Internationalisation of the 'hidden' West Papua issue: A regional media matter for Melanesia and the Pacific

Abstract

Auckland University of Technology’s Pacific Media Centre marked its tenth anniversary with a seminar discussing two of the wider region’s most critical media freedom crises. The ‘Journalism Under Duress’ in Asia-Pacific seminar in November 2017 examined media freedom and human rights in the Philippines and Indonesia’s Papua region, otherwise known as West Papua. In the discussion about West Papua, the PMC seminar heard that access to the Indonesian region for foreign journalists, while still restricted, remains critical for helping Papuan voices to be heard. The plight of West Papua is of major concern among Pacific people, especially Melanesians, and it is becoming a growing geopolitical and media issue.

Keywords

• advocacy
• geopolitics
• human rights
• media freedom
• Melanesia
• Melanesian Spearhead Group