Hainer, Hainer, Hainer, Hainer, Hainer, Hainer Hainer, Hainer, Hainer, Hainer, Hainer, Hainer, Hainer, Hainer. The world press freedom index has ranked NZ 13th in the world. Do you feel like that's a fair representation? In comparison to other countries in the Pacific, who are way lower down on the list, we do have a lot more openness, and transparency here in New Zealand. However, we have other different issues that do impede our, you know, immediate freedom here, a generaulism here is not as strong as it should be among Māori and Pacific journalists. So we need a lot more stronger reporting in areas where there is social injustice or inequality, resource management concerns that have been given out that affect many Māori communities around the country, not enough how questions get asked about those things. Although we have the official information that here and you are able to request information from government departments, sometimes the information they give you is not exactly relevant to what you want. So you have to sort of delve deeper into issues, these issues of racism, it's not overt though it's settled. Are there any recent cases of discrimination among Pacific others that have concerned you? Look for example with what happened with Pat Lam recently, you know, you'd think that he would have been as a sportsman, as someone sports person, he would have been held in high regard but it's not until things go wrong that public you know reaction like what we saw against him, where is it's head and then you realise yeah there is still you know racist attitudes out there. To what extent is language barrier? We need to have a official recognition of Pacific languages in New Zealand so that we can tell our stories in you know language that everybody understands. Having said that a lot more New Zealand-born people now are living here in New Zealand but you know those there are still those language barriers in terms of media reporting. How can New Zealand media improve? I think that has to come from the ground up from Maori and Pacific journalists who have to first of all you know has some sort of cohesive agreement about how they do that. We do have the Pacific Island Media Association and we do need to strengthen our relationship you know with other Pacific media who work in New Zealand. We do need to have more Maori and Pacific representation on organisations like the broadcasting standards authority, the New Zealand Press Council and we need more of our you know faces like you you know out there in mainstream sort of reinforcing the fact that this is a multicultural country and that you know there are a multitude of attitudes and cultures to consider. The Pacific Island Media Association is quite excited about the number of Maori and Pacific media outlets that have been established. We have Maori television, we have ewe radio and we have newspapers. We also have the Pacific Media Radio Network, specific magazine. We have also other TV and radio outlets and Tupi Mesa who is a columnist for the New Zealand Herold. So we do have a lot of highly successful work that's happening out there to get the Pacific media perspectives out there. As an ATC graduate in coming out of uni and going straight into covering two of the biggest stories of the year, how was that? G where do I begin you know I've covered some really great stories and met some really good people during my time with the Pacifica and one of them being the the Tongan King State funeral King Chelsea De Bole the Fifth. That was incredible you know seeing history and tradition take place in front of my eyes. That was very sudden unexpected. I was on leave in Australia with my family and I you know I had someone tell me I think that the Tongan King has passed away and you know in previous years we've had people sent Texas all the King is dead you know but this time we thought oh it may be real. And how was that? Oh it was really scary for me and being a Tongan myself you know I understand the protocols of the tapunas of the you know covering something like that because you know it's in Tonga you know it's not something you can just rock up and you know do a story okay you know but I really enjoyed a cultural aspect of it was really good and I was also learning experience for myself as well so which is I enjoyed it as well so it's good. What does it mean to you to be able to offer a pollination perspective on such a wide scale here in New Zealand? Well I'm really I'm honored and you know a medium like the television you know we get to expose something like that like the Tongan King's funeral because for other viewers as well because they'll never get to see that and you know we have something in Tonga like the Neemadaple the Sacred Hands you know that they're the only ones who are allowed to go near the King's body you know we've got to interview people like that and nowhere else you'll see anything like that so to bring that to you know non-Tongans and you know other Pacific people it's it's great. So what's the difference between media freedom issues and Australasia compared to the Pacific Islands? New Zealand and Australia of course are at different developmental levels and the media plays a crucial role in our countries I guess you could say it plays an even more crucial role in a developing country or in smaller countries like those in the Pacific Islands that we looked at and out in our Pacific Media Freedom Report last year we have in the Pacific a range of different governmental styles and democracies but the media there see themselves as as more participants in helping that democratic process along very different to the situation say New Zealand and Australia where the media is the fourth of state it's holding the government to account holding truth to power now you have that approach as well in the Pacific but I guess it's more crucial that the those media organisations carry out a developmental journalism responsible journalism which is what's been called for at media summits and media organisations when they get together how do we address that? I think governments have always got to be held to account and you have to campaign for freedom of the press and and that has to be a core institution of any society of a free media at the same time journalists and media organisations need to get on with the job and if that means operating the system where there is some sort of censorship well that's even more admirable and in the sense that their effort is there to report as best they can inform the public that they're there it's not enough to distance yourself and say well we're not going to report anymore we're boycoding this is there a greater responsibility for journalists to report on developmental issues? I think so I think in a developing country a journalist and a media organisation a publication has to look at the main issues that are affecting society and report on them and to do their core traditional role of bringing about important change it might be reporting the Millenium development goals which are important to all Pacific countries reporting on gender-based violence or it might be climate change migration that's going on in some places like that it's important more important than say an Oriental developed country where these issues aren't as important or aren't as well the the danger is not is not there affecting people's lives as much so yeah there is that responsibility and it needs to be a core component of a of the agenda of a of a publication in the Pacific