David Robie

To mark the twentieth anniversary of the sinking of the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior by French secret agents, David Robie has republished his work Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior. This revised new edition includes a postscript by Robie that brings us up to date with some of the many players from this remarkable story and a preface by former Greenpeace Pacific coordinator Bunny McDiarmid.

On 10 July 1985, French secret agents bombed the Greenpeace campaign flagship Rainbow Warrior in Auckland Harbour. The environmental ship had arrived in New Zealand to prepare for an anti-nuclear protest voyage to Moruroa Atoll in French Polynesia. Portuguese-born photographer Fernando Pereira died in the sabotage outrage that shook the world. The bombed ship was 'buried' off Matauri Bay in 1987 to form an ecological reef and a new Rainbow Warrior was commissioned. A decade later, under mounting Pacific pressure, France abandoned its unpopular nuclear tests. This book is the tale of the last voyage of the bombed ship to the Marshall Islands and the impact of nuclear testing on Rongelap Atoll and in French Polynesia.

Read Selwyn Manning's review on Scoop, 3 February 2006

Read the Pacific Islands Report review of Eyes of Fire

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The news media is the watchdog of democracy. But in the South Pacific today the Fourth Estate role is under threat from governments seeking statutory regulation, diminished media credibility, dilemmas over ethics and uncertainty over professionalism and training.

Traditionally – with the exception of Papua New Guinea where university education has been the norm – the region's journalists have mostly learned on the job in the newsroom or through vocational short courses funded by foreign donors.

However, today's Pacific journalists now more than ever need an education to contend with the complex cultural, development, environmental, historical, legal, political and sociological challenges faced in an era of globalisation.

From the establishment of the region's first journalism school at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1975 with New Zealand aid, Mekim Nius traces three decades of South Pacific media education history.

Dr David Robie profiles journalism at UPNG, Divine Word University and the University of the South Pacific in Fiji with Australian, Commonwealth, French NZ and UNESCO aid. He also examines the impact of the region's politics on the media in the two major economies, Fiji and Papua New Guinea – from the Bougainville conflict and Sandline mercenary crisis to Fiji's coups.

The book draws on interviews, research, two news industry surveys, and the author's personal experience as a Pacific media educator for almost a decade. Mekim Nius argues journalists need to be provided with critical studies, ethical and contextual knowledge matching technical skills to be effective communicators and political mediators with the Pacific's "new regionalism".

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"Why do Pacific Islanders want to become journalists? In spite of often tense relationships between governments and the media in the region, and poor pay and working conditions, growing numbers of young Pacific Islanders are choosing a career in journalism – and usually seeking formal qualifications."

This new book from the Journalism Programme, University of the South Pacific, looks at regional careers in the media. It covers some of the core courses of the programme, such as news values, basic news gathering, news writing and style, media law and ethics, print and online media, radio and television journalism, photojournalism, and political reporting and editorial balance.

In the final section, several chapters raise contemporary issues facing the region – trauma and conflict reporting, health reporting and HIV/AIDS, the growing importance of the environment, and NGOs as news sources. A chapter, "outside looking in", also examines the challenges for international media covering the region.

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"Blood on Their Banner is an excellent introduction for the general reader to the contemporary Pacific. Challenging and well-researched, it should prove equally valuable as a text for studies on the nature of nationalism and struggles for justice and democracy."
Robbie Robertson, Arena

"David Robie's vivid and well-documented account is a powerful indictment of the foreign policies of the United States, France and Indonesia. Even New Zealand and Australia are implicated."
Nemani Delaibatiki, Waikato Times

"David Robie is one of the better known New Zealand-based journalists currently reporting on the Pacific. His investigative articles on issues and conflicts of the day have brought a new and welcome seriousness to writing on the politics of this region."
Ian Frazer, Otago Daily Times

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