AUCKLAND (Pacific Media Centre / Pacific Media Watch): At the end of 2009, 32 journalists were killed in a single ambush in the Ampatuan massacre on Mindanao Island in the Philippines. Each year media freedom organisations report a serious death toll of journalists globally (last year 67 died and 162 have been imprisoned so far this year while doing their job, according to Reporters Sans Frontières.
Last November, the Pacific Media Watch/Pacific Journalism Review report on Pacific Media Freedom cast a spotlight on human rights violations against journalists in Indonesian-ruled West Papua with Fiji and Vanuatu also being cited.
However, each year while Pacific countries mark the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day on May 3 with special events, the occasion is barely noticed in Australia and New Zealand.
Is the Pacific media freedom issue as serious as it is presented or is it driven by donor agendas? Or, on the other hand, is it worse than generally perceived around the region and can we expect worse to come? What are the key issues?
Panel:
Dr Steven Ratuva (seminar chair), Pacific research fellow and senior lecturer, Fiji, and the University of Auckland Pacific Studies Centre and on the editorial board of Pacific Journalism Review
Professor Crosbie Walsh, founder of the Development Studies programme at USP and publisher of a blog on Fiji
Iulia Leilua, chair, Pacific Islands Media Association (PIMA)
Henry Yamo, Papua New Guinean journalist and MCS programme researcher
Rukhsana Aslam, Pakistani journalist and media educator/PhD researcher
Also, Pacific Media Watch editor Alex Perrottet will be participating in the University of the South Pacific media freedom events in Suva, Fiji.
Programe details
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