Public Diplomacy And International Broadcasting

Freedom of the press in Fiji under pressure
Fiji held its highly anticipated election in September 2014, but does that make it a democracy? There's much more to a functioning democratic system than people putting a mark…
The need for civil resistance to terrorism
More than three million people took to the streets of French cities last weekend in a unprecedented public response to an act of politically motivated violence. It made me think…
The role of think tanks in a fragmenting global system
Last month I spent time in a tank thinking about think tanks. Admittedly it was a very architecturally interesting tank at The Graduate Institute Geneva, which this year hosted…
ABC and SBS cuts: Australia's loss in a global century
The $254 million in cuts to the ABC budget, outlined today by ABC Chief Executive Mark Scott after Malcolm Turnbull's statement on Wednesday, have been coming for a long time – at…
'The Embassy' and DFAT's consular role: Helping Australians travel smarter
By Justin Brown, acting Deputy Secretary of DFAT with responsibility for consular, passports, corporate administration and information management. He has been Australia's High…
What did we learn from the 'Kim Jong-un has disappeared' hysteria?
For six weeks, from 3 September to 14 October, Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, disappeared from view. The rumours it triggered became increasingly outlandish. He was dead…
Australian public diplomacy the real loser in ABC cuts
Journalists are often advised to report the story, not become part of it, but Australia's coverage of and broadcasting to Asia have been making headlines for years. In 2014, the…
ABC bureaux closures: Sacrificing the bang for the bucks?
The latest news from the ABC bunker is that while Lateline may survive the latest round of cuts, the bureaux in Tokyo and Delhi may be shut down. The ABC Board met yesterday,…
Football vs international policy: No contest
Tomorrow I begin a bleary-eyed month of World Cup watching. In part to justify my reduced productivity over the next four weeks, I wanted to identify some of the key points at…
National Commission of Audit: When you've cut DFAT to the bone…
Every sector is speculating on how it will be hit by next week's federal Budget following the National Commission of Audit's recommendations on cost cutting. As Alex Oliver…