David Robie
David Robie is a semi-retired professor of journalism and communication studies and is founding director of the Pacific Media Centre in the School of Communication Studies at Auckland University of Technology. He holds a master’s degree in journalism from the University of Technology, Sydney, and a PhD in history and politics from the University of the South Pacific, Fiji. He is founding editor of Pacific Journalism Review and Pacific Journalism Monographs, and convener of Pacific Media Watch and is currently editor of Asia Pacific Report. He has written several books on Asia-Pacific media, including Mekim Nius: South Pacific Media, Politics, and Education (2004), and Don’t Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific (2014), and on the environment, including Eyes of Fire (2015) on the Rainbow Warrior bombing and nuclear testing. He also publishes the media freedom blog Café Pacific. He has served as an Asia-Pacific analyst for Reporters Without Borders (Paris) and Freedom House (New York).
Phone: +64211122079
Address: Editor of Asia Pacific Report
David Robie Publishing Limited
PO Box 47716
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AUCKLAND 1144
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AUT University
Private Bag 92006
Auckland 1102
Aotearoa/New Zealand
Phone: +64211122079
Address: Editor of Asia Pacific Report
David Robie Publishing Limited
PO Box 47716
Ponsonby
AUCKLAND 1144
Aotearoa New Zealand
AUT University
Private Bag 92006
Auckland 1102
Aotearoa/New Zealand
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Books by David Robie
Book chapter 23 in Shuang Liu, Adam Komisarof, Zhu Hua, and Levi Obijiofor (Eds., 2025), The Sage Handbook of Intercultural Communication. ISBN: 9781529626391
https://au.sagepub.com/en-gb/oce/the-sage-handbook-of-intercultural-communication/book285700#contents
During the period of Indonesian control, which defied the United Nations Security Council’s persistent recognition of Portugal’s sovereignty over Timor-Leste as legitimate colonial power until the latter finally won independence in 2002, international media had little access to the region. Chapter 2, published in "Waves of Change Media, Peace, and Development in the Pacific", edited by Shailendra Singh, Biman Prasad and Amit Sarwal.
https://kulapress.com.au/
An excerpt from Chapter 8 (pp. 102-122) of the book Peacemonger: Owen Wilkes: International Peace Researcher, edited by May Bass and Mark Derby. Published 23 November 2022. ISBN 978-1-99-1153-86-9
[This was the last annual report before the PMC's demise in 2020].
ISSN 2624-375X (Print)
ISSN 2624-3768 (Online)
[Introduction from the book Tu Galala: Social Change in the Pacific (editor: David Robie), which was assisted by the Pacific Development and Conservation Trust, a fund established by the New Zealand government with compensation money paid for the sabotage of the Rainbow Warrior by French state terrorists in Auckland harbour on 10 July 1985. Contributors to the book include Robert Robertson, Akosita Tamanisau, Rita Baua, Owen Wilkes, Sitiveni Ratuva, Jone Dakuvula, Bunny McDiarmid, Roger Moody, Pauline Tangiora and Ed Rampell.]
A Nasioi militant landowner
APART from convoys with soldiers riding shotgun and yellow ochre Bougainville Copper Limited trucks packed with security forces sporting M16s, you would hardly guess that a guerrilla war was in progress near the Bougainville provincial capital of Arawa. But once you reached the sandbagged machinegun nest in Birempa village at the foot of the rugged mountain jungles of the Crown Prince Range, the tension started to rise.
Scanning the dense vegetation for a sign of the militants of the Bougainville Republican Army (BRA)—known as Rambos in the first year of the decade-long civil war – the Papua New Guinea Defence Force soldier manning the machinegun didn’t notice the irony of the T-shirt he was wearing.
Chapter 16 of Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific, by David Robie (2014). ISBN 9781877484254
ISBN 9781877484254
When Commodore (now rear admiral retired and an elected prime minister) Voreqe Bainimarama staged Fiji’s fourth ‘coup to end all coups’ on 5 December 2006, it was widely misunderstood, misinterpreted and misrepresented by a legion of politicians, foreign affairs officials, journalists and even some historians. A chorus of voices continually argued for the restoration of ‘democracy’ – not only the flawed version of democracy that had persisted in various forms since independence from colonial Britain in 1970, but specifically the arguably illegal and unconstitutional government of merchant banker Laisenia Qarase that had been installed on the coat-tails of the third (attempted) coup in 2000. Yet in spite of superficial appearances, Bainimarama’s 2006 coup contrasted sharply with its predecessors.
Media Industry Development Decree (Fijian Government 2010). While this Decree remains in force, Fiji can hardly claim to have a truly free and fair media. Just seven months out from the September 17 elections, Fiji was ranked 107th out of 179 countries listed in the 2014 World Press Freedom Index prepared by the Paris-based global media freedom it was in many quarters during that year, and the promise of ‘free and
fair’ elections by 30 September 2014. The elections gave Fiji’s ranking a further boost, rising 14 places to 93rd (RSF 2015).
organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF). That ranking was an improvement on the previous year (RSF 2014a), rising 10 places from the 2013 ranking. The major reason for this improvement was the adoption of the new Constitution on 6 September 2013, criticised as it was in many quarters during that year, and the promise of ‘free and fair’ elections by 30 September 2014. The elections gave Fiji’s ranking a further boost, rising 14 places to 93rd (RSF 2015).
‘ One of the most iniquitous stories of the nuclear age. ’
New Internationalist
‘ This is THE book of the last five months of the first Rainbow Warrior. ’
Rainbow Warrior skipper Peter Willcox
‘ Robie’s analysis places the bombing squarely in the context of the South Pacific politics and people, providing a
much-needed human backdrop. ’
Steve Sawyer, Greenpeace Magazine
"Twenty five years of reportage and media and research in the Asia-Pacific region and an analysis of journalism methodologies and studies such as conflict and peace journalism, development journalism, comparative international journalism, communication for social change and cross-cultural reporting."
David Robie, an independent journalist, media campaigner and educator, distils his lessons from 35 years of working in the Asia-Pacific region. Covering environmental challenges, coups, the nuclear-free and independent Pacific movement and civil rights, as well as the many barriers journalists face in the Pacific, his book, Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face, reveals many of the hidden stories from these island nations. - Little Island Press
362 pp. Illustrated, map, bibliography, index ISBN 978 1 877 314 86 5
The memorial edition (2005) of this book 20 years after the bombing is dedicated to "the memory of nuclear-free campaigners Amelia Rokotuivuna, Bengt and Marie-Therese Danielsson, Elaine Shaw and Owen Wilkes, who opened our eyes".
Book chapter 23 in Shuang Liu, Adam Komisarof, Zhu Hua, and Levi Obijiofor (Eds., 2025), The Sage Handbook of Intercultural Communication. ISBN: 9781529626391
https://au.sagepub.com/en-gb/oce/the-sage-handbook-of-intercultural-communication/book285700#contents
During the period of Indonesian control, which defied the United Nations Security Council’s persistent recognition of Portugal’s sovereignty over Timor-Leste as legitimate colonial power until the latter finally won independence in 2002, international media had little access to the region. Chapter 2, published in "Waves of Change Media, Peace, and Development in the Pacific", edited by Shailendra Singh, Biman Prasad and Amit Sarwal.
https://kulapress.com.au/
An excerpt from Chapter 8 (pp. 102-122) of the book Peacemonger: Owen Wilkes: International Peace Researcher, edited by May Bass and Mark Derby. Published 23 November 2022. ISBN 978-1-99-1153-86-9
[This was the last annual report before the PMC's demise in 2020].
ISSN 2624-375X (Print)
ISSN 2624-3768 (Online)
[Introduction from the book Tu Galala: Social Change in the Pacific (editor: David Robie), which was assisted by the Pacific Development and Conservation Trust, a fund established by the New Zealand government with compensation money paid for the sabotage of the Rainbow Warrior by French state terrorists in Auckland harbour on 10 July 1985. Contributors to the book include Robert Robertson, Akosita Tamanisau, Rita Baua, Owen Wilkes, Sitiveni Ratuva, Jone Dakuvula, Bunny McDiarmid, Roger Moody, Pauline Tangiora and Ed Rampell.]
A Nasioi militant landowner
APART from convoys with soldiers riding shotgun and yellow ochre Bougainville Copper Limited trucks packed with security forces sporting M16s, you would hardly guess that a guerrilla war was in progress near the Bougainville provincial capital of Arawa. But once you reached the sandbagged machinegun nest in Birempa village at the foot of the rugged mountain jungles of the Crown Prince Range, the tension started to rise.
Scanning the dense vegetation for a sign of the militants of the Bougainville Republican Army (BRA)—known as Rambos in the first year of the decade-long civil war – the Papua New Guinea Defence Force soldier manning the machinegun didn’t notice the irony of the T-shirt he was wearing.
Chapter 16 of Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face: Media, Mayhem and Human Rights in the Pacific, by David Robie (2014). ISBN 9781877484254
ISBN 9781877484254
When Commodore (now rear admiral retired and an elected prime minister) Voreqe Bainimarama staged Fiji’s fourth ‘coup to end all coups’ on 5 December 2006, it was widely misunderstood, misinterpreted and misrepresented by a legion of politicians, foreign affairs officials, journalists and even some historians. A chorus of voices continually argued for the restoration of ‘democracy’ – not only the flawed version of democracy that had persisted in various forms since independence from colonial Britain in 1970, but specifically the arguably illegal and unconstitutional government of merchant banker Laisenia Qarase that had been installed on the coat-tails of the third (attempted) coup in 2000. Yet in spite of superficial appearances, Bainimarama’s 2006 coup contrasted sharply with its predecessors.
Media Industry Development Decree (Fijian Government 2010). While this Decree remains in force, Fiji can hardly claim to have a truly free and fair media. Just seven months out from the September 17 elections, Fiji was ranked 107th out of 179 countries listed in the 2014 World Press Freedom Index prepared by the Paris-based global media freedom it was in many quarters during that year, and the promise of ‘free and
fair’ elections by 30 September 2014. The elections gave Fiji’s ranking a further boost, rising 14 places to 93rd (RSF 2015).
organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF). That ranking was an improvement on the previous year (RSF 2014a), rising 10 places from the 2013 ranking. The major reason for this improvement was the adoption of the new Constitution on 6 September 2013, criticised as it was in many quarters during that year, and the promise of ‘free and fair’ elections by 30 September 2014. The elections gave Fiji’s ranking a further boost, rising 14 places to 93rd (RSF 2015).
‘ One of the most iniquitous stories of the nuclear age. ’
New Internationalist
‘ This is THE book of the last five months of the first Rainbow Warrior. ’
Rainbow Warrior skipper Peter Willcox
‘ Robie’s analysis places the bombing squarely in the context of the South Pacific politics and people, providing a
much-needed human backdrop. ’
Steve Sawyer, Greenpeace Magazine
"Twenty five years of reportage and media and research in the Asia-Pacific region and an analysis of journalism methodologies and studies such as conflict and peace journalism, development journalism, comparative international journalism, communication for social change and cross-cultural reporting."
David Robie, an independent journalist, media campaigner and educator, distils his lessons from 35 years of working in the Asia-Pacific region. Covering environmental challenges, coups, the nuclear-free and independent Pacific movement and civil rights, as well as the many barriers journalists face in the Pacific, his book, Don't Spoil My Beautiful Face, reveals many of the hidden stories from these island nations. - Little Island Press
362 pp. Illustrated, map, bibliography, index ISBN 978 1 877 314 86 5
The memorial edition (2005) of this book 20 years after the bombing is dedicated to "the memory of nuclear-free campaigners Amelia Rokotuivuna, Bengt and Marie-Therese Danielsson, Elaine Shaw and Owen Wilkes, who opened our eyes".
https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/article/view/1360
https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/article/view/1349
https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/article/view/1335
https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/article/view/1368
Original DOI as published in the Okinawan Journal of Island Studies (Japan):
https://doi.org/10.24564/0002019736
https://davidrobie.nz/2023/05/voice-of-the-voiceless-the-pacific-media-centre-as-a-case-study-of-academic-and-research-advocacy-and-activism/
https://davidrobie.nz/2025/04/health-workers-call-for-nz-government-to-join-global-demands-for-ambulance-massacre-inquiry/
https://davidrobie.nz/2025/03/filipino-activists-praise-arrest-of-ex-president-duterte-as-first-step-to-end-impunity/
https://www.postcourier.com.pg/rsf-tackles-taiwans-media-freedom-achilles-heel-boosts-asia-pacific-monitoring-action/
https://davidrobie.nz/2024/12/amnesty-international-doubles-down-on-israeli-gaza-genocide-atrocities-report-at-nz-rally/
https://devpolicy.org/pacific-journalism-review-at-30-a-strong-media-legacy-20240802/
https://davidrobie.nz/2024/07/when-media-freedom-as-the-oxygen-of-democracy-and-political-hypocrisy-share-the-same-pacific-arena/
https://davidrobie.nz/2024/05/kanaky-in-flames-five-takeaways-from-the-new-caledonia-independence-riots/
https://davidrobie.nz/2024/03/nz-protesters-call-for-expulsion-of-israeli-ambassador-over-gaza-atrocities/
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2024/01/08/journalists-need-to-take-a-stand-over-the-gaza-carnage-after-latest-killing/
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/09/14/pngs-marape-makes-foreign-policy-gaffes-over-israel-west-papua/
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/08/26/msg-throws-away-golden-chance-to-reset-peace-and-justice-for-west-papua/
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/08/06/researchers-warn-over-climate-crisis-fringe-views-danger-as-nz-election-nears/
https://davidrobie.nz/2023/08/new-documentary-human-rights-report-allege-indonesian-atrocities-in-west-papua/
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/05/03/timor-leste-makes-top-ten-in-2023-world-press-freedom-index/
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2023/04/29/vila-based-indonesian-troll-page-targets-papuan-advocates/
Reference:
Robie, D. (2018). Asia Pacific Report: A New Zealand Nonprofit Journalism Model for Campus-based Social Justice Media. Ikat: The Indonesian Journal of Southeast Asian Studies, 2(1), 119-146. https://doi.org/10.22146/ikat.v2i1.37395
Address at the Mai te Paura Ātōmī i te Tiāmara’a / From Bomb contamination to self determination, 17/18 July 2021
Professor David Robie
Director, Pacific Media Centre, Auckland University of Technology
Abstract: On the fringe of the South Pacific geopolitical region are the independent state of Timor-Leste and two contested Melanesian provinces of Indonesia known collectively within Oceania as “West Papua”. A Pacific media freedom report in October 2011 raised an unprecedented profile for both Timor-Leste and West Papua in the region, describing the latter in particular as a media “blind spot” (Perrottet & Robie, 2011). Both territories experienced elections during 2012 and in West Papua a controversy over a protracted miners’ strike and the future of the Freeport mine have been issues where the performance of the Pacific region’s news media has been under scrutiny. In spite of prolonged reports that journalists were virtually barred from West Papua by Indonesian authorities (Chesterfield, 2011a), there appeared to be a loosening of barriers to reporting the territory. However, such optimism has been greeted with scepticism (Bachelard, 2013, 2014). This paper examines the conflict reporting framework in the South Pacific, and articulates two case studies in Timor-Leste and West Papua within the context of a widening global debate about reporting of conflict.
Pacific Media Watch: www.pacmediawatch.aut.ac.nz
"
, there is a notion of a ‘fifth estate’, a traditional cultural pillar, which is a counterbalance to all other forms of power, including the news media. This paper explores traditional political power, the i-Taukei ethno-nationalist movement and the dilemmas of cross-cultural reporting with a particular reference to the current Fiji impasse after 21 years of coup cycles. It also discusses a tanoa model incorporating culture as part of talanoa, or a more nuanced, approach to journalism in the Pacific based on dialogue.
Go to the Australian Journalism Review for the full published paper: http://www.academia.edu/1416895/The_Rainbow_Warrior_bombers_media_and_the_judiciary
later. Two-thirds of the graduates live and work in Fiji. While some news media organisations in Fiji have generally recruited graduates, others have preferred to hire untrained school leavers. The media industry has provided some training schemes, but the USP programme has the only regional vocational and educational
strategy that involves regular radio broadcasting (Radio Pasifik), website news (Wansolwara Online and Pacific Journalism Online), newspaper publishing (Wansolwara and Spicol Daily), and television news bulletins (WansolVisin) for tertiary trainees and students. Increasingly in recent months, parallel with draft
legislation designed to turn the self-regulating Fiji Media Council into a statutory body, there have been public calls for higher media standards and more professional training and education. This paper explores the career attitudes and destination of the university’s 68 journalism graduates between 1996 and 2002
based on empirical data from a six-year monitoring project that started in 1998. It also examines the policies of the Fiji media industry towards graduates and education.
was a salutary lesson for us here, half a globe away from the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. Robert W. McChesney and John Nichols have argued for an honest debate over a
total rethink of policy for media if it is to continue to have an effective role in democracy, if it is to remain a genuine Fourth Estate.
TWO DECADES ago, United States media ecologist Neil Postman posed critical questions about the ‘mission of education’ in his book The End of Education. Detailing the failings of American education faced with encroaching corporate and managerial strategies that did not tackle the real problem—an ‘identity crisis’—he ironically heralded the coming challenges over journalism education. It has outgrown the rationales of the past.
THE GHANAIAN investigative journalist summed up the mood among some 1500 media people with the beaded face veil rather well—a facial security screen symbolising both the safety of the reporter and his sources. But this was no empty gesture. It is characteristic of Anas Aremeyaw Anas who has captured judges on tape allegedly taking bribes. As the result of his celebrated documentary, Ghana in the Eyes of God: Epic of Injustice, more than 30 judges and 170 judicial officers were implicated in Ghana’s biggest corruption scandal.
Part 1 of a two-part interview.
Audio/Video at YouTube: https://youtu.be/ueVlWkSN0yo
Broadcast on Plains FM 96.9 on 18 March 2024
Interview took place on 17 October 2022 at the 13th Asian Conference on Media, Communication and Film, Kyoto, Japan. https://mediasia.iafor.org/programme/
https://vimeo.com/761329590
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2022/10/20/pacific-lessons-in-climate-change-journalism-and-combating-disinformation/
https://eyes-of-fire.littleisland.co.nz/
Dr David Robie is Professor of Journalism and Director of the Pacific Media Centre in the School of Communication Studies at Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand. He is also a former head of journalism at both the University of Papua New Guinea and the University of the South Pacific, and the author of Mekim Nius: South Pacific media, politics and education and The Pacific Journalist.
"
This thesis examines the history of South Pacific university media education and its impact on the region’s journalism. Its first objective is to test the hypothesis that tertiary education has a critical influence on how Pacific journalists practise their profession and perceive their political and social role in a developing society faced with the challenges of globalisation. Secondly, the thesis aims to analyse the political, economic and legal frameworks in which the media have operated in Papua New Guinea and Fiji since independence. Third, the thesis aims to explain and assess in detail the development of journalism education in the South Pacific since independence.
The theoretical framework is from a critical political economy perspective. It also assesses whether the concept of development journalism, which had its roots in the 1980s debate calling for a ‘New International Information and Communication Order’ (NWICO), has had an influence on a Pacific style of journalism. The thesis argues within a context where journalists can be considered to be professionals with some degree of autonomy within the confines set by a capitalist and often transnational-owned media, and within those established by governments and media companies. Journalists are not solely ‘governed’ by these confines; they still have some freedom to act, and journalism education can deliver some of the resources to make the most of that freedom.
The thesis includes historical case studies of the region’s three main journalism schools, Divine Word University (PNG), University of Papua New Guinea and the University of the South Pacific. It demonstrates some of the dilemmas faced by the three schools, student journalists and graduates while exercising media freedom. Research was conducted using the triangulation method, incorporating in-depth interviews with 57 editors, media managers, journalists and policy makers; two newsroom staff surveys of 15 news organisations in Fiji and Papua New Guinea in 1998/9 (124 journalists) and 2001 (106); and library and archives study. It also draws on the author’s personal experience as coordinator of the UPNG (1993-1997) and USP (1998-2002) journalism programmes for more than nine years.
The thesis concludes that journalists in Papua New Guinea (where university education has played a vital role for a generation) are more highly educated, have a higher mean experience and age, and a more critically sophisticated perception of themselves and their media role in Pacific societies than in Fiji (where almost half the journalists have no formal tertiary education or training). Journalists in Fiji are also more influenced by race, cultural and religious factors. Conversely, PNG journalists are poorly paid even when compared with their Fiji colleagues. There are serious questions about the impact that this may have on the autonomy of journalists and the Fourth Estate role of news media in a South Pacific democracy.
https://asiapacificreport.nz/2025/01/08/an-indictment-of-nzs-settler-colonial-and-five-eyes-spy-paranoia-over-critics/
IN 2015, media law professor Joseph M. Fernandez co-authored a comprehensive article for Pacific Journalism Review (Fernandez & Pearson, 2015) about the status of Australia’s shield law regime, drawing on his research to see whether it met journalists’ expectations and whistleblower needs in an era of unprecedented official capabilities. It didn’t, as can be seen from growing concerns over court cases that, according to the peak journalists’ organisation Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), ‘clearly demonstrate Australia’s patchy and desperate journalist shields fail to do their job’.
https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/article/view/1364
JUST MONTHS before the outbreak of the genocidal Israeli war on Gaza after the deadly assault on southern Israel by Hamas resistance fighters on 7 October 2023, Australian-German investigative journalist and researcher Antony Loewenstein published an extraordinarily timely book, The Palestine Laboratory. In it he warned that a worst-case scenario—‘long feared but never realised, is ethnic cleansing against occupied Palestinians or population transfer, forcible expulsion under the guise of national security’.
https://ojs.aut.ac.nz/pacific-journalism-review/article/view/1341
AS WE marched in our pink tee-shirts in solidarity with the diaspora supporting outgoing Vice-President and opposition leader Leni Robredo in Auckland’s Centennial Park in the lead up to the Philippine presidential election in May 2022, the thought weighed heavily on our minds: ‘Surely, Filipinos wouldn’t elect the son of dictator Ferdinand Marcos just 38 years after his corrupt father had been ousted by People Power.’
https://doi.org/10.24135/pjr.v29i1and2.1322
The Refugee’s Messenger: Lost Stories Retold, edited by Tarek Cherkaoui. Istanbul, Turkey: TRT World Research Centre, 2019. 192 Pages. ISBN 978-605-9984-28-7
A RECENT article in the Middle East Eye pilloried the United States lack of preparedness for the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic. Lamenting that if only the world’s richest democracy could have instead of frittering away trillions of dollars on ‘endless wars’ invested in the country’s health infrastructure, the world would be in a better place today. Washington had ‘built an entire infrastructure to counter terrorism and criminalise Muslim communities’, spending almost $6.4 trillion on pointless wars that had killed off half a million people since September 11 2011 (Hilal & Raja, 2020). Yet, which was the biggest threat – the elusive target of the so-called ‘war on terror’, or the pandemic, which killed more than 20,000 Americans and infected a further 500,000 (with numbers still rising when this edition of PJR went to press)?
A DECADE after the world’s worst atrocity inflicted on journalists in a single event, a remarkable publishing event happened in Manila that could set a trend in the global fight against impunity for the killers of journalists. On the eve of the date marking the massacre of 58 people—including 32 journalists, a broad coalition launched a strategic blueprint for the survival of news workers. I was privileged to be present at this stellar event, the only New Zealand journalist or media academic to be invited to the launch of the Philippine Plan of Action in the Safety of Journalists (PPASJ).
The rugged mountainous highlands of New Guinea stretch from the Owen Stanley range in the east of the independent state of Papua New Guinea through the Star mountains straddling the border with Indonesian-ruled West Papua westwards through the perpetually snow-capped Puncak Jaya, at 4884m the highest peak.
See No Evil: New Zealand’s Betrayal of the People of West Papua, by Maire Leadbeater. Dunedin, NZ: Otago University Press, 2018. 310 pages. ISBN 978-1-98-853121-2
TWO damning and contrasting books about Indonesian colonialism in the Pacific, both by activist participants in Europe and New Zealand, have recently been published. Overall, they are excellent exposés of the harsh repression of the Melanesian people of West Papua and a world that has largely turned a blind eye to to human rights violations.
PETER GRESTE, the Australian journalist who became a thorn in the side of the harsh Egyptian authorities from the inside of prison cells and in a courtroom cage for 400 days, hasn’t wasted opportunities since he became the UNESCO chair of journalism and communication at the University of Queensland earlier this year. He chose World Press Freedom Day as the moment to launch a new independent body dedicated to campaigning for reporters whose ‘voices have been stifled’ by regimes around the world.
IN OCTOBER 2016, I returned to that stunning and iconic French eighth monastery Mont St Michel, once also a post-Revolution jail for political prisoners, and was struck by the sight of a garrison of soldiers – part of the Vigipirate programme. Vigipirate has parallels with the US Homeland Security Advisor system and has now been in place in various forms for almost 26 years, since Bush’s Gulf War in 1991. Based on laws adopted in 1959 during the Algerian War of Independence, it was first suspended for a while after the Gulf War and then introduced again in 1995 after a car bomb blew up outside a Jewish school in Lyon. Vigipirate has since then gone through various phases and updates with the 1995 Paris Metro bombing, 2004 Madrid terror train attack and the 2005 London underground bombing. Official documents now designate the programme as ‘permanent’.