NZ media failing on human rights issues, says Amnesty International

The New Zealand media seems to lack interest in and knowledge of human rights issues, says the deputy director of Amnesty International New Zealand, Rebecca Emery.

Emery was speaking at a conference hosted by Amnesty International at AUT University last week as part of its upcoming Demand Dignity campaign.

“Human rights are pretty much taken for granted until they’re taken away,” she said.

Emery said she wanted to establish a media network in New Zealand and the Pacific to help get human rights stories out.

Dr Martin Hirst, journalism curriculum leader at AUT University, said if journalism slogans such as “the fourth estate”, and “acting as watchdogs”, were to mean anything, they needed associated action.

He advocated a “journalism of attachment”, in which reporters prodded communities to do public work, support civic culture and attempt to push the world in a certain direction.

David Vaefe, programme manager of the Pacific Cooperation Foundation, spoke about the challenges Pacific Island journalists face in reporting human rights issues.

He said Pacific Island journalists may face intimidation for writing articles critical of government actions or for highlighting social problems.

Vaefe said at the PCF conference in Apia, Samoa last year, a newspaper editor arrived with a black eye after being assaulted for a story he had written.

Dr Hirst said: “If the media outside the country [where intimidation is taking place] is not reporting about the violence against journalists, it allows those governments to ramp up those abuses.”

Vaefe stressed the importance of improving the standard of journalism in the Pacific to increase awareness of serious issues such as HIV, poverty and the environment.

“If you strengthen the media’s ability to reflect society, you strengthen civil society,” he said.

Barbara Dreaver, TVNZ’s Pacific correspondent, spoke about her experience of being expelled from Fiji, giving an insight into the situation there.

“Any voice of dissent is being censored,” she said.

Dreaver said the story that led to her expulsion revealed industries closing, job losses and food prices rising and children going hungry.

“If anything is going to cause problems for the military-led government, it’s Fijian parents that can’t feed their children,” she said.