jason brown
curriculum vitae
Sunday, August 01, 2004, Rarotonga, Cook Islands
overview
I have worked within Cook Islands news media since 4 February 1982.
Most of my experience comes from the print sector, but I also worked in broadcasting, mainly television (CITV).
Over the last 20 years, I worked at all levels of the industry, from general reporter to publisher. I consider my professional strengths to be in writing, editing, design and photography, possibly in that order. Politics, economics, health and governance issues in all sectors of society form the basis for most of my stories.
I have also reported on development issues facing Maori in the Cook Islands and across the Pacific in Hawai’i, Tahiti and Aotearoa, for local news media as well as Radio New Zealand International, Agence France Presse, and others.
career highlights
aug 2004 Volunteer photographer, Calendar Girls Project, Cook Islands Breast Cancer Foundation.
jul 2004 Official Photographer for Tauranga Vananga, the Ministry of Cultural Development at Te Maeva Nui 2004, the 39th Constitution Celebration Cultural Competition.
dec 2002 Editor, Pacific Islands AIDS Foundation founding report. Volunteer / consultant for monthly PIAF bulletins.
jun 2002 Reporter, 14th International AIDS Conference, Barcelona, Spain.
feb 2002 Chief Reporter, weekly Cook Islands Star. Stories lead to historic inquest into sudden hospital deaths.
nov 2000 Editor, Annual Report, Pacific Islands Business Trust, Auckland, New Zealand.
mar 2000 Reporter, Cook Islands News, story on corruption that lead to prosecution of Chief of Staff in the Office of the Prime Minister.
aug 1999 Reporter, Islands Business, Cook Islands general elections, cover story.
jan 1997 Publisher, Cook Islands Press, assisted with industry and public petition against proposed Media Standards Bill (withdrawn).
oct 1996 Publisher, Cook Islands Press, co-awardee (with then 126 year old Fiji Times) of the Pacific Islands News Association’s Freedom of Information Award.
jul 1996 Press attaché, Cook Islands squad, Atlanta Olympic Games.
mar 1996 Publisher, Cook Islands Press, exposed constitutional amendment (withdrawn) that would have removed high court protection for permanent residents.
mar 1995 Publisher, Cook Islands Press, joint investigation with Television New Zealand on the us$1.1 billion Letters of Guarantee scam. Threatened with deportation by Prime Minister.
jul 1994 Reporter, CITV, Cook Islands general elections.
nov 1990 Best typist award, Pacific Islands Journalism Course.
feb 1989 Public Relations Officer, Government of the Cook Islands. Resigned after 10 months.
oct 1988 Publisher, Cook Islands Press election only special editions, Cook Islands general elections.
mar 1986 Sacked from state-owned Cook Islands News for “biting the hand that feeds you (Prime Minister Sir Thomas Davis KBE).” Offending story pointed out that Speech from the Throne to mark the ceremonial opening of Parliament was word-for-word the same from the previous year, including the fact that the “outer islands are on the verge of a huge agricultural expansion.”
Aug 1985 Editor, 16 page Sports Section, South Pacific Mini Games, Rarotonga, Cook Islands.
jul 1983 Photographer for daily Cook Islands News coverage of Constitution Celebrations cultural competitions.
feb 1982 My first ever story was on Space Invader machines – are kids stealing money to play? Or are parents giving them money to stay away?
education, training, meetings
My journalistic education would have started much earlier, in the first year of the Pacific Islands Journalism Course in 1983, with the Cooks awarded the first island scholarship. However I missed out (and fair enough I felt) because I was a papa’a (white).
1981 High school drop-out.
1990 Pacific Island Journalism Course, Manukau Polytechnic, Aotearoa.
1992 Sub-editing workshop, SPC, Fiji.
1993 Pacific Journalists Association inaugural (and nearly only) meeting.
1994 Pacific Islands News Association AGM, Cooks delegate, Samoa.
1998 Pacific Islands News Association AGM, Cooks delegate, Tahiti.
1999 Pacific Islands News Association AGM, Cooks delegate, Fiji.
2000 Strengthening National Media Associations conference, AUSaid, PINA, Fiji.
2003 Pacific Islands News Association AGM, Cooks delegate, Samoa.
interests
Art. Cycling.
personal
I have two beautiful children, Jim, 21 and Mikaera, 6. Separated and on even better terms with wife, Barbara.
/ends
2 comments:
notice in your inflated cv you failed to acknowledge your fraudulent crime against phil evans re the sacked fiji indian printer whom got sacked. what about all your debts you haven't paid from the dismal failure of your cook island press.what about all the money you owe people thus your disppearnce from the cooks to hide out in hide out in nz. you talk about being on good terms with your wife. you dont have one. you walked out on her after less than a year of marriage leaving her eight months pregnant and to fend for herself. what about your drug habit? what about your slanderous attempts to destroy pmg a family of hard worker whom you are professional jealous of. you talk and write about ethics but your live is a complete contradiction of moral and professional ethics. if you want me to go into details that can be done with affridavids from people who have been riped off by you and disgusted with your social pretense.
Having just noticed this comment, I would welcome the opportunity to review your affidavits. In the interests of accountability, I note the following:
1. These allegations are a mixture of untruths and half-truths, raised on several occasions by critics in the Cook Islands, where generally accepted practice is to give people the freedom to make anonymous comments, a policy I support.
2. I have no idea what you are talking about in reference to a Fiji Indian printer who got sacked.
3. Yes, my former newspaper owed debts to daily Cook Islands News, after the printer failed to pass on details of a print run and this was not noticed by their side or mine. Not sure if this is either fraudulent or a crime. Certainly no complaint made or charges have been laid.
4. Yes, Cook Islands Press was a commercial failure, but did last four years, the longest of any independent weekly by far, so may not be quite the 'dismal' failure you recall.
5. Yes, I do owe debts to a wide range of people, and would not be the first person in the Cook Islands to do so, or anywhere else for that matter. As indicated, my debts has been raised and answered locally, several times, first by myself.
6. No, I am not hiding anywhere. I have let Westpac bank know where I am directly, and have my contacts scattered across the web, including Bebo. My contacts are on the bottom of every email I send out.
7. Comments about my ex-wife are typical of the highly personal attacks mounted by PMG, the Pitt Media Group, to distract attention from criticisms of their ethics. Funnily enough, PMG is praised in the very next sentence as a "hard worker."
8. Yes, PMG does have hard workers, but this does not answer long standing criticism of PMG as an organisation with a troubled history of ethics, and multiple conflicts of interest. Nor do my comments constitute slander, much less professional jealousy. Fair comment might be more accurate.
9. Viewed in a certain light, I am sure my life could be seen as a "complete" contradiction of moral and professional ethics, but it would have to be a light much brighter than anyone on this planet lives under.
10. No, I have not "riped off" anyone, or ripped them off either - just made some mistakes, some stupid.
11. Yes, I am sure my social pretensions towards ethics, transparency and accountability disgust some people.
Overall, this attempt at criticism, authentically misspelt just like real people, reeks of the same tawdry pamphleteering well known locally as a hallmark of the Pitt Media Group.
Those trying to decipher any of the above for elements of the truth might like to consider public comment from PMG boss George Pitt that "journalistic ethics don't make me any money."
For more background to the Cook Islands Media industry, please see my submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade for an inquiry into the country’s aid programme to the Pacific Islands.
http://www.aph.gov.au/house/committee/jfadt/pacificaid/subs/sub13.pdf
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