Pacific Journalism Review (PJR) began life three decades ago in Papua New Guinea and recently celebrated a remarkable milestone in Fiji with its 30th anniversary edition and its 47th issue.

Remarkable because it is the longest surviving Antipodean media, journalism and development journal published in the Global South. It is also remarkable because at its birthday event held in early July at the Pacific International Media Conference, no fewer than two cabinet ministers were present — from Fiji and Papua New Guinea — in spite of the journal’s long track record of truth-to-power criticism.

Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister Biman Prasad, a former economics professor at The University of the South Pacific (USP) and a champion of free media, singled out the journal for praise at the event, which was also the occasion of the launch of a landmark new book. As co-editor of Waves of Change: Media, Peace, and Development in the Pacific with Shailendra Singh and Amit Sarwal, Prasad says the book aimed to analyse recent developments in the Pacific because if sustainable peace and stability remain elusive in the region then long-term development is impeded.

Papua New Guinea’s Information and Communication Technologies Minister Timothy Masiu, who has faced criticism over a controversial draft media policy (now in its fifth version), joined the discussion, expressing concerns about geopolitical agendas impacting on the media and arguing in favour of “a way forward for a truly independent and authentic Pacific media”.

Since its establishment in 1994, the PJR has been far more than a research journal. As an independent publication, it has given strong support to Asia-Pacific investigative journalism, socio-political journalism, political-economy perspectives on the media, photojournalism and political cartooning in its three decades of publication. Its ethos declared:

While one objective of Pacific Journalism Review is research into Pacific journalism theory and practice, the journal has also expanding its interest into new areas of research and inquiry that reflect the broader impact of contemporary media practice and education.

A particular focus is on the cultural politics of the media, including the following issues: new media and social movements, indigenous cultures in the age of globalisation, the politics of tourism and development, the role of the media and the formation of national identity and the cultural influence of Aotearoa New Zealand as a branch of the global economy within the Pacific region.

It also has a special interest in climate change, environmental and development studies in the media and communication and vernacular media in the region.

PJR has also been an advocate of journalism practice-as-research methodologies and strategies, as demonstrated especially in its Frontline section, initiated by one of the mentoring co-editors, former University of Technology Sydney professor and investigative journalist Wendy Bacon, and also developed by retired Monash University Professor Chris Nash. Five of the current editorial board members were at the 30th birthday event: Griffith University’s Professor Mark Pearson; USP’s Associate Professor Shailendra Singh, the conference convenor; Auckland University of Technology’s Khairiah Abdul Rahman; designer Del Abcede; and current editor Dr Philip Cass.

As the founding editor of PJR, I must acknowledge the Australian Journalism Review which is almost double the age of PJR, because this is where I first got the inspiration for establishing the journal. While I was head of journalism at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1993, I was really frustrated at the lack of quality Pacific-specific media and journalism literature and research to draw on as resources for both critical studies and practice-led education.

So I looked longingly at AJR, and also contributed to it. I turned to the London-based Index on Censorship as another publication to emulate. And I thought, why not? We can do that in the Pacific and so I persuaded the University of Papua New Guinea Press to come on board and published the first edition at the derelict campus printer in Waigani in 1994.

We published there until 1998 when PJR moved to USP for five years. Then it was published for 18 years at Auckland University of Technology (AUT), mostly through the Pacific Media Centre, which closed in 2020. Since then it has been published by the nonprofit NGO Asia Pacific Media Network.

When celebrating the 20th anniversary of the journal at AUT in 2014, then AJR editor professor Ian Richards noted the journal’s “dogged perseverance” and contribution to Oceania research declaring:

Today, PJR plays a vital role publishing research from and about this part of the world. This is important for a number of reasons, not least because most academics ground their work in situations with which they are most familiar, and this frequently produces articles which are extremely local. If “local” means London or Paris or New York, then it’s much easier to present your work as “international” than if you live in Port Vila of Pago Pago, Auckland or Adelaide.

Also in 2014, analyst Dr Lee Duffield highlighted the critical role of PJR during the years of military rule and “blatant military censorship” in Fiji, which has eased since the repeal of its draconian Media Industry Development Act in 2023. He remarked:

The same is true of PJR’s agenda-setting in regard to crises elsewhere: jailing of journalists in Tonga, threatened or actual media controls in Tahiti or PNG, bashing of an editor in Vanuatu by a senior government politician, threats also against the media in Solomon Islands, and reporting restrictions in Samoa.

At the 30th anniversary launch, USP’s Adjunct Professor in development studies and governance Dr Vijay Naidu complimented the journal on the wide range of topics covered by its more than 1,100 research articles. He said the journal had established itself as a critical conscience with respect to Asia-Pacific socio-political and development dilemmas, and looked forward to the journal meeting future challenges.

I outlined many of those future challenges in a recent interview with Global Voices correspondent Mong Palatino. Issues that have become more pressing for the journal include responding to the changing geopolitical realities in the Pacific and collaborating even more creatively and closely on development, the climate crisis, and unresolved decolonisation issues with the region’s journalists, educators and advocates. To address these challenges, the PJR team have been working on an innovative new publishing strategy over the past few months.

View the latest Pacific Journalism Review: Gaza, genocide and media – PJR 30 years on, special double edition. The journal is indexed by global research databases such as Informit and Ebsco, but it is also available via open access for a Pacific audience here.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Duncan Graham in Malang, East Java

The academic world is supposed to be a bright-lit landscape of independent research pushing back the frontiers of knowledge to benefit humanity.

Years of fingernail-flicking test tubes have paid off by finding the elixir of life. Now comes the hard stuff: telling the world through a respected international journal staffed by sceptics.

After drafting and deleting, adding and revising, the precious discovery has to undergo the ritual of peer-reviews. Only then may your wisdom arouse gasps of envy and nods of respect in the world’s labs and lecture theatres.

The goal is to score hits on the international SCOPUS database (69 million records, 36,000 titles – and rising as you read) of peer-reviewed journals. If the paper is much cited, the author’s CV and job prospects should glow.

SCOPUS is run by Dutch publisher Elsevier for profit.

It’s a tough track up the academic mountain; surely there are easier paths paved by publishers keen to help?

-Partners-

Indeed – but beware. The 148-year old British multidisciplinary weekly Nature calls them “predatory journals” luring naive young graduates desperate for recognition.

‘Careful checking’
“These journals say: ‘Give us your money and we’ll publish your paper’,” says Professor David Robie of New Zealand’s Auckland University of Technology. “They’ve eroded the trust and credibility of the established journals. Although easily picked by careful checking, new academics should still be wary.”

Shams have been exposed by getting journals to print gobbledygook papers by fictitious authors. One famous sting reported by Nature had a Dr Anna O Szust being offered journal space if she paid. “Oszust” is Polish for “a fraud”.

Dr Robie heads AUT’s Pacific Media Centre, which publishes the Pacific Journalism Review, now in its 23rd year. During November he was at Gadjah Mada University (UGM) in Yogyakarta, Central Java, helping his Indonesian colleagues boost their skills and lift their university’s reputation.

The quality of Indonesian learning at all levels is embarrassingly poor for a nation of 260 million spending 20 percent of its budget on education.

The international ranking systems are a dog’s breakfast, but only UGM, the University of Indonesia and the Bandung Institute of Technology just make the tail end of the Times Higher Education world’s top 1000.

There are around 3500 “universities” in Indonesia; most are private. UGM is public.

UGM has been trying to better itself by sending staff to Auckland, New Zealand, and Munich, Germany, to look at vocational education and master new teaching strategies.

Investigative journalism
Dr Robie was invited to Yogyakarta through the World Class Professor (WCP) programme, an Indonesian government initiative to raise standards by learning from the best.

Dr Robie lectured on “developing investigative journalism in the post-truth era,” researching marine disasters and climate change. He also ran workshops on managing international journals.

During a break at UGM he told Strategic Review that open access – meaning no charges made to authors and readers – was a tool to break the user-pays model.

AUT is one of several universities to start bucking the international trend to corral knowledge and muster millions. The big publishers reportedly make up to 40 percent profit – much of it from library subscriptions.

According to a report by AUT digital librarians Luqman Hayes and Shari Hearne, there are now more than 100,000 scholarly journals in the world put out by 3000 publishers; the number is rocketing so fast library budgets have been swept away in the slipstream.

In 2016, Hayes and his colleagues established Tuwhera (Māori for “be open”) to help graduates and academics liberate their work by hosting accredited and refereed journals at no cost.

The service includes training on editing, presentation and creating websites, which look modern and appealing. Tuwhera is now being offered to UGM – but Indonesian universities have to lift their game.

Language an issue
The issue is language and it’s a problem, according to Dr Vissia Ita Yulianto, researcher at UGM’s Southeast Asian Social Studies Centre (CESASS) and a co-editor of IKAT research journal. Educated in Germany she has been working with Dr Robie to develop journals and ensure they are top quality.

“We have very intelligent scholars in Indonesia but they may not be able to always meet the presentation levels required,” she said.

“In the future I hope we’ll be able to publish in Indonesian; I wish it wasn’t so, but right now we ask for papers in English.”

Bahasa Indonesia, originally trade Malay, is the official language. It was introduced to unify the archipelagic nation with more than 300 indigenous tongues. Outside Indonesia and Malaysia it is rarely heard.

English is widely taught, although not always well. Adrian Vickers, professor of Southeast Asian Studies at Sydney University, has written that “the low standard of English remains one of the biggest barriers against Indonesia being internationally competitive.

“… in academia, few lecturers, let alone students, can communicate effectively in English, meaning that writing of books and journal articles for international audiences is almost impossible.”

Though the commercial publishers still dominate there are now almost 10,000 open-access peer-reviewed journals on the internet.

“Tuwhera has enhanced global access to specialist research in ways that could not previously have happened,” says Dr Robie. “We can also learn much from Indonesia and one of the best ways is through exchange programmes.”

This article was first published in Strategic Direction and is republished with the author Duncan Graham’s permission. Graham blogs at indonesianow.blogspot.co.nz

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz