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] Robie is the author of several books on South Pacific media and politics and is an advocate for media freedom in the pacific region.[2]
In 1985, 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.[3][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).[4] An updated memorial edition of Eyes of Fire was published in July 2005,[5] and a 30th anniversary edition in July 2015 (Little Island Press).[6]
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.[7][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 an annual Australian Press Council Fellow.[10] He is founding editor of Pacific Journalism Review, launched at the University of Papua New Guinea in 1994. Between 1998-2002, Robie was the Head of Journalism at the University of the South Pacific.[citation needed] He became an associate professor in Auckland University of Technology School of Communication Studies in 2005 and a professor in 2011.[11] In 2020 he retired as director of the Pacific Media Centre.[12] In 2021, he co-founded the Asia Pacific Media Network and produced the independent Asia-Pacific news websites Asia Pacific Report and Café Pacific.[13]
