Murdoch Media And Fiji Editorials Highlighted

Murdoch Media And Fiji Editorials Highlighted In Latest PJR
www.asiapac.org.fj/PJR/

SUVA (Pacific Media Watch): Murdoch and other foreign domination of the New Zealand media, Fiji coup editorials, the Pacific "non solution" on refugees, and rural publishing in Papua New Guinea are featured in the latest edition of Pacific Journalism Review released this week.

"If the concentration of media control in Australia in 1993 was leading to a loss of liberty to dissent at a critical time in Australia, it is even more true of New Zealand today," writes researcher and analyst Bill Rosenberg.

His article shows that between the Murdoch group, Independent Newspapers Ltd (INL), and Auckland-based Wilson and Horton, New Zealand's two media giants own almost 93 percent of the country's metropolitan newspaper circulation.

Dr Rosenberg, a university information technology specialist and writer on foreign investment with the Campaign Against Foreign Control of Aotearoa (CAFCA), has written a comprehensive 36-page analysis of all media ownership structures in New Zealand, including newspapers, magazines, radio, television and the internet.

Lynda Duncan, a development studies researcher, has analysed the editorials of two Fiji daily newspapers - the Fiji Times and Daily Post - during the George Speight political crisis in mid-2000 and concluded that both papers "reinforced the colonial legacy".

"Neither editor provided in-depth analysis of the causes of the political crisis nor related it back to historical events," she writes.

"They both neglected to place events in a social or political context."

Her article presents a detailed analysis of the differences and similarities of the editorials of both papers.

Ian Stuart reports on Maori and mainstream media in New Zealand and the lack of progress towards bicultural reporting.

"The New Zealand news industry - owners, management and education sectors - has long agreed that the news media requires more Maori journalists," he writes.

"The industry has long recognised an imbalance does exist, whatever its characterisation. But the solution is not as simple as it seems."

Papua New Guinea's former Eastern Star editor Matt Loney offers his recipe for success in Pacific rural publishing in the 196-page edition while Nic Maclellan exposes the weaknesses of media coverage of the Pacific "non solution" over refugees.

Pacific journalists profiled include former Fiji Times editor Netani Rika (now Fiji Television's news director), photojournalists Asaeli Lave, broadcaster turned women's rights lobbyist Viri Buadromo and Mary-Louise O'Callaghan, the Australian's Honiara-based correspondent.

The inaugural Pacific Islands Media Association (PIMA) conference in Auckland is also featured with the opening speech by pro-democracy parliamentarian and publisher S 'Akilisi Pohiva about media freedom and justice in Tonga.

The journal is edited by New Zealand journalist and educator David Robie and is available from the University of the South Pacific Book Centre.

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