The Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) looks likely to fragment further after one of its most respected leaders, John Woods, resigned to set up a new media body.
John Woods, who is editor of the Cook Islands News, was PINA’s vice president. He resigned from his PINA role this week after disagreements with other PINA leaders over Fiji.
Woods spoke strongly against Fiji’s military regime, particularly its move to clamp down on journalists in Fiji, journalists who wrote reports that the regime deemed critical.
Fiji’s military government recently issued a media decree that institutionalised military censorship of media organisations based in Fiji.
Woods was critical of PINA for not openly defending freedom of speech and freedom of an independent press in Fiji. He was also dissatisfied with PINA’s apparent lack of financial transparency and process.
PINA has been a significant recipient of grants from the governments of Australia and New Zealand, and UNESCO, UNDP, and other bodies that assist capacity building and media development in the Pacific region.
Woods this week announced that he will help establish a new media body in the Pacific and that it will be called the Pacific Media Association.
Radio New Zealand International reported frustrations directed at PINA’s Suva-based headquarters as causing John Woods to resign.
Woods told RNZI: “I guess this is the net result of ongoing inaction and there is no sign that PINA is going to take any action, because all we seem to do is compromise and amend our ways and talk to the Fiji regime as if it’s recoverable and as if they are trainable. Well, that is not going to happen.”