avaiki

The Auckland Agenda adds $28b to NZ corruption

2011-10-30T10:51:00.000-10:00

Much of the council agenda is conducted in secret.

. . .

COMMENT
by Avaiki Nius Agency
editor Jason Brown

We need more time.

Residents in Auckland, New Zealand, the world's largest Pacific Islands city, have less than 24 hours to make their views known on the final draft of a plan aimed at the next 30 years.

Like almost every other aspect of the "super-city", the plan has been hatched, launched and pushed through so-called consultation phases at highly questionable pace. Especially when the same time period saw the hosting of a Rugby World Cup, the world’s third largest sporting event in terms of television audience.

In a stadium of 4 million, 1.4 million Auckland residents have had just over 40 days to consider the 258 page “Draft Auckland Plan”, launched on 20 September 2011, an incredibly short space of time for a plan covering the next 11,000 days.

This plan is just 30 pages longer than the original discussion document, Auckland Unleashed, last modified on 14th April 2011.

Public hearings will be held over the next month, with the draft finalised in December, then adopted in February 2012.

Less than a year’s consultation for a plan covering three decades.

This is deeply unfair on a city which has seen an anything-goes National Party government steamroll over a Royal Commission of Inquiry into their future, and then impose its own highly suspect agenda with regards to how $28 billion in ratepayer assets are handled.

Former coalition partner and leader of the economically fascist ACT Party, Rodney Hide, also dismissed calls for a referendum on the future of Auckland. Now gone, along with an MP who stole the identity of dead baby to gain a false passport and has just been suspended for 12 months as a lawyer, the Hide legacy appears to be locked in place.

Molly-coddled by corporate media, riding high in the polls, the John Key government has brushed off criticism from all corners of a huge urban and rural sprawl with what is, for some, an infuriatingly smug smile, closer to a smirk.

Unfair, and deeply undemocratic.

Secrecy and confidentiality have made an unwelcome return to both state and regional decision making processes, raising questions of proper due process.

With some 3,439 written and 550 oral submissions to the original commission of inquiry, it might have been expected that residents would throw their hands up and abandon what is obviously a deeply contemptuous approach to consultation.

On the contrary.

Some 8,500 responses were written in answer to the Auckland Unleashed discussion document, in a space of just four months. With just a 30 page difference between the council discussion document and draft plan, it remains to be seen how many of those recommendations will make it past the consultation stage.

Far from guaranteeing a super city, now or 30 years hence, the council rush job represents yet another land grab from ratepayers, and, long suffering Maori.

This is not ‘just’ about citizen and indigenous rights, however.

As bad, if not worse, the entire Super City process is yet another example calling into question the quality and future of the Pakeha justice and governance systems.

What does all this mean for Maori, Polynesian and other Pacific Islanders in Auckland, and New Zealand ?

Probably more of the same.

Economic exploitation, marginalisation and negligence - just like a majority of Pakeha citizens who seem unable to see past a fog of media misrepresentation, or the face of a man once known as the “smiling assassin”.

With the world cup only just at an end, and a general election just ahead, it seems obvious to everyone but elected representatives that the world’s biggest Pacific city needs more time to decide its own future.

. . .

2011-10-18T14:30:00.002-10:00

cook islands PM predicts defeat - transcript

2010-11-17T04:46:00.001-10:00

photo: OPM

"No, I'm not confident because there are a lot of independent candidates and they're going to get good votes, so I'm not confident."

. . .

TRANSCRIPT

Outgoing Cook Islands PM expects election defeat

Radio Australia presenter: Helene Hofman

Updated November 17, 2010 18:19:09

The Cook Islands' outgoing prime minister, Jim Marurai, says he fully expects his Democratic Party will be ousted in elections about to get underway.

Over the last year the party has been shaken by an internal leadership struggle that saw Marurai sack his Deputy Prime Minister, Terepai Maoate prompting a mass resignation of party members.

Jim Marurai and his new deputy, Robert Wigmore, were subsequently kicked out of the party but readmitted in June with Mr Wigmore taking over as party leader.

Speaking to me from his constituency of Mangaia, Jim Marurai says the spat caused irreparable damage and he doesn't believe his party will be re-elected.

LISTEN

Jim Marurai: "According to my team, we haven't been doing any campaigning, my office hasn't even been campaigning either. So a low key approach."

Radio Australia: It has been a difficult year for you in terms of popularity - a lot of voters were talking about how frustrated they were. Has that been part of your decision not to go out on the campaign trail yourself?

Jim Marurai: "Nah, just that I've informed my party that this will be my last term in Parliament, also for my constituents that I won't be going for the PM-ship."

Radio Australia: Robert Wigmore will then supposedly replace you as prime minister if your party is successful, if the Democratic Party gets through?

Jim Marurai: "The Democratic Party feels that the leader of the party should be prime minister."

Radio Australia: Okay, so Robert Wigmore would be the obvious candidate?

Jim Marurai: "Yes, if we get enough."

Radio Australia: Speaking of numbers, how confident are you of getting the numbers?

Jim Marurai: "No, I'm not confident because there are a lot of independent candidates and they're going to get good votes, so I'm not confident."

Radio Australia: It's unusual to hear someone give up before a vote actually takes place, do you feel that the Democratic Party's term has come to an end?

Jim Marurai: "Um, Robert Wigmore has got three independents contesting against him, with one Cook Islands Party. It's going to be very difficult for him to represent. The saying going around is that only two of us are sure to be returned to Parliament - me and another minister from Rarotonga. I'd prefer to have the majority, that's the preference, but I'm not sure whether we'll get it.

Radio Australia: Would you like to see the party build up again in future, work on your reputation, perhaps, over the next term and come back stronger afterwards?

Jim Marurai: "I'll let the new leader run the party."

. . .

cook islands 2010 election issues poll

2010-11-10T03:23:00.001-10:00

. . .

POLL

What are the big issues facing Cook Islanders at General Elections
on 17 November 2010 ?

Health? Education? Local concerns like pollution?
Or more international concerns like global warming and corruption?

Let your voice be heard and vote here!

http://apps.facebook.com/my-polls/cookislands2010

. . .

cook islands general elections 2010 - poll

2010-11-10T03:20:00.001-10:00

. . .

POLL

What are the big issues facing Cook Islanders at General Elections
on 17 November 2010 ?

Health? Education? Local concerns like pollution?
Or more international concerns like global warming and corruption?

Let your voice be heard and vote here!

http://apps.facebook.com/my-polls/cookislands2010

. . .

maori tv rejects Panthers request

2010-09-01T22:35:00.000-10:00

. . .

RADIO NEWS RELEASE

A movie collective for the Polynesian Panthers say they are disappointed their request for help has been rejected by Maori Television.

They asked for a community panui to go with a documentary about them but were turned down, by acting CEO Sonya Haggie.

A movie collective spokesman, Panther6, does not want to be named at this stage, says Maori Television is collecting on advertising worth more than $10,000.

But he says the station told them they would have to pay $3,000, for a 30 second community ad.

A collective, the Panther movie spokesman says they are encouraged by the documentary screening this Saturday, but discouraged by the response to their request for koha.

Maori Television needs to show less deference towards pakeha corporate values ... says the spokesman, using his original Panther tag number ... and more respect for those who fought for freedoms they enjoy today.

BACKGROUND

Maori and island "partners" of the Polynesian Panthers were frontline through the seventies Dawn Raids, Bastion Point and as part of the the Patu Squad, a response to new riot squad tactics during the 1981 Springbok tour. Some were jailed, others injured.

MAORI TV LISTING

"POLYNESIAN PANTHERS (NZ DOCUMENTARY) – Saturday September 4 at 8.30PM

Samoan, Tongan, Cook Island and Maori rangatahi in the 1960s formed the Polynesian Panthers, modelling themselves on the American Black Panther Party, and focusing on the issues facing Maori and Pacific peoples in New Zealand, such as unequal pay and inadequate access to housing. Presenter Nevak Ilolahia (Rongowhakaata, Tonga) traces her family's involvement in the Polynesian Panthers and explores its place within the broader international Panther movement."

LINKS

Polynesian Panthers Documentary | Facebook
Polynesian Panthers Movie | Waiata Trust

MORE COMMENT

PANTHER6
+64276368359

Jason Brown
+642102484560

. . .

time suggests US biggest money launderer

2010-05-26T18:31:00.000-10:00

. . .

A Harvard based anti-corruption campaigner, Raymond Baker, is taking his fight to the G20 grouping of the world's biggest economies - a rare voice targeting big countries, not small.

Time magazine added that "the U.S. just might be the world's biggest washing machine for dirty money." Baker concurs, noting that the U.S. Treasury Department asserts that virtually 100 percent of dirty money presented for deposit in the United States is accepted into secure accounts. (In March, Wachovia Bank made a $160 million settlement with the Justice Department, agreeing it had been lax about accepting drug money from Mexico.) While U.S. law is tough on drug trafficking, terrorist financing, bank fraud, and theft by foreign government officials, Baker notes, "It does not bar proceeds generated abroad from activities such as handling stolen property, counterfeiting, contraband, environmental crimes, and foreign tax evasion."

Baker is a member of Global Financial Integrity, which estimates just 3% of more than US$2 trillion in corruption comes from bribery, up to 35% for organised crime, while 65% comes from transnational corporations evading tax and so on. Baker quotes the London based Tax Justice Network as placing the US state of Delaware as the top of its most secret havens.

. . .

corruption number 1 untold story of the decade

2010-01-04T12:57:00.001-10:00

. . .

EDITORIAL

Global corruption is the number one untold story of the decade, states Avaiki Nius Agency, examining the "least corrupt" country in the world for contradictory symptoms.

Scoring number one spot on a world ranking anti-corruption survey seems cause for celebration.

Story of the decade, kind of thing.

Certainly, in the case of the top ranking from Transparency International, it is.

self-perception

Transparency International yearly releases what it calls a Corruption Perceptions Index, or CPI.

Same acronym as the slightly better known Consumer Price Index. Unlike the consumer cousin, TI CPI merely ranks perceptions among local inhabitants. Questions asked from a random survey of residents include how they perceive corruption in the public and private sectors, like lawyers and business people.

New Zealanders ranked their own least corrupt in the world last year, for the first time.

public tax records

Level-pegging with the most transparent people in the world in recent years, this new first placing is an achievement, considering other leading countries have (by New Zealand standards) quite astonishing levels of transparency. Residents in Sweden can look up tax records by address. Their neighbour. The Prime Minister. A company director they suspect might be crooked. Norway residents can check what cab company their MP uses.

By comparison, our transparency levels are medieval; auditory chambers of horror. Donations to political parties are secret under $10,000 and no doubt the $9,999 cheques for rightist politician Winston Peters are mirrored by deposits in other party bank accounts. Corporates already know every last detail about "consumers" but those consumers do not have reciprocal insight into the affairs of big business.

New Zealand is so untransparent there is no food labeling. New Zealand consumers have no idea what they are consuming, where it came from or whether the item of consumption is safe, or not as the case may be. From China, toys may be baked in a glaze containing human poo, or inflict reputational damage from news about bizarre chemicals in New Zealand milk powder.

corporate correctness

Locally, "Leaky House Syndrome" is a corporately-correct chimera swallowed hook, line and sinker by mainstream media, reporting evidence of gigantic corruption as if a common cold. This agency has already commented on numerous examples that suggest public ignorance leaves us alone, at the top of the rubble from world anti-corruption efforts. Australians next door are more skeptical of their own country, ranking themselves 8th least corrupt in the world, but insist on food labeling and other tougher regulatory environments.

In terms of aid, New Zealand is a rogue state, abandoning 30 years of aid harmonisation with development partners like the UN and OECD in favour of what the current government justifies as a "hand up" policy, dismantling the decade old NZAID and folding it back under the politically correct wing of Foreign Affairs. Historic levels of agreement between aid advocates and other relief organisations saw a campaign called "Don't corrupt aid", but was totally ignored by Foreign Affairs minister Murray McCully. Across the Tasman, Australia is well into its second year of reports from the newly established independent Office of Aid Effectiveness.

So why do New Zealanders "perceive" themselves least corrupt in the world? And why are the New Zealand media so quiet about the achievement? Turn on the night news and every other world-beating feat is crowed from rooftops, satirised by the wry L&P slogan, "world famous in New Zealand."

no results at the herald

Deathly silence however greets the latest Transparency International ranking, for 2009.

Search for "Transparency International" on the New Zealand Herald and the site says "sorry no results found". Strange, because NZH used to have links. Using Google to search the same site gets 126 results, at time of auto-publishing this webpage.

Next biggest news website in New Zealand, Stuff, carries just six sentences - count them - from Australian Associated Press.

a minute or two

Takes a minute or two to realise that a more in-depth article dates from 2008, when New Zealand was ranked equal with Finland and Denmark as least corrupt in the world by the annual Transparency International survey.

Finland is better known more recently as an enthusiastic participant in the global economic crisis, banks pitching in with the old tried-and-true formula of loaning billions to rich people, then recouping losses by screwing the poor. Equal footing with Finland underlines the point that, soft as it may be, the Transparency International Corruption Perception Index is by nature mea culpa, an admission of guilt that, yes, corruption exists, even in 100% "pure" New Zealand.

Out of a top score of 10, New Zealanders rate their fellow country men and women as 9.4 good in terms of anti-corruption.

blind leading the blind

Stopped at a pedestrian crossing in downtown Apia, Samoa one day, a cliche comes to life.

One blind man, hand-in-hand with another, leading.

Tap-tap-tap across the road.

succinct scenario

As succinct a scenario for where New Zealand is going wrong is expressed by Maori activist Willie Jackson, in a September 2009 column titled "Real corruption in New Zealand" about the conviction of MP Phillip Taito Field:

"The fourth [1984] Labour government got into bed with big business. And businessmen acted as advisers over asset sales, but then jumped ship and advised the buyers too. Then through this corrupt process they became part-owners of the assets, clipping the ticket three times. All of this had the full support of many senior Cabinet ministers at the time. We now know that some in the government even had trusts set up for them by the same people who profited from the asset sales. Apparently, it is legal – in fact, some people even refer to it as clever or even smart business practice. But I know workers will always remember it as corruption of the worst kind – a total betrayal. Field's actions pale by comparison."

Corruption of the "worst kind" is not news, however, in a country where such comments are published, but never reported - myopic business people and short-sighted journalists. Indeed, another Maori activist attacks Jackson as corrupt himself after his Taito comments are posted to Facebook.

behind the scenes

Being least corrupt in the world deserves serious world attention.

Leading the world also suggests a need for the country involved to step back, stock take and offer some world-beating self-analysis "if you like", as a leading TVNZ journalist is fond of saying; a critique.

Yes, we do like.

opportunity for honesty

We like the Transparency International Corruptions Index as an opportunity for honest accounting, long overdue.

As an independent news agency of one, this is not so much use of the royal "we" as a distillation, and we use the word advisedly, of disparate sources from right to left who express interesting commonalities in their dissatisfaction with current states of affair within western systems of democracy. Lots of websites. Plenty of networking with media communities. Triangulated against daily stories from the street. Reporting, in other words; the pre-press stage.

Use of the word triangulation may ring bells among journalistic cynics, but shouldn't.

That's how we roll.

all right mate

Again and again this agency has been astonished by the depth of cynicism among New Zealanders, over incredibly parochial concerns, while evincing a Pollyanna optimism that the big picture is all right mate.

That must be how the disgraceful conviction and six year sentence of Phillip Taito Field comes to be praised as evidence "the system" works.

Spending half a million or more on police pursuing the fate of a few tiles while thousands of New Zealanders suffer multi-billion housing fraud ranks right up there in the Keystone cops category.

corruption comedy

Adding to corruption comedy are commentators like Chris Ford, alleging a "strong interest" in social justice issues.

Most hilarious was Joe Bennet, searingly sarcastic in a deliriously headlined satire on baby-tossing street celebrations among New Zealanders at news of the first place transparency ranking.

To use sports news short-hand, the UK-born Bennet is one of only two journalists to apply the "blow-torch" to the myths of clean, green New Zealand.

"shameful"

A column in The Guardian slamming New Zealand as the most "shameful" example of "green-washing" in the world prompted mainly hand-wringing about changing the "100% pure" tourism slogan to side-step those environmental concerns.

Perhaps the most shameful aspect is that in the least corrupt country in the world, it still takes outsiders to point out painful truths.

To imagine that New Zealand or Australia are somehow immune to worldwide corruption is naive, reckless.

LINKS

Transparency International

Judicial Watch

Global Witness

OpenSecrets.org: Money in Politics -- See Who's Giving & Who's Getting

Internet Center for Corruption Research

Home | Beyond Delay

Deep Capture Blog

U4 Anti-Corruption Resource Centre

CorpWatch : Index

Political Corruption

AgainstCorruption.Org - UNICORN

Political corruption - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

nobribes.org

Smoking Mirrors

World Economic Forum - Partnering Against Corruption

freedominfo.org: the online network of freedom of information advocates

Odious Debts

Governance & Anti-Corruption > WGI 1996-2008 Interactive > Home

NationMaster - Corruption (most recent) by country

Global Integrity Report

Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative

MilitaryCorruption.com - Fighting for The Truth - Exposing The Corrupt in the U.S. Military

Federal Bureau of Investigation - Public Corruption

TRACE, Inc. - Raising Standards Against Corruption

White-collar crime - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Global Integrity - Welcome

J.A.I.L.

ICAC

Information Portal on Corruption - Spotlight

EthicsWorld: Home

The Great Iraq Swindle: : Rolling Stone

more links at xmarks: (contains rankings by xmark users, but also includes links to software corruption)

comment from avaiki nius agency Re: [pacific-journos] PPAPD-FPOC commentary on gender equality issues 'shameful': PPSEAWA Cook Islands speaks out.

2009-11-19T14:00:00.001-10:00

. . .

COMMENT

New Zealand frequently likes to promote itself as the world's first country to give women the vote.

It's not.

That honour belongs to what was once referred to as the Hervey Islands, now better known as the Cook Islands, and will, I hope, be named Avaiki. Not Avaiki Nui, as Sir Geoffrey Henry once suggested, but as a proud part of an existing confederacy stretching from Savai'i in the west, to Hawaiki in the south, Hawaii in the north and Havaii in the east.

Introduced by a liberal resident agent of the day, this historic precedent was unilaterally withdrawn by a subsequent agent, an event celebrated in the awesome Dick Scott book, Years of the Pooh Bah.

Instead of ridiculing women, our tane in the "Cook" Islands need to recognise the equally awesome strategicness of being the first country in the world to give women the vote. They need to embrace that fact, and wear it like armour on the international stage. They need to forget the example of their colonial raised fathers, and imagine a time, albeit brief, when Avaiki led the world.

abandon the patriarchy!

NOTES

2009/11/20 Lisa Williams-Lahari <lisa.lahari@gmail.com>

All, please see attached letter which appeared in Cook Islands News
today in Rarotonga. The site only updates once a week, so apologies if
you cant open the attachment. It is indeed proof that resistance to
WIP is at its strongest at the top of the tree....and that the old
denial strategies and cliches are still well in use.

"An opportunity for meaningful change to come out of this conference
was subverted by ridiculous and shameful comments into a boy's club
get-together, one small step away from pub talk. Women are not now and
will not ever be their own worst enemies. The rights to that place are
held by men in an iron grip." ALEXIS WOLFGRAMM, PPSEAWA COOK ISLANDS
(CINEWS letter to the Editor, 19 Nov)

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"More and more, if you're not in the digital conversation about your
community, you're not in a conversation that matters"
-- Alberto Ibargüen, President, The Knight Foundation.

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what one white motherfucker says about hone harawira

2009-11-18T23:37:00.002-10:00

....

COMMENT

Bravo. Encore. Akamaroiroi.

Finally some Maori has the balls to say what guilty white liberals have been saying for decades - white motherfuckers are raping our topography, in this case, at the bottom of the Polynesia triangle.

Aotearoa.

Here is what Harawira says he wishes he said:

“European colonisers have been responsible for the loss of more than 63 million acres of Maori land over the past 150 years, and it is inappropriate that you should be holding me to standards set by people with such little regard for Maori custom”

Yeah. Right.

As a white honky motherfucker that sounds more like land rape to me.

Own it, my fellow palagi, pakeha, papa'a, kaivalagi, emitung, popa'a and long pork people. 63 million acres of land gone, even after a legal document establishes ownership. Two in fact. Check 1835 as well as the 1840 Treaty of Waitangi.

It's not just a matter of Maori land rights, it's an issue of English justice.

A Commonwealth indeed.

. . .

updated 10.50pm of original post

. . .

flacid response to world journalism in crisis

2009-11-18T23:12:00.001-10:00

. . .

COMMENT

Number of mainstream media who wrote about the Coventry conference on world journalism in crisis ?

One.

Number of media anyone who wrote on a site dedicated to the subject: www.worldjournalismincrisis.org ?

One.

Oh. Okay then.

All good then.

. . .

jason brown
+6421 024 84 560
avaiki nius agency

www.jpkupdate.blogspot.com
http://avaiki.nius.googlepages.com
www.pacificfreedomforum.org

. . .

Two faces of tenth happiest place in world

2009-10-29T15:07:00.000-10:00

. . .

COMMENT

Amazing what scrolls along the bottom of early morning TV in 100% natural New Zealand.

Or what doesn't.

This week, publicly owned TVNZ scrolled a survey ranking New Zealand number 10 in the world of the happiest places to live.

Couple of days later, privately owned TV3 scrolled another survey – one in seven people can't "make ends meet."

Neither reported the other survey, or examined either in any depth.

Or at all, really.

No stories, just a brief scroll along the bottom of the screen. Maybe 60 letters in all.

That represents one letter for 10,000 people living below poverty level.

Translated to real numbers, one in seven represents some 600,000 people not getting enough money to live in a first world standard. Possibly, this second group of people weren't asked for their opinion for the 'happy' survey.

Usually, surveys are held over the phone, ruling out a huge underclass – below working class – living day by day without a phone. They can't afford to pay the bills.

On the other hand, out of choice, many working and middle class people no longer bother with a landline. They get by with cell phones and use the internet at work.

So that might balance out the findings of the two surveys.

Emphasis on the 'might.'

Also this week, TVNZ recently screened a promo that looked astonishingly like government propaganda. Billed as "explaining the recession" the promo featured the finance minister mouthing off platitudes, edgily edited with shaky camera shots and close ups.

As the state broadcaster, TVNZ is obliged to follow a charter that guarantees the independence of its broadcast from political or commercial influence.

Withering criticism from the opposition saw TVNZ blithely defend its promo as not breaking any rules, despite representing an estimated half million dollars in free publicity for the ruling National Party.

Parliamentary members of the opposition were not invited to take part in the promo. Just Finance minister Bill English. Capping off the promo, TVNZ promised to translate the mysteries of the recession into "plain English."

Strange that TVNZ should promise to do so, considering that events surrounding the recession are now two years old. Another of those little scrolly-bar-things this week also revealed that the recession is over in the United States following a whole quarter year of economic growth.

Badly timed government propaganda, in other words.

Not a good look for the state broadcaster of a country that regards itself as the world's least corrupt. Or for a party that gained a majority by lashing what it described as the "nanny state."

Better a nanny state than propaganda as blind and boastful as any third world rogue state, North Korea for example. The Bill English promo is a new low for a state broadcaster continually cut back by both major parties over the last quarter century.

"We can beat the Aussies," says Bill English in one of his more inane promo comments.

Yes, "we" can.

Self-delusional propaganda promoting a two-faced society is probably not the way to do it.

. . .

kiwi karoshi and the death of new zealand journalism

2009-10-04T08:56:00.004-10:00

What are ya?

comment by jason brown | editor | avaiki nius agency

. . .

New Zealand journalism died in 1987.

Somehow, though, no one ever called time. Like a doctor losing a patient, wandering out the doors and not bothering to check the clock. Not bothering to come back at all, actually.

Stunned like the rest of the country by the 1984 Rogernomic blitzkrieg, journalists were left in total disarray, by 1987 failing to hold the annual general meeting of the long lost New Zealand Journalists Association.

rousing speeches

Failed again the year after. And the year after that, 1989, two decades ago. Right through the years, to 2007, when a historic conference was held in the hushed halls of Parliament, marking two decades of not having conferences. Rousing speeches were made, doubters mocked, innocents encouraged.

Afterwards, independently, journalists and media workers gathered in various spots around the country to work out strategies based on what they’d heard in Wellington, and to guess what might happen next. What happened was the EPMU declaring a union review of New Zealand journalism.

Ahead of the follow up conference in September 2008, the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union promised to have the review out by August last year.

no answers

August came. Went. So did September. In fact it’s a whole new September now, two years after the historic meeting in Wellington. No review. No follow up conferences. No answers either.

Email questions from Avaiki Nius Agency to the EPMU over the last 12 months have gone ignored. New Zealand journalism has, once again, returned to deathly slumber.

So, to date, there is still no dedicated journalism union. No registered society to fuss over corporately correct notions like “professional standards” and “training”, not even a media social club or sausage sizzle committee.

seventy dollars

Here in Auckland, a dozen began meeting regularly after the landmark 2007 event at Parliament. Lacking a national body to refer to, the group set up its own; MDM, the Media Democracy Movement, modelled on similarly named efforts overseas. MDM set up a blogsite, got its own Facebook page, raised an astonishing $70 from membership fees.

Like so many other attempts MDM dwindled and died. The $70 is still in the MDM bank account, by the way.

Compare this mournful situation with what’s happening next door. In Australia the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance issues an annual State of Press Freedom report, all 32 pages of it.

quantifying crisis

All things being equal, a population of 20 million producing a 32 page annual report, should mean a nation of 4 million printing an annual press freedom report with six pages.

Six measly pages. Can’t do it. Maybe a lack of funding. By comparison, in 2006, latest available figures I could find for MEAA refer to A$2.9 million. Again, on a straightline basis, this might suggest a similar New Zealand effort of around $600,000.

laugh themselves sick

Yeah, right. Try suggesting to New Zealand journos they should raise 600 hundred grand towards union representation and watch as they laugh themselves sick. An embarrassing lack of transparency and accountability from the very same profession demanding both on an hourly basis.

Imagine the scenario if doctors and lawyers decided to do away with their annual conventions. Annual registration. Annual refresher training. Tradies like gas fitters and electricians are required to recertify on occasion.

Journos generally are not.

‘job market worst in 25 years’

There are a fairly decent selection of journalism education organisations. This is where we get the endearingly acronymed JEANZ, or the Journalism Education Association of New Zealand.

Online, buried at the bottom of their front page, next to a small subhead is this comment called “jobs” by someone named “JT”.

“The job market has been the worst in 25 years, but there are still jobs out there. All but two of the 17 who graduated in March have found employment of some sort (two non-media), although in some cases it has been temporary, such as one student who got a three-month contract as a researcher for a TV production company and is now looking for work again. One graduate walked into a reporting job in Yellowknife, Canada. In almost all cases, it has taken a lot of applications and many weeks to find jobs, and Whitireia graduates report there are still a lot of 2008 graduates from other journalism schools out there looking, despite what we were all led to believe from some schools when Radio NZ did a story on this earlier this year. JT”

journalism in crisis?

All of which raises the next question: is there a crisis in journalism?

Overseas, clear concern.

Universities especially have been inviting speakers to discuss what academia has termed “journalism in crisis.” There is a major event happening this month in the US, while next month the UK uni, Coventry, follows up a national debate with an international one, asking “Is world journalism in crisis?”

heavy hinting

New Zealand however appears loath to debate the issue. One trainer pointedly ignored two emails, responding to other matters. Two other academics at the same institution, AUT, similarly ignored questions. Certainly JEANZ cannot bring itself to use such dramatic language, contenting itself with heavy hints.

“In a time of immense pressure on the media, with media managers consulting with editors over their ‘business units’ rather than their publications or titles, when journalists are reduced to ‘content providers’, and with a general lament in media boardrooms echoing in news rooms of how to find a new business model that will get the Internet revenue stream running, journalism needs to be re-imagined and re-invented.”

No talk of crisis there. Or, to be fair, in the 2009 press freedom report from MEAA, either. Highlighting local issues of “secrecy and red tape” but ignoring dark clouds on the global horizon. Sure MEAA refers repeatedly to the “global financial crisis” but does not explicitly link this back to whether or not such events might cause a similar crisis in journalism.

housing boasts, helpless shrugs

Anyway, anytime a so-called profession talks about re-imagining and re-inventing, it’s usually a bit of a giveaway that the plot is not just lost but completely AWOL.

What have journalists found to talk about after the housing bubble bursts?

No idle question. When I arrived in New Zealand in mid 2006 from 30 years in the Cook Islands, I was lucky. I got access to phones and internet at an Auckland newsroom. All the hot, happenin’ talk was of the property market, with journos boasting about active play. Journalism development issues, or debate surrounding journalism development issues, not so much. Conversation dies away, eyes glaze over. Helpless shrugs. Change of subject.

mattresses and ladders

What has all this done to New Zealand journalism?

Morning TV offers some answers. New Zealanders now know more about magnetic mattresses and extendable ladders than they dreamed possible, thanks to unmarked advertorials day after day after day. In fact, wall-to-wall ads are a fact of life for Kiwis. Eight or so free-to-air channels are on offer, but patchy media infrastructure means reception for three or four.

Most days, all four main channels will be playing advertorials. Mornings especially, all at the same time. On endless half hour loop.

stalinist consumerists

Naturally enough for a socialist leaning country, New Zealand has applied almost Stalinist levels of consumerism propaganda over the last quarter century.

New Zealand is right up there for length of ad breaks. They hum and they thrum endlessly in the background, evolving Kiwi society into an alarmingly crass and shallow shadow of its former self. One early sign: the 2000 millennial editions of two magazines, both airline in-flight publications.

One in Australia, the other, New Zealand.

no ads, no pictures

Ansett chose a bravely wordy approach, eschewing layout razzle-dazzle for words, lots and lots of words. No ads. No pictures. Just page after page of carefully crafted type, cleverly presented, a credibly cautious homage to new millennia.

Air New Zealand? All ads. Interspersed with advertorial on where to go and what to buy at various Air New Zealand flavoured destinations.

One article debated, seriously, the aesthetic merits of a nz$600 retro toaster, all glossy chrome and 50’s pastels.

colossal corruption

What has the death of New Zealand journalism meant for the wider public, in terms of, say, hidden costs to society? Is there a downside to pioneering the most open free markets in the world?

Turns out those hidden costs are hiding in the safest place – plain sight. This is what colossal corruption looks like.

Let’s start with the massive corporatisation and privatisation ‘programmes’ of the eighties and nineties. Hundreds of millions ended up in the hands of well connected businessmen. Mostly men, anyway. Some of them needed somewhere to put those millions, which is where now fading memories of the Winebox tax haven inquiry comes from – involving, funnily enough, hundreds of millions more.

more corruption

From the Cook Islands, we return to New Zealand, where a national computer system is going nowhere fast. Found years later to be a multimillion dollar rort, the national police network was especially embarrassing, happening as it did right under cop noses.

Fast forward through ongoing scandal about links between political parties and big business to the brave new millennium, and national computer networks are still a joke, lagging comically behind first world stakes.

Hundreds of millions in profit flow overseas to foreign owners, costing hundreds of millions more in lost business opportunities due to slow, under-funded internet and mobile services.

leaky house ‘syndrome’

As a free market champion, New Zealand has zealously applied markets as the best deciders of economic and social prosperity.

Reality? The new millennium dawned on what would become known as Leaky House Syndrome. Cunningly branded as a disease, as if it could be caught like a common cold, LHS has real, bottom-line, cold, hard cash issues.

Leaky House Syndrome also ups the ante, conservative estimates running into the billions, from a lack of regulatory oversight and enforcement. For one reason or another, building inspectors in free market systems just don’t do their job.

good excuse

Just to cap off a quarter century of free marketeering, a brace of New Zealand ‘finance’ companies used the global financial crisis as a good excuse to collapse, taking a few billion more down the tubes.

Add up a few dozen hundred million here, a few billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.

Examples, all, of the consumerist paradise bubble New Zealanders live in, day-to-day, dimly aware, squinting through the soapy lens of Kiwi corporate media. A bubble that has yet to pop.

evidence

Leaky House Syndrome is only a symptom of the real disease which is of course corruption. Massive corruption.

But, dulled into conformism by endless advertising and economic propaganda, kiwis don’t see examples like these as a problem, much less corruption.

Evidence of this comes from kiwis themselves. According to Transparency International, New Zealand is first equal with Finland on its Corruption Perceptions Index.

no prizes

First equal! This index compiles answers to questions from residents of each country – a kind of self-review.

So, like other countries, kiwis basically get to rate their own country. Apparently, despite billions – trillions? – being wiped from public and private accounts over the last two decades, kiwis don’t perceive themselves to have any serious problem with corruption.

No prizes for guessing where that perception – or it’s lack – comes from.

no equivalent

Kiwis are pig ignorant. An editor at a major book publisher told me, “Mate, kiwis are not interested in their own current affairs, let alone anyone else.”

Interestingly, there is no SBS equivalent in New Zealand or even an ABC because state broadcaster TVNZ is by law run on corporate lines, required to make a profit and pay dividends – to government. Fat dividends, over $250 million between 1989 and 1999. Twice that, probably, since then. Hovering on the brink of privatisation for a decade or so, thoroughly thrashed into corporate correctness, TVNZ this year stripped NZ$30 million from its operations, blaming a plunge in advertising revenues on the global financial crisis. Books must be balanced.

Questions were raised, briefly, over ‘deferring’ the dividend. A ‘drop the dividend’ campaign sparked and sputtered under heavy media criticism. TVNZ led a chorus of fait accompli drowning out such free market heresies.

no investigations

A dozen or so journalists were shed. Don’t really need them. There are almost no investigative or current affairs programme on free to air public channels, apart from mostly formulaic international disease-of-the-week franchises like 60 minutes.

In Australia, Four Corners has grown into a national, homegrown institution, a bastion of investigative journalism. New Zealand pumps and dumps a number of current affairs ‘shows’, shedding titles over the years like used condoms, the latest labeling itself inoffensively as possible, “Q+A”.

At the same time as saving pennies at TVNZ, government was passing out pounds of corporate welfare to privatised airline and rail operations. More accurately, hundreds of millions of kiwi tax paid dollars. The new government continues to do so.

media reaction

Kiwi journalists accept all this in good humour.

An official at the EPMU opened one eye to cough about cutbacks, returning quickly to deathly silence. Compared with now, media operators were unable to advise how many journalists they had ten years ago. Nor was the union.

Finding accurate figures is difficult, comparing them harder. EPMU claims 3,500 news media workers to its books. But EPMU does not say how many of them are journalists, while MEAA estimates an overall national total of 7,500 journalists, down 13 percent from 2001 estimates of just under 8,500, but not how many of them join the union.

That’s roughly one journalist per 2,500 people.

twilight zone

All this renders New Zealand as the twilight zone of Pacific journalism.

One example is MEANZ, the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance of New Zealand, an apparent sister body to MEAA . Registered as a union last year, MEANZ still exists on paper only. Fifteen supporting signatures were entered, but not one word has appeared in public since then.

No questions from media either.

‘catastrophic failure’

Less inhouse, the Science Media Centre of New Zealand launched a report on September 3 from a think tank. SANZ, Sustainability Aotearoa New Zealand, warns against “catastrophic” failure for the country if it does not radically alter economic approaches.

Apparently missing significance of the word ‘science’, mainstream media in New Zealand also missed an opportunity to debate deaths of millions around the world in coming years as climate change bites and global trade collapses in the face of ever increasing severe weather events. SANZ offers a sobering yet still guardedly optimistic forecast from imaginative perspectives of the near future. No one interested, apparently.

Only one mainstream newspaper carried the report, the country’s last surviving independently owned daily, the Otago Daily Times. Everyone else?

the federal connection

Scientists are not well known for free use of words like ‘catastrophic’ but somehow the newsy angle slipped by Australian giants Fairfax and News Corp. Strange, coz the SMC actively issued media alerts featuring use of the word “catastrophic” quite prominently. Two smaller channels owned by interests from Canada also opted to opt out of covering the report.

Another example, this time across the Tasman. Yawningly received, this month’s announcement by Australian Federal Police they were dropping an investigation into a $300 million Iraq bribery case. Murdoch daily The Australian is usually eager to put a dollar sign next to the word ‘million’. Just not this time, proffering a short six or so sentences. On the federal media side, the ABC, equally terse coverage of the Australian Wheat Board scandal. End result of all this free market excellence in the news media industry?

Seemingly scared off big public issues, ‘private sector-led’ media over both sides of the Tasman. Prognosis? Increasing episodic, corruption-fuelled crisis resulting in consecutive systemic failure. As in, society in general, not just media. As in, like, y’know, higher ‘mortality’, stuff.

solutions

Where to start? Finding solutions might first start with admitting there is a problem to apply solutions towards. So far, no sign of that, from journalists themselves or even educationalists supposedly casting an independent eye over the industry.

New Zealand is not in a state of journalism in crisis. New Zealand is beyond a state of journalism in crisis.

Unlike Australia, there is little public broadcasting outside of radio in New Zealand, even that stripped beyond recognition over the last quarter century. State funding for state broadcasting in New Zealand is well below OECD averages.

“funding boost”

Compare then the Australian situation earlier this year, marking their own quarter century in quite a different way, thus: a “funding boost” for SBS and ABC.

“This is the biggest injection of funds that our public broadcasters have received in more than 25 years. This will allow a significant increase in the creation of Australian content to promote our culture and our stories, not only at home but on the world stage.”

– Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance federal secretary, Christopher Warren, March 2009 media release

Funding boost? WTF ?

comparative solutions

How do state broadcasters in Australia get a historic “funding boost” but suffer massive cuts in New Zealand?

How can New Zealand journalism be raised from corporate zombie land, Qantas awards notwithstanding?

New Zealand journalist must relearn their craft, their trade, their profession, and, more importantly, the lobbying skills to resource it.

kiwi karoshi

To achieve that New Zealand journalists must revisit events of 1984 onwards, and assess collective trauma to their industry. And society.

It’s not ‘airy fairy’ or ‘touchy feely’ to talk about psychological impacts of economic restructuring. More ‘ouchy bleedy’ for a population that, according to the ILO, works near longest hours in the world, second only to people in Japan.

There, costs of karoshi, death from overwork, are well debated. Quantified. They even have a word for it. In New Zealand, by comparison, no word, little debate. Yes, rugby star John Kirwan did man up to front a depression campaign against the wisdom of telling depressed friends to “harden up.”

“overwhelmed”

Counselling services reported being “overwhelmed” by the response to the Kirwan hard man campaign.

But still no hard linkages are being made between the human and economic costs of overwork. Or acknowledgment of a kiwi karoshi.

In contrast, mainstream media fuss obediently over corporate expectations of ever more ‘productivity’ along with sneeringly dismissive editorials against the so-called “nanny state”, a corporate chimera designed to distract public attention from the brutality of New Zealand society.

compensation

Japan is heading the other direction, taking tougher stances against over exploiting workers. The Economist:

“In 1988 only about 4% of applications [for karoshi compensation] were successful. By 2005 that share had risen to 40%. If a death is judged karoshi, surviving family members may receive compensation of around $20,000 a year from the government and sometimes up to $1m from the company in damages.”

It seems highly unlikely that the company that became a country, New Zealand, will listen to anything less than similar legal assault.

insult

To declare journalism in New Zealand dead some 20 years ago is of course somewhat insulting to a generation of reporters who have slaved away on all sorts of controversies.

Most admirably, perhaps, the Winebox story and another TVNZ expose about the links between big business and political stories.

This last linkage is key.

watergate

Globally, journalism has been in a state of retreat since the Watergate scandal of 1974.

A relatively minor incident, exposure of the Watergate cover up awoke the corporate world to the true power of the media - and its ability to interfere with fatly profitable connections to political parties. By 1983, for example, 50 corporations controlled the "vast majority" of news organisations in the US.

By 2004, that total had dropped to just five companies.

big business

A similar process of consolidation and amalgamation has taken place in New Zealand, with just one daily newspaper surviving independently.

As noted above, the SANZ report stands out as an example of what that means for freedom of information.

Kiwi journalism is, literally, big business.

mongrel

Back in the day, Kiwi journalists used to have more mongrel in them.

Then, mob journalism often defended the status quo, and could be misogynist, homophobic and racist. But it could also shake the trees and cause interesting things to fall out.

Today, the question must be asked of Kiwi journalists - what are ya?

. . .

cartoon via cafepacific

. . .

editorial | tonga media threat undermines ferry inquiry

2009-09-06T14:23:00.001-10:00

. . .

EDITORIAL | COMMENT

Threats from Tongan authorities against media to avoid "speculation" over the ferry disaster reflect insensitivity to due process.

For the Attorney General to speak on behalf of a Royal Commission of Inquiry shows a lack of respect for the independence of a duly constituted body.

In Tonga, Attorney General John Cauchi threatened media with "contempt of the Royal Commission" if they failed to show "sensitivity" and avoid "speculation."

His comments follow calls from the royal family in Tonga for "closure" over the sinking of the ferry, Princess Ashika.

This is little short of political interference in proper due process. An Australian, it might be easy to imagine Cauchi should know better. But dropping of criminal charges in the AU$300m Australian Wheat Board bribery scandal shows, along with police raids on Oz newsrooms, appears to have scant regard towards separation of powers.

Earlier, Tongan, Attorney Generals were "told" to resign. Wonder why. Whatever. Given extensive criticism of government in Tonga ignoring months if not years of complaints about a lack of proper marine regulation, the monarchy should not be seen to be limiting debate on issues it has yet to answer.

More simply, it is not for the Attorney General, from any country, to attempt to frontload positions or conditions that have yet to be set by an investigatory mechanism.

Popular Tonga website, Matangi Tonga, has already censored one letter because of threats from the office of the Attorney General there, saying they lacked the financial and legal resources to argue the point.

Authorities in Tonga are exceeding their mandate by claiming that public discussion may be "prejudicial" to commission proceedings.

Not for nothing is the media referred to as the fourth estate. Public debate is a necessary if not vital part of alerting members of such commissions to the parameters of an event, in this case a national disaster costing dozens of lives.

How can Commissioners expose the full truth if they are proscribed by officially sanctioned threats?

The Tonga commission should not follow the example of a similar inquiry in Samoa, where members were allowed to attend hearings but not report them until full findings were made public. Yes, the findings in Samoa, into guns smuggled in on, incredibly, a police boat were admirably full and frank.

So why stop public debate in the first place?

Given an extensive history of human rights restrictions, it is not unjustified for members of the Tongan community to fear the Royal Commission of Inquiry may suffer political interference.

Whether limiting public input or public review, such restrictive measures have no place in a modern democracy claiming membership among the international community. Tonga may be rare among independent Pacific Islands having constitutional protections for freedoms of the press, but it is not alone in signing United Nations and other conventions protecting freedoms of expression, speech and information.

We back the New Zealand Tongan Society for Political Reform, for example, where they warn the commission process should not be used "as a method to formally restrict freedom of speech and suppress the right of the people to seek justice, answers and an avenue for truth and conciliation."

Anything less would be counterproductive and render the commission seriously flawed before it even starts.

COMMENTS WELCOME:

www.avaiki.blogspot.com

. . .

Canberra rejects island input on regional trade review

2009-07-28T13:01:00.001-10:00

. . .

NEWS

Island input on the region’s leading trade agreement has been rejected by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Australia.

Calls for public submissions were intended to be for “domestic consultation” only.

“Other countries” should send their views “to their own governments,” a DFAT staffer said in answer to email questions on PACER Plus.

An update to the nearly eight year old trade negotiation agreement, the Pacific Agreement on Closer Economic Relations, PACER Plus has attracted wide criticism domestic and foreign audiences.

However the DFAT staffer appeared to rule out input from Pacific Islands.

“If you were asking opportunities for people or organisations in other countries to communicate their views in relation to the prospective PACER Plus negotiations, then we encourage them to communicate these views to their own governments.”

She asked that comments be attributed to an anonymous “departmental spokesperson” but did not respond to further questions.

“These consultations are intended to provide information on PACER Plus to interested parties in Australia and obtain views that will be taken into account as the Australian Government moves forward PACER Plus”, she said.

Nor is there a budget in DFAT for future consultations with ‘other countries’ or, at this stage, any plans on the table to do so.

“In relation to your query about PACER Plus budget expenditure, no final decisions have been taken at this stage on future expenditure.”

Current spending on negotiations for an updated PACER is A$3.8 million over this year and next.

Submissions – apparently for Australians only – close on 31st July 2009, two days from now.

. . .

new zealand aid and uncle scrooge

2009-06-15T16:25:00.005-10:00

And goodnight from NZAID, as the New Zealand government folds its aid programme back into the ministry of Foreign Affairs.

. . .

FOLLOW UP | COMMENT

NZAID is dead.

Well coordinated as it was, the NGO campaign warning government against changes to the aid programme - Don't Corrupt Aid - failed to move Foreign Affairs minister Murray McCully, once regarded as the "dark prince" of New Zealand politics.

Lost in the furore is the fact that New Zealand has yet to live up to big-talking promises on the global stage. An Avaiki Nius Agency Follow Up offers a look back, a reminder that as well as boots on the ground in East Timor and Afghanistan, New Zealand needs more bucks on the ground in the Pacific.

SCROOGE?

New Zealand is among the seven meanest members of the world's richest countries, says a Green party spokesman on aid.

"New Zealand stands a miserly 16th out of 22 OECD donors -- the seventh most Scrooge-like rich nation on earth," Kennedy Graham told a summit on aid, organised by the opposition Labour party earlier this year.

OECD is made up of 30 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, based in Brussels. New Zealand has consistently paid lip service to increase aid spending to internationally agreed levels and place much greater focus on Pacific Islands, claim critics.

SIMMERING

Simmering controversy erupted when Foreign Affairs minister Murray McCully unexpectedly launched a full frontal attack on New Zealand aid agency, NZAID, accusing it of offering a "hand out" not a "hand up" to people in developing countries. Focus on "poverty elimination" was a feel-good waste of money better spent on real growth in "economic development."

Memorably, he evoked an aid utopia: ""You could ride around in a helicopter pushing hundred-dollar notes out the door and call that poverty elimination."

Sounds like the Iraq war.

BLUNT

Civil society organisations - many of them leading recipients of NZAID support - reacted in horror to the sneer, accusing McCully of unilaterally withdrawing from global aid structures. The NGOs combined with rare speed to start a campaign featuring a blunt warning.

Don't corrupt aid.

McCully's provocative outburst was all the more curious for its timing - coming the same week as an otherwise triumphant visit by Kiwi prime minister John Key to his counterpart in Canberra, Kevin Rudd. Both leaders stepped out especially to announce a special review into impacts of the global economic meltdown on vulnerable Pacific Islands economies.

THE 'SUMMIT'

Their announcement was all but lost in the McCully furore.

Links to the "don't corrupt aid" campaign appeared on the Facebook page for John Key.

Reporting the 'summit' in apostrophes, the New Zealand Press Association quoted the Green's Kennedy as saying said the appointment of former prime minister Helen Clark to head the United Nations Development Programme presented an opportunity for New Zealand to raise its level of aid and become "a responsible global citizen".

"NO SCHEDULE"

Dr Graham said New Zealand's aid stood at 0.27 percent of GNI (gross national income).

He said Prime Minister John Key should forge a cross-party alliance and take New Zealand up the aid charts to the level of "Nordic countries."

Five countries have already reached UN aid targets of .7% of NGI, and exceeded them, the highest reaching 95 cents in $100 of GNI. Of them, four are Nordic. Figures from an aid watchdog show New Zealand in the bottom six OECD countries, with "no schedule" announced for reaching the point seven percent figure by 2015, target date for reaching the Millennium Development Goals, an eight point global manifesto for reducing poverty.

"CORPORATE WELFARISM"

Notable for main stream economic theory and, more valuable, peer review among those members, OECD partners have repeatedly urged New Zealand to live up to its international commitments.

They have also urged New Zealand to place a much greater focus on the islands.

Instead, locally the move by McCully is seen, at worst, as suspiciously reminescent of previous episodes of aid-driven "corporate welfarism" for big-country, big business interests.

"SECRETIVE PROCESS"

Summit organiser, Labour MP Phil Twyford said the main message from the meeting was that consultation with political parties and the public was essential.

"Unfortunately, what's going on is a secretive process to abolish NZAid and completely upend the policy focus and the mandate of half a billion dollars of taxpayer money."

Like Australia, "New Zealand Inc" scrambles to evince a Pacific Way ambience while imposing what long term concerns describe as "bullying" tactics on its island partners. Part of increasingly deathly-desperate attempts to rescue world trade talks - the more countries sign up the better - the same allegations are levelled at the European Union, thought to be third most important aid donor in the region.

MORE OF THE SAME"

In doing so, all three risk appearing hopelessly out-of-step with emerging global consensus against "more of the same" policies that dragged the planetary economy and its climate into global meltdown.

Against two decades of free market fundamentalism is an impression that world economic processes are so broken they need tossing into the back yard and replaced with a new web2 gov2 approach to looming disaster within the next few decades, a world of food riots, water wars, and a worldwide descent from diplomacy to anarchy.

This is not what might have been hoped for from National Party promises to look towards "innovative" solutions to the economic crisis.

UNCLE SCROOGE

This agency has previously criticised New Zealand's record in the Pacific Islands as "petty, penny-pinching and parochial."

Yet to cast New Zealand aid efforts as akin to Uncle Scrooge is to miss the seriousness of the risks involved in the McCully move to disband NZAID and return control to his own ministry.

Given there is half a billion aid dollars at stake, the petty part no longer makes as much sense and, if the critics are right about corruption, then it gives penny-pinching a whole new twist.

. . .

anonymous critic attacks PFF as a ghost

2009-06-15T16:06:00.001-10:00

. . . UPDATE Roughly five weeks after their inaugural meeting, formal registration of the the Pacific Freedom Forum took place this afternoon in Rarotonga, Cook Islands, a few hours after this post. NEWS An anonymous critic has attacked the region's most vocal media group as a "ghost organisation." The Pacific Freedom Forum has "no credibility" because it is not registered anywhere, does not have an office or a formally written constitution, says the critic.

"Ghost organisation? The PFF is neither a registered nor a formal organisation, nor is it afflicted to any recognised body. It does not have an established office/secretariat and cannot be located at any given formal

address. What is it then? It is not an NGO? It is not an entity of such? It is just a 'discussion board' of people. Therefore its use of a formal letter head is unauthentic nor any of its materials."

It is the second time PFF has been attacked by an anonymous critic. Under a subtitle "FACTS", the critic questions whether PFF has a "hidden agenda" but does not spell out what that might be. "It claims to represent freedom of speech, advocacy, and good governance - But it has no recognised standing, representation nor legality. For example, how PFF elected its Chairman and its members are questionable. The PFF mandate is 'suspect' and is one of self-seeking agenda," reads the email. Sent to IFEX, a global media freedom alert organisation, the email was forwarded to PFF who released it to the forum's private email list, full text below. IFEX and UNESCO Apia were also criticised for recognising and supporting PFF. Both organisations should focus on PINA, the Pacific Islands News Association, as the only formally established media group, reads the email. Most PFF members were dismissive. "Obviously, this person is very jealous and envious of PFF", said one. Another welcomed the attack. "Detractors keep us honest", said the member. There was also debate on whether to respond publicly to the second anonymous email, very similar in tone to the first. The first anonymous email was forwarded by a member of PFF to the forum with a plea not to "shoot the messenger" about the email contents, also critical of PFF not being registered. PFF was set up to support the Pacific Islands News Association on freedom of speech issues, with PFF registration currently taking place in Rarotonga. FULL TEXT Following is the full text of the letter to IFEX:

"It is with surprise that the Pacific Freedom Forum has been endorsed as a "formal" member of your organisation. The Pacific Freedom Forum is an "illegal" organisation. The IFEX have lost credibility by endorsing an unrecognised illegal entity. "You have brought shame on your standing and lost respect for who you are and what you stand for. "The IFEX should de-register the PFF ASAP until the PFF provide full prove of its registration, location, policy (constitution) as a formal entity. "FACTS "Ghost organisation? The PFF is neither a registered nor a formal organisation, nor is it afflicted to any recognised body. It does not have an established office/secretariat and cannot be located at any given formal
address. What is it then? It is not an NGO? It is not an entity of such? It is just a 'discussion board' of people. Therefore its use of a formal letter head is unauthentic nor any of its materials.
"Hidden Agenda? The PFF does not have any policy or constitution. It claims to represent freedom of speech, advocacy, and good governance - But it has
no recognised standing, representation nor legality. For example, how PFF elected its Chairman and its members are questionable. The PFF mandate is 'suspect' and is one of self-seeking agenda.
"The PFF is not a recognised media training entity - It does not have 'recognised' professional trainers nor is it a formally recognised training provider in the Pacific apart from PINA. Yet, the PFF organises workshops and training programs. A clear conflict of status! The PFF is sending project proposals to donors and seeking funds to run workshops, and joint projects - under no formal policy and representation. The recent support by UNESCO in the funding for media workshop in Samoa in May 2009 for the PFF is a clear violation of the 'partnership' of the UN with a nonregistered/unrecognised entity, PFF. This is against all UN mandates for good governance and practise and a mockery of the activities of the media fraternity in the Pacific. "Warning- that PFF members and facilitators are not practising journalists and go by self-appointed 'proxy 'names such as proxy facilitators, proxy consultants, advocates and trainers to promote their own unrecognised personnel. The names appear to camouflage their true positions or standing, and thus hide their false presences. "Warning - PFF project submissions for funding and partnership with PFF are not in the best interest for formal media organisation. Any organisation associated with PFF or uses PFF material should reframe immediately to safeguard the ethics and governance of current collaborations and cooperation's of media organisations, and standing of the media fraternity in the Pacific. "The PFF has no credibility and does not represent the views of Pacific Journalists. The Pacific Media views are represented formally by the Pacific Islands Media Association (PINA), the formal body recognised in the Pacific region, and not PFF. "All media organisations should reframe from using any material from the PFF in so far as its mandate, legality and representation are concerned.

. . .

samoa paper backs off evil claims

2009-05-05T00:31:00.002-10:00

. . .

MEDIA | NEWS RELEASE | FOR IMMEDIATE USE

An opinion piece headlining a journalist as “evil” has been disowned by daily and regional newspaper, the Samoa Observer.

Published 20 April, the piece attacks TVNZ One News Pacific Correspondent Barbara Dreaver for her expose of gun and drug smuggling in Samoa.

“Barbara Dreaver: The evil side of journalism” is seen as one of the harshest attacks ever printed against an islands reporter.

“EVIL”

The piece itself however contains no reference to “evil”.

Originally filed online under the paper’s editorial section, the piece has now been moved to “viewpoints.”

Today, Samoa Observer took solid steps to distance itself from the opinion piece.

NOT AN EDITORIAL

Editor Mata'afa Keni Lesa clarified that all Samoa Observer editorials are published with a photo and name of the writer. Not an official editorial, the opinion piece was in fact written by an academic.

In print, the piece had been bylined but the name was left off the online version reviewed by regional colleagues.

Mata’afa apologised to colleagues on the Pacific Freedom Forum for the confusion and said website staff were making changes.

CRITICISM

“We will not say anything about this issue anymore.”

Today saw hours of commentary on the issue from media people around the region, including within private online forums like PFF and Pacific Islands Journalism Online.

Silence at the Observer and private industry debate were joined by public comments including more criticism of Dreaver from government newspaper, the Savali.

CAMPAIGN

Long-time editor Tupuola Terry Tavita continued what has now become a two week long campaign of personal and professional attacks against Dreaver.

The latest, headlined “Whatever the outcome, Dreaver and TVNZ still lose” repeats earlier questions from Tavita over whether One News bought alcohol for the young men.

He also complained that Dreaver had implicated “those in high polices” but “she does not provide a single shred of evidence to support such a claim.”

CREDIBILITY

A final criticism accuses Dreaver of asking the men to “play act” like “American gangsters.”

The state editor criticised One News as unprofessional.

“Their Pacific reporter Barbara Dreaver's credibility, and possibly her journalistic career, is as good as finished.”

HOLLYWOOD

However Tavita dropped earlier claims that Dreaver had represented herself as a film maker from “Hollywood.”

Outside of government and the media, attention now focuses on the role of Dr. Desmond Uelese Amosa, a lecturer at the University of the South Pacific, in the School of Management and Public Administration.

It remains unclear how his opinion piece came about, whether volunteered for publication or requested by the paper.

QUESTIONS

Still also to be clarified is whether the article underwent any changes before publication, especially the headline claiming Dreaver was “evil.”

Questions have been sent to Dr. Amosa regarding these issues and responses will be published when and if they become available.

Controversy over the TVNZ story and fallout from the fourth Fiji coup in 22 years has seen unprecedented levels of industry comment, debate and criticism across the region.

CAUTIOUS

Asked to comment, the Pacific Islands Media Association issued a cautious statement from New Zealand.

“PIMA believes it is of paramount importance that individual journalists are able to conduct investigation and reporting without fear of potential attack on their integrity and personal safety,” reads the PIMA statement.

“Any deviation from this degrades the journalistic process and is a disservice to the community at large by not supporting informed debate.”

MEDIA RESPONSIBILITY

Without naming anyone or country or company, PIMA also cautioned media responsibility.

“PIMA feels any news agency which has not engaged the journalistic process with integrity and in accordance with the law should be held to account through appropriate legal means, starting in New Zealand with the Broadcasting Standards Authority and the New Zealand Press Council.”

Both PFF and Dreaver said they had no comment to make at this stage.

WHISTLEBLOWERS

Meantime, a source says comments against the media by USP’s Dr Amosa contrast with his own work in October 2007, outlining effective strategies for supporting governance reform.

“Whistleblowing should … be encouraged under the Public Service Commission Act.”

“In essence, the current performance review for senior managers should be changed into a 360 degree performance appraisal approach that incorporates conditions such as fairness and equity.”

“INTIMIDATION”

“This would give junior employees the opportunity to voice their concern without fear of intimidation on these matters,” reads the October 2007 policy paper from Dr Amosa.

His comments against the media leave some doubting how much confidence should be placed in either Dr Amosa or the USP School of Management and Public Administration.

Another notable Amosa entry on reforms claimed the public service of Samoa suffered from “favoritism, nepotism, inconsistent decision making and unfair treatment of employees.”

“SHORT INTEREST”

“Whether these claims are genuine is difficult to determine. However, they should not be entirely dismissed. These behaviours certainly featured in Samoa’s public service in the past (Controller and Chief Auditor 1994).”

In the 2007 paper, Dr Amosa identified a key problem as being attitude among people.

“Samoans are well known for their short interest in things, especially if they don’t benefit from it.”

DEBATE

Debate still rages within Samoa over the extent of the gun, drugs and gang problem there.

Most letter writers have responded to media commentary with similarly harsh attacks against Dreaver, TVNZ and their story.

A minority continue to express concern at the lack of law enforcement when it comes to guns and drugs, some expressing doubt at the idea of youth gangs.

POLICE AND GUNS

Earlier this year, government went against recommendations from a rare Commission of Inquiry that urged authorities to lay criminal charges against the Commissioner of Police and the captain of a police patrol boat for failing to ensure proper documentation on gun imports.

Documentation was found to be missing on two 12 gauge shotguns, a 22 hunting rifle and one pistol.

The guns were “presumably” for skeet shooting, reads a minute of the cabinet decision to ignore the commission and not prosecute the officers, Papali’i Lorenese Neru and MV Nafanua’s Logoitino Filipo.

. . .

samoa paper calls for journalist to be shot

2009-05-03T10:25:00.002-10:00

. . .

EDITORIAL | COMMENT

by avaiki nius agency editor, jason brown

A feisty mid-Pacific daily paper, the Samoa Observer, led up to World Press Freedom Day by labelling an island journalist “evil” and calling for her to be “shot.”

Attacking a story on guns and drugs in Samoa, the daily paper named the journalist in its headline: “Barbara Dreaver: The evil side of journalism”

The paper stops short of detail, using the word “evil” only once – in the headline.

“ … TO BE SHOT.”

The paper goes on to say the Pacific Correspondent from TVNZ’s One News based her story on “lies and deceit” – using the phrase – in quotes – not once but twice.

Reads part of the editorial:

“… Dreaver’s presentation is a case of “lies and deceit” - hence it does not deserve any form of recognition. But the issue should not end here. This case warrants the call for the ‘messenger to be shot’.”

ENOUGH MUD

Doubtful whether an average citizen would appreciate inhouse allusion to an old industry adage about “don’t shoot the messenger.”

As it is, the editorial risks reading quite the opposite.

Another old media saying – “throw enough mud and some of it sticks.” The Samoa Observer is accused, here, of leading a smear campaign, character assassination and an incitement to violence, all rolled up with contradictory claims.

CRIMINAL ENDANGERMENT

Let’s be clear: the editorial is a reckless, unethical and criminal endangerment.

It is also untimely distraction from much bigger issues facing regional media – unwelcome proof that, as politicians have claimed for decades, not all is well in islands journalism. It would be
hypocritical not to examine glaring faults of the Samoa Observer editorial and stories.

Difficult to know where to begin.

BASICS

Let’s start with basics.

Tagged as an “editorial” on site search results, the paper does not carry the tag on the editorial page itself, which means commentary could be mistaken as straight news. Tagged or not, the editorial casts deep doubt upon the credibility of a paper well regarded, with awards from colleagues in the region and around the world.

Those awards are not empty vessels, to be parodied about like a court jester – they are powerful symbols of commitment to journalistic ethics – and to welcome being held accountable for them.

TROUBLING

One fact troubles particularly.

Further searching of the Samoa Observer site reveals that the paper itself misquotes the TVNZ story as “Drugs and criminal gangs exposed”– but without crediting Dreaver or TVNZ other than referring to “an investigation by a New Zealand journalist.”

Compare the Samoa Observer headline with the angle taken by One News: that “NZ drug trade fuels Samoa gun smuggling” – clear criticism of New Zealand as well as Samoa. In her story, Dreaver referred only once to “gangs” – about deportees to Samoa being ex-gang members from overseas.

THE SAME CRIME

Samoa Observer says it is not necessary to go through all the breaches of New Zealand’s Broadcasting Standards Act to prove conclusively that Dreaver fabricated the One News story.

In failing to do so, Samoa Observer is guilty of the same crime it claims against TVNZ – of not spelling out their alleged facts.

What few facts the paper ‘has’ are heavily twisted versions of the truth, without balancing comment from the news team at the centre of the story. For example, a hand written statement from Dreaver leaked to the Observer was published on the paper’s front page, noting a signed oath to maintain confidentiality.

ANOTHER UNDECLARED EDITORIAL

Instead of emphasising the operative part of the oath … for those “who wish to stay anonymous” the Samoa Observer instead headlines the story as “another piece of Barbara Dreaver’s puzzle shows up.”

Under that banner front page, the news item ends with another undeclared
editorial:

“Whether Dreaver and TVNZ agree, the truth is that as anyone who has lived in this country for many years will vouch, there is no such thing as a gang culture in Samoa. There are guns and drugs, but there is no gang culture”.

POSERS

Such a finding, quoting no one, defies logic. Gang culture is not confined to hanky-wearing posers from Los Angeles or Otara – or Hollywood-hyped DVDs glamorising organised crime.

Gangs take all forms, all sizes, all states; regions. In some countries, some gangs run well-documented campaigns that infiltrate, seduce, intimidate and eliminate high-placed players in police, justice, government, legislature and, yes, media.

Given it’s rapid u-turn on gangs and guns in Samoa, and its untagged, undeclared editorials, the Samoa Observer looks a bit of a poser too – all gang-style bullying and posturing.

HYSTERICAL

It would be slightly different if the “evil” headline had appeared under the personal photo and byline of publisher Savea Sano Malifa, as many damning commentaries have in the past.

Some newspapers pride themselves on taking a different line from founding publishers – and explaining why. Absence of such balance invites questions about due process in Samoa Observer newsrooms.

Given lack of evidence against One News, and a failure to substantiate its own claim of “evil”, the Observer sounds hysterical, uninformed.

“HITLER”

Malifa has been successfully sued in the past. Like other media personalities, he is known for volcanic meltdowns.

Also for occasionally vitriolic commentary, Malifa once comparing the prime minister to “Hitler”, an event shrugged off locally as big man politics.

This month’s “evil” editorial represents a significant escalation of rhetoric – ridiculous if not so dangerous.

LION

Until now, Malifa has enjoyed a fairly unchallenged run as something of a shaggy lion of Pacific journalism – a rough, tough uncompromising hack from the days reporters sat on orange boxes and bashed away at manual typewriters.

In the wild, lions sometimes club away cubs that get too nippy.

Outside of the African savannah, some old battle-scarred media lions forget that laws of the jungle have no place in editorial content.

TODAY

This morning, World Press Freedom Day crossed the dateline, over into a second day of celebration for the region, this time in eastern Pacific Islands.

Regional delegates begin flying into Samoa for the Project XIX meeting facilitated by the Pacific Freedom Forum with assistance from UNESCO and other supporters. To their credit, the Samoa Observer editorial have already agreed to debate their coverage as part of a draft programme, with potential for hot debate.

The debate could get even hotter.

DRAFT STATEMENT ?

Observer editorials and stories may be followed up with a statement from JAWS, the Journalists Association of Samoa – also attacking TVNZ.

If so, JAWS and the Samoa Observer should ready themselves for some questions – like how many of their own Code of Ethics were broken writing that editorial?

Make that a “draft” code – and it’s a “code of practice”, not ethics.

DRAFT CODE

An aid-funded meeting on a code of practice dates from 2006 and is still stamped as a “draft” – apparently yet to be ratified or officially adopted.

On a related site, JAWS flatly states that “Journalists of Samoa adhere to the JAWS Code of Ethics,” but make no mention of the fact that each page is subtitled a “a draft code of practice.”

A code of practice differs in part from a code of ethics in not having sanctions against improper conduct, such as being struck off the membership of a journalism association for gross misconduct. An anonymous consultant from the Thomson Foundation stated in a “stage one report” that “one or two key figures, despite repeated contact, were not available for discussion, possibly because they were not members of JAWS, but maybe for other reasons.”

The JAWS executive site has a list of Samoan media, but it is not clear which are members and, in any case, has not been updated since 2006.

NO TIME

In the short term, timing of the attacks on TVNZ could not be worse for a regional profession attempting to wrestle with outside challenges to freedoms of information, expression and media.

Bad timing, and bad reporting, however, are exactly what other sectors of society have had had to deal with for decades, if not centuries, of budding then burgeoning press freedoms. Pacific Islands media are no exception. A certain amount of unprofessionalism is an assumed risk of the journalism trade, otherwise we wouldn’t need codes of ethics, and neither would doctors or lawyers.

Somehow, though, our industry has got away with public controversy over its own lack of accountability by a) ignoring the public, b) waving the freedom flag, c) sleazy smears against critics including colleagues or d) combinations of the above.

OPPORTUNITY

In a longer term view, it could be said there is no better time for controversy over the Samoa Observer – and a handful of other Samoa outlets – than this week’s Project XIX meeting.

Parts of the meeting promise an opportunity for up close and professional questions among an industry unused to holding itself to account.

What needs to come out of that meeting are practical suggestions for debating and hopefully resolving strong opinion in disagreement, like this editorial, over ethics.

CONTEXT

In criticising Samoa media, two things demand more context. One is that Samoa is host nation to the constitution of the Pacific Islands News Association, has hosted the region to PINA meetings and possibly has more industry information online than all their media partners in the entire English speaking region.

Compare this with the Cook Islands, where this agency was founded. The Cooks have not hosted PINA, not once. There is an online site for the Cook Islands Journalists Association, but very little on it. Unlike a newspaper in Rarotonga with this writer as publisher and Dreaver as editor during the 1990’s, the Samoa Observer has survived crisis and thrived in an expanding range of overseas Samoa communities. As noted here, Samoa Observer is a regionally and globally respected newspaper, with its long staff list from over the years reading like a who’s-who of Samoa media.

None of this excuses what amounts to thuggish death threats within the newsroom making it all the way into print, and online.

. . .

fiji and the final meltdown

2009-04-10T21:23:00.002-10:00

. . . EDITORIAL September 2014 has been given as the date when the people of Fiji next get to cast a democratic vote under the People's Charter, still in draft. A long time. Appointment of Orwellien "information officers" in newsrooms casts an extraordinary chill across one of the hotbeds of modern development, the democractically inclined news media. There are enough studies online to suggest that nations without an independent news media do much worse economically than those without. Events of the last year cast those certainties into doubt. What, after all, constitutes an economy? Is it "poverty elimination" derided by New Zealand Foreign Affairs minister, Murray McCully, as throwing "hundred dollar bills" out a helicopter door? Or global meltodown of world financial systems costing an estimated us$15 trillion and counting due to insane greed and transnational corruption? Take your pick. In Fiji, decades of steady economic growth through tourism, sugar and mining have seen ever widening - and downward - gaps between top and bottom strata. Fiji is being run for the few, not the many. In that they reflect realities across the world. Realities on the ground around Suva, as suggested by the Fiji Sun, is that Bainimarama is here to stay, get used to it. For media, that once again means trooping wearily back to the barricades as frontline troops in a seemingly endless tussle between human rights and forms of "democracy" that encourage vast abuse and tragically little accountability. A word of advice to Bainimarama: back off the media. If he really wants to transform Fiji into a post-racial society, he'll need to elevate himself and his supporters from their current image as grunting thugs. It's really up to him how his legacy is judged. His biggest risk? That he goes down in history as a tool of the region's new colonialists - China - with similarly disastrous results. As one Fiji journalist put it, forwarding links to the two main editorials of the day, "enjoy the contrast." Fiji Sun Fiji Times. . . .

pacific veteran gives thumbs up to fiji media council review

2009-04-01T03:31:00.000-10:00

. . .

COMMENT

Veteran Pacific reporter David Robie has given a thumbs up to an independent review of the Fiji Media Council, saying it deserves a chance to get "its house in order."

As Robie notes at Cafe Pacific:

"Among other recommendations, the review panel called for a 'working journalist' to be a representative on a restructured, more streamlined council, The panel also noted in a section about training that the council 'might well play a part in improving work conditions – and thereby standards'.

"So what now of the media law “promulgation” long promised- threatened by the government? Hopefully, it will be tossed into the regime’s waste bin. Give the Fiji Media Council a chance to get its house in order."

. . .
An Americanism aside, Robie's analysis suggests strongly that here is a media report deserving a thumbs up, not a rubbishing. Agreed, because conclusions are encouragingly simple and even handed. Deep breaths are needed on both sides, media and regime, for progress to be made. If that sounds wishy washy then let this be said: In zeroing in on "work conditions" the review nails the problem at the heart of contemporary journalism - it's shit pay. That way corruption lies.

PFF statement on assault of Vanuatu Daily Post journalist Esther Tinning

2009-03-27T22:31:00.000-10:00

Pacific Freedom Forum

mediafreedom@googlegroups.com

Media Release

Vanuatu Government must step up against attacks on media: Pacific Freedom Forum

For immediate release: Wednesday 11 February, 2009. – Two attacks in as many weeks against Vanuatu daily newspaper the Daily Post has left regional media watchdog the Pacific Freedom Forum "appalled and disgusted" at the growing culture of abuse against media workers.

Police officers are under investigation and facing charges for a vicious bashing of Daily Post publisher Marc Neil-Jones in January, even as other colleagues are now opening a second investigation into an attack on Daily Post freelancer Esther Tinning as she walked her children to school early last week.

Reports around the incident say Tinning, a USP graduate, was attacked by a local builder enraged by a feature piece she had written based on information provided by the assailants sister.

"We are awaiting updates on the extent of Ms Tinning's injuries and her condition following this cowardly attack," says Pacific Freedom Forum Chair Susuve Laumaea. "The very public nature of this assault provides an alarming picture of public perceptions around violence, and the twisted motives of her attacker," says Laumaea.

"We applaud the zero tolerance against violence policy of the Daily Post in lodging its complaint, urge the police to look beyond any negative perceptions and bias over Ms. Tinnings' work; and apply the rule of law to investigate this matter fairly and openly," he says.

Co-chair of the Freedom Forum Monica Miller says the assault is evidence of a wider problem in many Pacific nations, where more awareness on the role of the media, and complaint procedures for the public can help to avoid personal abuse and attack against individual journalists.

"It's my view that the latest incident is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to intimidation of journalists and attacks on women in journalism in particular," she says. "Much of what happens behind the news stories and afterwards is never dealt with in the public domain, and unfortunately never pursued in the legal system."

While acknowledging the role of NGOs in helping more people understand the media role in human rights and information work, Miller says it is also time for journalists to "stop accepting abuse and intimidation as part and parcel of their job, and for both journalists and our publics to say enough, and speak out when these occur."

"Following through on any personal attacks through the judicial system will help to build mutual understanding amongst journalists and their Pacific communities; as we all come to acknowledge the human rights of journalists as people just like any other worker in society," she says.

CONTACT:

PFF interim Chair

Susuve Laumaea | Sunday Chronicle Newspaper | Papua New Guinea

Mobile: 675-684 5168 | Office: 675-321-7040 | Email: susuve.laumaea@interoil.com

PFF interim co-Chair

Monica Miller | KHJ Radio | American Samoa

Mob 684 258-4197 | Office 684 633-7793 | Email: monica@khjradio.com

The Pacific Freedom Forum are a regional and global online network of Pacific media colleagues, with the specific intent of raising awareness and advocacy of the right of Pacific people to enjoy freedom of expression and be served by a free and independent media.

We believe in the critical and basic link between these freedoms, and the vision of democratic and participatory governance pledged by our leaders in their endorsement of the Pacific Plan and other commitments to good governance.

In support of the above, our key focus is monitoring threats to media freedom and bringing issues of concern to the attention of the wider regional and international community.

. . .

mccully responds to petitioners

2009-03-27T20:16:00.001-10:00

. . .

Foreign Affairs minister in New Zealand, Murray McCully has responded to dozens of letters petitioning against announced changes to the country's aid agency, NZAID.

He referred to National Party policy as calling for a review of NZAID.

The policy promised they would 'review the operation of agencies that deliver aid to ensure that aid expenditure is effective and efficiently delivered'.

"That is the process that we are now engaged in," McCully told petitioners.

However, McCully did not refer to parts of the policy that call for consultation and partnership with stakeholders in aid processes and management.

Full text of the email below.

. . .

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: M McCully (MIN) <M.McCully@ministers.govt.nz>
Date: 2009/3/27
Subject: NZAID
To:

Thank you for your email expressing concern about the future of NZAID.

Prior to the 2008 election, National's policy statement drew attention to serious concerns about the management of NZAID, and promised that we would 'review the operation of agencies that deliver aid to ensure that aid expenditure is effective and efficiently delivered'. That is the process that we are now engaged in.

Reviews of the structure and mandate of NZAID are currently being undertaken by both the chief executive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and the State Services Commissioner, in response to those pre-election commitments.

That work should be completed prior to the 2009 Budget.

I appreciate the time you have taken in writing to me to express your views, and I can assure you that the points raised by you and the NGO community at large will be given careful consideration before any final decisions are made.

Yours sincerely,

Hon Murray McCully

Minister of Foreign Affairs

. . .

formalising suggestions for PINA 2009 Port Vila

2009-03-26T22:18:00.001-10:00

. . .

NEWS RELEASE

Avaiki Nius Agency has set up Google Moderator for Pacific Islands Journalism Online ahead of this year's "crucial" biennual convention of the Pacific Islands News Association in Port Vila, July 2009.

Google Moderator allows members of the online forum to suggest issues they'd like to see discussed at PINA 2009, just four months away," says agency editor Jason Brown.

"As with PIJO and the Pacific Freedom Forum, the PINA moderator forum is a way of bringing democracy to media processes within the region, adding a layer of formality to policy discussion around media accountability systems.

CITIZEN PARTICIPATION

"PIJO members are free to ignore the forum, as is PINA, but adoption of Google Moderator in the US signals that this approach carries serious weight in how the future of the planet is decided over the next four years."

Google Moderator has been approved by the Obama administration as a step towards formalising citizen participation in US democratic processes.

Issues being discussed informally across the region include:

The future of the PINA Secretariat - is it time to get out of Fiji
Public Broadcasting - was privatisation a strategic mistake for island states
Journalism in crisis - new models for old media
Climate change - media engagement responding to threats of sovereign extinction
The basics - how many journalists ignore codes of ethics
Violence against women - rethinking the role of media
Institutional memory - what happened to all the old PINA resolutions
Trade - digging into doubts over being "bullied" into globalisation
Corruption - extending the fight to web2 gov2

Brown says that there has been a pattern of the "real" issues being ignored at PINA or shunted aside to last minute debates that go nowhere.

CHILLING EFFECTS

He suspects a problem in the past has been from the chilling effects of aid, in a reluctance to offend sponsors including leading donors like NZAID and AusAID.

"Playing it safe is no longer an option for PINA or any organisation representing the media industry across the world's biggest feature. Journalism is in crisis not just in the islands but worldwide, including New Zealand and our neighbour Australia. Timelines around climate changes have imploded over the last 12 months. Global capitalism has collapsed under its own greed at the same time. Newspapers are disappearing by the day, thousands of journalism and media jobs with them," he says.

Journalists, especially, need to build on passive observance and reporting by contributing to regional debate, building networks of support and voting on suggestions, even if anonymously, he says.

LEADERSHIP

"PIJO and PFF are examples of web2 enabled information leadership by the region, encouraging transparency, and accountability by allowing peer review commentary.

"Both bodies thus find themselves in the curious position of regional leadership, there being no similar vote enabled forums in Australia or New Zealand, or indeed anywhere else to my knowledge," he says. By comparison, for example, "New Zealand journalists have met once in the last 20 years."

"Simply by participating, island journalists and their supporters can inspire and influence meaningful change globally."

INVITE

As follows, details for the PIJO moderator forum. Members should feel free to invite others.

formalising suggestions for PINA 2009 Port Vila

Informal discussions concerning the future of PINA are ongoing across the world's largest feature.

As a support group, PIJO members have an opportunity here to semi-formalise their views by participating in this forum, including anonymously if they chose, with their ideas, questions and suggestions. Members can then vote on which they like best.

This is non-binding on PINA but may be used as a measure of how accurately the association reflects input from the industry. Below is background to the moderator forum, from Google:

. . .

Citizen participation that scales: a call to action

3/24/2009 07:44:00 PM
At Google we hold weekly town hall-style meetings with our founders, CEO, and guest speakers, which always feature a Q&A session. Managing Q&A is a unique challenge with an audience of thousands, in offices around the world, who inevitably want to ask more questions than we have time to answer. To help address this challenge, we developed Google Moderator, built on App Engine.

Moderator gives participants a way to submit questions and vote for the ones they want answered. And thanks to the scale that App Engine provides, this application can now support tens of thousands of people at once. This gives everyone the chance to be heard in a way that gives priority to the issues that matter most to the broader group.

As you may have heard, the White House is hosting an online town hall meeting on Thursday and has asked people to submit questions for the president and vote on which ones they think he should answer.

We think technology can be a force for greater accountability and access between citizens and their elected officials. We're excited that the White House has chosen to use the power of cloud-based applications like Google Moderator and App Engine to scale the president's direct dialogue with the American people.

To take part in this experiment in citizen participation, please visit:
http://WhiteHouse.gov/OpenForQuestions

Posted by Vic Gundotra, Vice President, Engineering

Permalink

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. . .

FURTHER INFO:

jason brown

editor:

ANA avaiki news agency
http://avaiki.nius.googlepages.com

project JPK - TVNZ
jabrown@tvnz.co.nz
www.jpkupdate.blogspot.com
tagata pasifika
tvnz
100 victoria street west
po box 3819
auckland

contributing editor:

PIJO pacific islands journalism online
http://groups.google.com/group/pacificmedia

PFF pacific freedom forum
http://groups.google.com/group/mediafreedom
www.pacificfreedomforum.blogspot.com

+64 2102484560 mobile
+649 9167058 office direct
+649 9167552 facsimile

. . .

how high did investigations go

2009-03-23T02:41:00.002-10:00

Alanieta Rabaka at the High Court in Lautoka last month for the trial of her son's killers.

. . .

EDITORIAL

Conviction and sentencing of nine soldiers in Fiji for human rights abuses is welcome evidence of justice functioning in the troubled republic.

Nine men were this week found guilty of manslaughter and five counts of assault following the death of a 19-year-old in 2007, after detention in military custody.

Should be cause for celebration.

Response in Fiji however has been muted, with only one body, the controversial state Human Rights Commission expressing support for the conviction.

"Judge Goundar said in his judgment that no one can take, even if they're law and order, cannot take the law into their own hands because we have separation of power in the country," says commission chairwoman Dr Shaista Shameem.

"You know, the Police and the Military do the arrests and it is the court that decides on the appropriate punishment," she told Radio New Zealand International.

Not yet clear yet from Fiji is what doubts, if any, surround what the commission claims to be successful investigation, prosecution and conviction of human rights abuses.

Credibility of the Fiji Human Rights Commission is not in question on this case, but its stance on earlier issues like deportation of journalists attracted criticism, aimed at influence of the military government over supposedly independent institutions.

Important for human rights groups to recognise when governments do the right thing, if they are to live up to media standards of fairness and balance.

Equally important, governments do not 'game' the system by using low level soliders or other workers as scape goats or show ponies in any propaganda war.

Groups like the Pacific Freedom Forum need to hear from NGOs in Fiji about this important case, a possible precedent for investigating other abuses.

Fiji national Sakiusa Rabaka died in February a month after he and a group of friends were detained at the start of 2007.

Those doubting the fullness of investigations say armed forces have a poor history of admitting human rights abuses, as well as limiting investigations to low ranking troops.

. . .