ABOUT PACIFIC MEDIA WATCH

13 January 2008
Pacific Media Watch is an independent, non-profit, non-government organisation comprising a network of journalists, academics, teachers, lawyers, editors, media workers and others, dedicated to examining issues of ethics, accountability, censorship, media freedom and media ownership in the Pacific region.

Over the next few months, the website will be undergoing significant changes as it is redeveloped as a DSpace digital archive.

Launched in Sydney in October 1996, Pacific Media Watch is the Pacific's first regional media web site and is now published by the Pacific Media Centre at AUT University in New Zealand. It has links with the Journalism Programme at the University of the South Pacific, Journalism Studies at the University of PNG (UPNG) and the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ).

Independent and watchful, Pacific Media Watch was founded in 1996 as an independent, non-profit non-government organisation by journalists Peter Cronau (based then at the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism, University of Technology, Sydney) and David Robie (based then at Journalism Studies at the University of Papua New Guinea).

Its genesis was the jailing of two journalists and a 'whistleblowing' pro-democracy member of Parliament in Tonga for alleged contempt in September 1996. They were later freed by the Supreme Court in Tonga which ruled their imprisonment was unconstitutional. PMW played an important role in the campaign to free the three men, including organising a petition of more than 100 media signatures from the region.

OBJECTIVES

PMW's objectives are to:

* Press for the urgent removal of barriers to press freedom and freedom of expression.

* Protect and support journalists unjustly jailed, assaulted or harassed while performing their professional duty.

* Encourage debate on media ethics, and press for improved professional standards.

* Monitor regional media ownership and other issues affecting freedom of information.

* Provide an information base through the internet and a web site.

* Represent the overwhelming desire of Pacific peoples for a free and independent media.

WHAT THEY SAY

KALAFI MOALA, editor of Taimi 'o Tonga:

"Thank you for your tireless efforts in protesting our jailing ... The three of us were very much moved when we ran out of jail to find that your organisation as well as others from around the world was protesting our jailing. The signed petition you put together was something else."

COMMONWEALTH JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION:

"We commend Pacific Media Watch for its careful watchdog role on the region's news media. Its efforts to monitor assaults on press freedom are applauded."

SOUTH PACIFIC CENTRE FOR COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION IN DEVELOPMENT:

"Pacific Media Watch has created a valuable information resource on the Web and continues to focus on Pacific media censorship. We welcome your efforts."

AUSTRALIAN CENTRE FOR INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM:

"PMW reminds us that the public's right to information is paramount to any passing embarrassment that may be felt by government."

 

PACIFIC MEDIA WATCH

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Email: pmc@aut,ac.nz
Fax: (+649) 921 9987
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Website: www.pmw.c2o.org