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NIUSbeatPACIFIC Pacific Media Newsletter

July-August 2011

Welcome to the monthly Pacific e-bulletin of happenings, events, information and resources for Pacific journalists and media practitioners. Follow the latest news on media and development trends, people on the move, agency and regional organisation news and more. Informed by journalists for journalists, this regional media newsletter helps readers keep up with the ‘Niusbeat’ in our Pacific community. For more information and any queries on the items below, contact the IFJ Pacific project coordinator lisa.lahari@gmail.com

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News and neutrality: The case for journalism that matters: Pacific journalists will get a chance to discuss the ethics guiding what is news and how it is told, when they attend a seminar on News in the public interest: Civics and journalism ethics seminar in Honiara in October. Also described as community or public service journalism, the civics and journalism ethics seminar will allow participants to take a close look at their roles and responsibilities in their communities, and share their values on journalism. Regional support for a Pacific code of ethics will be on the cards. From promoting democracy and tolerance, striving for quality, accuracy and balance, to seeking development solutions and investigating issues important to the public, the ideals of civics journalism are already well-practised in many Pacific newsrooms. Taking that further with training skills to help with national follow-up workshops in 2012 is the plan behind the seminar, which forms part of the IFJ Pacific Regional Media Roundtable in Honiara, Solomon Islands. Register your interest and find out more by contacting IFJ Pacific Project Coordinator Lisa Williams-Lahari.(Email at the top of this bulletin).

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Media freedom in June/July: Alerts included statements of support and solidarity for Vanuatu’s national ethics and media monitoring training in late June. The workshop was a partnership between the Media Assosiasen blo Vanuatu (MAV) and the IFJ’s Media for Democracy and Human Rights in the Pacific project. Pacific Freedom Forum (PFF) welcomed a new regional network of Pacific Public Service Broadcasters, with state-owned versus public-interest news agendas a hot topic in the region. In Vanuatu, cabinet minister Harry Iauko faced four changes linked to an assault on publisher Marc Neil Jones on March 5. Public prosecutors denied a conflict of interest after they dropped two charges against Iauko, who had pleaded not guilty. Iauko instead was given a minimal fine on two lesser charges for which he pleaded guilty. The News of the World phone-hacking fracas in the UK raised questions on codes of ethics and conduct in the Pacific, with PNG’s then-acting Prime Minister, Sam Abal, using the chance to throw some flak at News Ltd’s PNG-basedPost Courier for what he claims was biased coverage of his government.

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Calling Pacific cartoonists: As country reports continue to come in for the inaugural IFJ Pacific Media Freedom report, we are keen to have any favourite cartoons or images which sum up media freedom a la Pacific. Please send any contributions or ideas to the IFJ Pacific Project Coordinator at lisa.lahari@gmail.com. For the country reports, writers from across the Pacific are looking at legal and policy frameworks as well as turning the spotlight on threats to journalists. Assessments of the state of media freedom across the Pacific community and recommendations for the future will help to provide a baseline – at least in the countries covered – for future reporting. Importantly, the Pacific Media Freedom report will bring the Pacific story into the regional assessments done by the IFJ across the globe. See the IFJ’s recent media freedom reports on China and South Asia atwww.ifj.org.

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Journalists improve reporting on health issues: SPC’s regional media centre joined forces with the World Health Organisation to urge Pacific journalists to step up and improve coverage and analysis of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in the Pacific. Journalists participating in a two-day health and media workshop in Tonga in August reported on a regional NCDs Pacific Health meeting running back to back with the media one. The meeting brought together journalists from Tonga, American Samoa, Samoa, Federated States of Micronesia, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Fiji. For more info contact SPC’s Regional Media Centre team leader, Larry Thomas, at LarryT@spc.int

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AIBD confirms November for PNG regional meet: The AIBD Pacific Media Partnership meeting for the region’s broadcasters, dubbed ‘Strengthening the voice of the Pacific’ has been shifted to 17-19 November from its initial August tag. The Crowne Plaza hotel in the Papua New Guinea capital of Port Moresby is the venue for a round of two-day pre-plenary workshops, including thematic issues around HIV/AIDS, broadcasting in emergencies and disasters, and content creation on multi-media platforms. There’s been no confirmation on whether the AIBD Pacific Media Partnerships event for broadcasters will join forces with the planned PINA Pacific Media Summit, also tipped for November in Port Moresby. For more info on the AIBD PMP meet, contact ABU’s Technology director, Sharad Sadhu: Sharad.s@abu.org.my

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Pacific voices at AMIC: More than 400 delegates, including four from the Pacific, attended the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC) 2011 media and communications conference in India in June. To ensure the Pacific voice increases at one of the leading communications forums for our part of the world, start planning now for the 2012 AMIC annual conference in Malaysia. The 21st AMIC annual conference will be co-hosted by Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM), Kuala Lumpur, in the first week of July 2012. See http://www.amic.org.sg/

Representing the Pacific at AMIC 2011 were Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. University of Queensland associate professor Martin Hadlow, who played a leading role in bringing the UNESCO World Freedom Day event to Brisbane in 2010, and represented the Pacific at this year’s event in New York, presented on development communication with a focus on the Pacific and the region’s “heritage media”. He noted radio was “still very much king” in the Pacific. He outlined the success of new players such as New Dawn FM in Bougainville, which last year won UQ’s global communication and social change award.

PNG’s Joys Eggins, daughter of former EM TV journalist John Eggins and now doing her master’s degree at the University of Goroka, spoke about the Komunity Tok Piksa community video project in the Highlands. She outlined its success in producing visual messages on HIV/AIDS with local communities –and “the dilemmas of collaboration, consent and ownership”.

Associate professor David Robie, director of the Pacific Media Centre, compared campus-based media models Wansolwara at the University of the South Pacific (which is now published in partnership with the Fiji Sun) and Pacific Scoop (a partnership between AUT University and New Zealand’s largest independent digital news media group Scoop Media). Robie, who in June received AUT’s Vice-Chancellor’s award for his for valued contribution to Asia-Pacific journalism research, assessed the contrast in reporting by Wansolwara and Scoop on education, environmental issues, human rights, resource development, social justice, culture and language with mainstream media.

In addition, Auckland-based Munawwar Naqvi, of Unitec, offered a critical perspective on development communication with grassroots groups in central India. Two models - selective interaction and new involvement - were developed from data collected from interviews with various types of development NGOs.

See: http://cafepacific.blogspot.com/2011/07/global-battle-for-images-and-ideas.html

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Open call for NED Fellows: Journalists keen to link their newsroom work to human rights and democracy issues may wish to consider applying to the 2012-13 Reagan-Fascell Democracy Fellows Program at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) in Washington DC. NED Fellows are activists, journalists, and scholars who want to take time out to research pet passions in a supportive environment. See; http://www.ned.org/sites/default/files/2011-Democracy-Fellowships-Flyer-in-English.pdf

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Solomons journalist wins ComSec internship: From One News at Vavaya Ridge in Honiara to Marlborough House in London, news editor Evan Wasuka has topped the list of Commonwealth applicants to gain a six-month communications internship with the Commonwealth Secretariat in London. Wasuka, a founding director of One News and long-time correspondent for Islands Business magazine, will be based with the Communications and Public Affairs Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat until the end of 2011. He was among more than 40 applicants from 10 Pacific Commonwealth member countries. Wasuka will gain insights into how the Commonwealth Public Affairs division is run, and lend a Pacific edge to publications and general publicity materials.

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Pacific films to the fore in Tahiti: The ninth Pacific International Documentary Film Festival of Tahiti (FIFO) takes place in Tahiti, French Polynesia (Papeete), from February 6 to 12, 2012. Open to all documentary films concerning Oceania, FIFO selects and screens the best productions of more than 200 Oceania documentaries. All films screened at the festival will be eligible for the “Audience Award”. Only films in the “Official Selection” will be eligible for the “Grand Prize du Jury” and the three “Prix speciaux du jury”. Documentaries completed after January 1, 2009 are eligible for entry. All awards come with a cash prize and there are no entry fees! Contact FIFO coordinator Miriama Geoffroy at organisation@filmfestivaloceanie.org or check the FIFO site at www.fifo-tahiti.com

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Media on the move: IFJ’s Media for Democracy and Human Rights in the Pacific project bids adieu this month to our project manager Claire O’Rourke, who joins Sydney-based non-profit Essential Media, where she will be providing support and training to journalists in non-profits and unions. Claire was the lead trainer for the IFJ inaugural regional roundtable in Apia, Samoa, in November 2010, and represented IFJ at the Pacific Human Rights Defenders workshop in August, led SPC’s RRRT project. Taking the leap from Nuku’alofa, Tonga, to Brussels, Belgium, Tonga’s Government Press Officer Josephine Latu makes the biggest move this month as the press attache to the African-Caribbean-Pacific Secretariat where the current attaché, Robert Iroga, of the Solomon Islands, is concluding his four-year term and heads back to the Pacific. Regional vacancies for key roles in the forthcoming PacMAS are honing down for the selection committee who have been busy interviewing applicants for the Vila-based posts. Also in Vila, long-time journalist Lora Lini makes the jump to regional work and takes on the lead communications role for the Melanesian Spearhead Group Secretariat. Applications for the UNESCO Pacific communications adviser based in Samoa close in August. Next door in Fiji, primo media freelancer Samisoni Pareti has resigned as Air Pacific media consultant, while Shane Hussein, who formerly led communications at the US Embassy in Suva, will take on the role of full-time media adviser to the airline. Still in Suva, UN Women’s communications officer Sheryl Ho has left to take up a similar post with UNDP Pacific. There's always new moves in Pacific media - let us know by dropping a line to lisa.lahari@gmail.com - our best Niusbeat wishes go out to all of our Pacific media colleagues who are taking their work in new directions.

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Verbatim: “The curtailment of media access and freedom of speech and, as already evident, the disregard for judicial independence are especially worrying. It is a matter of particular concern that these are occurring at a time when Fiji, like other Forum island countries, is being confronted with very serious and still evolving economic challenges as a result of the global financial crisis.” -Forum SG Tuiloma Neroni Slade on the Fiji situation … two years ago (March 2009)

See full text at: http://www.pacificbusinessonline.com/fiji/story/13571/forum-sec-gen-slade-expresses-deep-concern-and-disappointment-fiji-developments

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On the NIUSbeat: Got something you want to share with other Pacific newshounds and media workers? Want to guest-edit a NIUSbeat edition? Feel there's something missing or want to contribute under any of the above headings? Drop the NIUSbeatPACIFIC editor a line atlisa.lahari@gmail.com

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NIUSbeat is part of the IFJ Asia-Pacific project, Media for Democracy and Human Rights in the Pacific, supported by the European Union and UNESCO IPDC. The IFJ represents more than 600,000 journalists in 131 countries. Find the IFJ on Twitter: @ifjasiapacific or on Facebookhere

Freedom at last: 4 kidnapped children free after 2 years

By Shamsul Islam

Published: August 16, 2011

" Pathan vendors are notorious for trafficking people from our area to their towns where they are used for forced labour," Abdul Rehman

FAISALABAD:

Four children kidnapped two years ago along with their mother from their house in Siddhupura and reportedly taken to Kohat have been recovered. Their mother, Seema, is still missing.

A Samundari City police team raided a house in Siddhupura, recovering the children and arresting two people they suspected were part of the kidnapping gang.

The raid was carried out on information provided by a Kohat resident after Abdul Rehman, uncle of children’s father, Abdul Ghani, had paid him Rs20,000 to persuade him to disclose information about his relatives.

Rehman told the police that he had come across the man last week and thought of asking for help with finding his nephew’s wife and children. “Pathan vendors are notorious for trafficking people from our area to their towns where they are used for forced labour,” he said.

The police team along with the Ghani, Rehman and the informer first raided a house in Mohammad village, in Alachi tehsil, in Kohat. Police said the raid was unsuccessful. The informer then told them that the children had been taken back to Siddhupura. On returning and raiding the place mentioned by the informer, the children were recovered and two suspects arrested.

Police said the two men were identified as Muhammad Aslam Khan and Mera Khan. They said the two only spoke Pashtu and did not understand any other language. “We have been unable to communicate with them so far,” Assistant Sub Inspector Bashir said.

Police have registered a case under Section 465 of the Pakistan Penal Code (involving a wife fully leaving her spouse and not kidnapping).

Asked about the rationale behind the selection of the section, ASI Bashir said it appeared “the most suitable” in the circumstances.

He rejected the suggestion that the police had refused to register a kidnapping case two years ago on a complaint by children’s father, Abdul Ghani. “No one had approached us with the complaint,” he said. Ghani, however, insisted he had tried to take up the matter with the police but was turned away.

Talking to The Express Tribune, the older child, nine-year-old Ruqayya said she remembered being kidnapped by some masked men. She said the men had broken into their house when their father was away. The child said the next thing she recalled was in a mountainous area where the family was kept for over a year.

She said there were other women and children in the camp. At times, she said, masked men took the women away to work at forced labour camps. “Occasionally, my mother would burst into tears. She seemed to be in severe pain,” she said.

Ruqayya also reported sexual assault by unidentified men at the camp in Kohat. She said she and her sisters Rukhsar, 4, and Iqra, 3, and brother Javed, 7, were recently brought back to Samundari and their mother remained at the camp.

To a query about the medical examination of the children, ASI Bashir said the police did not want to ‘complicate’ the matter. “We have recovered them. That should be enough,” he said.

He said they would contact Kohat police and launch joint raids to recover the woman.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 16^th, 2011.

Al-Jazeera journalist detained by Israel

New York, August 15, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on Israel to clarify the legal basis for holding Al-Jazeera correspondent Samer Allawi, who has been in Israeli state custody since Tuesday.

Allawi, the Kabul bureau chief for Al-Jazeera, was arrested at al-Karama border crossing between Jordan and the West Bank while leaving the Occupied Territories after a three-week vacation in his hometown near Nablus, Al-Jazeera reported. Allawi's brother, Musaab, told Al-Jazeera that the journalist intended to cross into Jordan then travel back to Kabul. He had entered the West Bank at the same crossing without difficulty three weeks earlier.

"Israel must clarify why it continues to hold Samer Allawi," said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. "Our concern for Allawi's well-being and his legal rights is amplified with every passing day that he is held without due process."

On Tuesday, Israeli authorities informed Allawi's family that he was in custody and would be held for four days for questioning. At the time, the authorities provided no justification for holding the journalist, who carries a Jordanian passport, and said only that it was a "security-related arrest," Al-Jazeera reported. On Thursday, Israeli authorities informed Allawi's employer that his detention would be extended to eight days, but again failed to provide a reason.

Majed Khader, program editor and head of assignments at Al-Jazeera, said Allawi told Salim Waqeem, a lawyer hired for him by Al-Jazeera, that he would be charged with transferring money and orders from Afghanistan to the West Bank if he refused to act as an informant. Allawi will appear with Waqeem in front of an Israeli military judge at the Salim military checkpoint, south of Jenin, on Tuesday, Khader told CPJ. Khader also said that Allawi has not been charged with any crime thus far.

Several local human rights and press freedom groups released statements condemning Allawi's arrest and calling for his immediate release. CPJ has documented persistent press freedom violations in the West Bank, including detentions, censorship, and physical attacks by Israeli soldiers. In March 2010, CPJ called on Israel to end the harassment of journalists and bring the military's practices in line with international standards for press freedom, allowing journalists to conduct their work without interference.

August 15, 2011 6:14 PM ET | Permalink

Police suspect victim’s brother

Published: August 17, 2011

Investigation continues into death of five family members.

FAISALABAD:

Faisalabad police has reportedly discovered key clues regarding the recent death of five members of a family in Warispur.

On Tuesday, police officials rounded up Ali Asghar, the younger brother of slain Sardar.

Asghar has been shifted to a special police cell for questioning and
Batala Colony Police formally registered a case under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). Shahbaz, Sardar’s youngest brother said that his brother was a labourer in a local mill and that he had been trying to contact him for three days but he had not picked up his phone.

According to the contents of the FIR, dead bodies of both daughters of deceased Sardar were found in a bath room while the body of his son Ali Ahmad was found in a cupboard.

Batala Colony SHO Malik Muhammad Yaqoob said that finger prints from the site had been taken and sent to NADRA for analysis.

The SHO said that from the condition of the bodies, it appeared that the deceased had been slaughtered nearly 48 hours earlier.

Hospital officials said that the entire family had been beheaded and that the bodies bore severe signs of torture. “Sardar’s wife was also stabbed several times in the abdomen and she bore cuts all over her body,” said a morgue worker at Allied Hospital.

Police officials have said that they are also investigating Sardar’s business and colleagues. “He was a potter and worked independently but we have questioned everyone who knows him,” the SHO said.

Police sources said that the mysterious disappearance of Ali Asghar, one of the brothers of the deceased, led police to consider him a suspect. A special team has succeeded in arresting Asghar on Tuesday morning.

Asghar has been transferred to a special police cell for interrogation. “Asghar has led us to another suspect and we are investigating his whereabouts,” the SHO said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2011.

Shamsul Islam Naz: Family feud: Son kills father for inheritance

Shamsul Islam Naz: Family feud: Son kills father for inheritance: "ALERTS BODIES OF THREE YOUTHS FOUND FROM TARIQ ROAD, KARACHI IDENTIFIED 09:28 PST Family feud: Son kills father for inheritance By Shamsul ..."