Police later raided Papuan student dormitories in the evening and detained 233 students in a day of human rights violations as Indonesian authorities cracked down on demonstrations marking December 1 – “independence day”, according to protesters.
Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, leader of the ruling FijiFirst party, finished off on a strong footing after an early scare in a challenge from the original 1987 Fiji coup leader Sitiveni Rabuka’s SODELPA, raking in 167,732 votes in the results by candidate tally to have the highest personal vote.
New Caledonia referendum: The pro-independence hand has been strengthened by the success of mobilising young people and showing the world that they “are serious” about their vision of a new nation, Kanaky New Caledonia.
Khashoggi aftermath: “Today assassinations, murders – especially the killing of those involved in investigating corruption – kidnappings, hostage taking are increasingly the norm. And being targeted by vicious trolls, often with death threats, is a media fact of life these days.”
Joe Moses: “It is shameful that [the PNG] government continues to limit free speech and put such pressure on our country’s only annual arts and human rights event. How does this make us look to the world leaders who will be coming here for the APEC meeting in November?”
“Media Lens has shattered a silence about corporate journalism. Like Noam Chomsky and Edward Herman in Manufacturing Consent, they represent a Fifth Estate that deconstructs and demystifies the media’s power.”
The South Pacific Nuclear Free Pacific Zone Treaty 33 years ago ushered in a radical era for the Pacific, which predated NZ’s own nuclear-free law.
“This is not a joke: I’m blacklisted by the Indonesian government. Saya termasuk dalam daftar tangkal Indonesia (terjemahan dibawah). I’ve been refused entry to Bali and have been held in a room at Denpasar airport on a couch since midnight… I explained I was on a holiday.”
Two damning and contrasting books about Indonesian colonialism in the Pacific, both by activist participants in Europe and New Zealand, have recently been published. Overall, they are excellent exposes of the harsh repression of the Melanesian people of West Papua and a world that has largely closed a blind eye to to human rights violations.
When Reporters Without Borders chief Christophe Deloire introduced the Paris-based global media watchdog’s Asia-Pacific press freedom defenders – including from Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea – to his overview last week, it was grim listening.