The art of balance:

Opinion

The art of balance: a press perspective

THIS MAGAZINE’S New Zealand correspondent, David Robie, has recently been the subject of a curious (and curiously intense) attack in the pages of Islands Business magazine.

The January 1989 issue of that publication devoted no less than five pages to an analysis of the region’s press by Robie for the New Zealand Monthly Review and to a series of ‘responses’ from Islands Business publisher Robert Keith-Reid, editor Peter Lomas and New Caledonia correspondent David Los.

Naturally, David Robie is concerned that readers of Pacific Islands Monthly might believe that the comments printed in the article are accurate, and has made available to us information that puts the matter into a different, and certainly more balanced, perspective.

First, it should be noted that Robie’s analysis includes criticisms of PIM. We accept those criticisms where they are based on accurate in formation, and have informed him of areas where he was in error. We respect his freedom to criticise, and have no intention of marshalling a body of correspondents to divert attention from the substance of his remarks by a personal attack.

That, in essence, is the matter to which both Robie and the editors of PIM take exception: that the pages and editorial resources of an estab lished publication should be used in a personal vendetta which, to be frank, fails to address much less refute his criticisms.

John Richardson, former editor of Islands Business, has written to PIM to present his response to the ‘analysis’. As well as presenting a cogent and unemotional reaction to the article’s tone, Richardson makes the point that: “no one . . . would argue that the Pacific is, for many of its indigenous inhabitants, unjust. Some [islanders] are forced to live in squalor, some in fear of nuclear hazards, some are reduced to being outcasts in their own land and many must look on as their political

leaders indulge in intrigue and corruption.

“Robie, who has a keen sense of what is just and what is not, wrote about these issues objectively and fairly. Many Pacific commentators are unable to do what Robie did for Islands Business report injustices heaped on South Pacific people while remaining dispassionate.

“David Robie’s articles reflect a journalist who is either anti-right or pro-left. He is, however, pro-Pacific. And for the record, he wrote for Islands Business on topics [that] had nothing to do with politics. And we

published them.”

PIM will continue to publish David Robie’s reports to preserve a balanced perspective of regional forces. It is our experience and belief that truth is not a unitary quality; that no one individual, organisation or government can represent truth in its entirety. Therefore we will seek analyses and perspectives from as broad a range of correspondents as is possible. We will not, as Peter Lomas has done, seek to suggest that David Robie must have French documents translated for him . . . when we know, as does Peter Lomas, that Robie worked as a journalist in France for several years ... no mean feat for a man characterised by Lomas as a Francophobe who does not speak the language!

We can assure our readers that we will continue to respect their intelligence by presenting them with a variety of opinions and perspec tives in the firm conviction that they will not suffer deliberate misrepre sentation. □