Disasters like the volcanic eruptions in Rabaul in Papua New Guinea do not happen every week. The spectacle of a mountain billowing gray ash combined with a boiling harbour is a rarity.
When disasters like Rabaul do happen they attract enormous world attention. Camera crews and journalists are flown into the scene overnight from all corners of the globe. The very next day, we are treated to spectacular pictures, human interest stories and in depth analysis. In the space of a few days, everyone across the world knew of the Rabaul eruptions — even if many could not point to the place on a map.
Contrast this to the human disaster in Bougainville, an island close to PNG, which has been struggling for its independence for seven years. There are no good pictures to be had on Bougainville, although the scale of human suffering is far greater than in Rabaul. If you relied for your news on the establishment press, you'd only rarely have heard of Bougainville at all.
Green Left Weekly has covered the struggle for freedom in Bougainville from its very first issue. We have presented an independent coverage of the facts, such as the total blockade of the island by the PNG military which has cost thousands of lives. We have exposed Australia's role, both in its funding of the PNG military and the interest of CRA, which owns the Panguna copper mine on the island. Regular readers of Green Left will be well informed of Bougainville's struggle to be free.
Reading the commercial media, or watching the TV news, you get a partial view: a view filtered through the lens of sensationalism. Reading Green Left, you get the rest of the picture the others leave out. Green Left Weekly — it's your newspaper.