FijiFirst scores head start on social media for election, says journalist
Pacific Media Centre journalist Sri Krishnamurthi … returning to Fiji for the general election after earlier special reporting with Wansolwara in Suva. Image: Rahul Bhattarai/PMC By Rahul Bhattarai in Auckland Fijians are counting down for their general election on Wednesday after early voting that started on November 5. Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama’s ruling FijiFirst party […]
Read More →Kanaky independence campaign rolls on … encouraged by ballot result
David Robie, who reported from New Caledonia several times during the 1980s for Islands Business magazine, The Australian, New Zealand Times and other media, returned to the French Pacific possession to observe last weekend’s historic referendum. He was also on board the Rainbow Warrior, the Greenpeace environmental ship that was bombed by French secret agents […]
Read More →New Caledonia vote stirs painful memories – and a hopeful future
David Robie, who reported from New Caledonia during the 1980s for Islands Business magazine, New Zealand Times and other media, returned to the French Pacific possession to observe last weekend’s historic referendum. He was also on board the Rainbow Warrior, the Greenpeace environmental ship that was bombed by French secret agents during the height of […]
Read More →Gallery: Global media cover historic New Caledonia independence referendum
1. SBS journalist Stefan Armbruster frames a colourful Kanak flag shot on referendum day. Image: David Robie 2. The France TV – representing six channels – outside broadcast vehicle set up at the French High Commission in Noumea. Image: David Robie/PMC 3. Premiere TV, the local offshoot of the French public broadcaster. Image: David Robie/PMC […]
Read More →MSG backing Kanak independence ‘on the quiet’, says campaigner
Kanak pro-independence official Victor Tutugoro talking to journalists outside the FLNKS headquarters in Noumea on Sunday. Image: David Robie/PMC By RNZ Pacific A leading New Caledonian pro-independence politician, Victor Tutugoro, says governments of Melanesian countries have quietly supported the New Caledonian independence cause. Tutugoro, second vice-president of New Caledonia’s Kanak-ruled Northern province and a Melanesian […]
Read More →New Caledonia blockade tension fails to mar French PM’s talks on future
French security forces arrive in force to deal with protesters demonstrating over the independence vote defeat near St Louis, Noumea. Image: Screenshot – Les Nouvelles Caledoniennes By David Robie in Nouméa French security forces moved in today to clean up the main road near an indigenous Kanak tribal area after a day of tension and […]
Read More →New Caledonia on brink of fateful decision – new nation or status quo?
The New Caledonia referendum will determine whether it will remain a French territory or become independent. Image: SBS video screenshot By Stefan Armbruster in Noumea New Caledonia, a group of picturesque islands in Melanesia that are the closest neighbour to Australia and New Zealand, have been French-owned since 1853. But this may change at the […]
Read More →Flashback to Kanaky in the 1980s – ‘Blood on their banner’
About 175,000 New Caledonians will vote on the future of their Pacific territory this Sunday—a status quo French-ruled New Caledonia, or an independent Kanaky New Caledonia. What will be their choice? David Robie backgrounds the issues that led to the vote. With New Caledonia facing the first of possibly three referendums on independence on Sunday—given […]
Read More →French human rights body warns over ‘colonial reality’ before key Pacific vote
Caledonia TV’s report on the recent indigenous Kanak and Socialist National Liberation Front (FLNKS) conference on a “post-independence” future for New Caledonia. Video: NCI TV By RNZ Pacific Irrespective of the outcome of New Caledonia’s independence referendum next weekend, certain conditions need to be met to maintain peace, the French Human Rights League says. In […]
Read More →Kanak independence struggle gains Maohi support as vote looms
By Nic Maclellan in Ponerihouen, New Caledonia In a show of support for the Kanak independence movement, Maohi leader Oscar Manutahi Temaru has joined the campaign trail in New Caledonia, urging voters to support a Yes vote in the country’s referendum on self-determination next month. Temaru is a former President of French Polynesia and long-time […]
Read More →USTKE fights for Kanak rights in defiance of ‘dishonest’ referendum
As New Caledonia’s November 4 referendum on independence approaches, both pro and anti-independence groups are ramping up their campaigns. But, as Michael Andrew reports, some groups are choosing not to participate, arguing that the referendum is “unfair and dishonest”. For many Kanaks, the upcoming independence referendum is a chance to reclaim control of New Caledonia, […]
Read More →New Caledonia: Does the French public actually want to ‘set it free’?
Things may be coming to a head over the coming New Caledonia referendum, the independence struggle in New Zealand’s own region, but there is only lukewarm interest in France itself, writes Lee Duffield. After reporting from Noumea last month for Asia Pacific Report, he has been walking the streets in France this week asking people […]
Read More →New Caledonia independence ‘in their hearts’, but also a ‘scary’ future
Kanaks and long-time New Caledonian settlers get to vote on their future on November 4. But, as Michael Andrew of Asia Pacific Journalism points out, if Kanaks don’t get their wish for independence this time around, they have two more chances in 2020 and 2023 to vote for a new nation. MIL Analysis+Reportage – EveningReport.NZ
Read More →