By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk French Prime Minister François Bayrou’s surprise announcement yesterday that he will call for a parliamentary confidence vote in his government is set to further complicate protracted talks in New Caledonia on the French territory’s political future. The announcement comes as French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls| Asia Pacific Report
RNZ Pacific Fire engulfed the Marshall Islands Nitijela (Parliament building) just after midnight on last night with firefighters risking their lives as they battled the blaze early today in a bid to save the complex. “Sometime around midnight or shortly after this morning, the Parliament building in Majuro caught fire, started burning,” RNZ Pacific’s correspondent| Asia Pacific Report
Pacific Media Watch A media studies analyst has condemned the latest deadly attack by Israel on journalists in Gaza and challenged Western media over the carnage, asking “where is the outrage” and international solidarity? Five journalists were reported to have been assassinated among 21 people killed in the air strike on the al-Nasser Medical Centre| Asia Pacific Report
COMMENTARY: By Greg Barns If it were China or Russia, the imposition of sanctions and threats of harm to prosecutors and judges of the International Criminal Court would be front page news in Australia- and in New Zealand. The Australian’s headline writers and columnists, for example, would be apoplectic. Prime Minister Albanese, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland| Asia Pacific Report
COMMENTARY: By Asofou So’o Although seven political parties have officially registered to contest Samoa’s general election this Friday, three have been politically visible through their campaign activities and are likely to share among them the biggest slice of the Parliament’s 51 seats. The question on everyone’s lips is: which one of them will win enough| Asia Pacific Report
RNZ News Prime Minister Christopher Luxon is condemning Israel’s E1 settlement plan for the occupied West Bank, despite New Zealand not signing a joint statement on the matter. Twenty-seven countries, including the UK and Australia, have condemned Israel’s plans to build an illegal settlement east of Jerusalem. The countries have said the plan would “make| Asia Pacific Report
By Pip Hinman and Alex Bainbridge of Green Left More than 200,000 people took the streets across Australia on Saturday in a national day of action demanding that the Labor government sanctions Israel and stops the two-way arms trade. It comes after 300,000 people marched, in driving rain, across Sydney Harbour Bridge on August 3| Asia Pacific Report
By Alifereti Sakiasi in Suva West Papuan journalist Victor Mambor has vowed not to be silenced despite years of threats, harassment and even a bomb attack on his home. The 51-year-old founder and editor-in-chief of Jubi, West Papua’s leading media outlet, was in Fiji this week, where he spoke exclusively to The Fiji Times about| Asia Pacific Report
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk A newly established “drafting committee” held its inaugural meeting in Nouméa this week, aiming to translate the Bougival agreement — signed by New Caledonian political parties in Paris last month — into a legal and constitutional form. However, the first sitting of the committee on Thursday| Asia Pacific Report
Two New Zealand Palestinians, Rana Hamida and Youssef Sammour, left Auckland today to join the massive new Global Sumud Flotilla determined to break Israel’s starvation blockade of the besieged enclave. Here, two journalists report on the Asia-Pacific stake in the initiative. Ellie Aben in Manila and Sheany Yasuko Lai in Jakarta Asia-Pacific activists are preparing| Asia Pacific Report
COMMENTARY: By Richard David Hames So here we are, 2025, and Israel has finally achieved what no terrorist group, no hostile neighbour, no antisemitic tyrant ever could: it has become the most dangerous country on earth — for its own people. Not because of rockets or boycotts, but because its government has decided that the| Asia Pacific Report
Pacific Media Watch Three media commentators addressed the 98th week of New Zealand solidarity rallies for Palestine in Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland today, criticising the quality of news reporting about the world’s biggest genocide crisis this century. Speakers at other locations around the country also condemned what they said was biased media coverage. The critics said| Asia Pacific Report
SPECIAL REPORT: By David Robie Protesters in their thousands have been taking to the streets in Aotearoa New Zealand demonstrating in solidarity with Palestine and against genocide for the past 97 weeks. Yet rarely have the protests across the motu made headlines — or even the news for that matter — unlike the larger demonstrations| Asia Pacific Report
By ‘Alakihihifo Vailala of Pacific Media Network As Israel expands its relationships with Pacific Island nations, an activist is criticising the region for its “dreadful response” to the Israel-Palestine conflict. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict, rooted in the 1948 Nakba and decades of seized land and expelled indigenous people, escalated after Hamas’ attacks on 7 October 2023.| Asia Pacific Report
By Andrew Mathieson Exiled West Papuan media are calling for Fiji — in a reflection of Melanesian solidarity — to hold the greater Pacific region to account and stand against Indonesia’s ongoing media blackout in addition to its human rights abuses. The leaders in their field which include two Papuans from Indonesia’s occupied provinces have| Asia Pacific Report
RNZ News New Zealand has joined more than two dozen other countries to call for “immediate and independent” foreign media access to Gaza. Earlier this month, an Israeli strike in the city killed six journalists — four Al Jazeera correspondents and cameramen, and two other media workers. The Israeli military admitted in a statement to| Asia Pacific Report
Pacific Media Watch “Speak Up Kōrerotia” — a radio show centred on human rights issues — has featured a nuclear-free Pacific and other issues in this week’s show. Encouraging discussion on human rights issues in both Canterbury and New Zealand, Speak Up Kōrerotia offers a forum to provide a voice for affected communities. Engaging in| Asia Pacific Report
RNZ Pacific New Zealand’s police commissioner says he understands the potential impact the country’s criminal deportees have on smaller Pacific Island nations. Commissioner Richard Chambers’ comments on RNZ Pacific Waves come as the region’s police bosses gathered for the annual Pacific Islands Chiefs of Police conference in Waitangi. The meeting, which is closed to media,| Asia Pacific Report
Asia Pacific Report The advocacy and protest group Palestine Solidarity Network Aotearoa has condemned New Zealand’s “deliberate distraction” over sanctions against Israel and has vowed more protests against Foreign Minister Winston Peters’ “failed policy” on Gaza. After the huge turnout of thousands in Palestine solidarity rallies across more than 20 locations in New Zealand last| Asia Pacific Report
ANALYSIS: By Treasa Dunworth, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau It’s now more than a week since Prime Minister Christopher Luxon announced his government had begun to formally consider New Zealand’s position on the recognition of a Palestinian state. That leaves two weeks until the UN General Assembly convenes on September 9, where it is| Asia Pacific Report
By Patrick Decloitre, RNZ Pacific correspondent French Pacific desk French Minister for Overseas Manuel Valls is once again in New Caledonia for a four-day visit aimed at maintaining dialogue, despite a strong rejection from a significant part of the pro-independence camp. He touched down at the Nouméa-La Tontouta Airport last night on his fourth trip| Asia Pacific Report
COMMENTARY: By Saige England I unequivocally support Irish author Sally Rooney with all my heart and soul. The author risks imprisonment for donating funds from her books and the TV series based on Normal People to a Palestinian group. Once again the United Kingdom tells Palestinians who they should support. Go figure. In her opinion| Asia Pacific Report