AUCKLAND (Pacific Media Centre Niusblog/Pacific Media Watch): Two streams of journalism and television students and staff have this week embarked on a major story-telling project marking the 30th anniversary of the Rainbow Warrior bombing.
Some of their video productions will be posted on a special microsite in partnership with the Pacific Media Centre and Little Island Press.
LIP publishing director Tony Murrow said he hoped that the microsite would go live late next week and would be "rolling" with new content in the weeks leading to the bombing anniversary on July 10.
The microsite is being set up in collaboration with Greenpeace to launch a new edition of the book Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior, authored by PMC director David Robie, who was on board the environmental campaign ship for almost 11 weeks before the sabotage by French secret agents on 10 July 1985.
Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira was killed in the attack.
Dr Robie, now director of the Pacific Media Centre, was awarded the 1985 NZ Media Peace Prize for his reporting of the voyage and the bombing.
He is working with television production lecturer Gilly Tyler and multimedia lecturer Danni Mulrennan and their students to develop this project.
'Iconic moment'
"It is an incredible opportunity for students to work on stories about such an iconic moment of our history," Dr Robie said.
"We came of age as an independent nation with both this outrage to our sovereignty and our nuclear-free law."
The student stories and interviews will feature reflections from the Rainbow Warrior crew members 30 years on and look at the environmental and activism challenges of the future.
"The sinking of the Rainbow Warrior was a such defining moment for us all as New Zealanders," said Mulrennan.
"These students weren't even born then, so it is a great way for them to connect in a meaningful way with something so historically significant, and explore it within a contemporary news context."
Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! interviews David Robie
RW project progress on Storify
More information at Little Island Press
Pacific Media Watch
