media development | news agency

MEDIA

> regional news agency indicators

There is a need for a regional news agency that keeps a close eye on issues like HIV/AIDS and global warming as they develop rather than only being events driven e.g. workshops and conferences.

> reliability of indicators

Spread of the HIV/AIDS virus is an accepted and documented issue, with concerns now well focused, including a lack of reliable news coverage. Global warming is by far the bigger issue, and equally more contentious. However, news coverage points to a shrinkage in the number of sceptics and an alarming rise in the studies showing rapid quickening of global warming and significant underestimation of its effects.

> seriousness of issues

One example is that, in 2004, a study commissioned by the Pentagon predicted effects of global warming would have much bigger impacts on global security than terrorism. Rather than debate the report, the Pentagon and the Whitehouse simply disowned it. Several key officials resigned in protest. Serious impacts from global warming are predicted as soon as 2020. Sovereign extinction is not out of the question. HIV/AIDS already claims dozens of lives in the region, a figure reliably predicted to rise into the hundreds and then thousands within the same timeframe. By 2050, it is predicted that one million people in PNG alone will have HIV/AIDS.

> urgency of responses

It is here the region is at its weakest. There seems to be no urgency in addressing leading concerns. A webpage on the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme notes there is “no project” to monitor and promote global warming policies by member governments. UNAIDS reports difficulties getting anyone to even answer the phone in some Pacific countries. Only four of 13 Pacific countries filed progress reports towards the UNGASS+5 review last month.

> cross cutting

Governance is of course the ultimate cross cutting issue. The governance issues contributing to a lack of urgency in responses to HIV/AIDS result from the same processes that hold back action on global warming.

> news agency outputs

A news agency focused on leading issues and the governance processes behind them would help keep attention focused on the biggest threats and challenges facing the Pacific Islands. At the moment, major issues are being lost in the daily news cycle and not covered in any depth.