Cafe Pacific Media

PROFILE: By Mong Palatino Global Voices has interviewed veteran Aotearoa New Zealand writer and educator David Robie who discussed the state of Pacific media, journalism education, and the role of the press in addressing decolonisation and the climate crisis. Professor Robie was among the 2024 New Zealand Order of Merit awardees and on the inaugural King’s Birthday Honours list for his “services to journalism and Asia-Pacific media education”. His career in journalism has spanned six decades.

COMMENTARY: By Saige England Being passive must come after being passionate and active. Some know this. Some don’t. So many people still don’t know this. I keep hoping they will learn, know, care and do something. I recall a line about journalism many years ago, that good journalists write the truth about social issues so that the right people will read about them and do something to change those social issues, the terrible wrongs against humanity.

SPECIAL REPORT: By Eugene Doyle Something significant and revelatory just happened in the New Zealand Parliament. I was present at today’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee meeting when things kicked off between the Foreign Minister and humanitarian aid activist Hāhona Ormsby, one of the New Zealanders who survived kidnapping and beatings by Israeli forces in May. Despite the presence of many well-known pro-Palestinian activists, there was no security in the room when things turned spicy.

In the great expanse of oceans, a number of small, remote islands are having their moment in the spotlight. From the Chagos islands to the South China Sea, a string of islands have been thrust suddenly onto the frontline of geopolitics. Now a long-simmering tussle over two rocky islands is creating tension in the South Pacific. Ben Bohane investigates.

It isn’t Tehran led by unhinged, genocidal megalomaniacs threatening the security of the region and the world. It is Tel Aviv and Washington, writes Jonathan Cook. ANALYSIS: By Jonathan Cook Could it be that Israel’s 30-year narrative about Iran — one that persuaded US President Donald Trump to wage a criminal and disastrous war of aggression — was always a fiction, an invention cooked up in Tel Aviv?

By Antony Phillips in The Vertical For this edition of Kāpū Tī with Antony, I sit down with journalist and academic, Dr David Robie. A professor of journalism who has worked in Aotearoa and abroad, David is a Central Aucklander and regular visitor who is highly engaged in the City Centre. We sit down for a cuppa — coffee on this occasion and what a delight it was. Kāpū Tī with Antony conversation with David Robie at the Little Melba café.

SPECIAL REPORT: By Eugene Doyle I interviewed several of the New Zealanders who, as members of the Global Sumud Flotilla to Gaza, were taken hostage by the Israelis in international waters near Cyprus last week and moved to Israel.

Asia Pacific Report Türkiye has condemned Israel’s intervention against the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla in international waters, describing it as “a new act of piracy”, reports TRT World News. In a statement, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said Israeli forces had yesterday intervened against the flotilla, which was carrying humanitarian aid to Gaza.

ANALYSIS: By David Robie, Pacific Media Watch When the Paris-based global watchdog Reporters Without Borders released their annual World Press Freedom Index dossier online three days before World Press Freedom Day, journalists in the Asia-Pacific region were quick to check out their ranking. Overall the prognosis wasn’t very flattering.

Janssen was one of more than 170 people who were illegally abducted by Israeli military forces on board Global Sumud Flotilla boats in international waters for 48 hours and given restricted access to food and water. He said flotilla participants were beaten and 34 people needed immediate medical attention when they were dumped ashore in Greece.