Fiji has dropped three places in the latest Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index and been condemned for its treatment of “overly critical” journalists who are often subjected to intimidation or even imprisonment.
The Paris-based global media freedom watchdog has criticised many governments in the Asia-Pacific region for censorship and disinformation that has worsened since the start of the covid-19 coronavirus pandemic last year.
“On the one hand, governments use innovative practices often derived from marketing to impose their own narrative within the mainstream media, whose publishers are from the same elite as the politicians,” says RSF.
“On the other, politicians and activists wage a merciless war on several fronts against reporters and media outlets that don’t toe the official line.”
AUT City Campus. Image: AUT
One of AUTâs Pacific research centres has been without a director since the end of last year and a lack of clarity around its future is causing division among staff and supporters.
Teuila Fuatai reports for The Spinoff. Â
SINCE 2007, AUTâs Pacific Media Centre has built a considerable portfolio and solid reputation for its research and reporting on issues throughout the Asia Pacific region, and as a training ground for Pasifika journalists and academics.
However, a month after veteran Pacific correspondent and researcher Professor David Robie retired as director late last year, the centre was packed up without any formal notification or explanation to the remaining AUT staff members associated with it.
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A USP Council meeting is scheduled for tomorrow.
Nauru President Lionel Aingimea, who is also chair of the USP Council, said he would make a statement after the council meeting.
The USP staff unions were meeting this morning.
When contacted by Fijivillage, USP said it was unable to comment at this stage.
Professor Ahluwalia, a Canadian, could not be contacted.
Fijivillage said it was also trying to contact USP pro-chancellor Winston Thompson.
The radio station said it had also asked Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, Permanent Secretary for Immigration Yogesh Karan, Education Minister Rosy Akbar and the police. None had yet responded.
“This is racial ethnic cleansing, a genocidal fantasy at the highest levels of the Indonesian state,” Wenda said.
Ambronicus Nababan, chair of the Pro Jokowi-Amin Volunteers (Projamin), made the racial comment about Natalius Pigai, former head of Indonesia’s leading human rights group.
“These remarks stand in a long tradition. When Indonesia invaded our land, General Ali Moertopo said the Papuan people should be transferred to the moon,” Wenda said in the statement.
‘Obstacle to development’
“In 2016, General Luhut Panjaitan said the Papuans should be transferred to the Pacific. Indonesia’s rulers have always seen us as sub-human, as an obstacle to ‘development’ that needs to be ethnically cleansed and killed.