AUCKLAND (Pacific Media Watch): Tongan media stalwart Kalafi Moala, publisher and chief executive of Taimi Media Network, has warned the region to be wary of "new forces" emerging in the Pacific that may hamper the struggle for media freedom.
He attacked the censorship regime in Fiji but did not limit his warnings to just Fiji.
“We seem to be fighting a losing battle,” he said. “There are new forces of media coming into the Pacific. They could be good, they could be bad.”
Moala spent 14 years in exile from his own country due to censorship and persecution by the establishment.
However, now as well as publishing his independent Taimi 'o Tonga newspaper, he also works with the Tongan government to publish the English-language Tongan Chronicle.
Moala, who is vice-chair of the Apia-based Pasifika Media Association (PasiMA), outlined the case for the emergence of a new media freedom group.
The main thrust is that he wants the focus to be back on people.
Pacific Media Watch's contributing editor Alex Perrottet headed a team of postgraduate journalists covering the one-day Pacific Islands Media Association (PIMA) conference at AUT University on Friday.
Their reports have been published on the Pacific Scoop website - a partnership between the independent Scoop Media Ltd and AUT's Pacific Media Centre - and other stories are also being posted on the PMC's new media and current affairs website due to go live later this month
(www.pmc.aut.ac.nz) .
Contributing student journalists included Kim Bowden, Yvonne Brill, Eva Evguenieva, Hamish Fletcher (editor of Te Waha Nui) and Rose Rees-Owen.
* Pacific Media Watch and Pacific Media Centre reports on the PIMA conference on Pacific Scoop: www.pacific.scoop.co.nz
* Other news items are on the Pacific Media Centre niusblog:
www.pacificmediacentre.blogspot.com
- Pacific Media Watch
Pacific Media Watch
