Lisa Williams-Lahari

For Frances Brown, New Zealand

2010-11-30T20:40:00.000-08:00

When waves from St Clairs

wash off Esplanade rocks, onto Rarotonga sand

they

link power

bear the weight of surfers, swimmers, toddlers dreams,

carry the colour of your eyes into Pacific currents

bring love,

truth and honesty to life,

i remember you.

when babies turn to teens, their angst reminding

me

of your patient smile, your listening heart, your gifted empathy,

i remember you.

when southern suns and sons

burn bright into Dunedin and other Island summers,

making way

for diamond skies and moonscapes so beautiful my heart aches when i look up,

no matter where i am,

i remember you.

Rest in Love Frances Brown.

Pacific media freedom soup: HIV/AIDS, media regionalism, and the right to know

2010-05-02T13:47:00.000-07:00

Below is the presentation I gave Sunday 2 May in Brisbane at the University of Queensland as part of a panel featuring Fiji's Sophie Foster of the Fiji Times, PNG’s Susuve Laumaea, Chair of the Pacific Freedom Forum. Fiji's Sophie Foster, of the Fiji Times, Samoa’s Savea Sano Malifa of the SONG (Samoa Observer Newspaper Group) and Vanuatu’s Marie-Noelle Ferrieux-Patterson, former Ombuds and President for TI (Transparency International) in Vanuatu also featured on the afternoon panel.

Kia Orana tatou katoatoa it e aroa maata o to tatou Atua, Talofa lava, I bid you warm Pacific greetings. This week last year, the inaugural meeting of a regional media freedom watchdog group, the Pacific Freedom Forum, was happening in Samoa. 12 months later, to the exact week, we are witnessing the inaugural meeting of a regional network of women in Pacific media, called WAVE. We have delegates from both groups here at this event, one a regional media freedom monitoring and advocacy body – the other a newly confirmed network of women working in news and media in the Pacific region. Together, both groups form a constituency of almost 400 online members spread across the Oceania region’s 22 countries and 9million people – not forgetting many millions of square kilometres of saltwater in all that. So we are excited to affirm our place at this key event.
I’m going to dive in to the overall theme of this session with an invitation to have some media freedom soup with me.
I’ve spent the better part of the last year and a half as a founding member of the pacific island journalist’s online network, which gave birth to the pacific freedom forum, which gave birth to the Pacific WAVE media network. Like our founding coordinator Ulamila Wragg, this work; and most of my journalism, was able to be done from a computer set up to the internet from my kitchen. Many of my WAVE media sisters share the Pacific reality of juggling the hats of women balancing their unpaid work at home with the paid career in media work. I spice up my time with vast amounts of post-grad student, stir fried with the roles of activist, wife, mum, and freelancer. So welcome to my kitchen, and let’s get cooking.
The key ingredient which I’ll begin with is how we in Pacific media have approached coverage of HIV/AIDS. Yes, HIV/AIDS. What I have seen as a journalist, trainer and commentator is that HIV/AIDS, more than any other global trend for this part of the world, has created interesting parallels through which we can examine and better understand the main threats – and solutions, to media freedom in the Pacific.
The first key challenge which HIV/AIDS steps out for media freedom a la Pacific is that it can often give us in the media, the freedom to get it wrong. Throughout the late 80’s and into the following decade, pacific reportage of HIV/AIDS was geared towards a sense of it being someone else’s problem. Pacific media had reported it, but mainly along the lines of feeding misinformation that this was the death sentence delivered by God to gay men, adulterers and prostitutes. Of course, this situation was not exclusive to the media. It also highlighted the lack of media-friendly medical and development professionals able to break down what was also a new and emerging epidemic for the region; and the lack of quality statistics and surveillance data to draw on. It was creating all kinds of new questions around talking heads who were misinforming rather than informing the news agenda, and what reporting the truth in the public interest really is. It began to raise curly issues around objectivity, the credibility of traditional talking heads like church leaders and how we in our reportage were contributing – or not, to highly emotional issues. It underlined the lack of privacy and confidentiality in small islands communities, and the stigma, discrimination and fear which abound when people simply don’t have access to the information they need. And it was all gaining momentum as the key regional conference for Pacific media workers, called PINA, was hosted in French Polynesia at the end of 1998.
And it was at PINA, to a regional audience of Pacific journalists, that a young Journalism student by the name of Maire Bopp Dupont was to stand up in a plenary session, and declared her HIV-positive status. In asking her media colleagues to step back from fear mongering and get back to being journalists, Maire took a gamble and spiked a trend of new debate, thinking and reflection by Pacific colleagues in their work. Her stance also opened up spaces on the no go zones, the taboos around sexuality, culture and tradition, and our own attitudes and behaviours which inform the internal news-filters for us. Importantly too, it highlighted an issue which continues to define challenges around news practice to this day: given all the internal filters we face in gleaning what is news and how it is reported, how are all the commitments to ethics, accountability, truth and the public interest defined? Who monitors the notion of just how free, truthful and ‘independent’ independent journalists are? What about the language and words we use? And the gendered stereotypes and labelling we are dealing with? All these questions began to emerge, ticking the boxes –raised by the previous speaker, on media as partners in development, gender dimensions of media work, human rights and social justice issues.
In 1999, in recognition of her ‘breaking the silence’ on HIV and AIDS, Maire was awarded the PINA Media Freedom Award.
This takes me to my next key challenge: the need to respond to gaps and failures in order to address the challenges around media freedom work, FOI and the right to know.

Shortly after Maire’s wininng of the Media Freedom Award, her journey as a pacific advocate and voice on HIV/AIDS was cemented. As an advocate she soon identified a regional gap that required a regional fix. A network of organisations and partners needed to work, and work effectively. Out of the absence of a regional entity for those with HIV/AIDS, the Pacific Islands AIDS Foundation formed, and got with addressing a problem. It had formed as a response to a clear need and has since become a secretariat for a regional coalition of partnering organisations, called the Pacific NGO Alliance on AIDS. It provides lessons at a critical time for us, of being responsive, current, owned by the pacific region we claim to represent, and transparent to our members.
Media freedom, free speech, the right to information and freedom of information – these challenges are a dynamic and changing set of issues, always changing, just as the PIAF organisation has done in approaching the HIV/AIDS crisis for our region.
I’m not alone in this room in knowing that Pacific media partnerships are now at the same crossroads where HIV/AIDS forced a regional, industry-led response that had to be strong, effective and transparent. Just as the most affected people got together and formed their own networks and chain of accountability, we as journalists and Pacific news and media organisations must do the same to ensure we remain true to the values and mission which are now no longer being met.
It’s at this point that our media freedom soup now comes to the boil. For a range of reasons, we have seen the relative lapse into silence and internal conflict of PINA, the regional media body which claims to represent our interests as a region. I say it’s a regional challenge of crisis proportions because any regional body which falls apart doesn’t do so silently, and we need to be honest and open about learning from failure. If there’s anything the global economic crash in recent years can teach us, it is that. I challenge us all, in truth and respect for the right to disagree, to urgently seek a space for mediation and most of all for transparency to resolve this situation. At this point in time, a fractured and poorly managed Pacific media regionalism is itself providing the biggest threat to media freedom and FOI. We will always have our dictators and tyrants to deal with; but we need to set our house in order. Some will have to decide if they even want a regional house to support our networking. Without a resourced and effective monitoring, advocacy and coordination effort owned and endorsed by all of us, from our different parts of the region, we will continue to remain in crisis mode. We will not be able to dream of excellence and standards outside of the ad-hoc pockets that do exist. We will not be able to hope to grow media literacy amongst our youth, leaders and communities so that the right to know is an accepted flip side to the right to ask the taboo questions.
As a last spoonful, I want to celebrate all the stirring with a dash of indigenous hope. I note the inclusion of another key forum at this WPFD event, that of indigenous voices and the need to close the gaps in ownership, participation, content creation, and diversity. Paying homage to the wisdom provided by our ocean-navigating ancestors, here’s a Cook Islands proverb often quoted by a former Cook Islands Prime Minister. His belief in the right of a free and independent media to exist meant he was accessible and accountable in ways that would put many current Pacific leaders to shame. It was the doors opened by Sir Geoffrey Henry in the early 90’s which helped pave the way for the Cook Islands to create history on FOI legislation more than 15 years later. The proverb goes like this: taraia to toki, ei toki tarai enua. Taraia to toki, ei toki tarai enua. Sharpen your adze, the adze to carve nations. In transforming that into the context of this session the toki, the adze, can be seen as the media. The media freedom and the right to know is the tool which keeps the adze strong and effective. When the toki is well prepared for its work, the impact on public debate and protection of media freedoms is strongest. The diversity of news outlets and talking heads in the public domain helps foster a sense of public participation; and ownership of the governance process. When the adze is blunted by lack of FOI legislation or media workers themselves pressuring for the public interest and the right to know, we have the deadening impacts many of us can attest to in our countries.
So, from the ancestors to us here today -- Taraia to toki, ei toki tarai enua: how sharp is your media freedom adze, and who is holding it? Is the adze sleeping in a corner somewhere, growing dull with lack of use? Has it left newsrooms and taken up residence in Ombuds offices, public auditing processes, or is it no longer to be found? I challenge us in this room today to reclaim the toki and locate it online, in digital spaces accessible for more of us, a toolkit for the future generations of Pacific journalists at events like this.
I hope you enjoyed that funky taste of Pacific media freedom soup; and I thank you.--ENDS

On Pacific membership to IFEX, Oslo 2009

2009-06-01T22:24:00.001-07:00

Presentation to 14 IFEX General Assembly, Monday 1 June, Oslo, Norway
Ladies and gentlemen, I bring you warm greetings from the co-chairs of the Pacific Freedom Forum, Monica Miller of American Samoa, and Susuve Laumaea of Papua New Guinea. I bring with me the hopes of fellow media freedom advocates many thousands of miles and many worlds away from this, the 14th general meeting of the IFEX global network. I am joined here in my sincere call for your vote by my colleagues Mr Koroi Hawkins of the Solomon Islands, and Mr Matai Akauola of Fiji, here as the coordinator of the Pacific Islands News Association.
I looked at the IFEX meeting schedule for today and tomorrow and found myself nodding, with an increasing sense of empathy. The insights on the need to get more strategic, the planning and consultation involved, and your internal review findings already resonate for us in the Pacific. Better strategies, better funding, better at doing better. The demands upon IFEX to be as dynamic as the changing world its members live in are also being faced, in unique contexts, by the Pacific Freedom Forum.
And it has for me, confirmed that our network having this space before you now in Oslo is a matter of perfect momentum, of an event finding its happening, and its place. Today the Pacific Freedom Forum, in terms of its journey crossing the path of that of this global assembly, has found such a moment. Our application for membership comes at a time when we are at our greatest need. At the same time we may also be placed to share a little bit of the Pacific x-factor to help achieve the IFEX vision. And honestly, if we didn’t believe we could help IFEX bring about a world where freedom of expression is defended, respected, and upheld; then we would not be here.

The heart of the Pacific Freedom Forum is Article XIX of the UDHR. While a commitment to free speech, expression of opinions and sharing of ideas and information in our island communities forms the core for our monitoring and advocacy network, there are two key things that keep that heart beating. The first is the technology of the internet, which has turned what we know, and how we know it and share it, on its head. Without the internet, we would have taken a much longer and expensive path, and definitely would not have the fantastic outputs we have managed to achieve in just a year of existence. In less than 12 months, the Pacific Freedom Forum has put out almost 50 alerts – more than our umbrella body the Pacific Islands News Association has released on media freedom in the last 12 years. (And I say this with the utmost respect for the task one paid staff member plays in coordinating training, executive meetings, office communications, proposals and work plans and PINA policy, in addition to the many jobs related to monitoring and preparing alerts.) We have been able to achieve this through the second key element of our work, our members, who through their time, feedback and discussion, are the lifeblood of the Pacific Freedom Forum. In addition to their own busy lives, our online members are asked to commit to advocacy and keeping the lines of communication open for a small drafting team who take up the bits and pieces of information and craft it all into a statement.
In learning from the experience of PINA, and wanting to enhance media regionalism rather than turn it against itself, the Pacific Freedom Forum has one key task, and it’s all in our name. We advocate and discuss in Forum style, the specific media-related right to free speech and expression, with key goals to monitor, to advocate, to network, in support of Article 19. We are letting our Pacific people, our leaders, and our selves know that freedom of the media is everyone’s freedom, and the Pacific is facing its own crisis on that count.
We note with growing concern the majority of our media monitoring coming from one country alone, Fiji, where the voices of the media, the judiciary, and civil society continue to be silenced, with no end in sight, by an atmosphere of fear and an absence of the rule of law. The help of the international IFEX family in condemning the steadily growing abuses in Fiji can strengthen global awareness and condemnation. Importantly for us, even as we try to ensure clear and accurate information from the Pacific continues to be available to IFEX networks, the global nature of an IFEX alert can only put the regime and those Pacific leaders mulling over copycat actions, on notice that this is unacceptable. Along those lines of the information being part of the quality behind the watchdog role, we look forward to that mutual exchange of information and sharing from other regions, and bringing a Pacific space and voice to the IFEX communiqués we are subscribed to. We are happy to foster awareness of IFEX and its important work amongst the hundreds of Pacific journalists we forward the communiqués to.
So, as they say, what is in it for IFEX? As part of the global IFEX family, we will be able to catalyse the effectiveness and reach of our alerts, while growing IFEX networks and monitoring of the state of media freedom in the Pacific region—and by collaborating with PINA and others who share the goal of advocacy and monitoring of media freedom in the Pacific.
And in an industry with so many young cadets, training is an important area where the Pacific Freedom Forum sees the expertise of IFEX significantly boosting our capacity and skills at national and regional level. We have already enjoyed the support of IFEX outreach training in our inaugural gathering in Samoa this year, and we look forward to continuing and strengthening that alliance of better skills, better connections, towards better results all round.
Colleagues, in a few moments you will be deciding whether we will be able to join you at the table this week and support a stronger IFEX global network to take all our shared visions forward. In thinking of that vision, here’s something we found out from our inaugural meeting in Samoa. We learnt much about how journalism is couched in human rights frameworks. We laughed and learned, shared strategies and sorrow. Our freedom pioneers from the past met today’s media leaders coping with courage under the fire of oppression and threats to their colleagues, their loved ones and themselves. Part of the inspiring lesson so richly felt by the younger journalism students attending our meeting, is that those who answer the call to conscience described by the 2009 UNESCO WPFD laureate Lasantha Wickrematunge, do so out of a love and passion for what they do. (Because as we all know, it’s definitely not about the money!)
And that answering of the call of conscience by our individual members is essentially what gives us a special energy in the unified space where we are the Pacific Freedom Forum. We don’t just know Article 19. We own it. From all corners of the Pacific, we bring love and passion to our work so that we never run out of ideas to encourage our Pacific leaders and ourselves, in language both polite and bold, of the necessity of a free media to a strong Pacific future. We are the call to NOT be indifferent, and this unifying energy is what we both give and receive from this IFEX network, whose door we come a-knocking today. And in closing, I have only these four words. Please, Open the door. ENDS

Growing a Pacific culture of speaking out

2009-05-22T19:41:00.000-07:00

STIGMA AND DISCRIMINATION IN SMALL ISLANDS: USING CULTURAL APPROACHES

n Presentation to the Commonwealth Panel

n Ending AIDS stigma: men and women working together

n UN CSW 53 Session March 3, 2009, conference room 2

Kia Orana tatou katoatoa, Gud morning tru, and a warm Pacific sunshine welcome to all of us here today. I would like to thank those whose behind the scenes efforts have brought us to the global stage of the UN CSW. To the Commonwealth Foundation and in particular the Pan Commonwealth Civil Society Network on HIV and AIDS, for whom PIAF is the regional focal point for the Pacific, I thank you for your acknowledgement of the value and ownership we bring to and we take from these spaces

Here in 2009, under a theme which seeks to share our best practices from the Pacific when overcoming AIDS stigma and discrimination, I just want to pause to reflect on how far we have come in the last decade; especially as we prepare to join the worldwide International women’s day celebrations on March 8. As we explore the CSW theme of shared responsibilities and care-giving in the context of HIV and AIDS, it is now just over 10 years since the first Pacific Islander to publicly declare their HIV status did so, in Tahiti, to a regional convention of journalists which she was herself attending as a graduate of the University of the South Pacific. For Maire Bopp Dupont, the public declaration of her condition marked a historic moment which broke through the walls of silence and denial around HIV and AIDS and continues to reveal the stigma and discrimination holding those walls of silence and shame together.

In the decade since that moment, Maire has gone from Pacific journalist to global advocate. In the same timeframe, the Pacific region has stepped up its response to the epidemic, with a mixed bag of results.

I’m here to share some of what works from what is arguably the most diverse region on the planet, where the gender inequality fuelling the spread of AIDS remains the single largest obstacle to achieving the vision of a stronger future for all Pacific people.

3 people out of every four from a population of 8 million spread across the 24 countries of Oceania come from one country alone: Papua New Guinea. And in this nation, facing challenges to progress on levels that make it the Africa of the Pacific, more than 2,000 new cases of HIV have been reported every year since 2002. [i] If you follow the iceberg theory on statistics, the scenario makes it even more urgent that we get to the actions that deliver lasting results.

I shared Maire’s story with you earlier as it illustrates the thinking behind what is a significant milestone in Pacific research on HIV and AIDS, a report on stigma and discrimination as felt by those at the receiving end. The PIAF study, commenced in 2007, involved 19 HIV positive [ii]Pacific Islanders from 5 countries, some of them advocates who had made their status public, others choosing to keep their status private. 11 women and 8 men from a cake slice of Pacific society opened up their lives and allowed researchers in. It was a rare moment which created a much-needed space for Pacific PLWA to reflect on their experiences.

In their own words, the respondents in the report talk frankly and honestly, in street language, in high language, and in their own language, about the loss of even their most basic human rights. For one, the only meal of a long day looking for work was a handful of dried beans. For another, the comfort of a home and a bed to sleep at night was no longer an option. And even in the village, the isolation cuts deep when everyone finishes bathing as soon as you turn up at the river. The report reveals how opportunities for work, education, access to affordable health and treatment, the right to live with dignity were gradually lost as stigma and discrimination kicked in and added depression, to the threat of violence and abuse faced by the survey group.

But despite turning the myth of the Pacific culture of love, care, and extended families on its head, there were exceptions. One of the most important and poignant outcomes of the study is that Pacific PLWA do not want pity or sympathy. None of the interviewees referred to or thought of themselves as victims. Given the personal tragedies that were shared, their struggles in a hostile and stigmatised environment, their strength in the face of adversity, and their determination to overcome, those initially diagnosed as HIV positive, and now living positively with HIV have, to quote the research team “renewed our faith in the beauty and strength of the human spirit.”[iii]

All the respondents are at different stages of rising above their situations and in doing so have become ordinary people living extraordinary lives. They offer recommendations detailed and broad, aimed at different levels of the Pacific response. What worked for them in the battle against prejudice and allowed them to get on with the business of living? For many, the support and acceptance of their families. For others, a renewed personal journey in relationships, forgiveness, maturity and a strong sense of self belief, faith and prayer. And for all, access not just to treatment and care, but on-going counseling, with help finding jobs from NGO and other support networks in their communities.

The most powerful parts of the report provide hints of the Pacific solution to stigma and discrimination. Brothers and fathers hug their sisters and daughters and assure them of their support. Pastors openly preach messages to their congregations that those with AIDS are Gods children too. Husbands and lovers reconcile and take open communication to a new level, if they remain together. NGOs provide jobs and employment, along with networks to counseling and peer support for PLWA.

It is a new wave of Pacific change, a new change in Pacific culture, which is allowing Pacific responses to stigma and discrimination to find their space. While culture is often seen as an enemy and barrier in itself, and while there are many studies that provide evidence that we still have a long way to go, at this point I invite you to join me in a celebration of cultural identity. No I am not about to break out the coconut shells and drumbeats and hula across the stage. I want to present a few descriptive statements if I may, of the kinds of Pacific culture we need to develop to overcome stigma and discrimination, weaving in some specific examples illustrating the approaches. So what are cultural ways of seeing? Well it depends really on how you see culture. I’m talking less about the historical carvings or artifacts sitting in museums, and more of the way we live for our times, just as our Pacific ancestors lived for theirs. The dynamic view of culture as proposed by Pacific visionary, New Caledonia’s Jean-Marie Tjibaou is what best reflects this interplay between cultural expression and how we relate to it for comfort and identity as we confront the challenges of life:

“Culture is always unfinished”, says Tjibaou, “…our identity lies ahead of us.”

On that note, he invites us to imagine and innovate, to map our own paths using our own understanding of what it is to be Pacific people living with AIDS in our communities, in our families, in our bodies.

In this Pacific context, we are challenged by the report results to foster cultures rich with Pacific energy, cultures which allow the best of our strengths and diversity to take the lead. How do we claim those powerful cultural expressions or solutions as part of a dynamic identity for a changing world? I believe the key lies in using what we have today to imagine what lies ahead of us tomorrow:

So based on the stigma and discrimination study and inspired by Tjibaou, here’s some of what we might imagine lies before us:

Cultures of true and visionary leadership: A leadership of caring, principled and committed leaders at all levels of Pacific society would be more concerned about the plight of the poor, the weak and the marginalized; and legislate accordingly. Church leadership is well on the way with plans by the Pacific council of churches to include human rights training for pastors in their work program. But political leaders also need reminding of the impact of poor decision making on those living with stigma and discrimination. Calling attention to the need for leadership and political commitment to human rights is just one of many whole of life issues promoted by PIAF in a forthcoming radio drama series entitled ‘A walk with Mele.’ The drama play reflects Pacific realities and is set in a region where radio is the most widely spread information medium. It allows the key actors, both of them women, one of whom has AIDS, to share with us their lives and their dramatized stories as Pacific women.

Cultures of gender equality and empowerment: Promoting cultures of understanding around the need for gender equality and its shared benefits involves partnerships for lasting change. Working with men as partners is one step in that journey. In Fiji, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands a Male Involvement in Reproductive Health program targets men in workplace settings, raising awareness of reproductive health issues. It encourages Pacific men to be more involved with their partners during pregnancy and child rearing. Regional advocacy organization the FWCC is involving men as partners and breaking down the cultural myths at the heart of VAW, allowing men to understand and undermine cultural acceptance of abuse as well as the context within which sexual violence and risk taking occur.

Cultures of celebration and diversity: In the old Pacific, canoes visiting between islands would trade and share songs and dance as part of their ‘discovery’ -- A new trend is emerging which is unique to the Polynesian sub region covering the Cook Islands, Tahiti, Tonga, and Samoa. The phenomenon of widespread acceptance of fafafine, laelae, mahu or effeminate males who often dress as women but are rarely given public acceptance of their gayness and sexuality is now being challenged. In new ways of advocating safe sex and talking about risk, the Cook Islands Te Tiare Association raises funds, acceptance and awareness of MSM, all through a dance troupe which has widespread local support and is about to tour New Zealand and eventually, Tonga.

Cultures of relevance, involvement and partnership: Seeing and appreciating other points of view often involves challenging our own world views. A stepping stones project trialed in village settings in Fiji and the Solomon Islands recognizes the most powerful change is the one that comes from within, and is a communications tool aimed at helping participants claim and redefine their own understanding of gender, violence, sexuality, and HIV/AIDS while gaining a great set of communication and relationship skills. In Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, the advocacy messages made powerful by indigenous language and humour are delivered with edge by community-dramas taken to remote villages, and always involving prior negotiation to win the support of traditional chiefs who are essential to gaining acceptance and an audience.

There are other aspects of culture which resonate, but in closing the single most powerful cultural quality for fighting stigma and discrimination in the Pacific is the one I started with: it is the culture of speaking out, and breaking the silence. It is the willingness of all of us, whether we have AIDS or not, to step up and shine the light on the white elephants dressed up as cultural taboos, and to denounce discrimination for what it is. In standing up to advocate and educate the rest of us, those with AIDS in the Pacific are really pointing us back to the Pacific Way of love, compassion, dignity and respect. Not just because our governments have signed on to a dotted line that says these things are a human right – but simply because we are worth it.

[i] UNAIDS Oceania Factsheet, 2006

[ii] The research participants included 19 individuals living with HIV from five Pacific Island countries. A little over half of them were women (11). Reflecting current HIV and AIDS statistics, most came from Fiji (15) with one each from Kiribati, Samoa, Solomon Islands, and Vanuatu.

[iii] Robert Nicole, lead writer.

Support free speech for a free and prosperous Fiji!

2009-04-20T00:15:00.000-07:00

PFF MEDIA ALERT

Members of PFF Pacific Freedom Forum have launched a call for solidarity for anyone who believes, as we do, that free speech is the cornerstone to growth and prosperity, to sign our petition supporting freedoms of speech in Fiji.

Signing the petition is open to members of the media - and anyone else who supports freedoms of speech in Fiji - a hub and centre for regional agencies working for nations and people of the Pacific.

As announced last week by PFF, the petition "Support Free Speech for a Prosperous Fiji" is aimed at all Pacific Islands leaders, not just those in Fiji.

The plan is to collect as many signatures as possible as part of our PFF campaigns to celebrate World Press Freedom Day on May 3, 2009.

The theme of WPFD this year is especially appropriate celebrating the role of the media, promoting cultures of mutual understanding and diversity.

Signing the petition is a reminder for regional leaders when debating options for the troubled republic - that freedoms of speech are fundamental to futures of any successful society - not an optional extra.

PETITION LINK
To view the petition and sign on, click here http://www.gopetition.com/online/26992.html

Please forward this information as widely as possible!

FURTHER INFO ON PFF http://www.pacificfreedomforum.blogspot.com/ . . .

Latitudes...and attitudes

2008-08-27T17:24:00.000-07:00

Postcards from the Pacific

A Dunedin postcard in spring , or the corner of the postcard that has you walking through the University campus, feels like walking through a Harry Potter movie. But ah, spring is in the air -- a change in environmental mood that has definitely lifted my own. All through winter rain, fog, closed down airports and cancelled flights waiting to leave the winter rain and fog, rewashed laundry and soggy not quite dry clothes, coughing kids and midnight shivers, snowy mountains and close to zero days, my mantra has been: winter is a blessing cos it makes you appreciate the sun when it does come! SO hem nao, bring on the sun I say, bring it on! I don't give a toss about the kilos I piled on when it comes to losing all the layers of clothing and wondering where the extra tires came from. I have watched enough Oprah and Dr Phil to give me enough self-realisation that I am more than the sum on the scales.
Well...maybe when I am having a fit over all the clothes I can NO LONGER fit at the Warehouse summer sales -- but hey, thats a few months away; and by the time I rev up into a state that gets my arse out the door...well, it will be winter again, won't it?!

***

Pacific musings...

2008-08-26T18:13:00.000-07:00

RIP: Note for Bob (Robert Worthington)

Your leaving
rippling on ocean surfaces
my sadness
cresting each tiny wave
dreaming its way to distant shores

Your leaving
revives my story
and this memory links us:
I anchored my inexperienced vaka
to your ocean voyaging Hokule'a

aimed for stars, dared to vision
rode through storms, this time
of my own choosing.
you gifted me
these things

Your leaving
reminding me
of other voyagers
yet to find their way
Your wave
of aroa still finding shore after shore after shore.

Media notes

2007-06-10T20:03:00.000-07:00

2007: the year of the blog

I jumped at the chance to take up an Online course on ICTs Journalism with PenPlusBytes, and join an international classroom of mainly African journalists, earlier this year. I haven't stopped jumping since. The content has been great, there's never been a dull moment and the research is all at your fingertips. Google has definitely moved from a noun to a verb in my lifetime....and Im convinced more Pacific Islanders need to get into online publishing and voices via the WWW.

Of course, what I've learnt so far is just chicken scratching the surface of this global information world.

Media convergence, blogging and podcasting, spaces such as wiki's and wikipedia, ICts assisted journalism and the growth of that fuzzy area between citizen-journalists vs newsroom hacks like me, added to the new knowledge management and Web 2.0 debates....eeks. The possibilities are endless. And I even found out how to clean up my email inbox more efficiently!

A friend of mine helped me set up this blog more than a year ago. Thanks to the ICT Journalism class of 2007 that Im now a part of, it's up to me to bring it to life. Thanks PenPlusBytes...and onwards.

Pacific Stories

2006-05-29T20:00:00.000-07:00

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