Samoa attacks on media - need for partnership

Pacific Freedom Forum
mediafreedom@googlegroups.com

Media Release

Samoa attacks on media highlight need for media, church partnerships

For immediate release: Tuesday 31 March 2009: The Pacific Freedom Forum is offering to partner with Pacific church leaders in the wake of last weeks attacks on journalists outside the courthouse in Apia, Samoa.

The court hearing involved a 62-year old former pastor cleared of attempted rape and found guilty of indecent assault involving a 17 year old woman in his former congregation. The man will be sentenced in August this year.

Samoa media reported a TV cameraman and reporter were threatened and chased as they covered the case last week. They told media colleagues they managed to avoid serious injury when they escaped into the office of the CEO of Justice.

“The Pacific Freedom Forum will always condemn these attacks on media workers going about the sometimes difficult job of informing the public, and we want to stress how important it is that we all learn from this and reach out to partner those who need help in understanding our role,” says PFF chair Susuve Laumaea of Papua New Guinea.

“Those who are closest to leaders whom we put on pedestals are often most likely to lash out at scapegoats when their leaders fail them, and it’s important for the public to understand their own anger and disappointment when these highly emotional trials take place,” he says.

Leading Samoa journalist Cherelle Jackson, who is also part of the Pacific Islands News Association executive, says journalists face threats and harassment on a regular basis in Samoa, but in this instance, the physical assaults and had catalysed JAWS to publicly condemn this behavior.

PFF co-chair Monica Miller commended the important role of Samoa media colleagues in bringing the trial information into the public domain, within the legal constraints of a name suppression order and the cultural constraints of secrecy involving sexual misconduct amongst religious leaders.

“The fact that charges were laid gave the media an obligation to ensure coverage was fair to both the accused, and the community within which he served.”

“Ultimately, no good can ever come of a situation where the act of reporting on a crime is misunderstood and leads to more crimes being committed,” says Miller, who hails from Samoa. “It is the classic ‘shooting the messenger’ scenario which proves those with the mob mentality don’t understand the rule of law, nor the role of their own journalists. The PFF is happy to make the offer to partner with relevant church agencies and build awareness in this regard.”

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The Pacific Freedom Forum are a regional and global online network of Pacific media colleagues, with the specific intent of raising awareness and advocacy of the right of Pacific people to enjoy freedom of expression and be served by a free and independent media.

We believe in the critical and basic link between these freedoms, and the vision of democratic and participatory governance pledged by our leaders in their endorsement of the Pacific Plan and other commitments to good governance.

In support of the above, our key focus is monitoring threats to media freedom and bringing issues of concern to the attention of the wider regional and international community.

ENDS

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