Prisoner 345: My 2330 days in Guantanamo, by Sami Alhaj. Doha, Qatar: Al Jazeera Media Network, 2019. 126 pages. No ISBN. The Refugee’s Messenger: Lost Stories Retold, edited by Tarek Cherkaoui. Istanbul, Turkey: TRT World Research Centre, 2019. 192 Pages. ISBN 978-605-9984-28-7 A RECENT article in the Middle East Eye pilloried the United States lack of preparedness for the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic. Lamenting that if only the world’s richest democracy could have instead of frittering away trillions of dollars on ‘endless wars’ invested in the country’s health infrastructure, the world would be in a better place today. Washington had ‘built an entire infrastructure to counter terrorism and criminalise Muslim communities’, spending almost $6.4 trillion on pointless wars that had killed off half a million people since September 11 2011 (Hilal & Raja, 2020). Yet, which was the biggest threat – the elusive target of the so-called ‘war on terror’, or the pandemic, which killed more than 20,000 Americans and infected a further 500,000 (with numbers still rising when this edition of PJR went to press)?
{"title":"REVIEW: A symbol of all that is wrong with the ‘war on terror’","authors":"D. Robie","doi":"10.24135/pjr.v26i1.1092","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24135/pjr.v26i1.1092","url":null,"abstract":"Prisoner 345: My 2330 days in Guantanamo, by Sami Alhaj. Doha, Qatar: Al Jazeera Media Network, 2019. 126 pages. No ISBN. The Refugee’s Messenger: Lost Stories Retold, edited by Tarek Cherkaoui. Istanbul, Turkey: TRT World Research Centre, 2019. 192 Pages. ISBN 978-605-9984-28-7 \u0000A RECENT article in the Middle East Eye pilloried the United States lack of preparedness for the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic. Lamenting that if only the world’s richest democracy could have instead of frittering away trillions of dollars on ‘endless wars’ invested in the country’s health infrastructure, the world would be in a better place today. Washington had ‘built an entire infrastructure to counter terrorism and criminalise Muslim communities’, spending almost $6.4 trillion on pointless wars that had killed off half a million people since September 11 2011 (Hilal & Raja, 2020). Yet, which was the biggest threat – the elusive target of the so-called ‘war on terror’, or the pandemic, which killed more than 20,000 Americans and infected a further 500,000 (with numbers still rising when this edition of PJR went to press)?","PeriodicalId":44137,"journal":{"name":"Pacific Journalism Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78737334","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Faith Valencia-Forrester, Bridget Backhaus, Heather Stewart
Representation of women in media has been a noted gender equity issue globally for decades. Given the increasing encroachments into press freedom in Melanesia, female journalists and media workers face serious challenges. With this in mind, the Melanesian Media Freedom Forum (MMFF) hosted a special session focusing specifically on the issues affecting women in the media in Melanesia. This article focuses on the discussions of female Melanesian journalists and the unique challenges they face in terms of representation in the media workforce, having their voices heard in the media, and the threats to their personal safety.
{"title":"In her own words: Melanesian women in media","authors":"Faith Valencia-Forrester, Bridget Backhaus, Heather Stewart","doi":"10.24135/pjr.v26i1.1104","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24135/pjr.v26i1.1104","url":null,"abstract":"Representation of women in media has been a noted gender equity issue globally for decades. Given the increasing encroachments into press freedom in Melanesia, female journalists and media workers face serious challenges. With this in mind, the Melanesian Media Freedom Forum (MMFF) hosted a special session focusing specifically on the issues affecting women in the media in Melanesia. This article focuses on the discussions of female Melanesian journalists and the unique challenges they face in terms of representation in the media workforce, having their voices heard in the media, and the threats to their personal safety. \u0000 ","PeriodicalId":44137,"journal":{"name":"Pacific Journalism Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"80517787","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The War Next Door, reported by Sally Sara. Foreign Correspondent. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Broadcast: 12 May 2020. 30 minutes. https://www.abc.net.au/foreign/the-war-next-door/12239998 ‘WE GOT to keep on pushing forward,’ sings the band Sorong Samarai, which means from the tip of West Papua, Sorong, to Samari, the island which lies at the eastern tip of mainland Papua New Guinea, Samarai. ‘One people, one soul, one destiny.’
{"title":"REVIEW: Documentary records continuing independence struggle in West Papua","authors":"Nicole Gooch","doi":"10.24135/pjr.v26i1.1108","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24135/pjr.v26i1.1108","url":null,"abstract":"The War Next Door, reported by Sally Sara. Foreign Correspondent. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Broadcast: 12 May 2020. 30 minutes. https://www.abc.net.au/foreign/the-war-next-door/12239998 \u0000‘WE GOT to keep on pushing forward,’ sings the band Sorong Samarai, which means from the tip of West Papua, Sorong, to Samari, the island which lies at the eastern tip of mainland Papua New Guinea, Samarai. ‘One people, one soul, one destiny.’","PeriodicalId":44137,"journal":{"name":"Pacific Journalism Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88373543","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Delegates to the Melanesia Media Freedom Forum express their solidarity with media workers in Melanesia in their struggle for freedom of expression, security, and professional recognition. Delegates note the words of Secretary-General of the Pacific Islands Forum Dame Meg Taylor who told the Asia Lecture at Griffith University, Brisbane, on 11 November 2019: ‘We live in unprecedented times of change which will test our abilities to respond.’
{"title":"Solidarity statement by academics attending MMFF","authors":"Melanesia Media Freedom Forum","doi":"10.24135/pjr.v26i1.1115","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24135/pjr.v26i1.1115","url":null,"abstract":"Delegates to the Melanesia Media Freedom Forum express their solidarity with media workers in Melanesia in their struggle for freedom of expression, security, and professional recognition. Delegates note the words of Secretary-General of the Pacific Islands Forum Dame Meg Taylor who told the Asia Lecture at Griffith University, Brisbane, on 11 November 2019: ‘We live in unprecedented times of change which will test our abilities to respond.’","PeriodicalId":44137,"journal":{"name":"Pacific Journalism Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88406819","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
We, the participants at the Melanesian Media Freedom representing media from Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and West Papua, wish to express concern about growing threats to media freedom in our region and call on members of our industry and other organisations and individuals to take action to help secure the future of the Fourth Estate as a vital pillar of democracy.
{"title":"The Melanesian Media Declaration","authors":"Melanesia Media Freedom Forum","doi":"10.24135/pjr.v26i1.1088","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24135/pjr.v26i1.1088","url":null,"abstract":"We, the participants at the Melanesian Media Freedom representing media from Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and West Papua, wish to express concern about growing threats to media freedom in our region and call on members of our industry and other organisations and individuals to take action to help secure the future of the Fourth Estate as a vital pillar of democracy.","PeriodicalId":44137,"journal":{"name":"Pacific Journalism Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85764445","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
This article examines some aspects of climate change communication in Papua New Guinea (PNG), particularly the use of Tok Pisin language. To place the issue in a broader, global context, the article compares the situation in PNG with that of the use of Pidgin English in Nigeria. The article argues that a major project needs to be undertaken to determine the effectiveness of this communication. It suggests drawing on the experience of both the Bougainville Audience Study and the BBC Trusts’ examination of climate change in Nigeria.
{"title":"Some aspects of climate change communication and effectiveness in PNG","authors":"P. Cass","doi":"10.24135/pjr.v26i1.1106","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24135/pjr.v26i1.1106","url":null,"abstract":"This article examines some aspects of climate change communication in Papua New Guinea (PNG), particularly the use of Tok Pisin language. To place the issue in a broader, global context, the article compares the situation in PNG with that of the use of Pidgin English in Nigeria. The article argues that a major project needs to be undertaken to determine the effectiveness of this communication. It suggests drawing on the experience of both the Bougainville Audience Study and the BBC Trusts’ examination of climate change in Nigeria.","PeriodicalId":44137,"journal":{"name":"Pacific Journalism Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2020-07-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"88195728","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
While the media has demonstrated that it can cover global and governance issues, it neglects the potential to be a responsible partner, especially in developing countries such as Papua New Guinea and to an extent the Pacific. However, this partnership can be strengthened with the media industry and government departments and agencies working to improve their ability to work with each to achieve social, economical and political mileage. Freedom of information and a free media is about upholding the freedom we currently enjoy in a democratic society, as it is about our freedom to express ourselves and be informed appropriately and responsibly.
{"title":"Freedom of Information - Challenges and the Way Forward","authors":"Chronox Manek","doi":"10.24135/PJR.V16I2.1034","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24135/PJR.V16I2.1034","url":null,"abstract":"While the media has demonstrated that it can cover global and governance issues, it neglects the potential to be a responsible partner, especially in developing countries such as Papua New Guinea and to an extent the Pacific. However, this partnership can be strengthened with the media industry and government departments and agencies working to improve their ability to work with each to achieve social, economical and political mileage. Freedom of information and a free media is about upholding the freedom we currently enjoy in a democratic society, as it is about our freedom to express ourselves and be informed appropriately and responsibly.","PeriodicalId":44137,"journal":{"name":"Pacific Journalism Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2019-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"85146761","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Since it emerged early this century, 'citizen journalist' and its related terms have been increasingly contested among groups including professional journalists, academics, and citizens themselves. This article creates a typology of five key participant groups in this contest and uses it to analyse the discursive constructs each group uses to advance their position. We argue that the terms citizen and journalist are multivalent discursive constructs, and that recognising the various contexts in which they are deployed is essential to understanding the ways in which changes to relationships between media participants are occurring and being resisted.
{"title":"Deconstructing the discourse of citizen journalism: Who says what and why it matters","authors":"E. Tilley, J. Cokley","doi":"10.24135/PJR.V14I1.925","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24135/PJR.V14I1.925","url":null,"abstract":"Since it emerged early this century, 'citizen journalist' and its related terms have been increasingly contested among groups including professional journalists, academics, and citizens themselves. This article creates a typology of five key participant groups in this contest and uses it to analyse the discursive constructs each group uses to advance their position. We argue that the terms citizen and journalist are multivalent discursive constructs, and that recognising the various contexts in which they are deployed is essential to understanding the ways in which changes to relationships between media participants are occurring and being resisted.","PeriodicalId":44137,"journal":{"name":"Pacific Journalism Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2019-11-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87135102","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
‘Digital Democracy’ and ‘digital government’ are relatively new concepts posing challenges for governments, journalists, political analysts and political scientists. Written from a political science perspective, this article provides an overview of selected Pacific Island government efforts on the web and assesses the contribution this makes to political education, on one level, and building egalitarian democracies on another level. Providing a brief survey of internet developments in the area of government within 12 selected Pacific Island countries, the argument is made that, while any additional education in the broad area of politics is welcome, there are still challenges that exist and room for progress. Given current technological capabilities around the region, more ‘traditional’ forms of media still have a vital role to play.
{"title":"Whither Pacific ‘traditional’ media? Internet technology in political education and participation","authors":"K. Anderson","doi":"10.24135/PJR.V13I2.906","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24135/PJR.V13I2.906","url":null,"abstract":"‘Digital Democracy’ and ‘digital government’ are relatively new concepts posing challenges for governments, journalists, political analysts and political scientists. Written from a political science perspective, this article provides an overview of selected Pacific Island government efforts on the web and assesses the contribution this makes to political education, on one level, and building egalitarian democracies on another level. Providing a brief survey of internet developments in the area of government within 12 selected Pacific Island countries, the argument is made that, while any additional education in the broad area of politics is welcome, there are still challenges that exist and room for progress. Given current technological capabilities around the region, more ‘traditional’ forms of media still have a vital role to play.","PeriodicalId":44137,"journal":{"name":"Pacific Journalism Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2019-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"78690310","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The article reports on a study using grounded theory methodology to track the contexts in which Australian parliamentarians used the expressions 'press freedom' and 'freedom of press' over the ten years from 1994 to 2004. It uses Parliamentry Hansard records to identify the speeches in which discussions of press freedom arose. Interestingly, the terms were used by members of the House of Representativies or Senate in just 78 speeches out of more than 180,000 over that decade. Those usages have been coded to develop a theory about the interface between press freedom and the parliament. This article reports just one aspect of the findings from the larger study—the way parliamentarians have contrasted the value of press freedom in Australia with press freedom in other countries. It is one step towards building a broader theory of press freedom in the Australian parliamentary context.
{"title":"The Australian Parliament and press freedom in an international context","authors":"M. Pearson, Camille Galvin","doi":"10.24135/PJR.V13I2.910","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.24135/PJR.V13I2.910","url":null,"abstract":"The article reports on a study using grounded theory methodology to track the contexts in which Australian parliamentarians used the expressions 'press freedom' and 'freedom of press' over the ten years from 1994 to 2004. It uses Parliamentry Hansard records to identify the speeches in which discussions of press freedom arose. Interestingly, the terms were used by members of the House of Representativies or Senate in just 78 speeches out of more than 180,000 over that decade. Those usages have been coded to develop a theory about the interface between press freedom and the parliament. This article reports just one aspect of the findings from the larger study—the way parliamentarians have contrasted the value of press freedom in Australia with press freedom in other countries. It is one step towards building a broader theory of press freedom in the Australian parliamentary context. ","PeriodicalId":44137,"journal":{"name":"Pacific Journalism Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2019-11-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"87024725","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}