CoveragePost
March 1, 2023
COMMENTARY: By Barbara Dreaver, Pacific correspondent of 1News The appointment of Baron Waqa, former President of Nauru, to head the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) next year was a jaw-droppingly poor decision and an insult to everything the regional body is meant to represent. What were the Forum leaders thinking? Here’s the thing, they were probably ... <a title="Barbara Dreaver: Pacific leaders’ poor choice for top Forum job an insult" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2023/03/01/barbara-dreaver-pacific-leaders-poor-choice-for-top-forum-job-an-insult/" aria-label="Read more about Barbara Dreaver: Pacific leaders’ poor choice for top Forum job an insult">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
February 26, 2023
By Lydia Lewis, RNZ Pacific journalist, and Kelvin Anthony, RNZ Pacific digital and social media journalist The Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) is now “a family reconciled” as its leaders have reaffirmed their commitment to reforms to strengthen the regional body. Stepping back into the fold, Kiribati President Taneti Maamau inked the final signature on the ... <a title="Pacific leaders commit to Forum reforms and ‘family unity’" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2023/02/26/pacific-leaders-commit-to-forum-reforms-and-family-unity/" aria-label="Read more about Pacific leaders commit to Forum reforms and ‘family unity’">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
February 23, 2023
By Felix Chaudhary in Suva Recognising Indonesia’s sovereignty is one thing. However, failing to allow West Papuans a seat at regional discussion tables like the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) and Melanesian Spearhead Group to address human rights atrocities, torture and killing at the hands of Indonesian security forces is not the Pacific way. United Liberation ... <a title="Wenda hopes to get plight of West Papuan people to PIF ‘beyond rhetoric’" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2023/02/23/wenda-hopes-to-get-plight-of-west-papuan-people-to-pif-beyond-rhetoric/" aria-label="Read more about Wenda hopes to get plight of West Papuan people to PIF ‘beyond rhetoric’">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
February 7, 2023
By Hilaire Bule, RNZ Pacific Vanuatu correspondent in Port Vila Vanuatu’s prime minister has stressed any future employment within the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) Secretariat must be from MSG member countries. Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau, who is also chair of the MSG Secretariat, made the statement following the recruitment of two Indonesian consultants to work ... <a title="Kalsakau wants Melanesian staff to work at MSG secretariat" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2023/02/07/kalsakau-wants-melanesian-staff-to-work-at-msg-secretariat/" aria-label="Read more about Kalsakau wants Melanesian staff to work at MSG secretariat">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
January 24, 2023
By Len Garae in Port Vila West Papua independence campaigner Benny Wenda is in Vanuatu to meet Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsakau’s newly-installed government. Wenda said he would also “strategise” on the way forward towards gaining eventual sovereignty from Indonesia and would be discussing ongoing issues in West Papua. These include human rights abuses, and internal ... <a title="Wenda calls on Melanesian ‘Good Samaritans’ to help free West Papua" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2023/01/24/wenda-calls-on-melanesian-good-samaritans-to-help-free-west-papua/" aria-label="Read more about Wenda calls on Melanesian ‘Good Samaritans’ to help free West Papua">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
December 8, 2022
SPECIAL REPORT: By Lee Duffield in Brisbane The launch of a New Zealand project to produce more Pacific news and provide a “voice for the voiceless” on the islands has highlighted the neglect of that field by Australia and New Zealand — and also problems in universities. The new development is the non-government, non-university Asia ... <a title="Fate of NZ research centre highlights university ‘blindness’, media freedom" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2022/12/08/fate-of-nz-research-centre-highlights-university-blindness-media-freedom/" aria-label="Read more about Fate of NZ research centre highlights university ‘blindness’, media freedom">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
December 5, 2022
By Shayal Devi in Suva In solidarity with West Papua, the Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) has called for a boycott of all Indonesian products and programmess by the Indonesian government. The Fiji-based PCC said this should be done until Indonesia facilitated a visit by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to investigate ... <a title="Pacific churches call for boycott of Indonesian products over Papua" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2022/12/05/pacific-churches-call-for-boycott-of-indonesian-products-over-papua/" aria-label="Read more about Pacific churches call for boycott of Indonesian products over Papua">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
July 24, 2022
RNZ Pacific Pacific Peoples Minister Aupito William Sio will attend the Pacific Islands Forum in Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta’s stead as she recovers from covid-19. In a statement confirming the move this afternoon Aupito, who is also the Associate Foreign Minister, said he looked forward to the opportunity to talanoa with Pacific Island counterparts at ... <a title="Aupito to attend Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji instead of Mahuta" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2022/07/24/aupito-to-attend-pacific-islands-forum-in-fiji-instead-of-mahuta/" aria-label="Read more about Aupito to attend Pacific Islands Forum in Fiji instead of Mahuta">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
July 24, 2022
Asia Pacific Report newsdesk The Australia West Papua Association (AWPA) has condemned the absence of West Papua in last week’s Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) official communique, saying it was “greatly disappointed” that the human rights situation in the Indonesian-ruled Melanesian region had not been mentioned. “It is understandable that the PIF has huge challenges in ... <a title="Advocacy group condemns failure to address West Papua at Pacific Forum" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2022/07/24/advocacy-group-condemns-failure-to-address-west-papua-at-pacific-forum/" aria-label="Read more about Advocacy group condemns failure to address West Papua at Pacific Forum">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
July 23, 2022
By Asia Pacific Report editor David Robie A lively 43sec video clip surfaced during last week’s Pacific Islands Forum in the Fiji capital of Suva — the first live leaders’ forum in three years since Tuvalu, due to the covid pandemic. Posted on Twitter by Guardian Australia’s Pacific Project editor Kate Lyons it showed the ... <a title="‘Doorstops’ at the Pacific Forum – why no tough questions on West Papua?" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2022/07/23/doorstops-at-the-pacific-forum-why-no-tough-questions-on-west-papua/" aria-label="Read more about ‘Doorstops’ at the Pacific Forum – why no tough questions on West Papua?">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
July 21, 2022
ANALYSIS: By Biman Chand Prasad in Suva The Pacific Islands Forum leaders’ meeting has ended and what is intriguing is the deafening silence on declining standards of democracy, governance, human rights, media freedom and freedom of speech issues, despite the serious and arguably worsening situation in some regional countries. The emphasis on climate change is ... <a title="Australia and New Zealand’s ‘deafening silence’ on Pacific democracy and human rights" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2022/07/21/australia-and-new-zealands-deafening-silence-on-pacific-democracy-and-human-rights/" aria-label="Read more about Australia and New Zealand’s ‘deafening silence’ on Pacific democracy and human rights">Read more</a>
CoveragePost
July 21, 2022
The University of South Pacific’s vice-chancellor says Fiji’s failure to pay its grant contribution for the third year in a row is affecting the regional university’s operations and students, reports ABC’s Pacific Beat. The Fiji government has refused to pay its grant since 2019 and did not allocate funding for its USP grant in the ... <a title="USP forced to cut costs as Fiji still refuses to pay grant for third year" class="read-more" href="https://eveningreport.nz/2022/07/21/usp-forced-to-cut-costs-as-fiji-still-refuses-to-pay-grant-for-third-year/" aria-label="Read more about USP forced to cut costs as Fiji still refuses to pay grant for third year">Read more</a>
