Independent Analysis and Reportage
RNZ Pacific reporters Samoa’s Prime Minister La’aulialemalietoa (La’auli) Leuatea Schmidt paused talks on a refreshed treaty with New Zealand until after the New Zealand general election, despite Prime Minister Christopher Luxon’s request to “proceed with it”. La’auli made the revelation at a cocktail function supporting the “visa on arrival” campaign led by prominent Aotearoa community
ANALYSIS: By Mohan J. Dutta Count the hands the footage passed through. Whakaata Māori reported the video first. RNZ said it had independently obtained the same material. Newsroom published a still photograph from the event showing people in Mongrel Mob regalia making hand signs. The Post added that the gathering had been advertised online as
By Juno Reyes in Manila The arrest of Philip Lustre Jr. is an attack on press freedom in the Philippines, says the veteran investigative journalist’s lawyer Dino De Leon. Lustre was arrested at a restaurant in Quezon City yesterday for alleged cyber libel. He was served an arrest warrant issued by Branch 10 of Davao
ANALYSIS: By David Robie, editor of Asia Pacific Report In what is probably one of its most shameful acts ever, the Pacific Islands Forum has betrayed one of its founding principles in admitting Israel — already a global rogue pariah state — as a development partner in the middle of the genocide of an Indigenous
Asia Pacific Report A Palestinian advocacy group has called on the New Zealand government to act against the “weaponisation” and “engineering” of starvation by Israel in its ongoing war on Gaza Strip. “Palestinian survival must never be a bargaining chip,” says Palestine Forum of Palestine chair Maher Nazzal in response to news this week that
Pacific Media Watch “You’re not just reporting on the story … you are the main character.” That’s how award-winning Palestinian journalist and human rights defender Maha Hussaini sums up her experience while “documenting history” in Israel’s three-year genocidal war on Gaza. In the latest episode of Middle East Eye’s “The Gaza Podcast”, host Hussam Tannera
By Susana Suisuiki of RNZ Pacific The region’s premier ecumenical organisation is calling for Israel’s new partnership with the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) to be reviewed. The Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC), which represents Christian churches and national councils across 18 countries and territories in the region, also wants all engagement with Israel suspended until
Keith Rankin writes; ... by the way, that the cost of retirement is the resources that go into supporting retired people whether their money comes from a pension or from drawing down private savings. The biggest 'burden' is a country's affluent retired, who draw resources away from everyone else.
By Patrick Decloitre of RNZ Pacific Pro-independence leaders in New Caledonia’s Congress have boycotted the signing of a strategic partnership deal on critical raw materials between the European Union (EU) and the French Pacific territory, citing concerns over a lack of local consultation. On Tuesday, the EU signed the non-binding memorandum of understanding (MOU) on
COMMENTARY: By Stefan Armbruster Israel voted against all UN resolutions concerning decolonisation of the six Pacific territories at the UN General Assembly’s Fourth Committee (Decolonisation — C-24) meeting last week. Decolonisation has been a founding principle of the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) since its establishment in 1971. The announcement by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar
RNZ Pacific reporters A Fiji deputy prime minister says the Pacific identifies with Israel in ways many would not understand. Viliame Gavoka, who is also the Tourism Minister in Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka’s coalition government, was responding to a Facebook post about Israel being accepted into the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) as a development partner.
COMMENTARY: By John Hobbs New Zealand is failing its responsibilities towards the Palestinian people; a people who are dying from the actions of Israel. Its responsibilities to hold Israel to account are laid out in the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, 1948. States are obliged to prevent and punish