David Robie

David Robie (born 1945) is a New Zealand author, journalist and media educator who has covered the Asia-Pacific region for international media for more than two decades.[1] He became an associate professor in Auckland University of Technology School of Communication Studies in 2005 and a professor in 2011.[2][3] In 1985, Dr Robie sailed on board the Greenpeace eco-navy flagship Rainbow Warrior for 10 weeks until it was bombed by French secret agents in New Zealand’s Auckland harbour.[4] He is the author of a book about the ill-fated voyage, Eyes of Fire: The Last Voyage of the Rainbow Warrior (Lindon Books, 1986).[5] An updated memorial edition of Eyes of Fire was published in July 2005 [6] and a 30th anniversary edition in July 2015 (Little Island Press).[7]

David Robie

In 1993-1997, Robie headed the University of Papua New Guinea journalism programme and in 1998-2002 became coordinator of the University of the South Pacific journalism school where his students covered the 2000 George Speight coup d'état in Fiji.[8] According to the NZ Listener, an assistant minister in Fiji Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka's government in 1998 threatened to close Robie's media and politics website - Café Pacific - and revoke his work permit as a media educator in "what was seen as the first test of the 1997 Constitution's freedom of expression clause".[9] In 1999, Robie became the annual Australian Press Council Fellow[10] and is an advocate of Pacific media freedom.[11] He is founding editor of Pacific Journalism Review, which was launched at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1994. In 2005, he won the PIMA Pacific Media Freedom Award.[12] He specialises in Asia-Pacific issues[13] and is now director of the Pacific Media Centre. Robie is author of several books on South Pacific media and politics.[14]