MEDIAWATCH: Shallow NZ media coverage of violent crackdown in New Caledonia focused only on white tourists
The coverage by the New Zealand media over the brutal crack down in New Caledonia by the French on the indigenous people as they erupt in protest at France’s naked gerrymandering of electoral law has been depressingly shallow.
To date most mainstream NZ media (with the exception of Māori media and the excellent Dr David Robie) have been focused on getting scared Kiwi tourists back home, very few have actually explained what the hell is going on!
This sudden eruption of protest follows a corrupt French law allowing French people to vote after only 10 years living there.
This law is a direct attack on Kanak sovereignty, it’s a purely gerrymandering response to ensure a democratic majority to prevent any independence referendum.
While no one else is allowed in there, the French are using heavy handed tactics…
Pacific civil society and solidarity groups today stepped up their pressure on the French government, accusing it of a “heavy-handed” crackdown on indigenous Kanak protest in New Caledonia, comparing it to Indonesian security forces crushing West Papuan dissent.
A state of emergency was declared last week, at least six people have been killed — four of them indigenous Kanaks — and more than 200 people have been arrested after rioting in the capital Nouméa followed independence protests over controversial electoral changes
In Sydney, the Australia West Papua Association declared it was standing in solidarity with the Kanak people in their self-determination struggle against colonialism.
…we should not as a Pacific Island Nation be standing idly by while the bloody French are giving the indigenous people the bash!
We need to be asking what the hell has France’s elite troops being doing while no one is watching! The New Zealand Government must ask the French Ambassador in and put our concerns to them directly.
Calm must come back but there has to be a commitment to the 1998 Noumea Accord which clearly stipulates that only the Kanak and long-term residents prior to 1998 would be eligible to vote in provincial ballots and local referendums. To outright vote against this as the French National Assembly did last week is fucking outrageous and will add an extra 25 000 voters into the election dramatically changing the electoral demographics in New Caledonia to the disadvantage of indigenous Kanaks who make up 42 percent of the 270,000 population.
This was avoidable, but the French are purposely trying to screw the scrum and rig the outcome.
We should be very clear that is unacceptable.
Fuck our very narrow focus on just getting Kiwis out of New Caledonia with no reflection whatsoever on what the French are doing!
Fuck the French!
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Fancy ,,, letting people vote !! Appalling !!
Read the appalling history and get with this colonisation programme.
Letting people vote who were previously not permitted to because of the Noumea accord.
What do you want – aaah like Aotearoa let the whiteys have the place and run the show.
Disgusting stuff by the French government.
This is all very frustrating. Has anyone else been able to figure out how to contribute to the Union Caledonienne? The other parties in the FLNKS seem pretty ineffectual, but Christian Tein is getting some good work done.
I met a Fijian women while in town yesterday and we started talking about local shopping hours. Then I asked her what she thought about the New Caledonian fighting and she had not heard of it. I thought in Fiji they are having some troubles and expressed concern which she appreciated and we touched on the news about the leader of their coup Frank Bainimarama being in court. It is hard for we ordinary people to keep up with the machinations of the leaders and those wielding power; not knowing about New Caledonia was not really surprising, we can’t keep up. As for New Caledonia, Fijians may know it by its real name and not the one imposed by distant colonisers.
I like to use takeaways and meet immigrants there, real hard workers, food being very hands-on. I chat with the owners as most of them are small one-person or family driven. So I talk to Turks, Malaysian Chinese, Italian (not new citizens but still speaking Italian), Japanese and German-born, Filipino, Indians, and one lonely UK Sikh worker manning a convenience store till 9 pm with no-one around to buy anything. NZ/AO is getting fractured with not enough regular trade and business to keep us going. Kiwis will be the lonely ones in the midst of this swell of people encouraged in to the country by our destructive policies from Government without interest in what we want and need, and the rhythms of our familiar and enjoyed society. And gummint is a sham of yes-men and women to intrusive, advantaged foreigners and the self-involved wealthy and aspirational, who direct gummint and offer them and their minions advantage, and us disadvantage now or in future.
Perhaps the new foreigners who are probably close to indentured labourers, will keep our country going as Kiwis don’t seem to fit into the new schema, and one gets the feeling that we will become externalities. Meanwhile the news is that two wealthy foreigners are taking up time in our courts sorting out a $16 million debt with $3.2 million interest owed.
Can you do a succinct post?
While some key NZ media paid scant attention to events in New Caledonia, RNZ Pacific consistently reported developments – month after month. Searching the RNZ website for New Caledonia will yield more than eight thousand stories, many of them detailing the sticking points and warnings that brought about the current deep crisis.
Why is it outrageous that some who has lived there for potentially 20 yrs is allow to vote?
Zea Newlanders don’t speak French. Hence the coverage is garbage.