At the heart of a global crisis over news media credibility and trust has been Britain's so-called Hackgate scandal involving 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 press in Australia, Britain and NZ over the past two years.
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 issues in the digital age for a region faced with coups, conflicts and human rights violations, such as in West Papua.
New Zealand author, journalist and media academic Professor David Robie, director of the Pacific Media Centre, explores wide-ranging media issues during his inaugural professorial at AUT University.
Dr Robie reflects on the challenges in the context of the political economy of the media and journalism education in the Asia-Pacific region.
He considers emerging genres such as deliberative journalism, peace journalism and human rights journalism, and revisits notions of critical development journalism and citizen journalism.
The speech was given on 16 October 2012 and this is a new AUT video of the event posted on YouTube.
Media freedom issues feature:
Australia
East Timor
Fiji
France
French Polynesia
Japan
Kanaky/New Caledonia
Kenya
Marshall Islands
New Zealand
Papua New Guinea
Philippines
South Africa
West Papua and others
Many thanks to ABC 7.30 Report, Al Jazeera English, PBS Frontline, Mutiny Films and the University of Papua New Guinea for brief clips used in the address.
- Professor warns about media 'blindspots'
- Text of the professorial in Pacific Journalism Monograph series
- Alex Perrottet talks about World Press Freedom Day in the Pacific on Radio 95bfm
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
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