Saturday, November 10, 2007

pacific islands radio - thumbs up

PRESS RELEASE
 
from: jason brown, editor, avaiki nius agency
 
pacific islands radio - thumbs up from ausaid
 
Australia looks like boosting aid spend on media in the pacific islands, starting where it probably should - public radio - as the region's oldest news media.
 
Short version?
 
"Public service broadcasting in the Pacific Islands has the thumbs up from Australia."
 
NOT SHY
 
Jason Brown, Editor of Avaiki Nius Agency is not shy claiming credit for this policy update.
 
"Well, not all of it," he says.
 
"Just a little bit."
 
QUOTE
 
His submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade in the Parliament of Australia "strongly suggests" placing the donor bull's eye on independent news media.

"This submission addresses these areas from information perspectives. It strongly suggests aid donor recognition of the centrality of news media especially public broadcasters within information contributions towards achieving sustained – and sustainable – progress ... "

Quote from Jason Brown, Editor, Avaiki News Agency, submission to Inquiry into Australia's aid program in the Pacific, June 2006, Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade.
 
LEADING CONCERN  
 
Public radio stations have suffered decades of generally benign neglect since colonial days, leading to a softening of core emergency services, as an example of one leading concern.
 
Some remote atolls have state-of-the-art satellite links including FM - both highly vulnerable to exponential increases in extreme weather events.
 
"I was awestruck in Manihiki 2007 - probably ten years ago to this day - or so - when Cyclone Martin left a cylcone-proof Telecom building as nothing more than a clean concrete pad.
 
RIPPED OUT
 
"Even the reinforcing rods had been ripped out by sheer tonnage of wave surge."
 
Twenty people were killed or lost at sea as a massive surge from the cyclone swept through the atoll. Eyewitness estimates as high as 50 metres , slicing buildings in half so cleanly books were left on a shelf next to half a doorway.
 
"There was no parliamentary commission of inquiry, royal or otherwise."
 
FIGURES
 
From that extreme weather event, to the joint committee on foreign affairs.
 
Applied search across the entire report reveals a "huge gap" between radio and web access to policy input.
 
Figures as follows, with hits listed first.
 
HITS
 
5 Searching for "Radio" returns five references in the report.
 
5 Same for "telecommunications" - five hits.
 
1 "Television" returns one hit.
 
0 "Internet" none.
 
0 "Newspapers" none.
 
0 "Press" none.
 
0 "Public relations"
 
19 "Press release" + "press statements" + "media release" nineteen hits.
 
103 "Web" brings 103 links.
 
18 hits for "media" , not media releases.
 
PRIORITY
 
The agency supports AM signal as being priority number one for any donors wanting to bolster badly neglected resources for good governance information. AM signal should be strong enough for handheld radio across millions of square kilometres of Pacific ocean, radios that can be easily wrapped in watertight containers.
 
"All telecommunications, internet, television, FM radio, phone, fax, telex, and other links like air and sea are no good if the airport is covered in coconut trees, the atoll's satellite is floating in the lagoon, and the wharf is full of coral."
 
Strong AM signal increases opportunity for access by remote communities to emergency information when they most need it, more than any other media.
 
FURTHER INFORMATION
 
 
pdf for whole report (6.51 megabytes or maybe 20 minutes at atoll dialup speed)
 http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/jfadt/pacificaid/report/fullreport.pdf
 
chapter links
 
news releases
Tuesday 6 February 2007
 Australia's aid program in the Pacific (PDF 31KB)
 
MEDIA RESOURCES
 
 
VOTE HERE
 
Vote your own way. See feeds on front page. Or comment right at us:
 
Start digging. Vote for this story here:
 
Google direct. No comments, but anonymous:
 
NO MORE, THANKS
...............
 
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Your email address was included on this list because of past communications with avaiki nius agency on media related issues. Apologies if we disturbed any privacy.
 
FULL CONTACTS

jason brown
editor
avaiki news agency
http://avaiki.nius.googlepages.com


+649 9167058 office direct
+649 9167552 facsimile
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aotearoa | new zealand

...........................................................
 

posted by cook islands journalists association at 10:37 AM

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