Dateline Pacific for 4 April 2019

Fiji's prime minister Frank Bainimarama has apologised to three New Zealand journalists detained overnight in the capital Suva. The journalists from the media organisation Newsroom were released without charge after the government intervened; the General Secretary of Fiji's Media Association says the detention of foreign journalists overnight in police cells is very damaging and punishes the country's image; as counting gets underway across Solomon Islands after Wednesday's election our reporter Koroi Hawkins has been speaking with voters about their hopes and motivations; with a vote on independence from Papua New Guinea now just six months away Bougainville is beginning to make some progress, according to President John Momis, and; a team of researchers from three Australian universities and two government agencies worked together last month to investigate and document the bleaching on Lord Howe Island's reefs - just off the east coast of Australia. They found severe bleaching on the island's inshore lagoons.