‘Without fear or favour’: Barbara Dreaver chronicles 30 years on the Pacific frontline

An award-winning Pacific reporter with over three decades experience says it was the right time to write her memoir because she wants to ensure people understand how important, beautiful, and complicated the region is.

Barbara Dreaver has released her personal account, Be Brave: The Life of a Pacific Correspondent. The book, published by Awa Press, provides a candid account of Dreaver’s 30-year career reporting from the Pacific frontline.

It documents her experiences covering natural disasters, coups, and epidemics, while also revealing the personal toll of investigative journalism.

Born and raised in Kiribati, Dreaver moved to Aotearoa at age eight. Her career has spanned roles at Cook Islands News, Radio New Zealand, and TVNZ, where she has served as Pacific Correspondent since 2003.

She was named as an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the 2024 New Years Honours list, for her services to investigative journalism and Pacific communities.

Speaking with William Terite on Pacific Mornings, Dreaver says the title of her book, Be Brave, stems from a personal mantra she uses whenever afraid.

Barbara Dreaver, the Pacific Correspondent for TVNZ, was named an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2023. Photo/Supplied

“It’s also what I tell young journalists. My publisher said to me, because we're coming up with a title, ‘what do you tell people, like young journos or people who want to get into journalism’?” Dreaver says.

“I [said] ‘you have to report without fear or favour and the second thing is, you just have to be brave’. She went, ‘boom, that’s it’.”

Reflecting on the risks of her profession, Dreaver says she has never felt like leaving her profession despite experiences of being detained or locked up.

Watch the full interview with Barbara Dreaver below.

“What I do think when I get locked up or detained, is it basically means I'm doing my job and I'm doing my job well.

She says it also reflects governments’ fear that journalists like her will expose truths they prefer hidden.

“I work really hard to make sure that we do that. So when I do get detained, there are moments I think, ‘I'm in a really bad position. How am I going to get out of it?’

“And there've been quite a few moments in my career that I really feared for my safety. But there's never been a moment that I've thought, ‘I shouldn't be doing this’.”

Regarding the current state of the Pacific, Dreaver says she fears for the Pacific as it becomes a "stamping ground for competition" between global superpowers like the United States and China.

She says challenges such as deep sea mining and geopolitical agreements are signs of this increasing tension.

US and Chinese naval presence in the Pacific illustrates the growing strategic competition over the region. Photo/Australian Defence Force/File

“It's important that we don't let Pacific people be left out of the conversations that are happening,” Dreaver says.

“Whether it be in New Zealand, domestically or in the region, we have to be part of the conversation.

“To allow mainstream New Zealand to see what incredible communities we have, incredible countries we have, and how we are all part of the same conversation.

“That's what drives me and it's also what's driven me to write Be Brave. It's been a labour of love and it's just my truth.

“So I hope people can read it and get something from it. But more than that: [that] the stories that we tell are becoming increasingly relevant and important and we have to keep doing what we're doing.”