ARCHIVES: Pacific Region
News Corp's Australian arm agreed to sell its Fiji Times newspaper to a local owner, likely ending a dispute with the Fijian government over media ownership, the Wall Street Journal has reported. News Ltd said Tuesday it agreed to sell the newspaper to Motibhai & Co, after the Fijian government issued a decree that the nation's media groups be owned by Fijian companies. Terms of the sale weren't disclosed. News Corp. also owns Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal . In a... MORE
Fiji’s main daily newspaper, the Fiji Times , is up for sale following the military regime’s declaration of a media decree requiring all media outlets be owned 90 per cent by locals. The Times is wholly owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited. All Fiji media have been under martial law censorship for the last year but the Times has incurred the wrath of coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama, in part by refusing to use his self-declared title of prime minister. The Fiji Times on July 30 announced... MORE
Journalists in Papua are on edge after a reporter was found dead, naked and handcuffed in a river in the Indonesian region’s south, Radio NEw Zealand International has reported. Australia-based human rights advocate, Nick Chesterfield, said the Merauke environmental journalist had been reporting on financial irregularities and alleged military corruption. He said Ardiansyah Matra’is had become fearful after receiving threatening text messages and other journalists are now under police... MORE
Rival Australian newspaper publishers Fairfax Media and APN News & Media have agreed on an alliance combining Fairfax’s online classified advertising with the print classified sections of 90 regional daily and local newspapers published by APN in Queensland and Northern New South Wales. The deal, bandt.co.au reported, will allow Fairfax to promote its classified websites – Drive.com.au, Domain.com.au and Mycareer.com.au – to advertisers in regional areas where the company does not publish a... MORE
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has launched a new project in the Pacific designed to strengthen the role of media workers and press freedom advocates in defending and promoting human rights and fundamental freedoms in the region. Media for Democracy and Human Rights in the Pacific, which is supported by the European Union and UNESCO, aims to bring together an enduring coalition of organisations and individuals who will jointly promote and defend rights related to freedom of... MORE
A new Fijian media decree that formalizes repressive government control of the media could force the outspoken Fiji Times to close within three months, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Fiji Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum announced at a press conference Monday that the Media Industry Development Decree, drafted in April, is now in effect. The decree requires all media outlet directors and 90 per cent of shareholders to be citizens and permanent residents of Fiji... MORE
A draft decree in fiji proposes to regulate media ownership and news content, while authorising the imposition of fines and prison terms for violations, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, who has maintained a supposedly temporary military rule since seizing power in a 2006 coup, announced the decree shortly before a compulsory three-day meeting with media representatives began Wednesday, according to international news reports. A new media... MORE
A female Indian reporter was attacked while working undercover to expose scams targeting foreign students in Australia's booming education sector, Agence France-Presse (AFP) has reported quoting the country's public broadcaster. The young woman was threatened and then physically assaulted in a Sydney street over the weekend while investigating dubious practices exploiting Indian students, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) said. ABC said police had been told about the attack on its... MORE
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the Fiji military regime's extension of strict media censorship and emergency regulations, saying the regime's effort to stamp out public discussion is undermining all fundamental rights of the people of Fiji. Under the emergency rules, initially imposed in April, the media is forbidden to publish or broadcast anything negative about the regime. Censors are now posted in all media outlets. "The attempts by Fiji's military leaders... MORE
The Committee to Protect Journalists has urged the Canadian and Australian governments to work for the immediate release of two freelance journalists who have been held captive in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, since August. On Wednesday last, a woman claiming to be captive journalist Amanda Lindhout called the Canadian broadcaster CTV, saying she fears for her life and pleading for the government to assist her. Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan were abducted along the Afgoye-... MORE
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