Date: Sat, 2 Nov 1996 16:39:30 +0100 (MET)
From: malecki-AT-algonet.se (Robert Malecki)
Subject: M-I: No news on Bougainville


It appears that the Australian TV is tryinging to impose a news blackout on 
events in Bougainville. So I forward this to the lists.

Bob Malecki

>
>FOR YOUR INFORMATION
>
>
>The following story "No news on Bougainville"  was researched and written 
for the 
>November 1996 issue of REPORTAGE, the publication of the Australian Centre for 
>Independent Journalism ACIJ, by Max Watts.
>
>Reportage Editor Peter Cronau assisted greatly with research and subediting.
>
>On 31 October 1996 the Director of the ACIJ Alan Knight pulled the story 
>from the 
>issue of Reportage as it went to print - over the objections of Editor 
Peter Cronau 
>-,  who has "resigned, but not because of this".
>
>Director Alan Knight believes that the story is:
>
>too old

>too insubstantial and
>too thin
>
>Further he stated that "the people concerned are no longer active in the 
media".  
>(A rather curious definition of Paul Fenn, the present chief of news of 
Channel 
>Nine Television, amongst the other journalists who have, sometimes on 
condition of 
>preserving their anonymity, helped us with this story). 
>
>Alan Knight believes the story belongs in a publication "more directly 
concerned 
>with Bougainville".  I agree, but find it may also be of much interest to 
>Australian (and other) journalists.  
>
>As Paul Fenn says, it helps explain why news on Bougainville have "dried up".
>
>
>MAX WATTS
>TEL/FAX 61 (0) 29 818 2343 
>POB 98, Annandale NSW 2038, 
>Australia
>MWATTS-AT-fisher.biz.usyd.edu.au
>=======>
>
>
>No news on Bougainville
>
>
>News from Bougainville has often been hard to get, and it's not because 
nothing 
>happens there.   Max Watts reports on some behind the scenes happenings at 
Channel 
>Nine News.
>
>
>On October 4, 1989, Channel Nine axed its early morning news program 
declaring cost 
>savings were necessary.  At the time the Nine Network was owned by now-jailed 
>businessperson Alan Bond, and the dropping of the news looked like just 
another 
>move in a tightening media market.
>
>
>At that time Bryan Murray was an Associate Producer for National Nine News; 
 he 
>remembers the cancelling of the program.
>
>
>"One morning I came to work, and learned that our daily 6 am news program 
was, as 
>of today, cancelled.  When I asked the obvious question:  'Why?'  I was 
told that a 
>Port Moresby politician had been angered by some news item we had broadcast.
>"this minister had, so I was told, spoken directly to Alan Bond, who then 
owned 
>the 
>National Nine Network, or to Managing Director, Sam Chisholm.  The message 
was then 
>passed down to our news chief, Ian Cook."
>
>"Cook, according to my anchorman, Eric Walters, called a meeting of senior 
news 
>personnel and said:  'We have to bend over, and give them whatever they 
want'.  And 
>he killed our program."
> 
>
>The program's anchorman, Eric Walters, remembers the incident well.  Now 
>semi-retired, Walters says that there had been complaints about the 
National Nine 
>Early Morning News program's coverage of news from Papua New Guinea.
>
>"I remember, I got very very angry.  Somare had complained about our 
coverage, and 
>whether it was right away or later, anyway, the bulletin was cancelled."  
>
>"Cookie, he was annoyed at my questioning this decision [to cancel that entire 
>program]," says Walters.
>
>"Cookie said to me that Somare had us 'dead to rights' because we had run file 
>footage which we had not put a super on.  We had messed up, failed to 
identify it 
>as file footage."
>
>The news program had run an item about Bougainville featuring PNG's foreign 
>minister Sir Michael Somare, the nation's first prime minister and the 
'father of 
>the nation'.  Some file footage was added to the story but a mistake was 
made, and 
>footage of Walter Lini, prime minister of Vanuatu, limping following a 
stroke, was  
>shown.  Somare was reputedly furious.
>
>Walters says he thought this cock-up relatively unimportant and no excuse for 
>cancelling a whole news program.
>
>"I certainly had that conversation with Ian Cook, and what he said was 
'Sometimes 
>we've just got to bend over'."
>
>
>Murray remembers that the event was followed up with a memo to staff.  "A 
few days 
>later Mr. Cook sent out a computer memo to myself and other members of the 
Sydney 
>news staff.
>
>"The gist of this memo was unforgetable:  'No stories would be broadcast 
about the 
>Bougainville uprising unless we could confirm the facts directly'."
>
>"This was a tall order since we were relying heavily on wire service 
reports and no 
>correspondents had been sent to Bougainville, although we clearly had the 
resources  
>and the technology to do so.  We had dispatched correspondents as far 
afield as far 
>northern Alaska to glimpse a whale trapped in the ice."
>
>Walters too remembers receiving a memo later about the matter, but not all its 
>details, except the general thrust that they were only to report on 
Bougainville 
>when every fact could be checked.
>
>
>Murrray was then already 35 and, in his own words "fairly jaded", but at 
that point  
>in his journalism career he had "never seen such a blatant attempt to quash 
media 
>coverage, particularly of something so newsworthy as a shooting war just 
off the 
>Australian mainland."
>
>Murray says that at the time neither he nor the other, younger journalists and 
>producers with whom he worked at TCN did anything.  "They kept silent and 
went home 
>to their mortgaged units;  I eventually went back to America.  I too kept 
quiet."
>
>Murray says he was prompted to come out and tell of the incident now after 
seeing 
>information of the continued carnage on Bougainville on the Internet.  "I 
remain 
>haunted about Bougainville, and troubled by that 'chill' on the media."
>
>
>
>DROP CAP
>
>
>EMTV had started broadcasting in PNG in early 1989.  Alan Bond had 
purchased the 
>Nine Network from Kerry Packer in 1987 for $ 1,055 million.  In July 1990 
Packer 
>bought it back for just $ 200 million;  Packer commented at the time:  "You 
only 
>get one Alan Bond in your lifetime, and I've had mine".
>
>Ian Cook had been News Chief at TCN Nine at that time.  Now he is Head of 
News at 
>Rupert Murdoch's British Sky Broadcasting Ltd, BSB.
>
>Cook responded to questions about the incident by fax from his London 
office.  "I 
>did not receive any instructions, complaint or advisory from him [Bond], from 
>anyone associated with him or from any member of management regarding our 
coverage 
>in Bougainville," he says.   "I have absolutely no recollection of any 
meeting or 
>memo even remotely similar to those you have described."
>
>Bryan Murray was understanding.  "I've been a small town TV news director, 
I can 
>appreciate some of the pressures on a guy in Cook's position.
>
>"I have a lot of respect for him.  He may have been on our side, fighting 
those 
>battles in his own way," says Murray.
>
>"We knew we had to lay off Bougainville, but they would never admit that."
>
>Several other journalists then working at Channel Nine also confirmed, (on 
>condition that their names would not be published) that there had been 
complaints 
>"from above" about Bougainville coverage.
>
>
>Sam Chisholm, then Nine's managing director and now head of BSB, was sent 
questions 
>about the incident.  His office responded saying that "he doesn't think he can 
>help".
>
>Alan Bond is presently in jail in Perth under appeal.  His solicitor, Susie 
Cameron 
>from Galbally, Fraser and Rolph in Melbourne agreed to pass some questions 
about 
>the matter on to him.  There has been no reply.
>
>Murray says he felt that it was more than the cock-ups that were the 
justification 
>for killing the show and sending the memo.
>
>"We all knew it;  Channel 9 bowed to outside pressure," says Murray.  
"Bougainville 
>was definitely heating up and we were definitely, specifically, told to 
leave it 
>alone."
>
>
>Paul Fenn, then second-in-charge and now Head of News at Channel 9, is quite 
>definite.  He says that the 6 am news had been axed on October 4, 1989 "to cut 
>costs".  Three other Nine programs had also been cancelled on the same day 
in an 
>industry-wide economy drive.
>
>Fenn assured us that these decisions were purely commercial, and had 
nothing to do 
>with any outside criticism or pressure concerning PNG or Bougainville.  But 
he does 
>remember the memo.
>
>"Oh yes, there was a memo.  There was a complaint from the PNG government, 
>probably, I don't remember, through Sam Chisholm, the Managing Director, 
rather 
>than through Alan Bond.  About a couple of what they conceived as 
misreporting, as 
>well as the misidentification of Michael Somare."
>
>"And we were told to be careful, with our facts out of Bougainville.  
Unless we 
>could check things it was better not to run anything rather than be 
incorrect;  
>unless it can be confirmed."
>
>"It would have been dangerous to send a team, but more of the reason, 
rather than 
>the danger, was that it was impossible to get in there.
>
>"In practice that meant that news from Bougainville simply dried up."
>
>
>
>30303030
>
>
>Max Watts is a journalist who has written extensively about the conflict on 
>Bougainville.  He considers that the blockade imposed on the island since 
April 
>1990 by PNG and Australian forces is intended not only to prevent supplies, 
such as 
>medicine, reaching the Bougainvillians fighting against Rio Tinto Zinc/Conzinc 
>Riotinto Australia RTZ/CRA's mining  projects, but that this blockade also 
serves 
>to prevent news of this exceptional conflict from reaching the outside 
world, above 
>all the Australian public.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>




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