A major row between the heads of two of the South Pacific’s foremost journalism schools threatens to spill over into a wider arena and damage regional relationships. The director of the influential Pacific Media Centre at the Auckland University of Technology, Professor David Robie, has accused the head of the School of Journalism at the Fiji-based … [Read more...] about #76 MEDIA TITANS CLASH (UPDATED 10/5)
#75 NOW THAT’S HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE
Grubsheet has again been wrestling in these columns with correspondents who claim - invariably without concrete evidence - that Frank Bainimarama and his regime are guilty of "torture" and widespread "human rights abuses". There seems little doubt that some regime critics have been subjected to summary beatings in military custody and these are not … [Read more...] about #75 NOW THAT’S HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSE
# 74 WORLD CHAMPION THUG
Take a good look at this face. It's what happened to Australian sportsman Simon Cowley when he fell foul of champion swimmer, Nick D'Arcy, in a bar altercation shortly before the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. D'Arcy king-hit Cowley, inflicting so much damage that his features had to be surgically rebuilt. Take another good look at this face. Because … [Read more...] about # 74 WORLD CHAMPION THUG
# 73 DOCTOR EDGE RESPONDS
The following was submitted to the Fiji Sun for publication as a reply to Graham’s column of Sunday. As the column was reprinted from this blog, however, I feel it is appropriate to post the reply as a blog comment as well, which will also open it up to response by Graham and others. But first I must thank Graham for getting such a lively … [Read more...] about # 73 DOCTOR EDGE RESPONDS
# 72 PACIFIC FORUM FIJI COMMUNIQUE
Australia's Foreign Minister, Bob Carr, is among a delegation from the Pacific Forum that wound up a day-long series of consultations in Suva today with the Fiji Government, opposition figures, non-government organisations, trade unions and other civil groups. The communique below acknowledges, for the first time, that the Bainimarama regime is … [Read more...] about # 72 PACIFIC FORUM FIJI COMMUNIQUE
#71 EDGE OF REALITY
Sometimes in a long career in journalism - and Grubsheet has been a scribe for nigh on 40 years – one reads or hears an account of an event at which one was present that bears so little resemblance to reality that one’s jaw drops in utter astonishment. So it was with the account given to Radio Australia on Thursday by Dr Marc Edge –the … [Read more...] about #71 EDGE OF REALITY