Luc Tutugoro, a New Zealand-based Kanak: “We are creeping towards Kanak sovereignty. Work on the abstentions will be the key focus for the future – as well as a true and authentic dialogue, no matter what the result of the third and last [independence] referendum will be.”
The censored item was purportedly because of “nudity” in a photograph published by the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) of a protest in the West Papuan capital Jayapura in August last year during the Papuan Uprising against Indonesian racism and oppression that began in Surabaya, Java.
While the globe struggles to cope with the deadly onslaught of the covid-19 pandemic, communicators, historians, journalists and activists have been deploying innovative ways of marking three nuclear-related anniversaries in barely a month.
FLASHBACK 35 YEARS: The bombed ship’s pioneering environmental work has since been carried on by Rainbow Warrior II and the state-of-the-art eco campaign ship Rainbow Warrior III. Today the focus is on climate refugees, the lack of adequate health compensation for the Polynesians who suffered radiation and failure to provide proper clean-up of the French nuclear testing zones that are still off-limits after almost a quarter century. Tests were carried out by balloon, derrick, in the lagoon and in a series of underground shafts which have threatened the stability of the 60 km long atoll, leaving it fractured “like Swiss cheese”.
“Laws are part of our solution to protect those who are assaulted and attacked but that is not enough. The responsibility rests with every citizen. Our behaviour and our attitude and how we fashion the society we want to live in will deliver this homeland of ours.” – Open letter from Dame Meg Taylor to the people of Papua New Guinea
Associate Professor Tarcisius Kabutaulaka accuses a small group of people of “selfishly and disrespectfully desecrating” this “sacred place of learning” for the Pacific which celebrated a half century two years ago.
“The road would bring the death of their centuries-old way of life, previously undisturbed aside from the occasional Indonesian military incursion and the mostly welcome arrival of Christian missionaries. It was inevitable, really, that the plan by the Indonesian state to develop the isolated interior of the West Papua and Papua provinces would meet resistance.” – John Martinkus in a new West Papua book
Human rights advocates and civil society groups are voicing their condemnation of Papuans being held in crowded and risky Indonesian jails for taking part in peaceful demonstrations and a “Free West Papuan political prisoners” campaign has gone viral on social media.
From Papua New Guinea where media briefings have been curtailed with a lockdown of the national information and operations “nerve centre” at Morauta Haus, to Fiji where media personalities have been arrested, to the Philippines where state troll armies “weaponise” disinformation on social media, and to Indonesia where street artists have stepped in fill an information void, the signs are really worrying for defenders for media freedom.
Pushed into the background by the relentless sad statistics and pandemic doomsday stories around the globe are some other stories in the Pacific that normally struggle to get an airing in mainstream media.