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Pacific Journalism Review (PJR), founded in Papua New Guinea thirty years ago, recently celebrated a significant milestone in Fiji with the publication of its 30th anniversary edition and 47th issue.
It is notable because it is the longest-running media, journalism and development magazine in the Global South. It is also notable that, despite its long history of being a critique of truth, its birthday event at the Pacific International Media Conference in early July was attended by at least two cabinet ministers, one from Fiji and one from Papua New Guinea.
Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister Biman Prasad, a former professor of economics at the University of the South Pacific and a champion of a free media, singled out the magazine for praise at the event, which also marked the launch of a landmark new book. Prasad, who co-edited Waves of Change: Media, Peace and Development in the Pacific with Shailendra Singh and Amit Sarwar, said the book aims to analyse recent developments in the Pacific because long-term development will be hampered if the region remains elusive to sustainable peace and stability.
The discussion was joined by Papua New Guinea’s Minister of Information and Communications Technology, Timothy Masiu, who has come under fire for a controversial draft media policy (now in its fifth version), who expressed concern about the impact of geopolitical agendas on the media and advocated for “a path forward for truly independent and authentic Pacific media”.
Since its founding in 1994, PJR has become more than just a research journal. As an independent publication, it has supported Asia-Pacific investigative journalism, sociopolitical journalism, political economy of the media, photojournalism, and political cartooning over its thirty-year history. Its mission is to:
One of the aims of Pacific Journalism Review is to examine Pacific journalism theory and practice, but the journal also extends its interests into new areas of research and inquiry to reflect the wider implications of contemporary media practice and education. The journal has a particular focus on the cultural politics of media, including issues such as: new media and social movements, indigenous cultures in an age of globalization, tourism and development politics, the role of media and the formation of national identities, and the cultural influence of New Zealand as a branch of the global economy in the Pacific. The journal also has a special focus on climate change, environmental and development studies of media, and communication and indigenous media in the region.
PJR has also been a champion of journalistic practice as a research method and strategy, particularly in its Frontline section, which was initiated by one of the guiding co-editors, former UTS professor and investigative journalist Wendy Bacon, and developed by Monash University professor Chris Nash. Five members of the current editorial board were present at the 30th anniversary celebrations: Professor Mark Pearson of Griffith University, conference convener Associate Professor Shailendra Singh of USP, Khairiah Abdul Rahman of Auckland University of Technology, designer Del Abcede and current editor Dr Philip Cass.
As the founding editor of PJR, I must admit that the Australian Journalism Review has been around almost twice as long as PJR, as it was my original inspiration to start the magazine. In 1993, when I became the Head of the Department of Journalism at the University of Papua New Guinea, I became very frustrated by the lack of high-quality media and journalism literature and research materials in the Pacific that could be used both for critical research and practice-oriented education.
So I was eager to see the AJR, and to contribute to it. I turned to the London-based Index Census as another publication to follow. I thought, why not? We could do this in the Pacific, so I convinced the University of Papua New Guinea Press to come on board, and the first edition was published in 1994 on the abandoned campus press in Waigani.
We published there until 1998, when PJR moved to USP for five years. It was then published at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) for 18 years, primarily through the Pacific Media Centre, which closed in 2020. Since then, it has been published by the Asia Pacific Media Network, a non-profit NGO.
In 2014, at the Auckland University of Technology celebrations of the journal’s 20th anniversary, then-Editor of the AJR Professor Ian Richards noted the journal’s “perseverance” and its contribution to Oceanian studies, saying:
Today, PJR plays a major role in publishing research about the region. This is important for many reasons, not least because most academics base their research in the environment they are most familiar with, which often results in very localised articles. It is much easier to present your research as ‘international’ if ‘local’ means London, Paris or New York than if you live in Port Vila, Pago Pago, Auckland or Adelaide.
Also in 2014, analyst Dr Lee Duffield highlighted the key role PJR played during Fiji’s period of military rule and “blatant military censorship”, which had eased somewhat since the repeal of the draconian Media Industry Development Act in 2023. He commented:
The same is true of PJR’s agenda setting in other crisis events: jailing journalists in Tonga, threatening or effectively controlling the media in Tahiti or Papua New Guinea, senior government politicians beating up editors in Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands also threatening the media, and Samoa restricting reporting.
Speaking at the 30th anniversary event, Dr. Vijay Naidu, Associate Professor of Development Studies and Governance at the University of the South Pacific, lauded the journal for its inclusion of more than 1,100 research papers covering a wide range of topics. He said the journal has become a critical conscience on socio-political and development dilemmas in the Asia-Pacific region and looked forward to the journal taking on future challenges.
I outlined many of the challenges ahead in a recent interview with Global Voices correspondent Mong Palatino. Among the more pressing issues facing the journal are responding to the changing geopolitical realities in the Pacific and engaging more creatively and more closely with journalists, educators, and advocates in the region on development, the climate crisis, and unresolved issues of decolonization. To address these challenges, the PJR team has spent the past few months working on an innovative new publishing strategy.
Source: PACNEWS
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