MELBOURNE (Australian Network News / Pacific Media Watch): The most serious cases of media freedom violations in the Pacific in the past year is said to has occurred in West Papua.
Director of the Auckland-based Pacific Journalism Review, Dr David Robie, said violence against journalists in West Papua has replaced censorship in Fiji as the most urgent media freedom issue in the region.
"In the past year there've been two killings of journalists, five abductions, or attempted abductions, 18 assualts, including a stabbing of journalist by two people on a motorbike and there've been repeated cases of intimidation and aggression against journalists
"And of course then there's the general pattern of pattern of censorship by both civil and military authorities".
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Pacific Media Watch
