAR meeting in Nadi.

Mike McWalter at the recent STAR meeting  in Nadi, Fiji

The STAR (Science, Technology and Resources Network) meeting is an integral part of SOPAC’s first meeting as a division since becoming a part of the Secretariat of the South Pacific Community (SPC) in January this year.

The Circum-Pacific Council for Energy and Mineral Resources is a cooperative organisation that seeks to improve the exchange of scientific information about the geology and natural resources of the Pacific Basin and surrounding land regions.

McWalter joined the PNG Geological Survey Petroleum Resources Assessment Group in 1987, just as PNG had “…our first real oil discovery at the Iagifu 2-X well, which subsequently became part of the Kutubu field. This was real black oil, and I was there at the actual well testing. It was an absolutely enthralling time".

The discovery was made about 500km northwest of Port Moresby in the remote Southern Highlands province by New Guinea Gulf Oil, (later acquired by Chevron Corporation, when that company acquired Gulf Oil’s assets worldwide.)

“The New Guinea Gulf Oil geologists were good explorers,” said McWalter. “When they found the real black stuff, they realised they had found something quite valuable: they had shown that PNG really had geological structures that could contain commercial quantities of oil.

“These were extraordinary days, because after this discovery, every oil company in the world was piling into Papua New Guinea. They were very exciting times, with a lot of licensing work, the delineation of the oil discovery, and the evaluation and approval of the first oil development proposals.”

By 1990, he had been promoted to chief petroleum geologist, with a role that was very much involved in technical and operational review, the technical aspects of licensing, and the negotiation of agreements.

Shortly after, the Department of Minerals and Energy became the Department of Mining and Petroleum with two large divisions: one covering mining and one petroleum activities.

“These were both really much like departments, and I was responsible for the geological work, technical policy and handling all legal and other affairs of the PNG Government in the re-organised petroleum division, which had its own legal, economic, licensing and landowner coordination capacities.”

McWalter became the first director of the new Division, in which there was a great emphasis on localisation.

‘We sought to progressively re-organise the division and take on plenty of young PNG graduates. Then, we had a series of World Bank-funded technical assistance programmes through which we deployed experts in all manner of disciplines to train the staff. Over the period from the mid-90’s through to about 2007 much learning was done, and eventually some 33 people had gone through Masters’ programmes, and a high level of competence was developed within the division.”

McWalter left his position as director in 1997, and moved into the first of the advisory roles he has continued to play for the department.

“I stood down from being director because of the emphasis on localisation, which I have always thoroughly supported,” said McWalter. “After all, that is the whole point – to develop the local skills.”

In 2007, the division made another transition and became the Department of Petroleum and Energy.

Prior to working for the PNG Government, McWalter had completed, as he puts it …“seven years apprenticeship in the industry at the coal face …working as a Wellsite petroleum geologist for an American company, called the Baker Corporation.

“It was a tough apprenticeship, all over South East Asia and the Pacific, but I had exciting adventures throughout the region servicing the exploration wells of the company’s many clients.” Those adventures that took McWalter to the Philippines, China, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and also back to PNG.

To join Baker, McWalter left behind in England the beginnings of a promising career as a science teacher, having topped his class in the postgraduate course in Education in physics at the Corpus Christ College, Cambridge, where he had previously completed his undergraduate studies.

This is the home of the Cavendish laboratory, renown for the number of its researchers who have won the Nobel Prize (29, up to 2006) and “…we literally did have Nobel prizewinners stepping into our teaching laboratory and expressing their wonderment with the way physics was being taught nowadays and how we applied technology to that teaching".

McWalter’s decision to pursue a teaching career was influenced by the many teachers in his family.  But perhaps more importantly, after graduating from Cambridge, he spent two years in PNG with Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO), teaching at Fatima Catholic Mission, just outside Mt Hagen in the Western Highlands province.

As well as teaching at the mission High School, McWalter, “did everything one can, as one did in those days of VSO-ing.  I ran the school canteen and mess for the 400 students, was in charge of a fleet of lawnmowers caring for the school grounds, trucked into Mt Hagen once a month to buy messing supplies for the school, and I still found time to teach half-a-day a week in the mission vocational school to the carpenters and trainees.”

He said that his later connection with PNG through the Baker Company that led to his staying in the country was not planned, as he just as easily could have been sent to work in another area of the world.

“But yes, the PNG experience can be a bit indelible, once it is stamped in your heart and your passport; it is hard to shake it off.”
For further information please contact newsroom@sopac.org

Indonesian repression in Papua slated in new Pacific media freedom report

Suppression of freedom of expression ... Indonesian military preparing to storm the Third Papuan People's Congress at Jayapura. Journalists were among the hundreds who fled to safety when the troops opened fire. Photo: West Papua Media

20 October, 2011

By ALEX PERROTTET and DAVID ROBIE, Pacific Journalism Review

ASSAULT ON FREEDOM OF SPEECH
Four killings at a Freeport copper mine strike last week, protests by journalists after one was beaten up and yesterday's opening fire by Indonesian forces at the Third Papuan People's Congress have put the spotlight on media freedom and freedom of expression in West Papua. A new report being published today by the Pacific Journalism Review  examines media freedom across the South Pacific and it is grim reading.
West Papua news updates on Pacific Scoop

ANALYSIS: The state of Pacific media freedom is fragile in the wake of serious setbacks, notably in Fiji, with sustained pressure from a military backed regime, and in Vanuatu where blatant intimidation has continued with near impunity.

Apart from Fiji, which has a systemic and targeted regime of censorship, most other countries are attempting to free themselves from stifling restrictions on the press. But the Indonesian-ruled Melanesian territory of West Papua has emerged this year as the Pacific’s worst place for media freedom violations.

Amid a backdrop of renewed unrest and mass rallies demanding “Papua merdeka”, or freedom for West Papua, with two bloody ambushes in Abepura on the outskirts of the capital Jayapura in early August, security guards firing on strikers at the giant Freeport McMoRan copper mine last week and the brutal crackdown against the Third Papuan People's Congress this week,, repression has also hit the news media and journalists.

In the past year, there have been two killings of journalists, five abductions (including attempted), 18 assaults (including repeated cases against some journalists), censorship by both the civil and military authorities and two police arrests (but no charges).

Besides criminal libel, Papuan journalists are forced to contend with the crime of makar (subversion) as applied to the media.

“Also,” according West Papua Media editor Nick Chesterfield, “regular labelling of the Papuan press as being pro-separatist is another significant threat against journalists seen to be giving too much coverage to self-determination sentiment”.

Indonesia became rulers of the previous Dutch colony of West Papua, which shares a frontier with Papua New Guinea, through a flawed and manipulated referendum in 1969—the so-called “Act of Free Choice”.

Sluggish FOI reforms
Coupled with governments that are sluggish to introduce freedom of information legislation and ensure the region-wide constitutional rights to free speech are protected, there are few Pacific media councils and advocacy bodies with limited resources to effectively lobby their governments.

Those that do, run the risk of inviting backlashes by government figures who have a poor appreciation of the role of independent media in national development.  For smaller countries, media is still largely under the thumb of governments and mainly an instrument for uncritically disseminating official information.

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 promulgated a Media Industry Development Decree.

The new law 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. The Public Emergency Regulations have been rolled over on a monthly basis ever since. Promised relaxation of state censorship after the imposition of the decree never eventuated.

A controversial issue about the decree was a limit imposed on foreign ownership of not more than 10 percent, a clause vindictively aimed at the country’s oldest and most influential newspaper, The Fiji Times (founded in 1869) because of its unrelenting opposition to the regime.

This newspaper company was then a subsidiary of News Ltd, the Australian branch of Rupert Murdoch’s US-based News Corporation.

Motibhai buy out
News Ltd sold the newspaper to Fiji’s trading company, the Motibhai Group, and managing director Mahendra "Mac" Motibhai Patel, a director on the Times for more than four decades, took control.

Patel said: “Fiji without the Fiji Times is unthinkable”. He hired an Australian former publisher, Dallas Swinstead, to lead the newspaper in a more “accommodating” direction to safeguard the survival of the business.

Ironically, Patel himself was imprisoned for a year after being found guilty of corruption in April 2011 in his role as chairman of Fiji Post—nothing to do with the newspaper. But the impartiality of the judiciary since the 2006 coup has been under question.

“During its history,” said a longstanding former editor, Vijendra Kumar, “The Fiji Times has changed hands at least five times and has been none the worse for it. Each new owner infused it with new fresh ideas and better resources to ensure its continued growth and expansion”.

Fiji journalists themselves are divided about the impact of the regime. Some have taken the view that faced with the reality of working under a military regime, they would strive towards rebuilding the independence and integrity of Fiji’s news media with the promised return to democracy in 2014.

According to Fiji Broadcasting Corporation news director Stanley Simpson, who resigned this month: “In the main, journalists today are not as confident (or as aggressive, as some would describe it) as their counterparts were prior to 2006, and in the 1980s and 1990s.

“I am not saying that current journalists lack courage—in fact it is a courageous thing to be a journalist at this time.

'Checking ourselves'
“However, given the PER [Public Emergency Regulations], we are constantly checking ourselves and asking ourselves if the stories we write will breach the PER and what the consequences may be.”

While the region’s media freedom status may appear relatively benign compared to other countries, such as in the South-east Asian democracies of Indonesia and the Philippines, which enjoy a nominally free press but pose serious dangers to journalists, there remain significant media freedom issues in most Pacific Island countries.

Cultural issues involve the reconciliation of the ideals and values of a burgeoning media with the entrenched practices of compliance with traditional tribal or communal authority and for the most part, small communities with many conflicts of interest.

Other issues include problems of educating populations about dealing with the media, and a lack of access to media experienced by many communities.

An ongoing feud exists between the Suva-based Pacific Islands News Association and its breakaway former members and detractors who would like the body that runs the regional Pacnews agency to pull out of Fiji rather than risk being compromised by its proximity and collaboration with the military regime that is so blatantly restricting freedom of the press.

In its defence, PINA argues it can only convince the regime to respect freedom of the press by working with it as it prepares to draft the country’s new constitution in the lead up to elections.

Clashes over media issues are not new, although they came to a head in Vanuatu last November when crusading Vanuatu Daily Post publisher Marc Neil-Jones was strongly opposed by the Media Association Blong Vanuatu (MAV) when he applied for a radio licence.

Intense media climate
Vanuatu provides an example of an intense media climate without any official censorship such as in Fiji.

Neil-Jones’s case in March this year when he was assaulted by a group of men at the behest of a government minister was another event in a saga of violent reactions to his publication’s reports.

A minor fine for his political attacker prompted further dismay from international media freedom and human rights advocacy groups.

In East Timor, the vibrant local media scene continued to grow this year with the launch of the island nation’s fourth daily newspaper, The Independente. But a controversial new documentary, Breaking the News, highlights the dangers for Timorese journalists.

Other countries and territories of the Pacific with burgeoning media outlets experience development issues that restrict their ability to bring news to both their citizens and diaspora who live abroad. The Territorial Assembly of French Polynesia decided this year to drop the popular online news agency Tahitipresse and to scale back the national broadcaster Tahiti Nui TV as part of a raft of public spending cuts brought on by pressure from France.

Alex Perrottet is an Australian journalist and contributing editor of the Pacific Media Centre’s Pacific Media Watch project. Dr David Robie is director of the centre at New Zealand’s AUT University and has lived and worked as a journalist in the Pacific for many years. They compiled the Pacific media freedom report being published in Pacific Journalism Review today.

Other contributors to the 39-page media freedom report include:
Nick Chesterfield (West Papua Media)
Bob Howarth (East Timor and Papua New Guinea)
Giff Johnson (Micronesia)
Nic Maclellan (French Pacific)
Full text of the Pacific media freedom report
NZ media 'blindfolded' over West Papua crisis, say critics

Professor David Robie
Director

Pacific Media Centre
Creative Industries Research Institute

School of Communication Studies
AUT University
Te Wananga Aronui o Tamaki Makau Rau
Private Bag 92006
Auckland 1142
Aotearoa/New Zealand
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