AUCKLAND (ABC Radio Australia / Pacific Media Watch): Media freedom in the Pacific is "pretty dire", especially in West Papua, with worries over Fiji, says the author of a new book on politics and human rights in the region.
Speaking in an interview with ABC Radio Australia's Mornings with Phil Kafcaloudes, Pacific Media Centre director David Robie gave a wide-ranging rundown on media freedom issues.
But there were some "bright spots", he said, including a "gradual opening in debate" in the media in Fiji with editors testing the boundaries with the post-coup general election due in September.
He praised the University of the South Pacific's journalism programme for organising a recent debate and publishing a special edition of its newspaper Wansolwara on media freedom.
Dr Robie's new book, Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific, has just been published in New Zealand by Little Island Press.
The ABC podcast has been packaged by the Pacific Media Centre with permission.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Pacific Media Watch
