Climate change protesters blockaded the Petroleum Summit in the New Zealand city of New Plymouth today where the government was expected to announce the 2017 “block offer” for new gas and oil exploration, reports Māori Television.

Since 2012, more than half a million square kilometers of land and sea have been proposed for release, imposing on people’s properties.

It will also encroach on the Marine Mammal Sanctuary for the critically endangered Maui’s dolphin.

“Today’s blockade intends to disrupt the Petroleum Summit by using non-violent direct action,”  says “People’s Climate Rally” spokesperson Emily Tuhi-Ao Bailey

“Not a single new oil well, gas field or coal mine can operate if we are going to avoid a climate catastrophe, yet year after year the government and oil industry keep meeting to find ways to expand the industry.”

The People’s Climate Rally was organised by a coalition of groups from Taranaki and around New Zealand in order to disrupt the conference and discuss clean and fair alternatives to the fossil fuel industry.

It is the first time the government and international oil delegates have held the oil conference in Taranaki.

Escalating protests
This move comes after years of escalating protests in Wellington and Auckland, which have seen thousands take to the streets and hundreds blockade the Sky City conference venue in Auckland.

“We demand a stop to all new oil and gas exploration, drilling and fracking,” said Bailey.

“The extraction and burning of fossil fuels is radically changing our climate, wreaking havoc on our critical infrastructure, agriculture, tourism, human health and food security. It is time to stop.

“Non violent direct action has a long and revered history. Social justice change has always involved people coming together, organising and put their bodies on the line to stand in the way of injustice.

“It is especially important that this is happening in Taranaki. Taranaki has long, bitter experience with the environmental, health and personal impacts from oil and gas activities including drilling, flaring and fracking.

“For many Māori this is seen as a continuation of colonisation.”

The book is about what the New Zealand military – and especially the Special Air Service (SAS) – did in Afghanistan in response to the first New Zealander dying in combat in August 2010.

The book, called Hit and Run, was released at a book launch at Unity Books in Wellington.

It was written by Nicky Hager following a long collaboration with Jon Stephenson, who brought the majority of sources to the project. For more than two years, they gradually gathered and pieced together the evidence.

The book describes a series of operations which proved to be ill-conceived, tragic and disastrous. These included an SAS attack on two isolated villages in Afghanistan’s Baghlan province where they mistakenly believed they would find the insurgents who had attacked a New Zealand patrol 19 days earlier in neighbouring Bamiyan. SAS officers commanded and led the attack, supported by US and Afghan forces.

The insurgent group was not there. Instead, at least 21 civilians were killed and injured – many of them women and children – and the SAS and US forces burned and blew up about a dozen houses. The SAS also failed to help the wounded. The Defence Force and government then tried to keep the whole thing secret.

They have never admitted nor taken responsibility for what they did.

Second raid
In a second raid on one of the villages about 10 days later, the SAS destroyed more property. When they eventually caught one of the targeted insurgents in Kabul he was beaten before being handed to the Afghan secret police and tortured.

Fragments of the story have reached the public before but the vast majority has remained secret until now. It is much worse than anyone knew. As former Chief Human Rights Commissioner Margaret Bedggood says, there needs to be a full, principled and independent inquiry into the actions described in this book, which, if confirmed, would seriously breach international law.

Hit and Run is based on numerous and extensive interviews with people involved in these events, including New Zealand and Afghan military personnel as well as residents of the villages. All wanted this story told to recognise the dead and the injured.

“This story also needs to be told to ensure our military is held to account for its actions,” says Hager.

“Whether or not the public agreed with New Zealand sending troops to the US-led war in Afghanistan, there is no doubt that what the SAS did was wrong and betrayed the defence force’s core values of courage, commitment and integrity.”

People in Timor-Leste went to the polls yesterday to elect a new president. Their choice was between eight candidates with former guerrilla fighter Francisco Guterres, nicknamed “Lu-Olo”, expected to win, reports RFI English.

Backed by Fretilin, the party that led the revolutionary struggle to the country’s independence, Guterres was leading earlier today with 59.24 percent of votes, reports The Sydney Morning Herald.

But the Herald also reported that only 34.34 percent of votes had been counted by early today, reflecting huge logistical problems in the largely mountainous country with a poor road network.

Reuter reported that vote had come at a challenging time for the Pacific fringe nation 15 years after independence from Indonesia, with oil reserves running dry and its leaders struggling to reach agreement with Australia over lucrative energy fields.

Timor-Leste has a population of just 1.2 million people but the results will take a few days to process.

But observers are happy.

“It’s been a very good election process,” says Professor Damian Kingsbury, an official observer from Australia. “It’s been quite well run, it has been a celebration of the opportunity and the right to be able to vote for political leaders.”

This is the first election that has been run without international assistance and, although there have been some minor technical problems, it has been a very successful process.

Guterres is expected to win. He was once the general coordinator of the resistance against Indonesian rule.

Resistance leaders
“The voting result as we have right now, shows that the country’s leadership is still largely dominated by high-profile resistance leaders,” says Khoo Ying Hooi, of the University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur.

Former rebel leaders Xanana Gusmao, José Ramos-Horta, Taur Matan Ruak, Dr Maria Alkateri, all became presidents and prime ministers after independence and still call the political shots.

“Back in 2012, Xanana Gusmao’s influence was seen in his support of Taur Matan Ruat,” says Khoo Ying Hooi. “This time around, his strong support for Lu Olu as president has proven that Timorese are still looking at history when they vote.”

Timor-Leste is currently fighting another battle – this time against Australia in the courtrooms of the International Court of Justice in The Hague.

Dili is demanding access to large stretches of sea that may contain rich oilfields, potentially worth billions of euros.

With its other neighbour, former occupying power Indonesia, Timor-Leste seems to have reached an agreement.

Bilateral relationship
“There was an official decision taken many years ago that the two countries needed to establish a positive bilateral relationship,” says Professor Kingsbury, who crossed the border between Timor-Leste and Indonesian-ruled West Timor to find Indonesians “very curious about the election process”.

But he did not sense that Indonesia tried to influence the elections.

“Leaderships of both countries worked very hard to achieve cooperation,” he says, pointing at a recently developed joint Indonesian-East Timorese police training programme.

But he says that decades of occupation that ended in brutal bloodshed before independence is still felt among the Timorese, especially the fact that significant human rights abuses by the Indonesian military were not properly addressed.

If that will ever happen, he doesn’t know.

“The reality is that Timor-Leste, a very small country with only 1.2 million people is surrounded by big Indonesia with more than 240 million. So it is just a practical necessity to get along with this neighbour,” he says.

Back to politics. Even though the old fighters are still dominating the scene, change may be in the air.

“A younger generation of leaders is emerging,” says Khoo Ying Hooi. “Many are supporting the Popular Liberation Party.”

The newly formed PLP did not field a presidential candidate but is expected to campaign in parliamentary elections set for July.

The Pacific Media Centre’s popular “Bearing Witness” climate change project enters its second year next month.

As part of a collaborative venture between Auckland University of Technology’s PMC and the University of the South Pacific’s Pacific Centre for the Environment-Sustainable Development (PaCE-SD) and regional Pacific journalism programme, two new journalists are going to Fiji to take up the challenge.

Julie Cleaver, a Communication Studies Honours student journalist, and Pacific Media Watch contributing editor Kendall Hutt have been selected to go on the project this year.

The pair say they are looking forward to experiencing the effects of climate change first-hand.

They follow in the footsteps of former PMW editor TJ Aumua and postgraduate student journalism Ami Dhabuwala who went to Fiji last year.

Many small island states such as Kiribati, the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu live daily with the impact of sea level rise, while water and food supplies are plagued by salt water intrusion.

Cleaver, who has not “really experienced the true Pacific outside of hotels”, says seeing such effects will be a fascinating and eye-opening experience.

‘People’s stories’
“I’m really looking forward to going to Fiji to hear people’s stories, meet local people, and report on what is happening in the country,” she says.

“The story of our Pacific neighbours is extremely important, and it is my job as a journalist to tell the world what is happening.”

Cleaver is no stranger to the Asia-Pacific region, having volunteered throughout Southeast Asia in countries such as Cambodia, Indonesia and South Korea.

Next month will mark Cleaver’s first “proper” time in Fiji, however.

She first travelled to Fiji when she was just a four-year-old, but due to the George Speight coup in 2000, her family did not get beyond the airport.

Pacific Media Watch’s Kendall Hutt, who has yet to experience the Asia-Pacific, says she is looking forward to being on assignment in the region where her passion for journalism lies.

“Writing about the Pacific and climate change is one thing, being able to experience it yourself, first-hand, that’s another.

Forefront of climate change
“Pacific nations are at the forefront of climate change.  Islands are being inundated by rising sea levels, people are being forced to migrate, so we can’t really continue to deny climate change’s existence anymore.

“Bringing this to the wider public’s attention, that’s key for me.”

Pacific Media Centre director Professor David Robie, who initiated the project, said “live” assignments like this were a major boost for young journalists’ professional development.

He paid tribute to PaCE-SD’s Sarika Chand and USP journalism coordinator Dr Shailendra Singh and his team for their support in Fiji.

“Their help enables us to carry out challenging projects like this.”

• Watch for the “Bearing Witness” stories and multimedia reports on the PMC’s current affairs site Asia Pacific Report.

Kendall Hutt talking climate change on Radio 95bFM’s Southern Cross today.

By Nethy Dharma Somba in Jayapura

Indonesia’s Tembagapura Immigration Office has banned two French journalists, Jean Frank Pierre, 45, and Basille Marie Longhamp, 42, from entering the country for the next six months for allegedly violating the 2011 Immigration Law.

“The activities of these two journalists were basically good. However, there was a lack of coordination with related institutions,” said Tembagapura Immigration Office head Samuel Enock in Timika, Papua.

He further explained that the two French journalists were sponsored by the national airline Garuda to carry out journalistic investigation in Indonesia.

“However, they started their work before obtaining the necessary documents, which were still being processed. As a consequence, they are banned from entering Indonesia for the next six months,” Enock said.

Pierre and Longhamp were deported from Timika to France via Jakarta on a Garuda flight on Friday.

Enock said the two journalists had not yet obtained journalist visas from the Indonesian Embassy in Paris before they started working.

“They took pictures while on a tourist visa. They also had not yet obtained a reporting permit, although both of them already had a permit from the Tourism Ministry and their activities were sponsored by Garuda,” said Samuel.

Charged with violation
They were charged with violating Article 75 (1) of the 2011 Immigration Law.

The French journalists were taken into custody when they were about to take pictures of the Cartenz areas using a helicopter rented from Happi Live Aviation.

They also planned to take pictures in Asmat, Wamena, and Raja Ampat and Sorong in West Papua.

In 2014, Thomas Dandois, 40, and Valentine Bourrat, 29, were deported after being detained for carrying out journalistic activities while on a tourist visit.

Nethy Dharma Somba is Jayapura correspondent for The Jakarta Post.

By Annette Kora in Port Moresby

Lack of funds hampers addressing issues faced by the increasing number of people living with HIV in Papua New Guinea, says Cardinal Sir John Ribat.

Cardinal Ribat, chairman of the Christian Leaders Alliance on HIV/AIDS, said this before handing over the recommendations made at the two-day summit for PNG Christian Leaders Alliance on HIV and AIDS.

He said advocacy was the paramount role of Christian leaders.

Cardinal Ribat said that through their pastoral care duties, they would advocate on outgoing, current and emerging issues that affecting individuals and families such as HIV and AIDS, gender-based violence, stigma and discrimination, access to service and issues affecting key populations.

He said that it was recommended that heads of churches must take a more proactive role in educating and creating a learning environment for our people including the key populations.

“The key advocacy statement from this summit is ‘HIV is not a death sentence’.”

He added that all heads of churches must from now on advocate with that message throughout their church networks.

“The government, through the department of National Planning and Monitoring, must create a physical programme for PNGCLA on HIV and AIDS so that heads of churches can be able to access government development funding through the existing MoU between the church and the government and call it the Church and State Partnership Program.”

Strong concerns
The summit expressed strong concerns regarding the number of people being infected with HIV and also stressing on the continuing sustainability of the existing services that requires a strong commitment for funding.

The summit also called for a renewed national strategy with full cooperation between the government and churches in order to meet the emerging demands on the nation for the care, support and treatment for people living with HIV.

The summit was also told that Papua New Guinea had the highest HIV prevalence among the Pacific nations with a rate of 0.8 percent among the 15-49 age group.

The regional manager for the National Aids Council Secretariat, Valentine Tangoh said while
presenting his report that the Highlands region had a prevalence rate of more than 1 percent in HIV cases, placing Enga as the province with the highest rate (1.7 percent), followed by Morobe (0.77 percent). However,  National Capital District had 1.29 percent and Western Province 1.1 percent.

Tangoh said it was more concentrated in certain geographical locations within key population and groups but it was clear that it is mostly concentrated in the Highlands region with the prevalence rate more than 1 percent.

HIV prevalence of 1 percent or more was recorded mainly in the four Highlands provinces.

Enga had a prevalence rate of 1.7 percent, followed by Jiwaka (1.6 percent), Western Highlands (1.3 percent) and Eastern Highlands with 1 percent.

Sex workers
“Studies also indicate a high prevalence of HIV among female sex workers at 19 percent, male sex workers at 8.8 percent and 23 percent among transgender males.”

Tangoh said the main purpose of this summit was to unite all church leaders to inform and empower heads of churches in Papua New Guinea on the current HIV status, reports and studies as well as achievements and the response gaps of HIV and AIDS of the country.

This would create an opportunity for heads of churches to deliberate on HIV and related sensitive issues that are affecting the country and how they can advocate as a collective voice to deal with these issues.

Annette Kora is a Loop PNG reporter.

Predators of press freedom have seized on the notion of “fake news” to muzzle the media on the pretext of fighting false information, says the Paris-based global media freedom agency Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

Nonetheless, many of them have taken recent statements by President Donald Trump as a means of justifying their repressive policies. This dangerous trend is a cause for concern, says RSF.

At a Washington news conference in February, Trump said: “We have to talk to find out what’s going on, because the press, honestly, is out of control. The level of dishonesty is out of control.”

By targeting journalists in this manner, the US president ended a longstanding American tradition of promoting freedom of expression and sent a powerful message to media censors.

The Washington Post called it “a gift to tyrants everywhere”.

In January, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan endorsed Trump’s latest allegations that the CNN television network was guilty of broadcasting “fake news” in its report on ties between the US president and Russia.

A warning to the media
The Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen, appeared to have taken his cue from Trump when he said of journalists in February: “Donald Trump understands that they are an anarchic group.”

Two days earlier, his spokesman issued what he called a warning to foreign media outlets, threatening to “crush” those that endanger“peace and stability” and citing Trump’s treatment of the press as a justification for the warning.

“The so-called fight against fake news has become a propaganda tool for the predators of press freedom,” said RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire.

“Of course, it is more necessary than ever for internet users to disentangle fact from fiction in the flow of information. However, the fight against fake news should be conducted by promoting free and independent journalism as a source of reliable and high-quality information.”

The Russian telecoms regulator is preparing a draft decree designed purely and simply to block all content that contains false information. Before Trump’s statement, Russia, ranked 148^th in RSF’s World Press Freedom Index, had already made it a requirement “not to disseminate false information” for bloggers to operate legally.

The fight against “misleading information” has been a classic feature of post-Soviet Russia. The bill, imitated by several countries such as Uzbekistan, has enough leeway to allow for the broadest possible censorship.

Since July 2016, content aggregators are required to verify the veracity of reports that they publish if they do not come from media outlets registered in Russia, and could face harsh penalties.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has posted a new section on its official website dedicated to debunking fake anti-Russian news stories published by international news outlets.

Punishing “fake news” denies journalists the right to make mistakes
In sub-Sahara Africa, the concept of fake news is often abused to put pressure on journalists. Some countries’ laws provide for severe penalties without taking account of the intentions of journalists, who sometimes simply make mistakes.

In any case, the penalty is disproportionate to the seriousness of the news report, even if it is wrong. In Côte d’Ivoire, for example, insulting the head of state or the dissemination of false news reports may be enough for a journalist to be taken into custody, despite the fact that such offences were meant to be decriminalised under the 2004 press law.

Last month, six senior Ivorian journalists, including three newspaper publishers, were detained and questioned in Abidjan, accused of “publishing false news” about an army mutiny earlier in the month.

In Madagascar, a new communications code has been strongly criticised by journalists for referring to the criminal code in its rulings on press offences, which could lead to the criminalisation of the profession. It provides for heavy fines for infringements ranging from insults to defamation, and refers to the dissemination of “false news”, an imprecise offence which removes the right of journalists to make mistakes.

In Somalia, the Universal TV channel was suspended on March 5 for broadcasting false reports alleged to have threatened the stability and peace of the region after it referred to overseas trips by the president.

Information control is key
The South African government plans to impose a system of online control of the media in order to meet the “challenge” of “fake news”. Growing hostility to the media probably has its roots in an unprecedented crisis in President Jacob Zuma’s African National Congress, whose leaders tend increasingly to silence dissident voices.

In Burundi, the control of news and information is a key issue for the ruling authorities. The government fosters the idea that the media are partisan and that there is an international plot against the country.

Since 2015, any report or statement is instantly interpreted as either for, or against, the government and the goal of the authorities is to impose its version of events as the only one.

In Egypt, journalists are frequently accused of disseminating false information whenever they criticise the government, or report on sensitive issues that upset it. This widespread practice leads to self-censorship among journalists in their coverage of events for fear of joining the long list of colleagues who have been prosecuted and imprisoned.

The investigative journalist Ismail Alexandrani, an expert on the Sinai Peninsula, has been held since his arrest at Hurghada airport on the Red Sea in November 2015 on charges of publishing false information and of membership of the Muslim Brotherhood.

In Bahrain, the prominent citizen journalist and human rights campaigner, Nabeel Rajab, was accused last December of publishing false news about the kingdom of Bahrain in a cybercrime case. He could face up to two years’ imprisonment on this latest charge, which arises from interviews he gave in 2014 and 2015 to local and regional TV stations on human rights in Bahrain.

Fake news used by French politicians
The use of fake news to silence media critics is not the unique preserve of authoritarian or countries that are known for undermining press freedom.

In France, the National Front, through its vice-president Florian Philippot, who has frequently categorised the work of journalists as “fake news”. During the programme “l’Emission Politique” on the TV station France 2 on February 9, in which National Front leader Marine Le Pen took part, the party set up a “fake news alert team” which posted some 20 real-time alerts online “whenever members of the team believed that France 2 journalists put out fake news”.

Presidential candidate François Fillon earlier this month accused TV news channels of falsely reporting that his wife had committed suicide, before admitting no such reports had been broadcast.

In Italy, Beppe Grillo, the leader of the Five Star movement, accused Italian journalists of “manufacturing false news” designed to harm his party. He called for the creation of “a popular jury to determine the veracity of the news published”.

The FNSI journalists’ union said it amounted to the “lynching of all journalists”.

Five Star said journalists themselves were responsible for Italy’s low ranking in the World Press Freedom Index.

United Nations concern at growth of fake news
David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Organisation of American States, and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights issued a joint statement on 3 March expressing concern at the use of “fake news’ for government propaganda and to curb press freedom.

“Criminal defamation laws are unduly restrictive and should be abolished,” the signatories said.

“State actors should, in accordance with their domestic and international legal obligations and their public duties, take care to ensure that they disseminate reliable and trustworthy information.”

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.

By Jonas Cullwick in Port Vila

Kava export returns in 2015 after Tropical Cyclone Pam devastated parts of Vanuatu as it trekked through the country on March 12-14 reached Vt180 million (NZ$2.4 million).

One year later — in 2016 — the figure jumped to Vt800 million (NZ$10.4 million), according to the Director of Biosecurity Vanuatu, Timothy Tumukon.

Responding to questions from Kizzy Kalsakau host of 96 BuzzFM’s Vanuatu Nightly News programme if government was helping farmers grow more kava after Cyclone Pam, Tumukon responded: “Most definitely.”

Tumukon added: “In 2015, when the cyclone struck us 2 years ago exactly [Monday] you’re exactly right, our export data was that Vanuatu then earned Vt180 million from its export after Cyclone Pam destroyed most of our kava.

“Last year’s figures stood at Vt800 million that was earned from kava.

“Now that gives us a lot of comfort that kava has recovered since Cyclone Pam,” he said.

Tumukon said that to maintain the momentum, the government right now was looking at strengthening its assistance to rural communities along with the PHAMA programme to establish testing facilities and also to establish kava nurseries so that it can distribute planting material to areas where you don’t have enough planting materials for farmers to plant.

Tumukon said government was discussing this with the Department of Agriculture for the Government to provide additional funding to establish nurseries on islands where farmers would like to increase their production of kava.

There were also awareness materials being sent out to farmers about what kava varieties they should be planting, and also how they should be preparing their products for their market.

Jonas Cullwick, former general manager of the Vanuatu Broadcasting and Television Corporation (VBTC), is now a senior journalist with the Daily Post.

By Father Casibjorn Quia, Roy Abrahmn Narra and Jerome Villanueva in Manila

The year 2016 was a landmark year for the Philippines with HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) setting annual and monthly records that are the highest since the country started counting HIV incidence 33 years ago.

This coincides with a new development plan for the country that is targeting a reverse trend for the number of new HIV detections in a year, meaning the growth rates of new infections are declining.

The year-end dataset of the Department of Health’s HIV and AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) Registry of the Philippines (HARP) noted that there were 750 cases in December 2016 alone, a month’s high.

The year 2016 tallied a total of 9,264 cases (including 1,113 full-blown AIDS cases and 439 deaths). The 33-year-total of recorded HIV cases, including deaths, is already near the 40,000 mark (39,622).

With the 9,264 total in 2016, the DOH said an average of 25.38 Filipinos have contracted HIV in a day. This contrasts with only one person a day in 2008.

Though latest 2017 figures are yet to be released, a Manila social hygiene clinic physician told Asia Pacific Report the unnamed centre had received 31 cases alone last month.

The Philippines passed a reproductive health law five years ago but it has yet to be fully implemented given court cases and strong opposition from the Catholic Church and from pro-life advocates.

Condom distribution plan
Months into the Rodrigo Duterte administration, the president had issued Executive Order 12 calling for the immediate implementation of Republic Act 10354 (Responsible Parenthood and Reproductive Health Act 2012).

Recently, health officials said recently DOH was set to distribute condoms.

Even schools are target distribution centres, say health officials, but Catholic-run schools and universities are vehemently opposing it.

Year-on-year, there were more adolescent deaths in 2016 (88 compared with 64 in 2015). HIV cases reported among Filipinos aged 15-to-24 at the time of their being reported reached 10,720 cases.

But a significant number — more than 60 percent of the 39,622 cases — contracted HIV through homosexual contact.

The Philippines is said to be a “low-prevalence” HIV country, with the 39,622 cases well below one percent of the total Philippine population. However, its annual growth rates of HIV infection rate are among the fastest in the Asia-Pacific region, says a December 2016 report by the US-based Human Rights Watch.

“The country’s growing HIV epidemic has been fuelled by a legal and policy environment hostile to evidence-based policies and interventions proven to help prevent HIV transmission,” HRW said.

HRW criticisms
Human Rights Watch also criticised the Philippine government for “failing to adequately target HIV prevention measures at men who have sex with men (MSM)”, also citing the “woefully inadequate” HIV prevention education in schools and the “non-existent” commercial marketing of condoms to MSM populations.

In reply, Archbishop Socrates Villegas, D.D., president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said condom distribution in schools “will stimulate immorality”.

Dr Diana Mendoza, from a Manila-based social hygiene clinic, told Asia Pacific Report the Philippines could prevent an HIV epidemic especially through empowering citizens through awareness and protection.

In Tacloban City, site of supertyphoon Haiyan in 2013, a Catholic parish priest said that instead of condom distribution in schools, an “ABC method” may work: “A – abstinence from sex outside marriage; B – be faithful to one another; and C – conversion of heart to the value of love and sacredness of sex as a gift of God in marriage”.

This “ABC” advice from Father Raymund Sotto of the St. Rafael the Archangel parish in Tacloban City counters the policy advice of the World Health Organisation (WHO): the proper and consistent use of condoms will be “highly effective: in preventing HIV and other sexually-transmitted infections (STIs).

The recently-released 2017-2022 Philippine Development Plan under the Duterte administration noted the “substantial increase” in newly-diagnosed HIV cases since 2010. The report added that the “the increased reported cases may be due to better surveillance and testing methods.”

The Duterte government will also propose to the Philippine legislature to amend the current Philippine HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Act 1998 (Republic Act 8504) to make the law “more responsive and relevant” to the current rise of HIV cases in the country, the PDP reported.

Jerome Villanueva and Roy Abrahmn Narra are graduate journalism students of the University of Santo Tomas, Manila. Catholic diocesan priest Father Casibjorn Qiua is taking up a graduate degree in communication from the same university.

The 20177-2022 Philippine Development Plan

EMTV News reports on the HIV Summit in Port Moresby and other Papua New Guinean news.

By Annette Kora in Port Moresby

The first HIV Summit for Papua New Guinean heads of churches has begun at a hotel in the capital of Port Moresby.

The summit was launched yesterday with welcoming remarks by the chairman for PNG Christian Leaders Alliance in HIV and Aids, Sir John Cardinal Ribat.

Cardinal Ribat said one of the great intentions for the HIV Summit was to bring the heads of churches together so that they are able to speak about the virus that was a public health issue in this nation.

He said they would work together, be one voice in advocating care, peace and unity.

“Today is one moment where we can share this intention and talk about it and work towards promoting it in future,” he said.

Cardinal Ribat said he was more than humbled to see about 20 heads of churches in the summit.

“It is indeed a milestone for PNG Christian Leaders Alliance for HIV and Aids to stage this historical national event.

Desired outcomes
“The summit is the first of its kind for the country. It is our hope and prayer that the desired outcomes of this summit are collectively achieved through the active involvement and participation of all heads of churches.”

He said it was also a time to learn about the current HIV situation in the nation, the region and globally, and to see where the response gaps were and how churches could respond.

“It is a time for us to discuss on the sensitive issues such as gender-based violence (GBV), stigma and discrimination, human rights, access to service and issue affect the population in PNG.”

He added that it was also a time for Papua New Guinea to make a proactive way forward and make recommendations on how the Christian churches in the country could respond in addressing the root causes of HIV transmission and sensitive issues associated with it.

The summit will continue tomorrow.

A remand prisoner threw a stone at an FBC news reporter while in the presence of a police escort outside the Suva courts.

The police at the scene refused to take any action against the remand prisoner even though the reporter was also verbally abused.

FBC journalist Praneeta Prakash was shooting footage of a man sentenced in a corruption related case in Suva when a remand prisoner being escorted by police to the cell block threw a stone at her which struck her stomach.

Fijian Media Association general secretary Stanley Simpson said reporters covered court stories in order to inform the public and to ensure that justice was served under the law.

“The journalist needs to be left to do their work because in the end it benefits everyone,” he said.

“We saw a Fiji TV reporter was manhandled, we saw a Fiji Sun reporter get attacked recently, and now we see the terrible incident of a stone being thrown at a journalist.

Journalist ‘has every right’
“In these public spaces, and especially in the public interest, the journalist has every right to be there to take footage.”

Police spokesperson Ana Naisoro said a thorough investigation on the incident would be carried out.

“We have had some incidents where members of the public have attacked journalists again. We would request them to respect the rights of the journalist. They are simply doing their jobs, they’re not breaking any law.”

Fiji Human Rights and Anti-Discrimination Commission Director Ashwin Raj said it was “deeply concerning” that journalists were exposed to such situations and they must have a safe environment where media was able to discharge its duties.

Kelly Vacala is an FBC News journalist.

Fijian Media Association

By Mackenzie Smith

As Tokelau’s ninth government takes shape, the new leader is raising concerns over New Zealand’s treatment of its last remaining Pacific territory.

Ulu-o-Tokelau Siopili Perez used his opening speech at the General Fono (Parliament) last week to protest against proposed veto powers for New Zealand’s Administrator to Tokelau.

The changes would put Administrator David Nicholson in control of the use of Tokelau’s development funds for any projects more than $500,000 — oversight not seen since the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) relinquished it to the General Fono in 1996.

Labour’s Pacific Island Affairs spokesperson Su’a William Sio said power over Tokelau’s affairs should lie with the General Fono, not New Zealand.

“This kind of heavy handed approach smells of arrogance and I think it would be an affront to a nation that is seeking self-determination,” he said.

Tony Angelo, a constitutional adviser to Tokelau’s Taupulega (Council of Elders), said the veto powers could compromise New Zealand’s compliance with the United Nations decolonisation requirements.

The UN ruled in 1960 that all peoples have the right to free political status and economic, social and cultural development.

‘Step back’
“I think the result would be, as the Ulu says, a step back from what has been relative autonomy,” said Dr Angelo.

Auckland University anthropologist Dr Judith Huntsman said the administrator’s move was unusual at a time when Ulu was promising the relocation of government offices in Apia, Samoa to Tokelau.

“[Tokelau is] pushing to get that office under the control of the people of the islands rather than that being viewed by outsiders and [MFAT] as the centre of Tokelau,” she said.

Su’a said MFAT was “stuck in colonial thinking that belongs to a bygone era” and it made no sense to have the office in Apia.

He said Foreign Minister Murray McCully was travelling to Apia to meet with Ulu to discuss his comments at the General Fono.

MFAT confirmed McCully would be in Samoa this week but did not respond when asked about Su’a’s claims.

The proposed veto powers come less than a month after it was reported Tokelau spent millions on two helicopters to circumvent the 24-hour boat journey from Apia, without proper certification or certainty the aircraft could make the lengthy trip.

‘Extravagances’
McCully told 1News at the time that the purchases were “extravagances” and New Zealand would “reflect on its own budgetary arrangements” with Tokelau.

“Given there appears to have been a breakdown in Tokelau’s governance, New Zealand is reviewing the oversight it has of capital expenditure,” McCully said in a written statement.

Although the funds for the helicopters reportedly came out Tokelau’s income from fishing licences, Dr Huntsman said this would still have to be sourced from Tokelau’s International Trust Fund.

The fund, set up in 2004, was started with contributions from New Zealand’s government and sat at over $78 million at the end of the 2014 financial year.

Tokelau International Trust Fund

EMTV News report of the court hearing in Port Moresby yesterday.

By Sally Pokiton in Port Moresby

The trial against Iranian refugee Loghman Sawari, who fled Papua New Guinea to Fiji in January and sought refuge but was deported, has been deferred to March 27 at the Waigani District Court.

The trial was supposed to start yesterday. However, it was deferred because police prosecution were unable to organise witnesses in time.

Sawari and his lawyer Loani Henao appeared before Magistrate Mekeo Gauli.

With the deferral of the trial, the court told police prosecution to make copies of the state witnesses to Sawari’s lawyers next week.

Sawari’s bail of K1000 (about NZ$455) has been extended and he will continue reporting to the Waigani District Court registry.

The 21-year-old was arrested and charged for providing false information for the purpose of obtaining a Papua New Guinea passport from the PNG Immigration and Citizen Services Authority, a charge that falls under section 16 (1) of the Passport Act of 1982.

He allegedly used false identification to obtain travel documents which he used to leave PNG for Fiji.

He was arrested on February 3 at Jackson’s International Airport after he got deported from Fiji.

A summary of facts before the court says he used a passport bearing the name Junior Charles Sawari to travel to Fiji.

The passport was obtained through a consultant, Junior Aisa, who allegedly submitted the falsified information to Immigration on 8 July 2016. A fee of K1000 was paid to Aisa for this service.

That passport was released from the PNG Immigration on 2 August 2016, and collected by Aisa.

Sawari arrived in Papua New Guinea from Christmas Island in 2013 as a 17-year-old seeking asylum. He was processed in Manus and given refugee status.

By Michelle Curran in Auckland

Ten years ago, Tonga’s Kisione Manu was studying a Bachelor of Science at Palmerston North-based Massey University on a New Zealand scholarship.

After graduating, Manu returned home to teach chemistry and biology at Tonga High School, and enjoyed teaching students about his passion – science – before starting a job as a Senior Qualification Analyst at the Ministry of Education, in Nuku’alofa.

One decade later, he has travelled back in NZ to complete his Master of Education, at the familiar Massey University campus, once again through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) NZ Scholarship initiative.

When Manu saw the inaugural Pacific Island Scholar Alumni Network (PISAN) fono at the University of Auckland being promoted, it was a “no-brainer to attend”, he says.

“I saw it as a forum to meet other New Zealand scholars from different nations, and as an opportunity to share with others about our cultural backgrounds,” Manu says.

The PISAN Fono, facilitated by the Pacific Cooperation Foundation (PCF), got underway on Friday and concluded on Sunday, attracting approximately 150 NZ scholars.

These scholars come from the Pacific and Timor-Leste, and currently study at various North Island tertiary institutions.

Chance to connect
Speaking on the final day of the North Island fono, Manu says the event met his expectations — and offered so much more.

“I was able to surround myself with people from Samoa, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, Tuvalu and Kiribati and other cultures … it has been a great chance to connect with other professionals too.

“I met two scholars also studying their Master of Education at Victoria University – one from Papua New Guinea and one from Vanuatu, and I will definitely stay connected with these new friends.”

Tonga is currently trying to get tertiary providers in Tonga registered and accredited, using a system like NZQA, and it is this reason why Manu is studying in New Zealand, he says.

The new contacts he has made will enable him to compare education programmes and systems happening in the wider Pacific region, he adds.

“Ten years ago, there was no forum for scholars from different universities to interact together, and Pacific nations tended to stick together – Tongans with Tongans, Samoans with Samoans, and so on … the fono is a fantastic idea.”

Throughout the three-day fono, scholars heard from keynote speakers who are both alumni – Papua New Guinea’s Noel Mobiha, an ICT and energy consultant, who has held senior management and advisory roles in PNG; and Jody Jackson-Becerra, AUT’s community engagement manager, from Samoa.

Nurturing connections
Both presenters shared their experiences of studying in NZ, and the importance of making connections and nurturing them.

For Manu, the highlight of the weekend was Jody’s presentation where she used the work of Tongan/Fijian writer and anthropologist Epeli Hau’ofa to stress the point all the Pacific scholars belong to Oceania, and this commonality can help these students to collaborate and work together to create change and progress in their region.

Scholars also attended workshops based on priority areas outlined by the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) 2016 Communique.

They discussed topics and came up with ideas and opinions, which will be documented and presented at the PIF Leaders’ Meeting later this year in Samoa by a scholar selected from the North Island Fono, and another scholar chosen at this weekend’s South Island Fono.

On the final day of the fono, it was announced that the 2017-18 Summer Internship applications were open for NZ scholars.

Summer internship
The fono attendees heard from three NZ scholars, who were part of the 2016-17 Summer Internship initiative – Jeremiah Tauiliili, Ana Tupou and Marilyn Jime.

They shared their experiences as Summer Interns, and the benefits they feel they have gained from taking part in the initiative – such as improved communication skills and professionalism – and encouraged current scholars to apply for an internship.

PCF chief executive officer Laulu Mac Leauanae says it is “fantastic to see the vision” and aim of the fono come to life.

“We wanted to provide a forum where New Zealand scholars could meet other people from different universities and from all kinds of backgrounds, to make their time in New Zealand truly memorable and prosperous – the contacts made now at this fono will come into play later in life when these scholars are leading their respective countries,” Laulu says.

The PISAN Fono for scholars studying in the South Island will get underway this Friday, at the University of Canterbury, in Christchurch, and conclude on Sunday.

Hutt says she is extremely thankful for the opportunity to continue growing her passion for and knowledge of the Pacific, but more importantly telling the region’s stories.

“Every Pacific nation has its own story. It’s not all about palm trees and white sandy beaches,” she says.

“Islands are being inundated by rising sea levels as a result of climate change, and human rights violations are being committed.”

Hutt says she is determined to make the wider public in New Zealand and regionally more aware of these issues, as the Pacific Media Centre had done for her during her studies.

“PMC opened my eyes to a region I hadn’t previously considered for my journalism career,” she says.

‘Gung-ho reporting’
“I had dreams of being a gung-ho war reporter or holding politicians to account in the halls of Parliament.”

Writing a story exploring media freedom in the Pacific in early 2015 really changed that direction for the better — it awoke a passion in me.”

She succeeds former PMW editor TJ Aumua, who is currently adventuring overseas with 2015 editor Star Kata, and Alex Perrottet, now a journalist with Radio New Zealand International, and Anna Majavu.

Hutt has been a contributing writer for PMC since 2015 and has recently returned from a journalism exchange in Finland as part of her Honours year last year.

Pacific Media Centre director Pacific David Robie congratulated her on her appointment after a series of interviews.

“We are pleased to have Kendall on board. She has shown with past contributing assignments that she is a dedicated and talented young journalist and committed to the Pacific.”

Pacific Media Watch collaborates with several global media freedom organisations, including Paris-based Reporters Without Borders.

The position of part-time PMW editor is appointed annually and is open to current AUT journalism students and recent graduates. It involves research, writing, editing and publishing on Asia-Pacific media freedom, human rights and socio-political issues.

By Jeremaiah M. Opiniano and Jerome P. Villanueva in Manila

Curbing illegal drugs “holistically” is now an explicit mandate as provided by the Philippines government’s 2017-2022 Development Plan, released last week.

Chapter 18 of the Development Plan says that government targets the significant reduction of “all forms of criminality and illegal drugs” through a “holistic program that involves combating not only crimes but also the corruption that leads to the perpetuation of such acts”.

The portion on curbing illegal drugs in the PDP comes at a time that President Rodrigo Duterte revived community visits to warn drug users and pushers, called locally as Oplan Tokhang.

At the same time, the Philippine National Police Director General Roland dela Rosa has announced yesterday the launching of “Operation Double Barrel Reloaded”.

The operation is said to be a “kinder, gentler” approach for law enforcers to confront the illegal drug problem, dela Rosa told reporters.

More than 7000 suspected users and pushers have been reported killed since Duterte assumed office on 1 July  2016.

These killings are linked to the rise of extrajudicial killings (EJKs) that have been lambasted by critics — but shrugged off by Duterte supporters as not being the president’s policy —  that have criticised by international human rights groups, former heads of state, and the United Nations.

‘Suppressing the flow’
The Development Policy declares the country’s national anti-illegal drugs strategy included “suppressing the flow of illegal drugs supply through sustained law enforcement operations and reducing consumer demand for drugs and other substances”.

While the PDP mandated drug rehabilitation and massive preventive education and awareness programs, government is set to arrest and prosecute police personnel “involved in the use and trade of illegal drugs through counter-intelligence operations” prosecution.

Noting also the entry of Chinese, African and Mexican drug syndicates to the Philippines, government will also work with local and foreign law enforcement counterparts, as well as other international anti-drug organisations.

All these plans are part of a “holistic” approach to curb the drug problem, the PDP wrote. The plan also noted the data from the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency that there are around four million drug users, and that 47 percent of villages (barangays) nationwide are “drug-affected.”

“The government has therefore adopted a holistic approach in addressing criminality and illegal drugs,” the PDP says. “As these initiatives are expected to result in high incidence of apprehensions, the government must also upgrade its jail faiclities and substantially increase drug rehabilitation centers.”

The PDP also says that “respect for human rights should be upheld and observed at all times” in all of law enforcers’ activities against criminality.

Recently, the US-based Human Rights Watch published a chapter on the Philippines and observed that Duterte could be liable to a lawsuit before local courts and even the International Criminal Court, the latter for alleged “crimes against humanity”.

Narcotics board concern
The UN-aligned International Narcotics Control Board (ICNB), in a March 2 release of its annual report, indicated the board’s concern about extrajudicial killings.

The board called on the Philippines government to “issue an immediate and unequivocal condemnation and denunciation of extrajudicial actions against individuals suspected of involvement in the illicit drug trade or drug abuse; to put an immediate stop to such actions; and to ensure that the perpetrators of such acts are brought to justice in full observance of due process and the rule of law”.

Extrajudicial action “is fundamentally contrary to the provisions of… three international drug control conventions,” the ICNB report said.

The Malacañang called the HRW report “thoughtless and irresponsible” when the group’s report wrote the country had a “human rights calamity” given rising extrajudicial killings — allegedly perpetrated by police.

Such a “human rights calamity,” said Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella, may have been averted due to actions by government.

Abella cited the more than 1.1 million pushers and users who voluntarily surrendered and the construction of drug rehabilitation centers.

“Is it a human rights calamity when the sheer scope and magnitude of an emerging narco-state have been exposed?” Abella said.

‘Ransom scheme’
Dela Rosa recently formed within the PNP the Drug Enforcement Group (DEG) that replaced the old Anti-Illegal Drugs Group (AIDG) given the involvement of several of the latter group’s officers in a reported “Tokhang for ransom scheme”.

The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) indicated in its 2013 to 2016 figures that anti-illegal drug operations such as entrapments and arrests rose exponentially during the last six months of 2016 (the first six months of Duterte’s presidency).

In 2016, PDEA and partner law enforcement agencies had conducted 34,007 operations,  arrested 28,056 people, and filed 23,887 reports. These total figures are the highest over a four-year period (2013 to 2016).

Contrast the extended statements on illegal drugs 2017-2022 PDP to the 2011-2016 PDP provision on illegal drugs. The latter PDP wrote: “Modernise and upgrade facilities for law enforcers such as the PNP and the NBI (National Bureau of Investigation) crime laboratories, forensic investigation facilities and equipment.

“Improve capacities of prosecutors and law enforcers particularly NBI agents in the investigation and prosecution of special cases involving economic or white-collar crimes such as money laundering, tax evasion, smuggling, human trafficking, violations of intellectual property rights and antitrust laws, illegal drugs and even cases involving extralegal killings and other human rights violations as well as violation of environmental laws.”

Jerome Villanueva is a graduate journalism student of the University of Santo Tomas. Assistant Professor Jeremaiah Opiniano supervises the undergraduate and graduate journalism degree programmes.

More 2017-2022 Philippine Development Plan stories

RSF is also concerned about the many cases of online surveillance of journalists and calls for the creation of binding international regulatory mechanisms.

The trade, plied by companies with expertise in cyber-surveillance, is lucrative but dubious.

RSF condemns the legal void that allows these companies to sell their products to regimes bent on online surveillance and censorship – just to increase their market share.

Recent revelations suggest that the Israeli company NSO is implicated in a case of arbitrary Mexican government surveillance of investigative journalist Rafael Cabrera.

Online surveillance constitutes a serious violation of media freedom.

According to a report published by Der Spiegel on February 25, Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has spied on journalists with such international media outlets as the BBC, New York Times, and Reuters for years.

RSF also deplores the frequency with which Facebook posts and tweets are reportedly suppressed.

In Turkey, for example, Twitter deployed its local content management tool, which can be used to block access to a tweet or an account from within a given country.

After last July’s abortive coup, Twitter lost no time in complying with orders to censor the accounts of more than 20 journalists and media outlets. There is also concern about Facebook’s active cooperation with certain governments, its deletion of journalistic content, and its opaque content “moderation” policies.

The examples include the fan page of ARA News, a website that covers developments in Syria, Iraq, Turkey, and other parts of the Middle East. Facebook blocked the site for several days last December without explanation.

#CollateralFreedom: five censored sites unblocked by RSF

On World Day Against Cyber-Censorship, RSF is also pleased to report that it has embarked on Operation Collateral Freedom #3, with the goal of making online information accessible in countries where it is censored and deterring “Enemies of the internet” from blocking news websites.

After unblocking access to 11 websites in 2015 and six others in 2016, this operation has created alternative access to five more news websites that are blocked in their country of origin: Ozguruz (the well-known Turkish journalist Can Dündar’s new site) in Turkey, Azathabar in Turkmenistan, Meydan TV, reporting on Azerbaijan from exile, Doha News in Qatar, and Alqst in Saudi Arabia.

This operation is based on the technique of mirroring. RSF uses the hosting services of such major companies such as Fastly, Amazon, Microsoft, and Google to create duplicates or “mirrors” of the censored sites.

“Enemies of the Internet” cannot block access to the mirrors without a collateral impact on their own access to these internet giants, hence the operation’s name – Collateral Freedom.

An extension for the Chrome browser created in 2016 facilitates access to the #CollateralFreedom mirror sites.

When someone tries to access one of the original websites from within a country where it is blocked, the icon of the “RSF Censorship Detector” app appears if the extension is installed.

Clicking on this icon automatically redirects the user to RSF’s unblocked mirror site.

RSF has to buy bandwidth to keep the mirror sites accessible. The more they are visited, the faster this bandwidth is used up.

RSF asks all internet users to help pay for this bandwidth in order to prolong access to the mirrors.

More information at: https://rsf.org/en/collateral-freedom

By Katharina R. Lestari in Jakarta

A bishop in Papua has called for government aid for thousands of Papuans made jobless because of a bitter contractual dispute between the government and U.S.-based mining giant PT Freeport McMoran Inc.

The row, which has reduced operations at the world’s second biggest copper mine in Papua’s Mimika district by about 60 percent, stems from Indonesia seeking to change mining industry regulations over ore processing and foreign ownership.

The government wants to cap copper concentrate exports to boost its domestic smelting industry.

Freeport says the regulations breach its current contract with the government, which runs until 2021. The company says the rules would also affect contracts it has with its customers overseas.

However, the dispute has resulted in job losses for contractors and workers.

“The company has laid off more than a thousand workers. It also threatens to reduce ongoing programs offered to the local community, such as scholarships and health-care services. This is a problem,” Bishop John Philip Saklil of Jayapura said.

The prelate recalled that he and some Papuans owning indigenous land rights, known as hak ulayat, met with Energy and Mineral Resources Minister Ignasius Jonan on February 27 in Jakarta to find a solution to the problem.

People victimised
“Such a lay-off has victimised many people who depend solely on the company. Many other Papuans, benefit from the programmes,” he said.

According to the local Manpower, Transmigration and Public Housing Agency nearly 1100 workers were laid off as a result of the dispute.

“They dreamed of a good future but then were laid off. Many still have debts to pay. It is not easy for them. Now everyone is worried about their future,” Bishop Saklil said.

A local tribal leader said laid off indigenous people could revert to old traditional activities like hunting to get by, but mining activities have caused havoc with the local ecosystem.

“Due to polluted waters, their feet and hands start to hurt when they go into rivers. Also, animals living in or near rivers have died. So how can we hunt to live?” Amungme tribal leader Yanes Natkimu said.

By Michelle Curran in Auckland

Every morning before school, Sonal Shalveer Singh Aujla would watch the news and admire the way BBC and CNN journalists confidently presented what was happening around the world.

Perhaps it was destiny, when years later, Sonal was fatefully offered a full National Toppers Scholarship to study journalism at Fiji’s University of the South Pacific (USP).

“Growing up in Fiji, I did not know there was a programme offered at the universities that provided training for journalists,” Sonal remarks.

“Maybe because everyone at school was only talking about accounting, economics and science … I even considered accounting before I got the scholarship.”

After proving himself as a mature and talented student and became editor of USP’s award-winning newspaper Wansolwara, Sonal was selected to take part in Pacific Cooperation Foundation’s (PCF) Media Programme two-week internship in Auckland last year – his final year of his undergraduate journalism and media degree.

Since finishing his course last year, Sonal has not only been nominated for the Vice-Chancellor’s All-Rounder Award at graduation, which falls at the end of March, but also secured a job at the Secretariat of the Pacific Community as a media assistant in the Director-General’s Office.

“An opportunity which really inspired me and what helped me determine my future plans, was getting accepted in PCF’s Internship programme to New Zealand,” Sonal says.

“While observing the New Zealand media, I realised there was a lot of work for foreign correspondents involved in the media industry and this is when I decided I would join a regional organisation so I could become a foreign correspondent.”

By going down this line of work, Sonal hopes to achieve his life-long dream of war reporting for a global media network.

“The internship has improved my resume and this is the reason why I am part of the media team of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community today,” he adds.

Senior lecturer and coordinator of journalism at USP Dr Shailendra Singh agrees, and says Sonal’s performance improved remarkably after completing the PCF internship.

Sonal’s experience has made him an advocate for PCF’s media programme, and he says he encourages all the media students around the Pacific to apply for the 2017 PCF Media Programme.

“I hope that through this programme, you too may find a direction in life, just like I did,” Sonal says.

The Media Programme internship is fully funded by PCF over the two-week period – including all travel, accommodation, insurance, living allowance and any associated visa costs.

New Zealand and Pacific-based journalism/media students who are currently in their final year of tertiary education can apply for this programme.

Applications close on March 31.

Contact Michelle Curran of the Pacific Cooperation Foundation for more information.

By David Robie

One of the ironies of the legacy of eight years of Barack Obama’s presidency is that under the leadership of the man who was elected to bring a more peaceful world into play following George W. Bush’s warmongering, the “global war on terror” (GWOT) has grown enormously.

Remote control warfare by drones with virtually no transparency is deeply disturbing. After years of demands for statistics about the drone killing programme, Obama was finally forced to admit in April 2013 that an American, Dr Warren Weistein, and an Italian, Giovanni Lo Porto, had been “tragically killed” in a counter-terrorism operation by drone strike three months earlier in Pakistan (Ackerman, 2016).

This rare admission of guilt over the drone programme confirmed suspicions about a climbing death toll among civilians.

While the US target is claimed to be al-Qaeda and Daesh (the self-styled Islamic State, ISIS or ISIL) suspects, research by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism has demonstrated that during Obama’s tenure more than 7000 people have been killed with impunity by drone controllers far from any battlefield.

About a seventh of these deaths are estimated to be civilians, including up to 110 children.

This death toll contrasts greatly with a mere 54 drone strikes authorised by President Bush in his entire term of office.
And undoubtedly the billionaire businessman and reality television tycoon President, Donald Trump, will entrench the use of drones even further.

This timely book, provocatively entitled We Kill Because We Can (adapted from a quote by a drone operative), has exposed the ethical and moral bankruptcy and shortsighted objectives of the Predator drone programme. Author Laurie Calhoun, a philosopher and cultural critic, has penned a robustly argued and disturbing work that presents an analogy between the US government’s ‘targeted killings’ and the mafia’s hitmen murders, lumping the Bush and Obama drone killings together as ‘simply assassinations’.

Calhoun likens suspects chosen for the growing weekly ‘killing lists’ to a stay on death row, with no provision for an appeal or re-examination of the evidence that led to the ‘conviction’.

Yet it is well known that suspects charged with capital crimes within civil society are often acquitted, as the evidence proves unconvincing to a jury of their peers. Jurors in US criminal trials are sternly instructed by the court that a verdict of guilty must be established beyond a reasonable doubt. (p. 120)

Calhoun argues that the ‘slick technological apparatus’ enabling drone strikes serves as a red herring that diverts attention from the crucial question – is it actually true that people about to die by remote control via a Hellfire missile are guilty of some capital crime and ‘deserve to die’? As the author stresses, drone strikes are irrevocable. Yet even in countries where the US is not officially at war and there are no ground troops ‘to protect’, the state emphasis is on killing the target.

The killings are treated as ‘acts of war’, but they are ‘indistinguishable from unlawful assassination’, says Calhoun, and they overlap with warfare actions only in the ‘effective impunity of the killers’ (p. 120).

Calhoun also offers a scathing critique of the military-industrial complex and its phenomenal growth since former US Vice-President Dick Cheney began privatising and outsourcing to contractors during the occupation of Iraq.

The military machine virtually guarantees the continued use of drones and the self-justifying killings as part of a burgeoning “terror factory” (p. 245). The number of new Predator operators trained in the US quadrupled between 2008 and 2013 and this figure eclipses the number of conventional pilots being trained.

The hardware alone of the drone programme is a huge contract generator. As of 2013, the drone contracts for major weapons manufacturers were at these figures: Boeing $1.8 billion; Northrop Grumman $10.9 billion; General Atomics $6.6 billion; and Raytheon $648 million (p. 243).

Calhoun is highly critical of the role of news media in failing to expose the Orwellian mythology and ‘just war’ terminology shrouding GWOT, and of also failing to provide greater transparency about the drone industry; the inherent conflicts of interest; the dangers of exporting the killing technology to other countries (at least 19 so far) and the role played by targeted killing in unleashing revenge acts by jihadists.
She ultimately argues that the indifference demonstrated by the US towards the ‘thousands of nameless victims, [or] the corruption caused directly by war’ risks inviting another terrorist atrocity equally as audacious as 9/11 (p. 334).

We Kill Because We Can: From Soldiering to Assassination in the Drone Age, by Laurie Calhoun. London: Zed Books. 2016. 400pp. ISBN 978-1-78360-547-7 pbk. This review is republished from Pacific Journalism Review 22(2).

Reference
Ackerman, S. (2016, July 1). Obama claims US drones strikes have killed up to 116 civilians. The Guardian.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Asia-Pacific affiliates today demanded meaningful action against the growth of online harassment of women journalists in the region.

Using the occasion of International Women’s Day (March 8), media unions and journalist groups jointly launched a campaign emphasising a critical media need to protect women’s right to voice freely and safely in the online space.

“Today we celebrate the great gains made by and for women around the Asia-Pacific, but we also recognise that a lot more work is needed to support journalism on digital platforms,” the IFJ Asia-Pacific said.

“The internet is a vital space of opportunity for gender equality, but it can also present an enormous threat to freedom of expression if left unchecked.”

Online harassment, trolling, abuse, cyber bullying and death threats increasingly have a disproportionate gender dimension, according to the IFJ. It has monitored the rising threat to women’s voices online and documented a pattern of abuse, particularly prominent in South Asia.

These findings are backed by other research that shows women are three times more likely to encounter abuse online than men.

Byte Back Campaign
The IFJ Byte Back Campaign is intended to raise awareness to document, share information, and shame trolls; encourage support for all journalists to develop skills to combat threats online and support others; to drive media and government policy reform and to push for strong commitments by governments and online platforms to take strategic approaches to dealing with threats and abuse in a meaningful way.

“Online abuse is intended to silence voices and push women out of the media and critical spaces,” the IFJ said. “More than ever we need women journalists to join the media and to write and voice perspectives on issues that otherwise would not be heard. Journalists of all genders; their unions; media houses; moderators of social media platforms; the public and governments must take firm steps towards ensuring women’s rightful place in the digital world.”

The campaign is part of a wider IFJ strategy for gender equity which includes improving equal access to leading newsroom positions for women and men; closing the gender pay gap in journalism; strengthening equal treatment for workers; developing and implementing gender equality policies in the newsrooms; and securing fair and balanced gender portrayal in news content.

“It is only when these critical online spaces and voices are protected and defended that we can see a diversity of information, analysis and opinion co-exist and contribute to building healthy and vibrant democracies in Asia.”

Join the IFJ Byte Back Campaign by using the hashtags #DontTroll #DefendMyVoiceOnline

By Vijay Narayan and Semi Turaga in Suva

Fiji’s Assistant Director of Public Prosecutions Lee Burney has informed the High Court in Suva that it is planned to amend the charges against The Fiji Times Limited, publisher Hank Arts, editor Fred Wesley, Nai Lalakai editor Anare Ravula and contributor Josaia Waqabaca.

Burney told the court yesterday that the the DPP office was now looking at sedition charges.

High Court judge Justice Thusara Rajasinghe has given the prosecution 21 days to consider whether sedition maybe a more appropriate charge.

The lawyer for Arts, Wesley and the Fiji Times Limited, Faizal Haniff, said that the prosecution should give the court a clear direction on which charge they wanted.

Haniff also said that they should have the courtesy to inform the defence.

The maximum penalty for sedition is 7 years imprisonment.

Meanwhile, the judge has also told Waqabaca and Ravula not to expect unnecessary adjournments because their lawyers were not present in court.

Lawyer not present
Justice Rajasinghe raised concern about Waqabaca’s lawyer, Aman Ravindra Singh, as he had not appeared in the case for 3 consecutive times.

It is alleged that Arts, Wesley, Waqabaca, Ravula and The Fiji Times Limited made, or caused to be published, a statement in the iTaukei language in Nai Lalakai newspaper that is likely to incite dislike, hatred, or antagonism of the Muslim community.

The statement was published in a letter to the editor allegedly written by Waqabaca.

The case has been adjourned to March 23.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has backed an appeal from the International Coalition for Papua (ICP) for an investigation into an alleged torture case in the Highlands city of Wamena.

Six members of the Jayawijaya District Police, Jayawijaya regency, Papua province, have been accused over torture, leading to the death of 21-year-old Edison Hesegem

The torture happened on 11 January 2017 during detention at a police post and also at the emergency room of Jayawijaya General Hospital in Wamena on the same day.

According to local human rights defenders, medical personal witnessed the six officers torturing Hesegem at the medical facility where he was meant to receive medical aid.

The torture was so severe that Hesegem died in hospital the following day, AHRC said in a statement yesterday.

In an attempt to downplay the torture, the head of the Papuan regional police, Paulus Waterpauw, made a public statement in which he explained that Hesegem sustained the fatal injury as he “fell off a fence” during an attempted escape.

The AHRC has called for an investigation into the allegations of human rights violations against Edison Hesegem in Jayawijaya General Hospital, Papua province, to be conducted in a proper and impartial manner.

Background on the International Coalition for Papua (ICP) website