AUDIO: Pacific journalists need better pay, says free media advocate

AUCKLAND (Pacific Media Watch): Pacific news media organisations need to pay their journalists better to do their job and to keep them in a well-functioning democracy, says journalism Professor Mark Pearson.

In an interview with Pacific Media Watch he says many journalists in the Pacific prefer to take on a full-time government job, instead of a lesser paid, more insecure job in the media:

The problem facing journalists I think is that so often a government position is a better paid and a more secure position than that of a journalist on an independent media outlet, and this temptation is there to, you know, walk away from a journalist job into a better paid and more secure government position.

The Australian author, journalist and media academic from Griffith University in Brisbane will give the World Press Freedom Day 2013 lecture at AUT University in Auckland on Friday, May 3, at 5:30 pm.

No worse
Professor Pearson lists defamation actions, sedition laws - and in the case of Fiji - censorship as some of the worrying developments in the area of press freedom in the Pacific. However, compared to many other regions of the world he does not think the Pacific countries distinguish themselves negatively:

I think almost all regions of the world, apart from Western Europe and Scandinavia, have challenges facing them in the area of censorship or media freedom depending on the perspective from which you are looking at it. If you look at Asia, Africa, South America and the Pacific – and Eastern Europe – you have problems in all of those areas with governments that are not necessarily that willing to have their policies freely discussed in their communities.

As well as being the author of The Journalist's Guide to Media Law and Blogging and Tweeting Without Getting Sued,  Dr Pearson has run Pacific media courses in Fiji, Papua New Guinea, Samoa and Tonga.

Professor Pearson is the Australian correspondent for the Paris-based global media freedom advocacy organisation Reporters sans frontières (Reporters Without Borders). 

NZ best in Pacific
On the 2013 press freedom index by Reporters sans frontières, Fiji placed 117th of the 179 countries on the list. Fiji consequently jumped 10 places from 2012. 

Papua New Guinea placed 41st, down six places from 2012. Samoa had a positive development, advancing from 54th to 48th place for this year’s ranking. Tonga fell to 66th place from their previous 63rd.

Kiribati is not included on the list, but the situation is described as "satisfactory".

New Zealand placed 8th advancing from its 13th place last year, whereas Australia advanced four places to 26th. No other Pacific countries are included.

The full World Press Freedom index is here. Pacific Media Watched interviewed Professor Pearson and asked how he would describe press freedom in the Pacific today:

MP: Well, I think on the one hand while Pacific nations do share some commonalities they also have stark differences between particular nations and cultures. And I think it would be a mistake to make a broad brush statement saying that media freedom in the Pacific was good or bad. Some challenges that are faced throughout the Pacific are of course things like the training of journalists, the level of income of reporters as distinct from government positions, and the various systems of government that are in place that really have adopted a typically a former British Empire approach – a British colonial approach – to media freedom, but have done that within their cultural context. So, that varies somewhat between the different countries, and it’s hard to make a broad sweeping statement. But there are always threats to media freedom in Pacific island nations. It’s just that they seem to vary from year to year as to where they are arising.

DD: How serious is the press freedom situation in the Pacific compared to other regions?

MP: I think almost all regions of the world, apart from Western Europe and Scandinavia, have challenges facing them in the area of censorship or media freedom depending on the perspective from which you are looking at it. If you look at Asia, Africa, South America and the Pacific – and Eastern Europe – you have problems in all of those areas with governments that are not necessarily that willing to have their policies freely discussed in their communities.

DD: What are the key challenges that journalists are facing in the Pacific?

MP: I think journalists in the Pacific, as in those other areas, are often facing governments that have a self-interest at stake. I don’t think it’s just Pacific countries who suffer this. I think even Western democracies face a level of self-interest of politicians who are in power. The natural tendency is to try to preserve that power by whatever means is available. That typically involves in Western democracies a really strong emphasis on political spin, to try to control the message that’s coming from government.

In Pacific island nations unfortunately sometimes it takes another turn, and from time to time laws are used against the media, perhaps defamation actions, perhaps sedition laws, contempt actions, or in a country like Fiji which actually has much stricter media laws under its current regime – even outright censorship.

So, we have all different challenges coming in the various countries. Add to that, the problem facing journalists I think is that so often a government position is a better paid and a more secure position than that of a journalist on an independent media outlet, and this temptation is there to, you know, walk away from a journalist job into a better paid and more secure government position."

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.