Archives

• Gaza, genocide and media - PJR 30 years on, special double edition

  Vol. 30 No. 1and2 (2024)

  Edition editors: David Robie and Philip Cass
  

  When editor Philip Cass and I, as founding editor, started planning for this 30th anniversary edition of Pacific Journalism Review, we wanted a theme that would fit such an important milestone. At the time when we celebrated the second decade of the journal’s critical inquiry at Auckland University of Technology with a conference in 2014, our theme was ‘Political journalism in the Asia Pacific’, and our mood about the mediascape in the region was far more positive than it is today (Duffield, 2015). Three years later, we marked the 10th anniversary of the Pacific Media Centre, with a conference and a rather gloomier ‘Journalism under duress’ slogan. The PJR cover then featured a gruesome corpse at the height of Rodrigo Duterte’s callous and bloodthirsty ‘war on drugs’—and on media—in the Philippines. Three years later again the PMC itself had been closed in spite of its success.

  In the middle of last year when we settled on a call for papers for PJR with the theme ‘Will journalism survive?’ we seemed to be on the right track given the post-COVID-19 pandemic surge of conspiracy theories and disinformation, Trumpian fake news and assault on democracy, and a disturbing global decline in public confidence and trust in mainstream media. The profession of journalism was and remains under grave threat.

  However, little did we reckon on 7 October 2023 and the fact that the world would be thrown into such a dystopian upheaval as a result of a surprise and extraordinarily daring attack on Israel by Hamas resistance fighters breaking out of Gaza, the world’s ‘largest open-air prison’.

  EDITORIAL NOTE: After the editorial of Pacific Journalism Review and the lead article in this edition (Vol 30, No 1&2) about the fate of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange were printed, he was set free and he arrived back in Australia after a plea bargain.
  
  Editor: Philip Cass
  Founding and production editor: David Robie
  Frontline editor: Wendy Bacon
  Assistant editors: Khairiah A. Rahman, Nicole Gooch
  Reviews editor: Philip Cass
  Online edition editor: David Robie
  Designer: Del Abcede
  Proof readers: Linnéa Eltes
  Cover design: Del Abcede
  Cover photo: David Robie
  Tuwhera OJS online support: Donna Coventry and Sophie Baker
  Print edition: PinkLime

• Governance, disinformation and training

  Vol. 29 No. 1 & 2 (2023)

  Edition editors: David Robie and Philip Cass
  

  Pacific Journalism Review's roots are firmly based in the Wansolwara—the Pacific—but this edition truly reflects our global range of interests, with contributions from authors in Indonesia, Malaysia, Fiji, Hawai’i, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand. PJR is delighted to bring you a range of global perspectives on the media and journalism and to connect scholars and practitioners, covering everything from conspiracy theories and corruption to newsroom practice, employment, training and much more in between. Although we are separated geographically we all share common interests and common concerns. As this edition of PJR, once again produced under the auspices of the Asia Pacific Media Network, goes out, the world continues to face threats from war, climate change, disease and the resurgence of rightwing regimes. Journalists are faced with far more dangerous working environments and uncertain employment, while academics are faced with closures of departments, cuts to funding and research and an apparent lack of understanding about the value of tertiary education from those who hold the purse strings
  
  Editor: Philip Cass
  Associate and founding editor: David Robie
  Frontline editor: Wendy Bacon
  Assistant editors: Khairiah A. Rahman, Nicole Gooch
  Reviews editor: Philip Cass
  Online edition editor: David Robie
  Designer: Del Abcede
  Proof readers: Linnéa Eltes and Heather Devere
  Cover design: Del Abcede
  Cover photo: Stoen/MACFEST2023
  Tuwhera OJS online support: Luqman Hayes and Donna Coventry
  Print edition: PinkLime

• Media change, adaptation and culture

  Vol. 28 No. 1 & 2 (2022)

  Edition editors: Philip Cass, Khairiah A. Rahman and David Robie

  This edition of Pacific Journalism Review draws on the focus of the Asian Congress for Media and Communication (ACMC) conference hosted at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in November 2021. The themed articles 'echo those who cherish freedom of the press and truth'. In what is described as 'an age of growing hate, intolerance and disinformation', the need to hold the line against a 'disinfodemic' of distortion and falsehood is even more vital. The edition also carries a Frontline section of four articles about Aotearoa New Zealand's unprecedented 23-day siege of Parliament by anti-vaccination and conspiracy theorist protesters, including research by The Disinformation Project. The Photoessay features the growing kava culture with a series of evocative images by Todd Henry.
  
  Editor: Philip Cass
  Associate and founding editor: David Robie
  Frontline editor: Wendy Bacon
  Assistant editors: Khairiah A. Rahman, Nicole Gooch
  Reviews editors: Philip Cass, Nicole Gooch
  Online edition editor: David Robie
  Designer: Del Abcede
  Proof reader: Linnéa Eltes
  Cover design: Del Abcede
  Cover photo: Todd Henry
  Tuwhera OJS online support: Luqman Hayes and Donna Coventry
  Print edition: PinkLime

• Pacific crises: COVID, climate emergency and West Papua

  Vol. 27 No. 1 & 2 (2021)

  Editors: Philip Cass and David Robie
  

  This edition of Pacific Journalism Review was originally planned as an unthemed edition. However, a cluster of media papers on COVID-19, climate change and the ongoing human rights crisis in West Papua has led to it being designated as a 'Pacific Crises' edition. The edition also features a Photoessay case study on Pacific refugee migration and Australian 'imperialism'; Frontline on the making of the documentary Ophir and the Bougainville 'silences'; and the 'Watchdogs under Pressure' Special Report is a major study on the state of journalism in the Pacific. Included in the unthemed section are articles on sustaining democratic freedoms in the Pacific, a journalists' 'toolbox' of the Digital-Global Age, mobile phones and the digital divide, urban settlement communication in Papua New Guinea, and hate speech in Indonesia. Ten books and documentaries are examined in the Reviews section.
  
  Editor: Philip Cass
  Associate and founding editor: David Robie
  Frontline editor: Wendy Bacon
  Reviews editor: Nicole Gooch
  Assistant editors: Khairiah A. Rahman, Nicole Gooch
  Online editor: David Robie
  Designer: Del Abcede
  Proof reader: Linnéa Eltes
  Cover: Del Abcede
  Tuwhera OJS online support: Luqman Hayes and Donna Coventry
  Print edition: PinkLime

• Climate crisis and coronavirus: Rethinking the social world

  Vol. 26 No. 2 (2020)

  Editors: Philip Cass, Hermin Wahyuni, Andi Fitrah, Khairiah Rahman, Nicole Gooch and David Robie
  

  This edition of Pacific Journalism Review is linked to the ‘Rethinking the Social World’ online symposium on Social Sciences 2020 in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, on August 24-25. This is a biennial international event organised by the Centre for Southeast Asian Social Studies (CESASS), Universitas Gadjah Mada. The theme of this second symposium in the series, in partnership with the AUT Pacific Media Centre, addressed the changes that communication and information technology has brought to societies in the Asia-Pacific. This edition of PJR has focused on the theme of "Climate crisis and Coronavirus" linked to the symposium range of papers.

  Managing and founding editor: David Robie
  Editor: Philip Cass
  Frontline editor: Wendy Bacon
  Reviews editor: Philip Cass
  Assistant editors: Khairiah A. Rahman, Nicole Gooch
  Online editor: David Robie
  Designer: Del Abcede
  Proof reader: Linnéa Eltes
  Cover: Pamela Valenzuela
  Tuwhera OJS online support: Luqman Hayes and Donna Coventry
  Print edition: PinkLime

• Media freedom in Melanesia

  Vol. 26 No. 1 (2020)

  Editors: Kasun Ubayasiri, Faith Valencia-Forrester, David Robie, Philip Cass and Nicole Gooch
  

  The sovereign states of Melanesia are countries where the yoke of colonialism and struggles for independence are still within living memory. There are territories within Melanesia where the questions and complexities associated with achieving self-determination are very much live issues. In West Papua, this issue is one over which blood continues to be spilt. As these countries, and the communities within them, grapple with political-economic and technical shifts, the need for independent journalism is self-evident. However, journalists, editors, publishers and media owners face a barrage of challenges to their ability to operate free from repression or coercion by those who wield power in their societies. This special issue of Pacific Journalism Review on Media Freedom in Melanesia draws upon a growing need to discuss media freedom in the region - a distinct sub-region of Oceania that comprises the autonomous region of Bougainville, Fiji, New Caledonia, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, the Torres Strait Islands and West Papua. The core of the papers was delivered at the Melanesia Media Freedom Forum (MMFF) conference in Brisbane, Queensland, on 11-12 November 2019.

  Managing editor: David Robie
  Frontline editor: Wendy Bacon
  Associate editor and reviews editor: Philip Cass
  Assistant editors: Khariah A. Rahman, Nicole Gooch
  Online editor: David Robie
  Designer: Del Abcede
  Proof reader: Linnéa Eltes
  Cover: Pamela Valenzuela
  Tuwhera OJS online support: Luqman Hayes and Donna Coventry
  Print edition: PinkLime

• Terrorism dilemmas and democracy

  Vol. 25 No. 1&2 (2019)

  Editors: David Robie and Philip Cass

  This edition of Pacific Journalism Review was planned as a double “open theme” publication. However, a core of articles has been themed around an eclectic blend of New Zealand's unprecedented atrocity of a terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch on 15 March 2019. Two recent critical votes, Fiji's second general election since the 2006 military coup and the question of independence in New Caledonia, a French territory since it became a penal colony in 1864 has also attracted themed papers. Some of the papers were developed in association with a public seminar in November 2018, "Democracy and Media in the Pacific - Fiji, Kanaky and the People's Choice.

  This is the 25th year of publication of Pacific Journalism Review.

  Editor: David Robie
  Frontline editor: Wendy Bacon
  Associate editor and reviews editor: Philip Cass
  Assistant editors: Khariah A. Rahman, Nicole Gooch
  Design editor: Del Abcede
  Proof readers: Linnéa Eltes, Ani Zhang and Allison Oosterman
  Cover: Pamela Valenzuela
  Tuwhera OJS online support: Luqman Hayes and Donna Coventry
  Print edition: Little Island Press

• Journalism under duress in Asia-Pacific

  Vol. 24 No. 2 (2018)

  Editors: David Robie, Philip Cass and Khairiah A. Rahman
  
  November 2 is the United Nations date that is observed globally each year to mark the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists (IDEI). To honour journalists who have died, or have been beaten, tortured or brutally gagged in defence of the truth and the public right to know and to explore safety of journalist strategies, this is a special edition of Pacific Journalism Review. This follows on from the Pacific Media Centre’s public seminar in Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand, in November 2017 marking 10 years of the centre. Several multimedia presentations were made at the seminar in support of a free press in the Asia-Pacific region. The Ampatuan massacre of 32 journalists in the Philippines in 2009, with a failure of the authorities to successfully prosecute anybody for this horrendous crime almost a decade later, and violent abuses against journalists in West Papua were some of the issues raised in the seminar. Fiji, Papua New Guinea and Samoa are among Oceania nations that are cracking down on internet freedom to stifle “ghost writers” and “troublemakers” as one Pacific leader has described them.   

  Cover photograph: © Fernando G. Sepe Jr. of ABS-CBN News

  Frontline editor: Wendy Bacon
  Associate editor and reviews editor: Philip Cass
  Assistant editor: Khariah A. Rahman
  Design editor: Del Abcede
  Proof readers: Linnéa Eltes and Ani Zhang
  Cover: Pamela Valenzuela
  Tuwhera OJS online support: Luqman Hayes and Donna Coventry
  Print edition: Little Island Press

• Disasters, cyclones and communication

  Vol. 24 No. 1 (2018)

  Editors: David Robie, Philip Cass, Khairiah A. Rahman, Shailendra Singh, Vissia Ita Yulianto and Hermin Indah Wahyuni

  This edition features a range of papers about narratives of disaster, social media and emergencies and climate change. It will also feature some papers from Pacific Ocean Pacific Climate: The Second Pacific Climate Change Conference hosted by Victoria University of Wellington and the Secretariat of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) at Te Papa Tongarewa Museum in Wellington, New Zealand, on 21-23 February 2018. The editorial features a keynote address at the conference by 2010 Nobel Peace co-laureate Professor Elisabeth Holland of the University of the South Pacific. The edition is published in collaboration with the Center for Southeast Asian Social Studies (CESASS) and IKAT: The Indonesian Journal for Southeast Asian Studies at the Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), Yogyakarta, Indonesia, and also the University of the South Pacific, Fiji.

  Frontline editor: Wendy Bacon
  Associate editor and reviews editor: Philip Cass
  Design editor: Del Abcede
  Proof reader: Linnéa Eltes
  Cover: Pamela Valenzuela
  Tuwhera OJS online support: Luqman Hayes and Donna Coventry
  Print edition: Little Island Press

• Journalism education in Asia-Pacific

  Vol. 23 No. 2 (2017)

  Editors: David Robie and Philip Cass
  The themed core of this edition includes more peer-reviewed papers drawn from media educators and journalists at the JERAA/Pacific Media Centre/Media Educators Pacific preconference on July 13 and World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC2016) conference at Auckland University of Technology on 14-16 July 2016. Attendance by the Pacific delegation at WJEC was thanks to NZ Institute for Pacific Research (NZIPC). This is a second volume of WJEC conference papers following on from 'Journalism Education in the Pacific', 22(2) 2016.
  
  Frontline editor: Wendy Bacon
  Associate editor and reviews editor: Philip Cass
  Design editor: Del Abcede
  Proof readers: Linnéa Eltes, Frances Nelson
  Cover: Pamela Valenzuela
  Tuwhera OJS online support: Luqman Hayes and Donna Coventry
  Print edition: Little Island Press

• Climate change in Asia-Pacific

  Vol. 23 No. 1 (2017)

  Editors: David Robie, Chris Nash and Shailendra Singh

  Given that climate change is arguably the greatest threat facing the planet and where the impact will be particularly strong in the Asia-Pacific region, especially for the microstates of the Pacific, what is the role of the media and media education in the region? This edition of PJR - the first major volume of Asia-Pacific climate change media research - addresses these issues, and the editorial features the legacy of more than 25 years of the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ) investigations in climate change and social justice.

  Frontline editor: Wendy Bacon
  Associate editor and reviews editor: Philip Cass
  Design editor: Del Abcede
  Proof reader: Linnéa Eltes
  Cartoons: Malcolm Evans
  Cover: Pamela Valenzuela
  Tuwhera OJS online support: Luqman Hayes and Donna Coventry
  Print edition: Little Island Press
  

• Journalism education in the Pacific

  Vol. 22 No. 2 (2016)

  Editors: Philip Cass, David Robie
  
  Featuring Journalism Education and Research Association of Australia (JERAA) and Fourth World Journalism Education Congress (WJEC16) papers on the Pacific, a major research survey on the state of New Zealand journalism in 2015 and a Frontline report on a journalism school partnership with Indigenous community organisations in Western Australia.
  
  Frontline editor: Wendy Bacon

  Assistance for this edition from the NZ Institute for Pacific Research (NZIPR) and the National Commission of UNESCO.

  Fulltext of all PJR articles available on the INFORMIT subscription database

• Endangered Journalists

  Vol. 22 No. 1 (2016)

  Editors: David Robie, Philip Cass

  Featuring Johnny Blades, Ricardo Morris, Jason MacLeod, Alexandra Wake, Paul Scott, Katherine Ellis, Janet Fulton, Georgios Terzis, Lee Duffield and others. Plus a Frontline Investigative journalism double - Interrogating Power, by Kayt Davies; and State Terrorism - a Pacific case study, by David Robie.
  
  Frontline editor: Wendy Bacon

  Fulltext of all PJR articles available on the INFORMIT subscription database

• Documentary practice in the Asia-Pacific

  Vol. 21 No. 2 (2015)

  Editors: Barry King, Annie Goldson; David Robie (unthemed)

  In New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region, particularly, there is a clear and present need for the practice of documentary in the tradition of civic activism. The following articles in this themed section explore the aesthetic and cultural dynamics of capturing popular struggles and how documentary makers respond in the field to rethink how to represent objectively new struggles and new contexts of real life. - Extract from Professor Barry King's editorial
  
  Frontline editor: Wendy Bacon
  

  Fulltext of all PJR articles available on the INFORMIT subscription database

• 20 Years Special Edition: Political journalism in the Asia-Pacific

  Vol. 21 No. 1 (2015)

  Editors: David Robie, Barry King, Philip Cass and Wendy Bacon

  PACIFIC JOURNALISM REVIEW is far more than a research journal. As an independent publication, it has given strong support to investigative journalism, socio-political journalism, political economy of the media, photojournalism and political cartooning in its two decades of publishing, which have all been strongly reflected in the character of the journal.

  An edition celebrating 20 years of publishing of PJR. This is a special book edition ISBN978-1-927184-29-5
  
  Fulltext of all PJR articles available on the INFORMIT subscription database
  
• 'Failed' states and the environment

  Vol. 20 No. 2 (2014)

  Editors: David Robie, Lee Duffield

  THIS is the edition marking 20 years of publication of Pacific Journalism Review, first published at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1994. The edition will be launched at the PJR conference "Political journalism in the Asia-Pacific" at AUT University in Auckland on November 27-29 and selected double peer-reviewed papers from this symposium will be published in the birthday edition in May 2015.

  Frontline editor: Wendy Bacon

  This edition is published with the assistance of a grant from the New Zealand National Commission of UNESCO.

  Fulltext of all PJR articles available on the INFORMIT subscription database

• Investigative journalism trends

  Vol. 20 No. 1 (2014)

  Editors: David Robie, Tom Morton and Wendy Bacon
  

  Excerpt from the editorial by Frontline editor Professor Wendy Bacon:

  Journalism with integrity
  THIS IS the third issue Pacific Journalism Review has published on the theme of investigative journalism in recent years. Our first issue (PJR, 2011) followed the first regional Investigative Journalism conference held at the Pacific Media Centre at Auckland University of Technology in December 2010. In that issue, we argued that universities and academic journalists have an important role to play in building a culture of investigative reporting in the region. This issue follows up on that suggestion by focusing particularly on investigative journalism produced in an academic context.
  
  Frontline editor: Wendy Bacon

  This edition was a co-publication with the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ).

  Fulltext of all PJR articles available on the INFORMIT subscription database

• Celebrity and scandal

  Vol. 19 No. 2 (2013)

  Editors: Barry King, Rosser Johnson; Allison Oosterman (unthemed)
  

  THIS ISSUE of Pacific Journalism Review engages with the theme of the dynamics of fame in a small country. In contrast to the dominant focus in the newly emergent field of Celebrity Studies on celebrity as a global phenomenon, the emphasis in this issue is on the interface between the global and the local; on questions of how the distinctiveness of national and local values fares when caught up in or of willingly imitating the circulation of global fame
  

  Frontline editor: Wendy Bacon

  This edition was a co-publication with the Centre for Performance Research at AUT University.

  Fulltext of all PJR articles available on the INFORMIT subscription database

• Media and democracy in the Pacific

  Vol. 19 No. 1 (2013)

  Editors: David Robie and Shailendra Singh
  
  THIS edition of Pacific Journalism Review is themed on the Media and Democracy in the South Pacific symposium held in Suva in September 2012. Hosted by the University of the South Pacific, the conference has provided most of the core papers for this issue, marking close to two decades of an independent research role in the region by this journal. The 2012 symposium followed two previous conferences held at AUT University in Auckland and USP in Suva in December 2010, covering topics ranging from investigative journalism and technology, peace journalism, democracy, social cohesion and various related themes.

  Excerpt from the editorial: Shailendra Singh and David Robie

  Frontline editor: Wendy Bacon

  Fulltext of all PJR articles available on the INFORMIT subscription database

• Rebuilding public trust in journalism

  Vol. 18 No. 2 (2012)

  Editors: Johan Lidberg, Chris Nash and David Robie
  
  Since the call for papers to the theme for this issue of the Pacific Journalism Review, more tumultuous events in journalism have unfolded dominated by the agonising restructure of the newspaper arms of media companies across the region. Hundreds of editorial jobs are on the line. The increasingly desperate search for the ‘new business model’ has been stepped up. But is the new model the only answer to the current plight of journalism? Are media proprietors paying enough attention to the fact that the business model is built on the public trusting the journalistic practices that sit at the heart of the media brands? Perhaps all stakeholders should pay closer attention to Conboy’s thoughts?

  Excerpt from the editorial: Johan Lidberg

  Frontline editor: Wendy Bacon
  

  Fulltext of all PJR articles available on the INFORMIT subscription database

• 'Back to the source' investigative journalism

  Vol. 18 No. 1 (2012)

  Editors: Tom Morton, Wendy Bacon and David Robie
  
  The May 2012 edition of Pacific Journalism Review features a selection of research, commentaries, articles and transcripts from the “Back to the Source” investigative journalism conference at the University of Technology, Sydney, last September. It also features a new section on “Journalism as research” with articles on investigations into two controversial mining sagas - West Papua’s Freeport mine at Grasberg and the Vale nickel refinery at Goro, New Caledonia. A review of Pacific media freedom reporting methodologies and an analysis of New Zealand's journalism school moderation system and accreditation are also included.

  Back to the Source @ UTS

  Frontline editor: Wendy Bacon

  Fulltext of all PJR articles available on the INFORMIT subscription database

• Media, cultural diversity and community

  Vol. 17 No. 2 (2011)

  Editors: David Robie, Catriona Bonfiglioli and Wendy Bacon

  The killing and abduction of journalists in West Papua has been highlighted in a special new report on Pacific media freedom over the past year by Pacific Journalism Review. “By far the most serious case of media freedom violations in the Pacific is in Indonesian-ruled West Papua—far from public scrutiny,” says the journal in an editorial. The 39-page report on the state of media freedom in the Pacific in 2011 notes that in August, in particular, “sustained repression has also hit the news media and journalists”. At least two journalists have been killed in West Papua, five abducted and 18 assaulted in the past year. West Papua has replaced Fiji as the most urgent media freedom issue in the region, says the journal. The report has been published just as regional protests have been voiced over the brutal suppression of a strike at the giant Freeport copper mine in the past week in which at least one person was reported shot dead. This free media report, compiled by Pacific Media Watch contributing editor Alex Perrottet and Pacific Media Centre director Dr David Robie with a team of contributors, including West Papua Media editor Nick Chesterfield, is the most comprehensive and robust media freedom dossier published in recent years.

• New investigative journalism strategies

  Vol. 17 No. 1 (2011)

  Editors: David Robie and Rosser Johnson

  Two leading investigative journalists who are also media educators have called on university journalism schools to pool their top student resources to undertake investigative journalism projects. They have also appealed to journalism schools to work collaboratively across institutions and borders to target major investigations. They present their case – including a proposal to set up a so-called UniMuckraker project for the Australia-NZ-Pacific region – in the latest edition of Pacific Journalism Review being published next week. Australian Bill Birnbauer of Monash University, who is a member of the US-based International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, proposed the UniMuckraker strategy for collaboration with a joint multimedia website in an article examining non-profit foundations and their support for investigative journalism in the US.

• Media freedom in Oceania

  Vol. 16 No. 2 (2010)

  Cartoon: © Malcolm Evans
  Editors: David Robie, Marsali Mackinnon and Martin Hadlow

  Most of the commentaries in the October 2010 edition (v16 n2) edition of Pacific Journalism Review were presented at the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day conference hosted by the University of Queensland in Brisbane in May 2010. Authors include Papua New Guinea Chief Ombudsman Chronox Manek, Pacific Freedom Forum coordinator Lisa Williams-Lahari and co-chair Susuve Laumea; Samoa Observer publisher and editor-in-chief Savea Sano Malifa, Cook Islands News managing editor and secretary/treasurer of the Pasifika Media Association (PasiMA) John Woods; Transparency Vanuatu president Marie-Noelle Ferrieux Patterson; Vois Blong Yumi Project leader Francis Herman; and Pacific Media Centre director Associate Professor David Robie. Research papers include several about the three-month-old Media Industry Development Decree, “collaborative journalism”, the non-government organisation and civil society community and “life under censorship” in Fiji, and one article focuses on two newspaper case studies in media freedom in Tonga.

  This edition was supported by a grant from the UNESCO Office of Pacific States.

• Reporting wars: The ongoing challenges

  Vol. 16 No. 1 (2010)

  Cover photo: ©Tony Maniaty: Pacific Journalism Review: Scene from the film Balibo ... the Balibo Five journalists shortly before they were killed in East Timor in 1975.

  Editors: Alan Samson, David Robie and Wendy Bacon

  Editors, journalists and media researchers face the challenge of the “price of freedom” and the cost of reporting global conflict in the May 2011 edition of Pacific Journalism Review. Writing in the edition, Shooting Balibo author Tony Maniaty, who was a consultant for a recent film on the killing of six Australian-based journalists – including a New Zealander – in East Timor, makes a strong plea for wider acceptance of international humanitarian laws. “As a first move … we need to stop viewing and presenting war as an heroic enterprise, and see it for what it fundamentally is – an inhuman, horrific and desperate act by people devoid of imagination, for whom brute force is not the last resort, but usually the first,” he says.  AUT University's Pacific Media Centre in association with the International Committee of the Red Cross held a conference on May 24 entitled Reporting Wars: The Ongoing Challenges.

  The special edition of the journal, published by the PMC, highlights the new Australian code to protect the safety of journalists and notes the lack of an equivalent for New Zealand media.