tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51585582062386580332024-03-13T20:43:07.422-07:00Fiji Media Wars"If you let them continue to have a voice, you create a potentially dangerous environment."
-- Brigadier-General Mosese Tikoitoga, 2014Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.comBlogger80125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-18177906599762211002016-09-09T15:57:00.004-07:002016-09-09T15:59:28.736-07:00Graham Davis, propagandist, in action<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2HDjD2x223lW_vaLVxO6EEzjsaTeBXIlP8NgvouU5VVtD6tDI7R4TXY8_u-UXSktdPLu548-uYtlu3_5M9sv85uw3wSgzjKd0GDMmotdRhPu88PzesG8-kPZTY0WFeDz9h4TWYZ_N5IA3/s1600/gwubby+email.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2HDjD2x223lW_vaLVxO6EEzjsaTeBXIlP8NgvouU5VVtD6tDI7R4TXY8_u-UXSktdPLu548-uYtlu3_5M9sv85uw3wSgzjKd0GDMmotdRhPu88PzesG8-kPZTY0WFeDz9h4TWYZ_N5IA3/s1600/gwubby+email.jpeg" /></a></div>
<br />Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-41436154960764480582016-07-30T18:24:00.001-07:002017-02-20T12:26:15.167-08:00Digital Buturaki . . . ex FijileaksFijileaks was hacked following its publication of my paper Digital Buturaki, which was presented on July 16 at the World Journalism Education Congress in Auckland. Qorvis must be desperate to suppress it. I will thus reprint it on my blog. Hack this, Qorvis.<br />
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<b style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 36.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Digital <i>buturaki</i>: Government-sponsored
blogs assail critics of </span></b><st1:country-region style="line-height: 200%;"><st1:place><b><span style="font-size: 36.0pt; line-height: 200%;">Fiji</span></b></st1:place></st1:country-region><b style="line-height: 200%;"><span style="font-size: 36.0pt; line-height: 200%;">’s military dictatorship</span></b></h4>
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Marc Edge, Ph.D.</div>
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University <st1:country-region>Canada</st1:country-region>
West</div>
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<st1:city>Vancouver</st1:city></div>
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<b>A PAPER PRESENTED
TO THE WORLD JOURNALISM EDUCATION CONGRESS, </b><st1:date day="14" month="7" year="2016"><b>JULY 14-16, 2016</b></st1:date><b>, </b><st1:place><st1:city><b>AUCKLAND</b></st1:city><b>,
</b><st1:country-region><b>NEW ZEALAND</b></st1:country-region></st1:place><b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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A series of coups beset <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
following its independence from <st1:country-region>Great Britain</st1:country-region>
in 1970. Some blamed the press, segments of which had been critical of the
government, for fomenting a coup in 2000 (Singh, T.R., 2011). According to Robie (2003: 104), ‘Many
powerful institutions, such as the Methodist Church in Fiji, and politicians in
the Pacific believe there is no place for a Western-style free media and it should
be held in check by Government legislation’. Self-regulation of the press by the Fiji Media Council was criticized as
ineffective (Robie,
2004). <span style="font-family: TimesTen-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesTen-Roman;">A clampdown on press freedom by the military, which took
control of the country in a 2006 coup, saw a new type of publication emerge in
response. Enabled by websites such as blogger.com which offered free software
and hosting of personal diaries, web logs or ‘blogs’ became popular at the millennium.
P</span>ro-democracy blogs in post-coup <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
were almost exclusively anonymous, however, as anyone caught spreading
anti-government sentiment risked being arrested and beaten by the military. It
detained several suspected bloggers and also put pressure on the country’s
telecommunications provider Fintel to block blogger.com. In response, a group
of bloggers from <st1:country-region>New Zealand</st1:country-region>
offered to host Fijian blogs on their servers (Fiji Times, 2007). <span style="font-family: TimesTen-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesTen-Roman;">According to Foster, </span>by cracking
down on press freedom, the military ‘unleashed’ the blogs. The resulting ‘public
relations nightmare’, she concluded, proved worse for the regime’s image than a
free press would have. </div>
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The blogs’ no-holds-barred approach to military criticism
picked holes in media coverage of the crisis, with blogs running stories
detailing alleged military abuse as well as releasing several confidential documents
(<span style="font-family: TimesTen-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesTen-Roman;">Foster,
2007: 47</span>–48<span style="font-family: TimesTen-Roman; mso-bidi-font-family: TimesTen-Roman;">).</span></div>
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Not all
political blogs in post-coup <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
were anti-regime, however. In early 2009, New Zealand resident Crosbie Walsh
began a blog he called Fiji: The Way it Was, Is and Can Be, partly in response
to what he saw as biased reporting on Fiji in the mainstream media of his
country. A retired professor from the University of the South Pacific (USP) in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>,
Walsh also published a study in 2010 which catalogued <span style="color: #211d1e;">72
known political blogs in </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="color: #211d1e;">Fiji</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="color: #211d1e;">, of which 42 were active. ‘Fifty-three were anti
[-government] </span>– <span style="color: #211d1e;">19 extremely so; 15 were
more or less ‘neutral’, and three were pro-government’ (Walsh, 2010: 164).
Walsh deemed </span>his own blog ‘mildly pro-government’, <span style="color: #211d1e;">compared
to blogs such as </span>Coup 4.5, which actively
incited unrest. ‘The anti-government blogs, hailed by coup opponents as
advocates of democracy, are little more than agents of uncritical dissent’ <span style="color: #211d1e;">(Walsh, 2010: 174). Coup 4.5 was among the most popular
blogs, noted Walsh, </span>with a ‘staggering’ 60,000 visitors in November 2009
compared with 30,000 visitors to his own blog over a longer period <span style="color: #211d1e;">(Walsh, 2010: 158).<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #211d1e;">In April 2009, </span><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="color: #211d1e;">Fiji</span></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="color: #211d1e;">’s </span><st1:street><st1:address><span style="color: #211d1e;">Appeal Court</span></st1:address></st1:street><span style="color: #211d1e;"> ruled the 2006 coup unconstitutional, prompting the
government to abrogate the constitution, sack the judiciary, declare martial
law, and clamp down on civil rights. Several foreign journalists were deported and
censors were installed in newsrooms to prevent negative news about the
government being published. Blog activity spiked in an attempt to fill the news
vacuum, prompting a renewed government crackdown. The pro-regime blog Real Fiji
News published the names of several prominent </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="color: #211d1e;">Suva</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="color: #211d1e;"> residents it claimed were behind the anti-government blog
Raw Fiji News, including the editor of the <i>Fiji Times</i> and three </span><st1:city><st1:place><span style="color: #211d1e;">Suva</span></st1:place></st1:city><span style="color: #211d1e;"> lawyers, who were arrested and detained briefly for questioning
(Merritt, 2009). In 2010, the regime appointed former Fairfax Media advertising
executive Sharon Smith Johns as Permanent Secretary for Information, making her
admittedly the country’s ‘</span>chief censor and media strategist’ (Davis,
2010). A Media Industry Development Decree (Media Decree) was enacted by the
military government the same year. It <span lang="EN">provided for fines of up to F$1,000 for journalists found in contravention
of its guidelines, which increased to F$25,000 for publishers or editors and F$100,000
for media organisations</span>
(Foster, 2010; Singh, S. 2010).<o:p></o:p></div>
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In February 2011, Australian
journalist Graham Davis began a blog he called Grubsheet after his production
company Grubstreet. It covered a range of topics for its first year, but by early
2012 it began to focus on <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
politics almost exclusively. Davis, who was born in Fiji, began that focus with
a blog entry that criticised Coup 4.5 for alleging that Muslims were
‘colonising’ Fiji at the behest of Bainimarama’s right-hand man,
Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, who was a Muslim. ‘This grubby little
offering isn’t just inflammatory but utterly false’, wrote <st1:city>Davis</st1:city>.
‘Simply put, Coup 4.5 – with this base offering – has become the local
equivalent of a Nazi hate sheet’ (<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>,
2012a). The blog entry was reprinted in the pro-regime <i>Fiji Sun </i>newspaper,
as well as on Auckland University of Technology’s Pacific Scoop and Pacific
Media Centre websites, and on the blogs of Walsh and AUT journalism educator
David Robie. ‘Who are these people?’ asked <st1:city>Davis</st1:city>
of the contributors to Coup 4.5. A few wrote under their own names, he noted,
including former <i>Fiji Sun </i>investigative reporter Victor Lal, who lived
in England, and economist Wadan Narsey, who had been forced to resign his teaching
position at the USP as a result of his outspoken opposition to the military
government. Most, noted <st1:city>Davis</st1:city>, did
not. </div>
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They’re always anonymous but are said
to be a group of Fiji journalists running their site out of Auckland, with
contributions from members of the deposed SDL government, ex civil servants and
a hard core of anti-regime ‘human rights’ advocates. . . . The wonder is that
some of 4.5’s content is written by respected journalists and academics who are
Indo-Fijians to boot (<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>, 2012a).</div>
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<b>Qorvis Communications<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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In October 2011, the <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
regime contracted with <st1:country-region>U.S.</st1:country-region>
public relations company Qorvis Communications at a cost of US$40,000 per month.
According to Bainimarama (2011), the purpose was ‘to assist with training and
support for our Ministry of Information – to ensure its operations take into
account advances in social media, the Internet and best practices regarding the
media’. <st1:country-region>New Zealand</st1:country-region>
journalist Michael Field, who was among the journalists barred from <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
for reporting critically on the regime, pointed out that Qorvis had a sinister
reputation in other parts of the world where it operated. ‘Qorvis specialises
in putting a spin on dictators like those of <st1:country-region>Tunisia</st1:country-region>
and <st1:country-region>Egypt</st1:country-region> who
resisted Arab Spring. . . . Hiring <st1:state>Washington</st1:state>
spin-doctors is a well-walked road for dictators who work on their image in <st1:state>Washington</st1:state>
and at the United Nations’ (Field, 2011). American journalist Anna Lenzer, who
had been arrested on a recent assignment to <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>,
noted in the Huffington Post <span lang="EN">‘the Fijian junta’s</span><span lang="EN"> exploding internet and social media presence</span><span lang="EN"> in the weeks since Qorvis
began its work’ (Lenzer, 2011). The Huffington Post had earlier questioned the tactics
employed by Qorvis on behalf of </span>the dictatorship in Bahrain. ‘Beyond
disappearing bloggers and rights activists, <st1:country-region>Bahrain</st1:country-region>
also tries to disappear criticism’, it noted. ‘Most of the U.S.-based fake
tweeting, fake blogging (flogging), and online manipulation is carried out
from inside Qorvis Communication’s “Geo-Political Solutions” division’ (Halvorssen,
2011).<o:p></o:p></div>
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More so than intimidation, violence,
and disappearances, the most important tool for dictatorships across the world
is the discrediting of critics. . . . Oppressive governments are threatened by
public exposure, and this means that it’s not just human rights defenders but
also bloggers, opinion journalists, and civil society activists who are
regularly and viciously maligned (Halvorssen, 2011).</div>
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The Huffington
Post also reported in 2011 that an exodus of Qorvis operatives had taken place
over the firm’s unsavoury tactics and clients. In a space of two months, it noted,
more than a third of the partners at Qorvis had left the firm, partly
because of its work on behalf of such clients as <st1:country-region>Yemen</st1:country-region>,
<st1:country-region>Bahrain</st1:country-region>, <st1:country-region>Saudi
Arabia</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region>Equatorial
Guinea</st1:country-region>. ‘I just have trouble working with
despotic dictators killing their own people’, one former Qorvis insider said
(Baram, 2011).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a name='more'></a>The <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
regime lifted martial law in early 2012, which resulted in censors exiting the
country’s newsrooms. Numerous decrees, however, impinged on press freedom in
addition to the Media Decree. A TV Decree enacted in 2012 permitted the
minister responsible for communication to revoke the licence of any television
station found to have contravened the Media Decree. It was enacted shortly
after Fiji TV aired interviews with two former prime ministers who questioned
the need for another new constitution. The broadcaster was reportedly then warned
by the regime that its soon-to-expire broadcasting licence might not be renewed
as a result (Ashdown, 2012). It was, but for only six months at a time instead
of the usual twelve years. Soon a campaign began against critics of the
military dictatorship. Following is an analysis of issues focused on by
pro-regime blogs in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
subsequent to the lifting of martial law in early 2012 until elections were
held in September 2014.</div>
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<b>1. Bruce Hill and Radio </b><st1:country-region><st1:place><b>Australia</b></st1:place></st1:country-region><b><o:p></o:p></b></div>
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A favorite target of pro-regime
blogs, especially Grubsheet, was reporting by Radio <st1:country-region>Australia</st1:country-region>,
the foreign service of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), and its influential
Pacific Beat programme. One regular target of <st1:city>Davis</st1:city>
was Pacific Beat reporter Bruce Hill. When the Pacific Islands News Association
(PINA) controversially held its conference in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
in early 2012 despite the country’s restrictions on press freedom, <st1:city>Davis</st1:city>
assailed Hill’s reports of dissension at the event. ‘It’s pretty clear in the
minds of conference organisers that Hill came to PINA spoiling for a fight, or
at least to pursue his favoured narrative of a Pacific media umbrella in
tatters by continuing division over Fiji’, Davis wrote in a blog entry that was
reprinted not only in the <i>Fiji Sun </i>but also in <i>The Australian</i> (Davis,
2012b). Hill interviewed a delegate from one South Pacific country who claimed
it was not the job of journalists to oppose governments, then filed a story
that highlighted the comment, which drew criticism from <st1:city>Davis</st1:city>.
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The AUT’s David Robie observed that
without Hill’s presence, there would have been little dissention at PINA.
Robie described the . . . fracas as a construct of ‘western-style conflict
journalism’. Hill, he said, had set out to generate controversy by seeking a
contentious opinion and then using it to generate more controversy (<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>,
2012b).</div>
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<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>
lodged a formal complaint with the ABC in 2013 after Pacific Beat ignored what <st1:city>Davis</st1:city>
called ‘the biggest change in Australian
official attitude towards <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>’ since the 2006 coup (<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>, 2013a). Deputy Leader of the Opposition Julie Bishop gave a speech that signaled a
normalising of relations with <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region> if her party came to power in upcoming elections.
‘Here was the first significant change in official Australian attitudes towards
<st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region> in the six and a half years since Voreqe
Bainimarama’s takeover’, blogged <st1:city>Davis</st1:city>. ‘But Radio <st1:country-region>Australia</st1:country-region> chose to ignore it. Instead, it ran two items
highly critical of the Fijian Government, both by the same reporter, Bruce Hill’
(<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>, 2013a). <st1:city>Davis</st1:city> claimed that Radio Australia was trying to ‘subvert
the political process in <st1:country-region>Australia</st1:country-region>’ by ignoring the Bishop speech. ‘The Australian taxpayer is now entitled to
know . . . by whose authority Hill, and the rest of the Radio Australia
editorial team, chose to overlook a major shift in Australian attitude’ (Davis,
2013a). <o:p></o:p></div>
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It
is more than a grave editorial lapse. It is also contrary to law. On the
available evidence, it’s a case of the publicly funded broadcaster taking a
partisan position in a manner that contravenes every aspect of the ABC’s
Charter. This legally requires it – under an act of Parliament – to report
without fear or favour in the interests of every Australian (<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>, 2013a).<o:p></o:p></div>
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In a subsequent blog entry, he
called for an inquiry into the matter. ‘Bruce Hill needs to explain himself, as
does the entire Radio <st1:country-region>Australia</st1:country-region>
news team’, he wrote. ‘Because without a doubt, it is one of the most blatant
instances of censorship and news manipulation Grubsheet has ever witnessed’ (<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>, 2013b). By this time, <st1:city>Davis</st1:city> had revealed he was working for Qorvis
Communications on its <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region> account (<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>,
2012d). He spent much of his time in <st1:city>Suva</st1:city> working for Qorvis, he admitted, flying back and
forth from his home in <st1:city>Sydney</st1:city>
and staying at a leading local hotel. The admission came in September 2012, two
weeks after <st1:city>Davis</st1:city> had been named host of the Southern Cross
Austereo network’s weekly public affairs television programme The Great Divide
(<st1:city>Jackson</st1:city>, 2012).<o:p></o:p></div>
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<b>2. Yash Ghai and the Constitutional Review </b><b>Commission<o:p></o:p></b></div>
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A Constitutional Review Commission that was tasked by the regime with
drafting a new constitution for <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region> ran into difficulties throughout 2012. Yash Ghai,
a <st1:place><st1:placetype>University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename>Hong Kong</st1:placename></st1:place> law professor who headed the commission, first complained of interference
from the head of the military government, then clashed dramatically with the
regime at year’s end. In a November interview with Radio <st1:country-region>Australia</st1:country-region>’s Campbell Cooney, Ghai revealed there had been ‘massive
interference’ by the regime with the commission’s work. ‘I get emails from the
PM to do this or not to do that, and this is a kind of harassment’ (Radio <st1:country-region>Australia</st1:country-region>,
2012a). The situation came to a climax after
the commission submitted its draft constitution to the government just before
Christmas. Ghai ordered copies printed for distribution prior to it being
considered by a special Constituent Assembly of citizens, which was planned to
ratify it. Police seized the copies over Ghai’s objections, however, and incinerated
several while he watched. ‘I have never been in a process where there
has been such an attempt to hide the recommendations of a body which was set up
by this very government’, Ghai told Hill in an interview (Radio <st1:country-region>Australia</st1:country-region>,
2012b). The regime at first denied the seizure and burning, but pictures of the incident were soon posted online.
<st1:city>Davis</st1:city> was unusually silent on the issue, having recently
informed readers of his blog that he was bowing out of the <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region> political fray because of his work for Qorvis. ‘I
have a clear conflict of interest when it comes to commenting on political
matters in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>,
and especially partisan politics in the lead-up to the election,’ he wrote. ‘I
am now spending much of my time in Suva working on the Qorvis account that services
the Fijian Government’ (Davis, 2012e). Walsh accused Hill of ‘making a mountain
out of a mole-hill’ and deconstructed his interview with Ghai line by line. ‘It
shows how a supposedly neutral interviewer reveals his true colours’, wrote
Walsh. ‘No one could possibly be in doubt about his feelings during the Yash Ghai interview.
There was no attempt at neutrality’ (Walsh, 2012a). Walsh followed that with another
blog entry two days later. ‘Government’s intention was never to prevent public
discussion on the draft decree [sic.]’, he wrote. ‘The whole Ghai-police
incident and its fallout is unfortunate, inflated, and has been largely
misinterpreted, by the media mainly unintentionally, by anti-Government
bloggers deliberately’ (Walsh, 2012b). <o:p></o:p></div>
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Walsh then speculated
that the cause of the seizure was that the regime had lost confidence in the
neutrality of the Commission. ‘There were so many stories of Yash Ghai
socialising with known Government opponents. . . . I can well understand why
government was concerned: a commission whose key member was no longer neutral
was also no longer independent (Walsh, 2013a). The <i>Fiji Sun </i>then ran a front-page
story under the screaming headline ‘ACCUSED: Neutrality Of Yash Ghai’s
Commission Questioned’ (Bolatiki, 2013). It repeated Walsh’s speculation and
outlined in detail the military government’s objections to the Ghai draft,
including that it would restore the Great Council of Chiefs, which the regime
had earlier abolished (Bolatiki, 2013). Walsh objected in a subsequent blog
entry that the newspaper had been selective in reproducing his analysis. ‘The Sun did
not misrepresent what I said but it only published half of it – the half
sympathetic to Government’ (Walsh, 2013b).</div>
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By then the Ghai draft had been
published on Fijileaks, a new blog by Victor Lal that specialized in publishing
leaked documents <i>à la</i> Wikileaks (Fijileaks, 2012). In addition to
restoring the Great Council of Chiefs, it would have repealed or rewritten
decrees such as the Media Decree which restricted human rights, provided a role
in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
politics for NGOs, and greatly reduced the role of the military. Despite his
promise to refrain from commenting on <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
politics, <st1:city>Davis</st1:city> charged that the Ghai
draft was ‘a patently flawed formula’ for achieving democracy that required major
revision. ‘If you dissect its provisions, <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region> would
wind up with an elite of non-elected representatives and hereditary chiefs
whose numbers would far exceed those directly chosen by the people. And what –
pray tell – is democratic about that?’ (<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>,
2013c). <st1:city>Davis</st1:city> quoted an anonymous
‘friend’ of Ghai who speculated that his ‘emotions may well have got in the way
of his better judgment’. Ghai had a ‘distinctly romantic notion about
finally being able to resolve the intractable “Fiji Problem”’, according to
this friend, and had come to believe that he could be ‘just as big a
saviour as Frank Bainimarama’ (<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>,
2013c). According to <st1:city>Davis</st1:city>’ single anonymous
source, Ghai was disappointed when he was initially criticised on
anti-government blogs as a stooge of the military government and set about
correcting that assumption by courting elements known to oppose the regime. Ghai
then went over to their side, according to <st1:city>Davis</st1:city>,
deciding to ‘go rogue’ and ‘thumb his nose at due process’ (<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>,
2013c). The Ghai draft was rejected out of hand by the regime, which wrote its
own constitution that expressly permitted its restrictive decrees, excluded
NGOs from the political process, and provided a continuing political role for
the military. It then cancelled the Constituent Assembly that had been planned
to ratify it (The Economist, 2013).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<b>3. Participant observation<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
The author also became the subject
of by attacks by pro-regime blogs starting in mid-2012 while Head of Journalism
at the USP in <st1:city>Suva</st1:city>. In a Radio
Australia interview with Hill in April of that year, I corroborated his account
of dissention remaining within South Pacific media despite a lack of open
conflict at the PINA conference. Davis, who along with the AUT’s David Robie had
promoted a ‘Pacific media at peace’ meme following the conference, called the
interview ‘the biggest crack at revisionism in recent Pacific media history’ (<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>,
2012c). His blog entry was reprinted in the <i>Fiji Sun </i>and on Walsh’s blog,
and was the subject of a news story on AUT’s Pacific Scoop (2012). ‘Our
recollections of what took place are so vastly at odds that I wonder if we were
on the same planet’, he wrote, ‘let alone at the same venue in the same country’
(<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>, 2012c). The conference was
boycotted by numerous delegates because PINA decided to hold it in media-managed
<st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>. ‘Yes,
there were people who stayed away from PINA because it was being held in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>’,
admitted <st1:city>Davis</st1:city>. ‘Yes, a breakaway
organisation, PasiMA, was formed after the debacle in <st1:country-region>Vanuatu</st1:country-region>
of mainly Polynesian delegates opposed to <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>’s
coup. Yes, one or two delegates . . . made their displeasure felt’. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
But for one of the region’s most
prominent journalistic educators to seek to exacerbate that division when
others are trying to build bridges speaks of a man who simply doesn’t grasp the
subtleties and nuances of island relationships (<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>,
2012c).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
In mid-2012, I started a blog
called Fiji Media Wars. ‘It does seem like a bit of double jeopardy’, I blogged
about the new TV Decree. ‘Not only are TV stations subject to fines for
violating the Code of Ethics and to having their journalists thrown in prison,
now they can be put out of business as well’ (Edge, 2012a). That brought a government
complaint to USP, as a result of which I put Fiji Media Wars on hiatus for more
than two months after posting only a few entries. In September 2012, I
organised a two-day symposium at USP on Media and Democracy in the South
Pacific. On the first day of the event, <st1:city>Davis</st1:city>
posted a blog entry which referred to the event as ‘Edgefest’ and claimed it
had caused official consternation across the region. ‘Dr Edge caused intense
heartburn right from the start as he set about organising this conference’, he
wrote (<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>, 2012e).<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
He appears to have set out to be
deliberately provocative. In the first draft of the program placed on the USP’s
internet website, the list of speakers included two journalists formally banned
from <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>. . .
. There was also general astonishment when Dr Edge posted the following [Call
for Papers] to the conference comparing certain Pacific countries to the
repressive regimes in the <st1:place>Middle East</st1:place> that sparked the
‘Arab Spring’ (<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>, 2012e).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .5in; margin-top: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>
claimed that <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>,
<st1:place>Samoa</st1:place> and <st1:country-region>Tonga</st1:country-region>
had ‘formally complained to the University of the South Pacific. The USP
subsequently ordered the posting withdrawn from its website. . . . Unfortunately
for the USP, its funding comes from some of the countries Dr Edge appears to be
targeting’ (<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>, 2012e).
Subsequent to the symposium, I revived Fiji Media Wars to discuss some of the
issues raised during the event, including journalistic standards and the
problem of self-censorship by <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
journalists working under the Media Decree (Edge, 2012b). <st1:city>Davis</st1:city>
then posted a blog entry that claimed I was clinging to my job by my ‘fingernails’
after ‘official protests and open conflict with other academics’ during the
symposium. ‘Grubsheet understands that the USP has triggered formal internal
disciplinary proceedings that could lead to the dismissal of the Canadian-born
academic. He has evidently been given a formal warning’. It was in an addendum
to that blog entry that he admitted what many in the blogosphere had suspected:
‘Graham Davis is now a part-time advisor to Qorvis Communications’ (<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>,
2012f).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
In November
2012 I posted a blog entry which summarized available information about Qorvis
Communication. ‘The more I learn about these rascals’, I wrote, ‘the more I
suspect that I have been a victim of their back ops’ (Edge, 2012c). A
subsequent blog entry questioned Walsh’s ethics for accepting a trip to <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
that was paid for by the regime and designed to provide material for his blog (Edge,
2012d). Another regime complaint to USP demanded that I remove the blog entry
about Qorvis. I did so, but I was nonetheless stood down as Head of Journalism by
USP administration. I remained at USP as a senior lecturer, however, and both
Davis and Walsh repeatedly demanded that I be dismissed. ‘The School is said to
be irrevocably split between the brainwashed first years who worship Dr Edge
and senior students who think he is bordering on the certifiable’, wrote Davis,
who also complained about a joke I made about Qorvis at the annual USP Journalism
awards night. ‘He has brought the USP and its journalism school into disrepute
and the sooner he departs these shores the better’ (<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>,
2012g). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
Walsh took
umbrage with my criticism of him for taking a trip to <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
paid for by the regime. ‘The problems begin with him accepting what’s called a
“junket” in the journalism world’, I wrote. ‘As any first-year journalism
student knows (mine certainly do), you will not have any credibility if you do
not maintain independence from those you write about’ (Edge, 2012d). Walsh
claimed the criticism by myself and other bloggers was unwarranted and
suggested that my work permit should be cancelled. ‘It says much for the
tolerance of the government and the university that he is still able to publish
partisan polemic exercises on his blog’, he wrote. ‘Others have their
association with the university terminated, and their work permits
cancelled, for less’ (Walsh, 2012c). </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>
then leaked email correspondence between USP administrators which showed that my
remaining at the university was the subject of disagreement among them. He also
renewed his calls for my dismissal as a result of an email that I forwarded to
students, which he reprinted and deemed ‘an abuse of office’ on my part. The
email was part of a series of satirical missives written by an anonymous author
that mocked Davis and Smith Johns and were widely circulated in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>.
‘It’s staggering that Dr Edge thinks that it is appropriate for a senior
lecturer at USP to pass on this drivel to those he is meant to be schooling in
the serious practice of Pacific journalism’, Davis wrote. ‘In our view, he is
abusing his office and it’s high time that the USP brings this continuing farce
to a halt’. (<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>, 2012g) As a
result of these and other pressures placed on the university, I resigned my
appointment just before the end of 2012.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
After his August 2013 attack on
Radio <st1:country-region>Australia</st1:country-region>,
<st1:city>Davis</st1:city> blogged infrequently and not
always on <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
in the year leading up to the election, which saw Bainimarama returned in a
landslide. In a December 2013 blog entry responding to my noting his
months-long absence, <st1:city>Davis</st1:city> (2013e)
wrote that he had ‘gone quiet primarily because my work is done. . . . Everything
that I set out to achieve when I started Grubsheet at the beginning of 2011 and
began highlighting the Bainimarama revolution’s achievements has been
accomplished’. His absence from the <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
blogging fray, however, may have instead been the result of a complaint I
lodged with SCA CEO Rhys Holleran in mid-2013 about <st1:city>Davis</st1:city>
simultaneously acting as a TV news host and a propagandist for a regional
dictator.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<b>Conclusions<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt;">
<st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
suffered international opprobrium in early 2013 when a video surfaced online
showing uniformed officers beating and burning with cigarettes two escaped
prisoners, on whom they had also set dogs (Siegel, 2013). While not excusing
the abuse, <st1:city>Davis</st1:city> (2013d) claimed it
was widely supported in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>.
‘These individuals are violent, hardened criminals who had escaped from lawful
custody and can hardly have expected to be garlanded when they were eventually
tracked down’, he wrote. ‘Many law abiding Fijians actually like being ruled
with an iron fist if it means being able to sleep soundly in their beds at
night’ (<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>, 2013d). Such abuse
was a widespread practice in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>,
noted <st1:city>Davis</st1:city>. ‘It’s a fair bet that
everyone in that clip was raised as a child to expect a “hiding” – the traditional
form of discipline in most Fijian homes for even relatively minor infractions.
. . . The <i>buturaki</i> – the premeditated beating – has always been the
traditional method of enforcing order at village level’ (<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>,
2013d).</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
Political commentary in the <st1:country-region>U.S.</st1:country-region>
has been likened to a ‘spin cycle’ or ‘echo chamber’ of like-minded pundits
repeating and reinforcing pre-determined ‘talking points’ (Kurtz, 1998;
Jamieson and Cappella, 2008). This case study shows the same phenomenon
imported to <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>.
The fact that Qorvis Communications was a U.S.-based public relations was
likely not coincidental to the <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
regime adopting an American-style system of ‘attack’ commentary. A cycle of
attacks on regime critics by regime-friendly blogs such as those published by
Davis and Walsh was amplified by their frequent reprinting in the pro-regime <i>Fiji
Sun</i>, not to mention on other blogs and on several websites associated with
the AUT. This not only gave their commentary wider circulation but also greater
legitimacy. The online treatment of regime critics by pro-government blogs,
while typical of Qorvis operations elsewhere in the world, assumed in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
a vicious nature not unlike the beatings meted out to pro-democracy advocates
and escaped prisoners. This ‘digital <i>buturaki</i>’, as with the real-life
beatings, served as a form of social, political, media, and even academic
control. It proved a powerful deterrent to anyone who would dare to criticize
the regime and a key component of its hegemony.<b> <o:p></o:p></b></div>
<b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 200%;"><br clear="all" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span></b>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
<b>References<o:p></o:p></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Ashdown, N. 2012,
‘Claims of Government Interference at Fijian Broadcaster’, <i>IHS Global Insight Daily Analysis</i>, 13 June.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Bainimarama, V.
2011, ‘2012 National budget address by the Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe
Bainimarama’, November 25, http://www.fiji.gov.fj/Media-Center/Speeches/2012-National-Budget-Address-by-the-Prime-Minister-Commodore-Voreqe-Bainima.aspx.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Baram, M. 2011, ‘Lobbyists
Jump Ship In Wake Of Mideast Unrest’, Huffington Post, 25 March, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/24/lobbyist-mideast-unrest-departures_n_840231.html.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Bolatiki, M.
2013, ‘Neutrality Of Yash Ghai’s Commission Questioned’, <st1:country-region><st1:place><i>Fiji</i></st1:place></st1:country-region><i>
Sun</i>, 5 January. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Davis, G. 2010, ‘At the court of King Frank’, <i>The
Australian</i>, 22 July.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Davis, G. 2012a,
‘The politics of hate’, Grubsheet, 7 February, http://www.grubsheet.com.au/54-the-politics-of-hate/.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Davis, G. 2012b,
‘Pacific media at peace’, Grubsheet, 23 April, http://www.grubsheet.com.au/69-pacific-media-at-peace/.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>,
G. 2012c, ‘Edge of reality’, Grubsheet, 28 April, http://www.grubsheet.com.au/71-Edge-of-reality/.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Davis, G. 2012d,
‘Rumblings at the Edgefest’, Grubsheet, 5 September, http://www.grubsheet.com.au/?p=3344.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>,
G. 2012e, ‘Edge of the abyss’, Grubsheet, 15 September, http://www.grubsheet.com.au/Edge-of-the-abyss/.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>,
G. 2012f, ‘Over the Edge’, Grubsheet, 14 November, http://www.grubsheet.com.au/?p=3676.
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<st1:city>Davis</st1:city>,
G. 2012g, ‘An abuse of office’, Grubsheet, 17 November, http://www.grubsheet.com.au/an-abuse-of-office/.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Davis, G. 2013a, ‘The
ABC of propaganda’, Grubsheet, <st1:date day="1" month="8" year="2013">August 1,
2013</st1:date>, http://www.grubsheet.com.au/the-abc-of-propaganda/.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Davis, G. 2013b,
‘60 hours late’, The ABC of news. Grubsheet, 1 August, http://www.grubsheet.com.au/60-hours-late-the-abc-of-news/.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Davis, G. 2013c,
‘Yash Ghai: Emotion before reason’, Grubsheet, 8 January, http://www.grubsheet.com.au/yash-ghai-emotion-before-reason/.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Davis, G. 2013d,
‘Tackling a culture of violence', Grubsheet, 7 March, http://www.grubsheet.com.au/tackling-a-culture-of-violence/</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Davis, G. 2013e,
‘Splutterings from the Edge’, Grubsheet, 11 December, http://www.grubsheet.com.au/splutterings-from-the-Edge/.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Edge, M. 2012a, ‘And
so we have a new decree’, Fiji Media Wars, 1 July, http://fijimediawars.blogspot.ca/2012/07/and-so-we-have-new-decree.html.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Edge, M. 2012b, ‘Do
journalism standards in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
need raising?’, Fiji Media Wars, 9 SeptemberEdge 2012c, http://fijimediawars.blogspot.ca/2012/09/do-journalism-standards-in-fiji-need.html.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Edge, M. 2012c,
‘Who/what is Qorvis Communications?’, <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
Media Wars, 1 November, http://fijimediawars.blogspot.ca/2012/11/whowhat-is-qorvis-communications.html.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Edge, M. 2012d,
‘Croz admits he’s also on the gravy train’, Fiji Media Wars, 6 November, http://fijimediawars.blogspot.ca/2012/11/croz-admits-hes-also-on-gravy-train.html.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Field, M. 2011, ‘<st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
hires <st1:state>Washington</st1:state> black arts
company’, michaelfield.org, 11 December, http://www.michaelfield.org/Qorvis.htm</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region> Times, 2007a,<span lang="EN"> ‘</span>NZ Bloggers Support Fijian Counterparts’, 20 May.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Fijileaks 2012,
‘Draft for proposed constitution of <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>,
2013’, Fijileaks, 21 December, http://www.fijileaks.com/uploads/1/3/7/5/13759434/thursday_draft_constitution_of_fiji_one_1112-1.pdf.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Foster, S. 2007,
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<i>Pacific Journalism Review </i>vol. 13, no. 2: pp. 47–60. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
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Halvorssen, T.
2011, ‘PR Mercenaries, Their Dictator Masters, and the Human Rights Stain’,
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Divide’, <i>The Australian</i>, 27 August. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
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and Cappella, J.N. 2008, <i>Echo Chamber: Rush Limbaugh and the Conservative
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Kurtz, H. 1998, <i>Spin
Cycle: Inside the </i><st1:city><st1:place><i>Clinton</i></st1:place></st1:city><i>
Propaganda Machine</i>. <st1:state>New York</st1:state>:
The Free Press. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<span lang="EN">Lenzer,</span><span lang="EN"> A. 2011, ‘“Team Fiji” Co-opts the 99%’,
Huffington Post, 23 December, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anna-lenzer/fiji-_b_1165175.html.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Merritt, C. 2009, ‘Military regime detains leading lawyers’,
<i>The Australian</i>, 22 May. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Pacific Scoop 2012,
‘<st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
journalist condemns radio “media revisionism” over PINA’, 30 April, http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2012/04/fiji-journalist-condemns-pina-radio-media-revisionism/<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Radio <st1:country-region>Australia</st1:country-region>
2012a, ‘<st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>’s
PM clashes with Constitutional Commission’, 6 November, http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/2012-11-06/fijis-pm-clashes-with-constitutional-commission/1041682.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Radio <st1:country-region>Australia</st1:country-region>
2012b, ‘<st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
draft constitution seized by police, some copies burnt’, 28 December, http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/asia-pacific/fiji-draft-constitution-seized-by-police-some-copies-burnt/1067388.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Robie, D. 2003, ‘Pacific
media councils and cultural values: Safety valve or entrenched hegemony?’, <i>Pacific Journalism Review</i> vol. 9, no. 1: pp. 102–122.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
Robie, D. 2004, ‘The sword of Damocles in the South
Pacific: Two media regulatory case studies’, <i>Pacific Journalism Review </i>vol.
10, no. 1: pp. 103–122.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Siegel, S. 2013,
‘Video of Police Beating in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
Prompts Ire’, <i>New York Times</i>, 10 March.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .1in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Singh, S. 2010, ‘Life under
Decree No. 29 of 2010: The <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
Media Development Decree’, <i>Pacific
Journalism Review</i><b> </b>vol. 16,
no. 2: pp. 147–162.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; margin-left: .5in; margin-right: .1in; margin-top: 0in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Singh, T.R. 2011,
‘The 2000 Speight coup in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>:
An analysis of the role of The Fiji Times and the impact of partisan media’,
Master’s Thesis, Auckland University of Technology, http://aut.researchgateway.ac.nz/handle/10292/2554.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
The Economist
2013, ‘<st1:place>Opportunity</st1:place> blown: Constitutional wrangles in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>’,
30 March: p. 41.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Walsh, C. 2010,
‘Political blogs on <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>.
A ‘cybernet democracy’ case study’, <i>Pacific
Journalism Review </i>vol. 16,
no. 1: pp. 154–177.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Walsh, C. 2012a,
‘Making a Mountain Out of a Mole-Hill’, <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>:
The Way it Was, Is and Can Be, 28 December, http://crosbiew.blogspot.ca/2012/12/making-mountain-out-of-mole-hill.html.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Walsh, C. 2012b,
‘Fallout from Draft Seizure and a Few Facts’, <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>:
The Way it Was, Is and Can Be, 28 December, http://crosbiew.blogspot.ca/2012/12/fallout-from-draft-seizure-and-few-facts.html.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Walsh, C. 2012c,
‘Of Pots and Kettles’, <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>:
The Way it Was, Is and Can Be, 6 November, http://crosbiew.blogspot.ca/2012/11/of-pots-and-kettles.html.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Walsh, C. 2013a,
‘Making Some Sense of Recent Developments’, <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>:
The Way it Was, Is and Can Be, 28 December, http://crosbiew.blogspot.ca/2013/01/making-some-sense-of-recent-developments.html.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; text-indent: -.5in;">
Walsh, C. 2013b,
‘News and Comments Monday 7 January [sic.]’, 2013. <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>:
The Way it Was, Is and Can Be, 6 January, http://crosbiew.blogspot.ca/2013/01/news-and-comments-monday-7-january-2013.html.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-92025472077606069872016-07-23T16:28:00.005-07:002016-07-23T16:31:17.186-07:002016 World Press Freedom Index rankings <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6lLSQYDwuH2PQ-BX_O2AO7ASsUNhrG0h-h_c0xeVXtDVIDi-LxS-oxjQ2I6N3Eh6Sr2uMhnAybf8hjbdPwpFrjm0wbHh2tSWOYFuszFCzpYqrRi_f5zkPS_xunQ3BlOdRKu4rW0kkYQkn/s1600/WPFI.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6lLSQYDwuH2PQ-BX_O2AO7ASsUNhrG0h-h_c0xeVXtDVIDi-LxS-oxjQ2I6N3Eh6Sr2uMhnAybf8hjbdPwpFrjm0wbHh2tSWOYFuszFCzpYqrRi_f5zkPS_xunQ3BlOdRKu4rW0kkYQkn/s400/WPFI.png" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-64448732988753670382014-09-27T12:25:00.001-07:002020-03-10T04:04:48.833-07:00A permanent solution to the coup culture?<div class="MsoNormal">
The election result was something of a foregone conclusion
given the degree of control exercised by the erstwhile dictatorship over all
aspects of political life. Draconian decrees restricting fundamental human rights
such as freedom of association, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, and
freedom of the press meant that opposition voices would have trouble being
heard. Control over the news media was especially important for Frank
Bainimarama to gain legitimacy as elected prime minister, and it was assured by
intimidation of both Fiji TV and the Fiji Times under the Media Decree. The <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
Sun and FBC, meanwhile, could be counted on for shameless cheerleading on
behalf of the regime.<br />
<br />
Scottish writer Andrew Fletcher (1655-1716) observed
that “if a man were permitted to make all the ballads, he need not care
who should make the laws of a nation.” That was back when ballads were the main
means of spreading the news, which even 300 years ago was well understood as
the key to forming public opinion. Now imagine if a politician could both
control the news AND make all the laws of a nation. How would you like his
chances at the polls? That was the situation in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
for almost eight years subsequent to Bainimarama’s 2006 coup. The only real
surprise is that he didn’t take all 50 seats, as he boasted he would. That Sodelpa
managed as many seats as it did speaks to the depth of indigenous outrage that
will not be going away anytime soon.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The real question is whether <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
could handle a genuine democracy with a free press, or if the country needs an über-authoritarian
strongman like Bainimarama to keep control. Those who claim the latter is true
point to the country’s history of coups dating back to 1987. Some blame the
press for fomenting the 2000 coup, which on my reading of the record seems
specious, at best. But the fact remains that <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>’s
two solitudes have shown they simply cannot play nicely enough together for a real democracy. Calls for an end to the “coup culture” that has bedeviled
the country have perhaps been answered with a militarisation which has seen an
elected government laced with army officers. Combined with restrictive decrees
which amount to almost as much government control as during martial law, the
result is perhaps a permanent state of coup which will indeed preclude future
coups.</div>
Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-25438924623512517952014-09-16T17:03:00.000-07:002014-09-16T18:25:42.330-07:00Let's make every day a blackout!<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0WmC_ZKFsiIjF5BnsriC9ywM890pW09A95uf8HUnT_-al4irs12W6AEApPeLuyD9y8-eDVR3wC1uH2i1PlA3txhosnZWay29k5m9NEsB9hykvYZgdd7WrCgyocUy7oUqHjx3KkZh8YR4T/s1600/chart2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0WmC_ZKFsiIjF5BnsriC9ywM890pW09A95uf8HUnT_-al4irs12W6AEApPeLuyD9y8-eDVR3wC1uH2i1PlA3txhosnZWay29k5m9NEsB9hykvYZgdd7WrCgyocUy7oUqHjx3KkZh8YR4T/s1600/chart2.jpg" height="172" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">My two best days ever!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-18926515353456012872014-09-16T12:36:00.002-07:002014-09-16T15:33:36.323-07:00Election Day -1 = Thanksgiving?<div class="MsoNormal">
In the classic 1997 Barry Levinson film Wag the Dog, a <st1:place><st1:city>Washington</st1:city>,
<st1:state>D.C.</st1:state></st1:place> spin doctor played by Robert
De Niro constructs a phony overseas entanglement just days before a national election
in a bid to boost the re-election hopes of an incumbent president. The title
of the film referred to something of secondary importance improperly taking on
primary importance. In the study of political communication, this effect is
known as <a href="http://ces-eec.org/pdf/Priming.pdf" target="_blank">priming</a>. Intense media coverage of
a subject can result in a candidate’s record in that area taking precedence in
the minds of voters over more important issues, such as running the economy.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjps5u0Yh6H3nDdahs_-BpCmrGsIfuvO47MEGQEv9VEGtYbsPWeft8ficIu0JzJBNa_7ap0Kul6K29YYA2jyy7BhRuNblGfEqJ_HVa5KQWsdQ9dOUkNLl-L3tgX_hy-NdjEoa7PM6yg7afG/s1600/FBC-1-e1410848371154.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjps5u0Yh6H3nDdahs_-BpCmrGsIfuvO47MEGQEv9VEGtYbsPWeft8ficIu0JzJBNa_7ap0Kul6K29YYA2jyy7BhRuNblGfEqJ_HVa5KQWsdQ9dOUkNLl-L3tgX_hy-NdjEoa7PM6yg7afG/s1600/FBC-1-e1410848371154.jpg" height="169" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The evidence</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Last week’s freeing of 45 peacekeepers held hostage in the
Middle East was thus like manna from heaven for the Bainimarama regime, as
their capture had fixated the nation almost more than the election. Could the
junta’s <st1:place><st1:city>Washington</st1:city>, <st1:state>D.C.</st1:state></st1:place> spin
doctor Qorvis Communications have had anything to do with the <a href="http://www.i24news.tv/en/news/international/middle-east/43663-140913-report-qatar-paid-20-million-ransom-for-fijians-release" target="_blank">$20 million ransom reportedly paid by Qatar</a> for their release? Qorvis has the bulk of its clients in the <st1:place>Middle
East</st1:place>, including <a href="http://www.prnewsonline.com/topics/media-relations/2013/10/15/2013-platinum-pr-awards-financialinvestor-relations/" target="_blank">Qatar’s state broadcaster Al-Jazeera</a>. A ransom of $20 million would be chump change to the oil-rich Qataris, and
release of the Fijian peacekeepers would be of immense public relations value
to the <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
regime.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The junta thus blatantly milked its good fortune for all it was worth,
declaring yesterday <a href="http://fijilive.com/news/2014/09/thanksgiving-day-to-mark-soldiers-release/58944.Fijilive" target="_blank">Thanksgiving</a> in advance of today’s election. (<st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
time, of course.) As a 48-hour media blackout has supposedly descended on the
nation in advance of polling, the news focus will thus have been on the
ceremony at the national stadium. Nothing but<span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="background: white; color: #545454; font-family: Arial;"> </span></span>warm fuzzy feelings will no
doubt be felt toward the government, which could have been quite different had
the peacekeepers not been released, or even worse been executed. Frank Bainimarama
must feel doubly blessed, what with the apparently dismal performance of
Sodelpa leader Ro Teimumu Kepa in the recent televised debate. Had the
articulate NFP leader Biman Prasad been part of the proceedings, the outcome
could have been considerably different. Expect Bainimarama to breeze to victory
in the polls, but not quite by the unanimous margin he covets.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As for that media blackout, all is mostly quiet on the
domestic front, if not on the blogs. <a href="http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2014/09/blackout-breaches-rife-online-as-fiji-authorities-struggle-with-decree-rules/" target="_blank">Pacific Scoop reports</a> that government broadcaster FBC ran ads for Fiji FIST within 48 hours of polling, in
contravention of the Elections Decree, although they have now disappeared. “Several blogs, a <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
news agency and many political parties have all apparently broken the rules
online,” noted student journalist Thomas Carnegie from <st1:city>Auckland</st1:city>.
“The potential breaches show the inability of the overwhelmed Fijian
authorities to monitor the chaotic internet. They also raise questions about
why the Elections Decree attempted to criminalise the online world over
blackout breaches.”</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Many blogs have also published commentaries that would seem
to breach Section 118. Fiji Media Wars blogger Marc Edge posted a commentary
yesterday heavily criticising Bainimarama. He wrote that Fijian authorities had
little influence over the blogosphere. <span style="background-color: white;">“The dictatorship thinks it can
even prevent overseas media and blogs from reporting what it wants suppressed.
This is proof that it can’t,” he added. FijiLeaks, published by investigative
journalist Victor Lal, posted a comment that the media blackout was a “sinister
ploy” to stop damaging information about Fiji First being revealed.</span></blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I’m not quite sure what Carnegie is referring to as “a
commentary yesterday heavily criticising Bainimarama.” I instead posted two
first-person accounts of beatings administered as part of what I described as “the
regime’s brutal crackdown on pro-democracy activists in the wake of military
commander Frank Bainimarama seizing power in December 2006.” That’s hardly a
political commentary. Perhaps they were referring to this bit of
editorializing.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Events in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
have reached a point where many wish to speak out about what has gone on there
for the past eight years. The climate of fear that has visited the country
during Bainimarama’s reign of terror has prevented much of his abuse from going
unreported. The question becomes, how much truth can come out in the next two
days? </blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That’s hardly political advocacy, however. I have never
advocated for one party over another in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>. I take no position on Fiji politics. My only ambition is to give light to facts which have been suppressed. If those facts have
political implications, then so be it. This is much different to <st1:country-region>New
Zealand</st1:country-region> blogger Crosbie Walsh, who instead
blatantly electioneered for Bainimarama yesterday in a clear breach of
the Elections Decree. “I am saying vote FijiFirst and don’t waste your vote by
voting for any any [sic.] of the minor parties,” wrote Croz, who obviously needs a copy editor. His update to a blog entry titled <a href="http://crosbiew.blogspot.ca/2014/09/what-if-im-wrong.html" target="_blank">“What if I’m Wrong?”</a>, which I and others pointed to as expressing doubts about the dictator, was defensive and obviously hurried, perhaps after a heated phone call from Suva. Croz even laced
the comments section several times over with a further disclaimer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
To all discussants. Thank you for your comments. Several of
you have said I expressed doubt about the Bainimrama goverment [sic.] and took this to
mean I had changed my opinion. This is not correct. I am rarely, if ever,
“certain” on any important issue, and often start from a position of doubt. I
usually consider the likely motivations, causes and effects before making an
assessment or judgment. Isn’t this what every intelligent person does? I wrote the UPDATE because the anti-Bainimarama blogs took what I consider to
be an honest and upfront statement and ignored its main message which was vote
FijiFirst. The only real alternative, SODELPA, will set <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
back a decade.</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Croz also deleted several of my comments to the effect that
he was indeed wrong. Meanwhile he has left up vile threats such as this one: “Marc Edge, we are watching the arrivals into <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>.
Come if you dare. A wonderful welcome awaits you. You won<span style="background-color: white;">’</span>t be able to sit down
for a year. But then again, you will probably enjoy it. Just biding our time.
Tick tick tick.” I guess that’s just proof that I’m on the right track and
that the junta really is a vile, murderous lot. I have also been dropped from the Facebook group Friends of Fiji MEDIA for the crime of having posted links there to my latest blog entries. Group administrators are obviously concerned about penalties in the Elections Decree that provide for fines of up to $50,000 and prison sentences of up to 10 years in prison for violating the blackout. I haven<span style="background-color: white;">’</span>t been dropped from other Facebook groups, for some reason, such as the Fiji Democratic Forum or the <o:p></o:p>Fiji Economic Forum, so I should be able to post a link to this blog entry in those groups. Does that mean economists and democrats are less concerned than media are about violating the Elections Decree? More likely it means there hasn<span style="background-color: white;">’</span>t been the pressure applied to them that has obviously been applied to Fiji media.</div>
Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-79811326485795754192014-09-15T17:03:00.002-07:002014-09-15T17:03:55.869-07:00And the hits just keep on comin'<div class="MsoNormal">
Wow.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsrRus1RbGixsjk10Yn2oTbT7-d1OhPyoWjWgUd7ladJDBJle8ekx0Gq9Y0MPCDDbnnizI1ZlOf_nDN7zsrQEgnzG4OWzLrSfesSq0-ACMB2pCrrgEdsTWDokNSqsbnd4Xz3WK2VludFyG/s1600/pageviews.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsrRus1RbGixsjk10Yn2oTbT7-d1OhPyoWjWgUd7ladJDBJle8ekx0Gq9Y0MPCDDbnnizI1ZlOf_nDN7zsrQEgnzG4OWzLrSfesSq0-ACMB2pCrrgEdsTWDokNSqsbnd4Xz3WK2VludFyG/s1600/pageviews.jpg" height="145" width="320" /></a></div>
That’s the only way to describe traffic to Fiji Media Wars
in the past 24 hours. While this blog usually gets 150-200 pageviews a day, my
posts of yesterday and today have resulted in more than 1,600 pageviews in the
24 hours just ended. (Blogger uses GMT to start and end a day for analytics purposes.)
The highest-ever total until now was the day I blogged about <a href="http://fijimediawars.blogspot.ca/2014/07/will-fiji-times-dodge-bullet-in.html" target="_blank">Hosanna Kabakoro</a>, who suffered at the hands of the woman-bashing dictator’s son, Meli
Bainimarama. That day saw more than 700 pageviews, so the past 24 hours have
been more than double that.</div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
It just goes to show the interest in stories that cannot be
told in <st1:country-region><st1:place>Fiji</st1:place></st1:country-region>
media due to the Draconian decrees the junta has imposed on news media there.
The dictatorship thinks it can even prevent overseas media and blogs from reporting
what it wants suppressed. This is proof that it can’t.</div>
Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-88105720631319104472014-09-15T09:26:00.000-07:002014-09-15T10:33:33.484-07:00Laisa Digitaki’s story<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Cjr6T8111qnBXzoeuvUkP1Ea5YvdAAKlvRXMPnJR6Go9MQXygRYQLX-U2uLtGylIEaDsiwf4ENlW7sy6LuYD3PWtThZ4RG_ym9fhHrrl8GGNWwOj6dtr2cPo3QeM2Vpcmish0xHLYfIq/s1600/baibeats.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Cjr6T8111qnBXzoeuvUkP1Ea5YvdAAKlvRXMPnJR6Go9MQXygRYQLX-U2uLtGylIEaDsiwf4ENlW7sy6LuYD3PWtThZ4RG_ym9fhHrrl8GGNWwOj6dtr2cPo3QeM2Vpcmish0xHLYfIq/s1600/baibeats.png" height="242" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
One of the stories you won’t see in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>’s
well-controlled media is the story of the regime’s brutal crackdown on
pro-democracy activists in the wake of military commander Frank Bainimarama seizing
power in December 2006. Suva businesswoman <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laisa_Digitaki" target="_blank">Laisa Digitaki</a>, who was pregnant at the time, converted her office building into a
pro-democracy shrine in the wake of the coup, but it was demolished by
gunmen, whom Digitaki accused of being military personnel, although
she was not present at the time. Ground floor windows were shattered and a
television satellite dish was damaged. According to Wikipedia, Digitaki
and a number of others protesting outside the Great Council of
Chiefs venue in Suva on 21 December 2006 were arrested by the
Military, which claimed that they had no permit for a protest. They were released
on bail pending a court appearance on <st1:date day="29" month="1" year="2007">29 January 2007</st1:date>, but Digitaki never appeared. When the
magistrate was told she was in hiding and heard the reasons why, he declined to
issue a warrant for her arrest. She was subsequently granted UN
protection. Following is Digitaki’s story about what happened to her at Christmas 2006. It is not new, having been posted first on <st1:place><st1:placename>Fiji</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype>Village</st1:placetype></st1:place> in February 2007 (link
broken) and then on <a href="http://intelligentsiya.blogspot.ca/2007/01/statement-that-got-laisa-digitaki-in.html" target="_blank">other blogs</a>, but it is worth repeating and corroborates the story of Peter
Waqavonovono, which FMW published yesterday.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>LAISA DIGITAKI’S STATEMENT & SEQUENCE OF EVENTS<br />RE – PRO-DEMOCRACY GROUP OF FIVE ROUNDING UP AND BASHING<br />BY THE RFMF ON DECEMBER 24th‑25th, 2006 </b></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
On Christmas Eve night of <st1:date day="24" month="12" year="2006">24th December, 2006</st1:date>, a group of soldiers came to our home
at <st1:street>12 Kavika Place</st1:street>,
Muanikau, <st1:city>Suva</st1:city> at around <st1:time hour="23" minute="20">11.20 pm</st1:time> in a rental car registration
number LR627.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Members of the family who were at the property at that time
were myself, Laisa Digitaki, my partner, Sitiveni Weleilakeba, our son, Mosese
Qionibaravi (19), and three daughters, Susana Qionibaravi (17), Fiona
Weleilakeba (13) and Natasha Weleilakeba (8). A security guard was also on
duty. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
According to the guard, Marau Vakaloloma, of Matrix Security
Company, the soldiers advised him through the closed electronic gate that they
were there to take me to the camp. The guard told them to wait outside the gate
so he could advise us. He rang the door bell which was answered and opened by
our son Mosese. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
My partner Sitiveni, who was asleep with me heard the door chime and also went
downstairs to the front door to check. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He said the guard told him of the soldiers’ presence and he
told our son to go back to his room and that he would talk to the soldiers. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He walked over to the closed electronic gate and was
informed by the soldiers that the order from their superior was to take me to
the camp for interrogation. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
My partner then came back into the house, to our bedroom,
and woke me up saying that a group of soldiers was outside waiting to take me
away. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I went downstairs in my sleeping gown and asked them why
they wanted to take me at that ungodly hour. One of them said that I needed to
be taken to the camp immediately. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I told them that I needed to speak to my lawyers at Munro
Leys as I wanted to be escorted by them too. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The guy mentioned that I need not speak to my lawyers as it
would only complicate matters and that they needed to take me peacefully and
that I should not fear as they claimed that we were all related anyway. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He also said that another group of soldiers was on their way
and their job was to forcefully remove me from my home if I resisted. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The gentleman who seemed to be their spokesman looked
familiar to me as the SDL Nasinu Branch Secretary. I do not know his name. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I asked their spokesman if I could change into decent
clothes of which he said yes.<br />
I went back to our bedroom and changed into a mustard Marcs
three-quarter pants, a “Fiji Me” bright green round neck T‑Shirt, pink golf
cap, and brown leather Hush Puppies slippers. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Before I walked out of the house, I called my Munro Leys
lawyer, Mr Richard Naidu, to advise him of what was happening. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I then walked out peacefully and into the yellow rental car
with the soldiers.<br />
I was introduced by the spokesman to each of them and he
mentioned that the one sitting on my left was from Vanuabalavu, Lau, and the
one on my right was from Namosi. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The Namosi lad looked like the person who headed the Namosi
soldiers who presented an apology to Commodore Bainimarama for their part in
the 2000 coup.<br />
I do not know his name. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The other two soldiers were calling him “Sir” so I can only
assume that he is a high ranking officer. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Their spokesperson did not elaborate on the driver, who was
also an indigenous Fijian. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
They mentioned that they were also after Imrana Jalal,
Virisila Buadromo and the rest of our pro-democracy youth group. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Imrana’s home is two houses away from mine and I told them
to leave her family alone and that there was no point in going to Imrana’s home
since she was away overseas for business anyway. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The four soldiers were very friendly and we were even
cracking some jokes on our way to the camp. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
They said that most of the soldiers were SDL supporters and
that I shouldn’t be afraid.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I told them that even-though I helped with the SDL election
campaign, I was totally against most of the things they came up with soon after
the election and that I was not supporting SDL but was doing what I was doing
not for the restoration of the SDL government but for the restoration of
democracy and law and order in Fiji. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
As we arrived at the camp, I was told to walk into a room
situated on the left hand side of the main gate which I will call the
guardhouse. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The Namosi soldier gently requested that I hand over my cap,
Sony Ericsson mobile phone and Raymond Weil watch, which I did. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
They told me to sit a while on a white plastic chair and
after a few minutes, I was led into a passage way from where I was sitting and
realised that they were cells. On my left, I noticed two young men asleep in
the first cell in their underwear snoring and noticed another figure in the
same cell but couldn't figure out whether it was a person as it was quite dark. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
On my right, I noticed my business partner, Imraz Iqbal,
lying on his back on the cold cement in his red underwear. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I greeted him before they locked me in the cell opposite
Imraz’s. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
After a few minutes, they opened the cell again and led me
further down to the last cell where they locked me up again. The cell was
darker than the one before. An indigenous Fijian soldier in civilian clothing
came to me and started accusing me of talking against the army takeover. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He ordered that the mattress I was sitting on be removed so
that I could sit on the cold cement floor. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
More indigenous Fijian soldiers walked over to my cell to peek
with some saying their “bulas”' while the others did not utter a word. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Overall, the soldiers at the guard house were pleasant and
not intimidating except for that gentleman who was angry about my pro‑democracy
stand. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
After about 20 minutes in the cell, the Namosi soldier came
and freed me and asked if we could go together to get Pita Waqavonovono,
another pro‑democracy advocate. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<a name='more'></a>He was very apologetic and told me that he was very sorry
with all that was happening and the inconvenience it was causing. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I told him it was OK and that I fully understood that he was
only doing his job for his family’s welfare. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
As I walked out of the guardhouse, I saw a man that looked
like Meli Bainimarama, Commodore Bainimarama’s son in full uniform and watching
me walk out. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The Namosi soldier led me to a four-wheel drive parked
outside the guardhouse.<br />
He sat at the front passenger seat with the driver on his
right while I sat alone at the back seat. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
They drove me to Pita Waqavonovono’s dad’s house, Mosese
Waqavonovono, opposite the St Agnes Primary School at lower <st1:street>Mead
Road</st1:street>. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The gate was locked and there were dogs barking from inside
the gate. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
By then, I noticed another white car with more soldiers
parked next to the car I was in. I deduced that it may have been an unmarked escort. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The Namosi soldier then asked me politely to call Pita and
to explain to him that he needed to come out and to join us peacefully. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I called Pita who advised that he lived with his mum and
step‑dad at <st1:street>58 Pathik Crescent</st1:street> Place
in <st1:place><st1:placename>Namadi</st1:placename> <st1:placetype>Heights</st1:placetype></st1:place>. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I explained to him that the soldiers wanted to talk to our
group and that it was important that he adhere to their orders and to join me
peacefully when we get to his place. He agreed. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Our entourage went straight to Pita’s house where I was
again requested by the Namosi soldier to call Pita to walk out peacefully. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
His step‑dad, Ratu Timoci Vesikula, came out first and asked
the Namosi soldier what he wanted in the Fijian language. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The soldier explained that they were there to take Pita to
the camp. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Ratu Timoci asked the soldier as to what type of leadership
the army was doing for demanding his child’s removal from their family home to
the camp. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The soldier replied that they only wanted to ask him some
questions. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Ratu Timoci asked the soldier whether it wasn’t enough for
the army that his child was already taken to court for his peaceful protest and
why the army demanded further interrogation when the matter was in court. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The soldier replied that he was only carrying out orders
from his superiors.<br />
Ratu Timoci then asked for Commodore Bainimarama’s number to
tell him how disgusted he was with the way the military was treating his son
and their leadership style. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The soldier and Ratu Timoci exchanged angry words and the
soldiers admitted that he did not know Commodore's mobile number. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Ratu Timoci then invited the soldiers in for a cup of tea
but the soldiers rejected his offer. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He then sought assurance from the soldier that if they were
to take his son, the army will have to make sure that they return him in one
piece to their home. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The soldier agreed. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Ratu Timoci then walked back into the house and walked Pita
to the car I was in. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Ratu Timoci and his wife said their “hellos” to me and we
were transported back to the camp where I was dropped off again at the
guardhouse. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Pita was asked by the Namosi soldier to accompany another
group of soldiers to pick Jackie Koroi as they were not sure where she lived. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The soldier made some calls on his walkie-talkie. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He then advised me to run with him to a place he called the
officers’ mess which was about 100 metres away from the guardhouse. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He led me to this semi-open hall which was in total
darkness. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
As we entered I noticed the silhouette of I person standing
in the hall which turned out to be Virisila Buadromo. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
As I moved closer to talk to her, I heard a man’s voice call
out that Virisila move some 10 metres away from me. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I saw another silhouette of a man standing across the hall
from me. I could not see their faces as it was very dark. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Both man started asking us in the Fijian language why we
were making their lives miserable by talking against the military. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I did not answer and one of them asked us to give them a
reason why they should keep their soldiers out at the check‑points during
Christmas. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I answered that they were doing their job. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
They then demanded an answer from Virisila but she did not
answer. One of them asked me whether I was intelligent of which I answered no. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
One of them moved closer to me, he would be the same height
as me but with a bigger and firmer built. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He wore a hat pulled down to about eye level but I couldn’t
make out who he was as it was too dark. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
His voice sounded familiar to that of [Land Force Commander]
Pita Driti. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He lifted his arm and cocked a hand gun in my face and asked
me whether I knew that sound. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I answered that I did. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I could see the silhouette of the hand gun from the speck of
light from a far off tube light at the top left hand corner of the building we
were in. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He then ordered me to sit on the floor at the spot where I
was standing. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I scratched my hair and he yelled [asking] why I was
scratching my hair. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I told him that a bug crawled up my hair of which he
screamed that I am not allowed to scratch my hair as it could not be a bug
since there was no light. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I kept quite and remained still. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
After being interrogated for about 30 minutes, we were then
ordered to run to the ground directly opposite the officers’ mess. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We were led down the road onto the steps to the ground up to
a cement pitch which I presume is the cricket pitch. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We were told to lie face down with our arms beside us and
chin up. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
One of the soldiers asked me whether I was pregnant of which
I said I was not sure. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
A pair of boots immediately jumped onto my lower and middle
back and bounced on it for a few seconds. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The soldiers started calling us names and were swearing at
us. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
One of them walked to our faces and told us to kiss his
boots which we did. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
One of the soldiers started accusing me personally and
mentioned [Navitalai] Naisoro (a friend and colleague during the SIDL election
campaign), Chang (a friend and a business client of my PR company) and
Weleilakeba (my ex‑husband and now a live‑in partner) and asked, “so how many
other men have you f***.” </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He accused me of stealing money from Chang and blamed me for
corruption.<br />
I could feel boots running over my body followed by kicks on
my sides and slaps on my face. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Another soldier slammed my neck and then my face against the
cement with his boots.<br />
I turned my head to the right in pain while he [trampled] my
face on the ground causing my cheek to graze against the cement ground. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I felt a toad placed between my thighs and I heard a soldier
say that a toad be given to Virisila to hold. She was lying face down next to
me on my right and Imraz on my left.<br />
Imraz was then told to crawl a distance forward and back
again while they kicked him.<br />
I then heard Pita and Jackie marshalled in forcefully and
told to lie on the cement and the same treatment was also given to them. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The soldiers said that from the camp we should go straight
to our democracy shrine in Lami and dismantle it and that they do not want to
see any shrine when day light breaks because they did not want their soldiers
to see any more of it. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The torture and verbal abuse went on for about 45 minutes
until one of the soldiers ordered that we get up and run to the gate. We ran
across the ground and jumped over a ditch. Virisila fell in the ditch since she
couldn’t see too well after the soldiers smashed her glasses while we were
lying at the cement pitch.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
She managed to scramble out quickly. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We stopped at the guardhouse by the gate to ask for our
belongings but they told us to keep on running towards the main road which we
did. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Pita Waqavonovono began to fall behind as he was very tired
and I slowed down to be close to him. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Imraz, Jackie and Virisila were ahead of us as I was worried
about Pita. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
After a while, I did not hear his footsteps behind me and
when I turned back, I saw two soldiers pulling him back and beating him up so I
decided to go back and help him but the soldiers angrily ordered me that I
continue running forward or else I was going to get it too. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I caught up with the rest of the group at the main entrance
to the camp at <st1:street>Mead Road</st1:street>
and saw Ms Shameema Ali and other members of the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement
and Mrs Gina Pickering of RRRT [Regional Rights Resources Team]. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
They hugged Virisila and asked us what happened when the
soldiers told us to keep on running along <st1:street>Mead
Road</st1:street>. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We continued running while the NGO car followed, together
with two military vans packed with armed soldiers who were shouting out, “toso,
toso” [move, move!]. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We ran a while, walked and ran again when the soldiers
shouted [at] us to run. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
As we were nearing the turn off to <st1:place><st1:placename>Namadi</st1:placename> <st1:placetype>Heights</st1:placetype></st1:place>,
the Namosi soldier appeared in his rental car and told us to walk as he could
see that we were all very tired. We walked up the <st1:street>Mead
Road</st1:street> hill and took the left turn off at
Lovoni St, through Bureta St on to <st1:street>Princes
Road</st1:street>. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We were passing <st1:street>Howard Place</st1:street> along <st1:street>Princes
Road</st1:street> when Virisila’s partner got off a car to
join us. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Further down at the Indian Ambassador’s residence, Angie
Heffernan, a member of an NGO [executive director of the Pacific Centre for
Public Integrity] got off a cab and ran
towards us to find out what happened but we told her that we couldn’t talk much
or stop as soldiers were behind us in their vans. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
As we turned off to <st1:street>Reservoir
Road</st1:street>, I noticed Imraz’s twin cam parked opposite
the Australian embassy together with the Namosi soldier’s rental car. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
He stopped us and gave us our belongings and told us that we
were free to go. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We bade farewell with merry Christmas hugs and kisses before
Jackie, myself and Imraz left in Imraz’s car. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Virisila and her partner decided to find their own way home
from there. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We were driving to our Lami office and democracy shrine when
we were stopped by soldiers at the Delainavesi checkpoint. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We waited in the car for about 5 minutes before they gave us
the OK to proceed. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
When we reached the office, we noticed that the pro‑democracy
banners were stripped off, the main door to my top floor office was broken
together with the door to the middle floor office. Both offices were trashed
with graffiti on the wall saying Merry Xmas Happy New Year Laisa Chang. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I picked up the spray cans strewn on the ground and sprayed
over my name. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Jackie was picked up by her grandmother and aunt while Imraz
dropped me home at around <st1:time hour="3" minute="30">3.30 am</st1:time>. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
What an eventful and glorious X‑mas it was! </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
God Bless <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region> and
its peoples and may democracy and law and order be restored soonest. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Laisa Digitaki</blockquote>
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Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-12633905500304922042014-09-14T19:20:00.000-07:002014-09-17T10:30:39.377-07:00A Fijian Christmas StoryNot everyone has a blog, although almost anyone can start a blog. It takes a while to build up a readership, however. You can see from the meter on the right that Fiji Media Wars has now passed 100,000 page views, which compared to many blogs is small potatoes. But I know FMW has a dedicated readership, and events in Fiji have reached a point where many wish to speak out about what has gone on there for the past eight years. The climate of fear that has visited the country during Bainimarama’s reign of terror has prevented much of his abuse from being reported. The question becomes, how much truth can come out in the next two days? Here is a first installment. There is no video, or else I am sure it would be much more impactful.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>Frank was There </b></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>By Peter Waqavonovono </i></blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I want to share with you a short explanation of one of the
reasons why I feel Frank Bainimarama cannot be allowed to run <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I have seen the true face of Bainimarama’s leadership. I
know many people in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
share the same experience as I do. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Christmas Eve 2006, myself and other pro-democracy activists
were taken from our homes late at night and brought to the QEB Military Camp
under the guise of a meeting with the Military Council. What happened instead
was an attack on all of us. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
When I was brought into the camp, there are two things that
directly stood out for me. One is that all the lights in the QEB Camp were
turned off and secondly was the overbearing smell of Alcohol. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I recall the events of that night clearly. It involved
soldiers punching and kicking us, and threatening to murder us. At one point, I
was certain that I would not leave that place alive. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Notable people at the QEB Military Camp that night were
Frank Bainimarama, Roko Ului Mara and Pita Driti, all visible under the
moonlight. Only a group of about 15 men were involved in the attack. While we
were been attacked by a few soldiers in the army ground, I looked up to see
Frank Bainimarama kicking and verbally abusing me. He called soldiers to come
and drag me to the cricket pitch. On the cricket pitch soldiers were ordered by
someone to run over us and I recall been told at this point to keep my head
down. A soldier came to me and pulled me by the hair, and started cutting
patches of my hair off. I was told that he would cut me up and throw me in the
sea – that no one would care about me. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
During this assault, there were men singing Christmas Carols
by the Ground and cheering on their peers. I also recall been ordered to run to
Lami and take down banners at the Vugalei Democracy Shrine. While we ran, I was
especially targeted by three soldiers who kept hitting and swearing at me. They
later pinned me down, and proceeded to kick and punch me, they put me in a
military truck and drove up towards <st1:place><st1:placename>Nadua</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype>Secondary School</st1:placetype></st1:place>, where they
literally threw me out of the moving Truck. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
At this point, another truck with a different set of
soldiers, took me back to the Military Camp. A soldier in this Truck gave me
water and asked for Apologies. He told me that not all soldiers were doing this
and they were following orders ‘from the top’. When I reached the camp, I was
hurried into a cell; and joined by 3 soldier who told me that Bainimarama was
very angry with my comments. They proceeded to further torture me, trying to
get me to promise to never speak out against Bainimarama. This point of the
ordeal was very traumatic. Another soldier with the voice similar to Roko Ului
intervened and told off the people in the cell, He ordered that the beatings
stop, and after this they put me in a car and they drove me out towards Nabua
Secondary School, where they asked me to get off. I recall been helped by two
young boys from here, who took me to the Matua Taxi Base in Mead Road, where I
got onto a Taxi and went straight home to a family that was clearly angered at
what the Military had done. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
All soldiers that participated in the attack smelled of
Alcohol. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I was told that night, to leave <st1:city>Suva</st1:city>.
I left on Boxing day for Levuka where I was informed by my Family that someone
had sent soldiers to my house in <st1:city>Suva</st1:city>,
to take me in for another meeting. I was later on informed via the media that I
was put on a travel ban. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I recall thinking to myself, that if these men with Guns
feared a young person’s mouth or opinions, then I was definitely in the
right. That’s why they fear us, because we breathe and preach Freedom. We
are willing to die to purchase a better <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>.
I have never gone silent and since then I have been arrested 3 times for just
speaking out against the Bainimarama Government. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
And in joining SODELPA I have invested much of my energy and
time into ensuring many young people understand the Dictatorship we are trying
to dethrone. Every day I report to the SODELPA Office and stand alongside many
other Freedom Fighters who have been arrested and abused for refusing to accept
the Coup of 2006. There is a sense of Honor in their daily activities, a
dedication to serving people and safeguarding <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
We do not have a bad Military. We just have very bad self
serving leaders. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
This man Frank Bainimarama is a paranoid control
freak, a man who masks all his crimes with Freebies and Development. Do not be
fooled, Frank is afraid of you! He is afraid that more people will hear the
truth about the bitter road we have had to endure for the last 8 years. Frank
Bainimarama is pumping as much resources as he can in order to prevent the
TRUTH from been heard. WE the People, have a simple solution - Change the
Government. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Friends, after all the nepotism, militarisation of the
State, the corruption, the Torture and the Intimidation, and even after all
the deaths at the hands of the State, we have been asked to now vote for a
Government of the People. And Bainimarama is pretending to be a Saint or our
Savior. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I am voting for the Party that will bring about real change,
I dont need anything to be given to me Free. I am voting for The Party that
will seriously look into human rights violations and take action. The Party
that will restore and protect elements of the Fijian Administration and my
Culture. I am voting for SODELPA because I know that peace is guaranteed. And
many young people feel the same. </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
When election day comes, I know it will be an emotional day
for me and many other people in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>.
My Hopes, Anger, Aspirations and Dreams will all rest on that tick. I pray that
this message can be used, to show the true heart of people in SODELPA. For
Freedom Hope and Glory and an end to the COUP CULTURE.</blockquote>
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Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-11112266909454563672014-09-14T12:40:00.000-07:002014-09-14T13:48:10.300-07:00Bainimarama is Frankly a monsterNothing epitomizes the past eight years of media repression in Fiji better than the video of dictator Frank Bainimarama slapping a woman TV journalist in the face last week. It captures not only the contempt with which Bainimarama has treated the press, but also the brutality with which he has treated people, including and especially women. Now some of Bainimarama’s staunchest supporters are re-thinking whether he would make a fit leader for a democratic Fiji, as should all citizens in advance of Wednesday’s poll.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
3News reporter Amanda Gillies was in <st1:city>Suva</st1:city> from <st1:country-region>New Zealand</st1:country-region> to cover the election campaign and approached Bainimarama at a rally. “Can you
promise there won’t be another coup,” she asked the obviously irritated
dictator. “Can you just move away from me?” replied
Bainimarama, who told Gillies he didn’t want to discuss the subject.
He first pushed away her microphone, then began waving his hand in her face. “I
will move away,” promised Gillies, who courageously refused to be intimidated and persisted as any good journalist should.
“But I just want to know if you . . .” She couldn’t finish her sentence because
Bainimarama slapped her in the face, causing her to drop her
microphone at the 12-second mark of this clip. </div>
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<iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dxtfb-MRIx9aR6qR4BHoEEZ-sgJwKN_mu3SswX7xqlq93O4CI1NjjlZuwFK2n-GpE_s-slCN1nLwJgTCqsC-g' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
The video, which has been making the rounds on Facebook, has elicited a shocked response from viewers. Bainimarama has been rumored for years to have participated in the <a href="http://fijitoday.wordpress.com/2014/04/26/least-we-forget-bainimarama-is-a-woman-beater/" target="_blank">beating of women</a> who were arrested for advocating democracy in the wake of his 2006 coup, <a href="http://www.truthforfiji.com/beat-pregnant-woman" target="_blank">including one who was pregnant</a>. He also famously <a href="http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=227271" target="_blank">condoned the beating</a> of escaped prisoners last year after <a href="http://www.3news.co.nz/world/video-claims-to-show-fiji-police-brutality-2013030513" target="_blank">a video of the atrocity</a> was posted to the Internet. But to watch as the prime minister gives the back of his hand to a woman leads to the inescapable conclusion that this thug is simply not fit for leadership. </div>
<br />
As campaigning culminates, even some of Bainimarama's longest-serving sycophants are deserting his sinking ship. Crosbie Walsh posted <a href="http://crosbiew.blogspot.ca/2014/09/what-if-im-wrong.html" target="_blank">a sheepish entry</a> which he labelled a “Personal Confession” on his blog yesterday. “What if I’m wrong,” worried Croz.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
When I started this blog in May 2007 it was to offset the
distorted reporting of NZ journalist Michael Field, and I was writing mainly
for an overseas audience. . . . Since then, as I read about what the
Bainimarama government was doing and talked to a wide range of people in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>,
my position gradually changed. . . . To make matters worse, a number of government-initiated
judicial actions seemed personally charged and vindictive. And its failure to
have public audits and reveal salaries laid it wide open to further charges by
the Opposition. </blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If even crazy old Croz is questioning his beloved dictator, then you know Bainimarama is going down. “He’s a military man and he definitely has a very short fuse,”
admitted Croz. “Parliament will be a very different environment. If FijFirst
wins and Bainimarama forms <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>’s
next government, his power will be limited by law.”</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Bainimarama is normally a friendly person who enjoys being
with people. I am optimistic that this positive side of his personality will be
used to good effect in Parliament, and the “short fuse” kept in check. </blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<div class="MsoNormal">
This incident is only the latest in a long line of <a href="http://www.coupfourandahalf.com/2012/08/fijis-beastly-dictator-josaia-voreqe.html" target="_blank">erratic and even violent behavior</a> by Fiji's self-appointed prime minister. Former U.S. ambassador Larry Dinger outlined <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/us-cables-reveal-brutality-of-fijian-regime-20110826-1jefr.html" target="_blank">a litany of abuse</a> in cables made public in 2011 by Wikileaks. Dinger quipped that “a psychiatrist would have a field day with
Bainimarama,” reported the <i>Sydney Morning Herald</i>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The <st1:country-region>US</st1:country-region>
embassy reports also document cases of rape and sexual assault by military
personnel, including at least one instance of a group of detainees forced to
engage in group sexual acts. In another case a prominent human rights activist
was “felt up” by a senior military officer and was “warned she would receive
worse treatment unless she stopped her activities.”</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Then, of course, there is Bainimarama’s <a href="http://www.matavuvale.com/profiles/blogs/dictator-bainimarama-s-abusive-telephone-call-and-text-messages" target="_blank">shameful treatment</a> of Father Kevin Barr, a former
supporter who made the mistake of joking in a letter to the editor last year
that, given the loans received from that country, <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
should consider incorporating the flag of China into its flag instead of the Union Jack. The Catholic priest recounted then receiving a telephone call from an angry Bainimarama, who called him “a fucked up priest.” Then came the text messages. “Fuck U arsehole, . . Start
saying your goodbyes Father Kevin James Barr, Australian national, work
permit as a missionary, expiry date for permit 31/12/2013. . . Go and be
a missionary in <st1:country-region>China</st1:country-region>.” Tales of Bainimarama’s out-of-control drinking have long circulated around Suva, including one recent incident in which he is said to have publicly soiled himself. It would be understandable if the citizens of Fiji decided on Wednesday that such an idiot, thug and monster is not fit to lead their country.</div>
Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-21154372107401257712014-08-15T14:05:00.002-07:002014-08-18T19:39:31.429-07:00Criminalising the public sphere<div class="MsoNormal">
The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_sphere" target="_blank">public sphere</a>, as conceived by German scholar <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C3%BCrgen_Habermas" target="_blank">Jurgen Habermas</a>, is the space in society where people can freely discuss social issues and influence political action. It has been described as “a discursive space in which
individuals and groups congregate to discuss matters of mutual interest and,
where possible, to reach a common judgment.” The public sphere, according to Habermas, should be open to
all citizens, who should be unrestricted in contributing to societal debate. It thus requires the preconditions of freedom of assembly,
freedom of association, freedom of expression and freedom of the press.</div>
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<br />
The media, according to Habermas, are of particular importance for constituting
and maintaining a public sphere. Discussions about the media have therefore
been of particular importance in public sphere theory. To Habermas, the height
of the public sphere was seen in the early days of newspapers in 19<sup>th</sup>
Century <st1:country-region>England</st1:country-region>,
where gentlemen would congregate in coffee houses to consider and debate the
latest news. With the 20<sup>th</sup> Century, however, the press began to
become co-opted by commercial interests, which appropriated the public sphere
for its own purposes of marketing and restricting participation in the
political process. Habermas’ seminal book <i>The Structural Transformation of
the Public Sphere</i> was published in German in 1962 but not translated into
English until 1989, when his ideas caught like wildfire with Western scholars. </div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVxIkmPgiiyyletuspsqPcUafOzEvFVLw-zjRlAxkmg2k2okqf42Dr4N1VKmNrbt4A0h7Dxt8eRdfq7vIf7qN57YMir7yA9tQ5Hq_MjyiFSf4gWP5pclv4Q4r-zXHE9JRSl5J1DEBFBneJ/s1600/shamimaali.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVxIkmPgiiyyletuspsqPcUafOzEvFVLw-zjRlAxkmg2k2okqf42Dr4N1VKmNrbt4A0h7Dxt8eRdfq7vIf7qN57YMir7yA9tQ5Hq_MjyiFSf4gWP5pclv4Q4r-zXHE9JRSl5J1DEBFBneJ/s1600/shamimaali.jpg" height="146" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal">
Shamima Ali: “baseless accusations . . . uttered for
political gain.”<o:p></o:p></div>
</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The relevance for <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>,
of course, is that the public sphere there has been not so much co-opted by
commercial interests as criminalised by the state. Nowhere else in the world
have prison sentences and fines been written into law in order to restrict
participation in the public sphere. The consequences of this draconian action
by self-appointed prime minister Frank Bainimarama
reached new heights (or depths) of absurdity this week when the crackpot dictator publicly deplored the silence of non-governmental organisations after alleged racist
and intolerant comments by opposition politicians. “Where are the human rights organisations now?” <a href="http://www.fijisun.com.fj/2014/08/09/the-cowardice-of-the-ngos-pm/" target="_blank">asked Bainmarma</a>.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It seems like
they are willing to sacrifice values that many of their members hold dear
simply to stand in opposition to my Government and its reforms. This isn’t
leadership. This is cowardice and political calculation at its worst.</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The only problem is that NGOs are prohibited from speaking out on
election issues by Section 115 of the <a href="http://www.electionsfiji.gov.fj/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Electoral-Decree-2014.pdf" target="_blank">Electoral Decree</a>, which was imposed by the Bainimarama’s regime earlier this year and since amended to prevent several
opposition candidates from running. This is tantamount to the government putting
a muzzle on NGOs and then accusing them of cowardice for not being able to
speak. <o:p></o:p>His criticism brought a <a href="http://thejetnewspaper.com/2014/08/11/ngo-coalition-of-human-rights-responds-to-fiji-first-comments-on-cowardice-of-ngos/" target="_blank">sharp rebuke</a> from Shamima Ali, chair of the Coalition for Human Rights.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Everyone knows that we spoke out against section 115 of the
electoral decree because it more or less muzzled NGO’s in the lead up to
elections in September. It took away our rights as citizens to take part in
political debates and discussions. . . . This sort of intimidation has forced
us to refrain from any political issues. In other words, we adhered to the
decree and then now we are being criticized for it.</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The Electoral Decree basically disenfranchised NGOs politically, in sharp contrast to the <a href="http://www.fijileaks.com/the-ghai-draft-constitution.html" target="_blank">Ghai draft</a> constitution, which would have explicitly provided a role for NGOs in
the political process. Instead, their participation in the political sphere
during an election campaign may now be punished under the Electoral Decree by “a
fine not exceeding $50,000 or . . . a term of imprisonment not exceeding 10 years,”
or both.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It shall be unlawful for any person, entity or organisation .
. . that receives any funding or assistance from a foreign government, inter-governmental
or non-governmental organisation or multilateral agency to engage in,
participate in or conduct any campaign (including organising debates, public forum,
meetings, interviews, panel discussions, or publishing any material) that is
related to the election or any election issue or matter.</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The <a href="http://www.electionsfiji.gov.fj/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/PoliticalPartiesDecree20131.pdf" target="_blank">Political Parties Decree</a> prohibits any trade union officer from standing for election, further constraining the public sphere, and academics have also been shut out of the political process because universities have required them to resign if they want to run in the election. The <a href="http://www.fiji.gov.fj/getattachment/5765b9b4-1b96-4f0d-afc1-3a80e0e2a316/Decree-No-29---Media-Industry-Development-Decree-2.aspx" target="_blank">Media Decree</a>, of course, allows for fines up to $100,000 and prison terms of up to two years for journalists and media organisations that report anything deemed to be contrary to the national interest. As a result, journalists have engaged in heavy self-censorship, at least those not engaged in attacking regime critics on behalf of the dictatorship. As for the rights of freedom of assembly and freedom of association, Amnesty International has <a href="http://fijimediawars.blogspot.ca/2014/08/amnesty-international-fiji-must-end.html" target="_blank">done an excellent job</a> in chronicling how they have been curtailed, by decree, in Fiji.<br />
<br />
The result has been nothing less than the criminalisation of the public sphere in Fiji, where speaking out can find you lighter in the wallet or, worse, land you in prison. It is the antithesis of the ideal of open public discussion of social and political issues as envisioned by Habermas, and a harsh indictment of the Fiji dictatorship. Will it result in a free and fair election next month? I think you know the answer to that question.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-29471984249923288492014-08-08T12:42:00.003-07:002014-08-08T21:02:48.067-07:00Amnesty International: Fiji must end “climate of fear”<div class="MsoNormal">
Amnesty International has issued a <a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/ASA18/003/2014/en/68bbca92-0fc8-4af1-82a1-eeeac3671f95/asa180032014en.pdf" target="_blank">damning report</a> which calls for the restoration of basic human rights in Fiji, including those of free expression and a free press. “A combination of draconian
laws, a pattern of intimidation and harassment of those who are critical of the
government, as well as reports of torture and other ill-treatment by the
security forces,” it points out, “have created a climate of fear.”<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3SqEUaRjpoaG64Qw_VDARKmyc0zAg2z3HBgFs5HuWB7aibjKit45jIotHaTtzb2V5nXiMqeS_Yzsy-4qerR8915oa813neupJSE8HK8L-sQKEzReS_W4OZTtF0J52R686AaXzfHJjRp67/s1600/amnesty+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3SqEUaRjpoaG64Qw_VDARKmyc0zAg2z3HBgFs5HuWB7aibjKit45jIotHaTtzb2V5nXiMqeS_Yzsy-4qerR8915oa813neupJSE8HK8L-sQKEzReS_W4OZTtF0J52R686AaXzfHJjRp67/s1600/amnesty+copy.jpg" height="103" width="200" /></a></div>
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The report comes six weeks before the country is to hold elections intended to restore democracy after almost eight years of military
rule. The Amnesty report casts doubt on whether the elections will be free and
fair, however, given regime-imposed restrictions on basic human rights,
including freedoms of expression, association, assembly, and the
press. “Those rights still remain restricted in law, policy and practice,
therefore deterring people from speaking freely,” the report states. “<st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>’s
current government must commit to protecting and respecting human rights in the
lead up to elections, including by lifting restrictions on freedom of
expression, peaceful assembly and association and refraining from acts of
intimidation or harassment against political candidates, civil society
organizations, journalists and others.” Amnesty points to the multitudinous decrees imposed by the regime that restrict basic human rights. </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Amnesty International is concerned that the government
continues to use decrees to criminalize peaceful political activities and to
arrest, detain, fine and imprison people for the peaceful exercise of their
human rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association.
Further, human rights defenders, journalists and trade union leaders in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
continue to face harassment and intimidation solely for carrying out their legitimate
work peacefully.</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The decrees include the Public Order Amendment Decree, the Crimes Decree, and the Media Decree, which include “hefty” fines and even imprisonment for people exercising
their rights to freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association. “A journalist may face two years in prison for publishing
something which is not in the ‘public interest,’” the report notes. “A
person may be imprisoned for five years for saying something which ‘undermines
the economy of <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>.’ In
addition to this, a person attending a public meeting without a permit or who
breaches permit conditions can be imprisoned for up to five years and
fined $10,000.”<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Heavy fines and jail terms can be imposed on the media for
publications that “threaten the public interest or order, is against national
interest, offends good taste or creates communal discord.” Collectively, these
restrictions in law, policy and practice have compromised frank and fearless
media reporting.</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Contempt of court proceedings have also been used to stifle expression, the report points out, and concerns have been raised about the independence of media
outlets, “including a failure to provide equal space to different political candidates and
refusal to publish letters or articles which are critical of the government.” The restrictions, combined with heavy fines for breaching the
regulations imposing them, have “stifled open debate on key matters of national
interest.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The media must be empowered to publish a diverse range of
views, including criticism of government or of political candidates, without fear of
retribution. To achieve this, the government should lift existing restrictions on the media
and ensure that journalists will not be subject to prosecution, intimidation or
harassment for the peaceful exercise of their right to express and publish
diverse views.</blockquote>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The report also points to a number of people who have been “subjected to
politically-motivated charges for exercising their rights to freedom of
expression, peaceful assembly and association, resulting in lengthy and costly
court battles, including criminal charges against two former Prime Ministers.” A student recently had his government scholarship revoked for “associating in political agendas,” notes the report, “after he had spent a day volunteering with an
independent opposition candidate for elections.” It also highlights the arrest of protesters calling for
changes in the Constitution and calling for the government’s budget to be made
public in 2013 and the refusal of permission for a number of planned peaceful protests. “In addition, the police have disbanded a number of private
meetings, including an internal staff meeting of the Fiji Women’s Rights
Movement (July 2012) and private gatherings of politicians,” the report notes. “These cases show a disturbing pattern of
interference with the right to peaceful assembly and association.”</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL-up08KyDzyhtCsoLUv1nXQ-ut_3XA0MMolM_oDw4nr9CjGR5KWtYriVu1oGg6E-ujVgN-u5AdHiL_7xvWv1B_7u_fLD4k8qz93JephDFRyxGWdsDvXLI9JFGHgQAFff7VnKxSQVd5Kc0/s1600/Fiji+Times+Deluxe+forever.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL-up08KyDzyhtCsoLUv1nXQ-ut_3XA0MMolM_oDw4nr9CjGR5KWtYriVu1oGg6E-ujVgN-u5AdHiL_7xvWv1B_7u_fLD4k8qz93JephDFRyxGWdsDvXLI9JFGHgQAFff7VnKxSQVd5Kc0/s1600/Fiji+Times+Deluxe+forever.jpg" height="320" width="295" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Fiji Times . . . deluxe forever</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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The report calls on the regime to repeal provisions of the Constitution, Public Order
Amendment Decree, Media Industry Development Decree, and the Crimes Decree
which criminalize freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and association. It also notes that the rights to form or join a trade union and to
collectively bargain, while supposedly protected in the Constitution, have been rendered “almost meaningless” by regime decrees. The Essential National
Industries Decree severely curtails the right
to strike, bans overtime payments and voids existing collective agreements for
workers in key sectors of the economy, including sugar, aviation and tourism. The Political Parties Decree, the Electoral Decree, and the
Constitution prevent trade union officials from engaging in political activity or even campaigning on issues such as workers’ rights. “Amnesty International is deeply concerned
at the failure to respect workers’ rights in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>,
including through restrictions on freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and
association for workers,” states the report, noting that a a high-level mission from the International Labour Organisation was expelled from Fiji in 2012. “The ILO has identified <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
as one of five countries where workers’ rights violations are the most serious
and urgent.” </div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
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It also condemns recent instances of torture, which were condoned by Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, and interference by the government with judges and lawyers contrary
to international law and standards. It points to the arbitrary removal of judges,
lack of security of tenure, and reports of executive interference in the
judiciary. “Collectively, this undermines the independence of the judiciary. An
independent judiciary is critical to ensuring that victims of human rights
violations can seek redress through national courts.” The report does commit one embarrasing gaffe, attributing a statement made by NFP leader Professor Biman Prasad to Bainimarama. “On 12 June 2014, Prime Minister Bainimarama stated on Fiji
One TV, <span style="font-size: 16px;">‘</span>People who are opinion makers, academics, NGOs, trade union officials,
they’ve all been banned from taking part in political activities and actually
talking about the issues.’” Oops, <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-05/an-fiji-opposition-groups-say-elections-won27t-be-free-and-fair/5501788" target="_blank">that was Biman</a>. It didn’t sound like something Frank would say. . . .</div>
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Amnesty also published on its website <a href="http://blog.amnesty.org.nz/to-vote-or-not-to-vote/" target="_blank">a blog entry</a> by a student activist in Fiji who pointed to the suppression of the draft constitution drawn up by an independent commission almost two years ago and the withholding of several years worth of Auditor General’s reports as evidence of political repression. “Once again the lacking consent and genuinity [sic.] behind such actions, leaves us in a state of repressed dissatisfaction, frustration and worst of all, disempowerment,” lamented Jope Tarai. </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
The fact that the Ghai draft constitution was thrown out,
after it inadvertently provided opposing views to the regime, indicates the
continuing possibility of genuinely laid plans for participation and engagement of the people, to be
subjected to the regime’s whims and self-serving interests, at a drop of a hat. . . . The old Bainimarama one-liner and overused cliché of shaming
all old politicians as being corrupt and deceitful, now leaves him no different
from them, as he has become the same politician that he loves to malign.</blockquote>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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Coup apologists are predictably furious, especially Crosbie Walsh, who claims that Amnesty has been “hoodwinked” by Fiji informants. “I have donated to Amnesty International for many years
but have now stopped,” spat Croz <a href="http://crosbiew.blogspot.com/2014/08/amnesty-international-being-hoodwinked.html" target="_blank">on his blog</a>. “This article provides an example of why I have changed my
opinion about the quality of their work.”</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Their assessment of the <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
situation is based on reports from those opposed to the Bainimarama Government.
Their allegations are dated, exaggerated, and they appear to make no efforts to
verify what they are told. AA was not formed to take sides during an
election campaign.</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
No, Amnesty International was formed to shine a light on human rights violations worldwide, and it has rightly highlighted ongoing and relentless outrages in Fiji. Croz, who <a href="http://fijimediawars.blogspot.ca/2013/12/regime-propagandists-throw-in-towel.html" target="_blank">quit the blogging game</a> late last year but has recently made a comeback for the election campaign, seems to be saying that those opposed to Bainimarama should not be listened to, making him a veritable cheerleader for the suppression of freedom of expression. He also suggests that any political repression by the regime is either trifling or in the past. Not so, as has been chronicled on this blog and elsewhere. Bainimarama is doing his very best to shut up any political opposition, which will ensure his election, and he is doing it with virtual impunity domestically because the media in Fiji are by and large too intimidated to make much noise about it. The regime is also moving the goalposts on a regular basis across what is already an uphill political playing field for any who dare to oppose Bainimarama. His latest move to amend the Electoral Decree to include a two-year residency requirement for candidates, which renders ineligible three NFP candidates, <a href="http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=276642" target="_blank">has opposition parties livid</a>.<br />
<br />
Bainimarama is currently in New Zealand campaigning, but ironically the Fijian citizens whose votes he will be asking for have effectively been rendered second-class citizens because under this amendment none of them are now able to run for office. It will be interesting to see how a free press covers his visit. What fun and games! You simply couldn’t make this stuff up, and I’m sure it’s only going to get better as election day approaches. If only Grubby were around to join in the fun. Actually, he’s still here. He’s just lurking, for the sake of his employability in Australia, under his new identity: “Anonymous.” Just try leaving a critical comment on the Crozblog and he’ll jump all over you. That’s right, the international award-winning journalist has been reduced to subsisting as an Internet troll. He and Esther make quite the pair.<br />
<br />
UPDATE: Victor Lal over at Fijileaks has dug up a dilly. <a href="http://www.fijileaks.com/home/blackmail-development-if-you-want-development-in-your-area-you-must-shut-up-and-not-criticize-the-regime-for-if-you-do-just-look-at-the-punishment-meted-to-vitogo-villagers-by-bainimarama" target="_blank">This letter</a> shows what can happen to your village should someone there speak ill of the regime.</div>
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Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-32549705357784117112014-08-03T10:54:00.005-07:002014-08-03T19:38:19.855-07:00ASK’s complaints about media coverage absurdThe constipated Attorney-General went on the offensive last week against his favorite target <span style="font-size: 12pt;">– </span>the news media <span style="font-size: 12pt;">–</span> accusing them of lacking expertise and being biased. (Yes, the word media is a plural, which no one in the Southern Hemisphere seems to realize.) There is no doubt that working journalists in Fiji lack expertise, most of the best having been driven out of the profession by low pay and the junta’s media repression over the past eight years. But for the most part, Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum’s complaints about a “he said, she said” style of journalism are fairly absurd when one considers that his regime has been pushing “balance” as the highest ideal of journalism, aside from simply asking the government what to report, of course. And don’t get me started on media bias. Then again. . . . .<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicGls-WjMZUb9GUiFntWedPrcVcXHbPC3LGNWrtWCvEuMW55MdQEahI71AY5JH_qYVuGEEQlZQsdq0nxKMlAF8EVtONSZaPYwsyznLGiPb1CFa_QKfGO4Z752176FLk9RDlI-A5A8dzR6_/s1600/ASK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicGls-WjMZUb9GUiFntWedPrcVcXHbPC3LGNWrtWCvEuMW55MdQEahI71AY5JH_qYVuGEEQlZQsdq0nxKMlAF8EVtONSZaPYwsyznLGiPb1CFa_QKfGO4Z752176FLk9RDlI-A5A8dzR6_/s1600/ASK.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div class="MsoNormal">
He’s no doubt having another journalist sacked<o:p></o:p></div>
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</tbody></table>
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Sayed Khaiyum <a href="http://www.fijisun.com.fj/2014/08/01/more-analysis-needed-fijifirst-to-media/" target="_blank">expressed his frustration</a> at reporting of the ongoing election campaign in a press conference at FijiFist offices on Thursday. “I think the level of analysis is very, very shallow,” he said. “Still many of the journalists are very much ‘he said that, she said that.’ They don’t carry out any analysis themselves whereas there should be two to
three journalists to carry that out and read facts for themselves. . . . It seems that the media organisations don’t want to go and gather
information themselves. They still have this culture of ‘this leader said, the other politician said
that’ and that’s all they do, so that’s not very good coverage and what we find
again is the lack of media organisation’s [sic.] ability to bring information to
members of the public; independent information; correct information but you
know also I think some media organisations are still really biased.”<br />
<br />
“He said, she said” reporting has its roots in the ethic of objectivity, behind which many news media hide, preferring to let both sides have their say and eschewing any duty to sort out who might be playing fast and loose with the facts. Its danger was pointed up by the rise of McCarthyism in the U.S. during the 1950s, as the junior senator from Wisconsin began loudly proclaiming that he had a list of so many Communists in the government. (The number kept changing.) Most reporters simply reported McCarthy's claims without looking into their accuracy. They turned out to be wildly overblown, but not before the careers of many were ruined by being blacklisted. A turn away from objectivity resulted in the 1960s and today the prevailing ethic is fairness rather than balance and objectivity.<br />
<br />
Of course, a more analytical form of reporting would be preferable in Fiji, but it is way beyond anything that journalism as practiced there is capable of providing. Even in advanced democracies with highly skilled journalists, “he said, she said” reporting is the norm. It’s something Jay Rosen of NYU has been <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jay-rosen/he-said-she-said-journali_b_187682.html" target="_blank">railing against</a> for years, even from such august publications as the <i>New York Times. </i>His nagging has had some effect, at least on National Public Radio, which <a href="http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowlny/npr-officially-abandons-he-said-she-said-journalism-jay-rosen-is-pleased_b163070" target="_blank">officially repudiated</a> the practice a couple of years ago. In Fiji, where the best and most experienced journalists fled either overseas or into higher-paying positions in public relations years ago, most reporters seem to have difficulty even stringing together a coherent sentence, must less providing insightful analysis. It’s a testament to the poor level of public education, but also to the almost laughable level of journalism education. I’m glad that I was at least able to leave behind one cohort, maybe two, of journalism students who have been well drilled in the basics of reporting, not to mention in what the basic duties of a journalist are. (Hint: Being a mouthpiece for the government isn’t one of them.) That will no doubt be changing with the recent return of the “Journalism of Hope” to a certain regional university.<br />
<br />
At issue with Sayed Khaiyum, apparently, are reports both on the economy and on the size of a crowd. When it comes to the economy, the junta obviously prefers the news media to get their facts <a href="http://www.fbc.com.fj/fiji/21812/fijifirst-disappointed-at-media-coverage-of-political-events" target="_blank">from government agencies</a> so it can control what is reported. But that wasn’t what seemed to have ASK upset the most. He obviously thought the crowd at last weekend’s “Family Fun Day” put on by his party was much larger than <a href="http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=275545" target="_blank">was reported</a> in the <i>Fiji Times.</i><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Anybody who knows how to count will tell you that there
weren’t 500 people at <st1:place><st1:placename>Sukuna</st1:placename> <st1:placetype>Park</st1:placetype></st1:place>
on Saturday at <st1:time hour="12" minute="0">midday</st1:time>; there were
more like 5000 people but some media organisations were saying that there were
500 people. I mean these are the kind of things that the media organisations
and some of these journalists are doing it deliberately; whether they cannot
count or whether they are somewhat not very proactive in terms of getting
information, I think this is something that needs to be improved upon.</blockquote>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The issue of crowd estimates is a thorny one for news media, which usually have to rely on the police to provide them. As the police are responsible for crowd control, they usually have a handle on how many are in attendance. I’m guessing that such an estimate was not provided to reporters, who were forced to come up with an estimate of their own and possibly erred on the low side. Or it’s quite possible that from his perspective as a partisan, ASK saw what he wanted to see at his party’s bash and estimated the crowd at closer to 5,000. Media bias, after all, is largely a matter of perspective. It has been well established that partisans see news media coverage as biased against them. It’s known as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostile_media_effect" target="_blank">Hostile Media Effect</a> and has been the subject of considerable research. It was discovered at Stanford in 1982 when Arab and Israeli partisans were shown the same news coverage from the Middle East and both sides saw it as biased against their side. It is a phenomenon that has been confirmed repeatedly in replications. It is no doubt also extant in Fiji. </div>
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
But, perceptions aside, media bias also undoubtedly exists, as has also been confirmed repeatedly by research. I have never quite seen media bias as in Fiji, where some media outlets slavishly promote the junta and others cower against its bullying. The question becomes, will certain media outlets stand up against the bullying and report what is really going on. ASK and his dictator puppet have good reason to be concerned if the Fiji Times and Fiji TV do just that and begin to report what seems to be a bit of an uprising against the regime on the eve of elections next month. The A-G may have just put his foot in it at his press conference when he actually complained about a lack of news media coverage on the defacing of a taxi emblazoned with FijiFist colours (well, more accurately Fiji colours) and apparent death threats against party officials. The story had actually been reported two weeks ago by the A-G’s brother’s TV network. But ASK’s complaining about it opened the door for the <i>Times </i>to <a href="http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=275979" target="_blank">report the story</a>. FBC also ran <a href="http://fijione.tv/electoral-commission-criticised-on-silence-over-vandalism-attacks/" target="_blank">another story</a> on the vandalism, which has also apparently included the defacing of FijiFist posters. ASK may soon regret opening this Pandora’s Box, because if the trend gathers momentum as a result of copycat attacks, things could get ugly fast for the dictatorship.<br />
<br />Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-76326559256827282712014-07-19T19:55:00.000-07:002014-07-24T22:41:58.210-07:00Raj to demand media policies: Narsey<div class="MsoNormal">
According to Professor Wadan Narsey, MIDA honcho Ashwin Raj
plans to follow through on his threats to demand written policies from <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
media outlets, although from the wording of Raj’s ramblings it seems to be print
media only so far. The move will come with less than two months to go before
the planned September elections which will hopefully return <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
to democratic rule from military. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Narsey published <a href="http://narseyonfiji.wordpress.com/2014/07/20/mida-chairman-demands-transparency-from-mainstream-media-editors-20-july-2014/" target="_blank">on his blog</a> an email from Raj to MIDA director Matai Akauola which asks that it be circulated to <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
media outlets. In it, Raj seems to seek Akauola’s agreement that such a demand
is reasonable. It refers to policies regarding publication of “opinion pieces, [and] letters to the editor.” As
usual, Raj takes pains to absolve himself in advance of any possible press
repression. “This is an important issue about access and equity and must not be
misconstrued as MIDA muzzling media freedom,” he writes.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Raj also appears to back off his plan for a media monitoring
unit, which with the coming election might smack just a bit too much of regime intimidation. “The mainstream media unequivocally rejected,” the plan for a
media monitoring unit, Raj writes, “even though such an initiative has been
undertaken in many advanced liberal democracies that are strong on freedom of
expression.” Here he is mistaken, as most media monitoring operations are
not government-run but rather done by academics, NGOs, or professional pollsters.
To have government scrutinizing news media coverage on the eve of elections would just validate
perceptions that <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>’s
ruling junta is tightening the screws on media, which are already heavily co-opted or intimidated. Doubtless media advisors Qorvis scotched this idea.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The full text follows.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Dear Matai,<br />
You will attest to the fact that on several occasions, I
have requested the mainstream media to disclose their in-house editorial
policy. In the interest of transparency, the public should know exactly the
rationale behind the publishing of select articles, opinion pieces, letters to
the editor to the exclusion of others. There are some who have received
unfettered access and prominence in select media outlets and still lamenting
that their contributions are being heavily censored while there are those who
are complaining that they have no access to mainstream media at all.<br />
I had also suggested the idea of setting up a media
monitoring unit which the mainstream media unequivocally rejected even though
such an initiative has been undertaken in many advanced liberal democracies
that are strong on freedom of expression.<br />
So the onus is really on the media to substantiate their
claim that they have in place an in house editorial policy that ensures that
the media is balanced, that they are committed to ensuring access and equity
and are transparent at all times.<br />
This is an important issue about access and equity and
must not be misconstrued as MIDA muzzling media freedom. How does the
mainstream media ensure that there is balance?<br />
To date, I have received nothing from the media
houses. I am now requiring the media to disclose this. <br />
Appreciate it if you can circulate this e mail to the
media. Can we convene an editors roundtable soon please?<br />
Regards,<br />
Ashwin. </blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-66872860888270406072014-07-11T07:55:00.001-07:002014-07-11T08:12:29.171-07:00In Fiji, one must choose between being an advocate for media freedom and a journalist<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><a href="http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/07/11/comment-fiji-free-press-remains-elusive" target="_blank">And as elections near, allegations of government intimidation and interference with the media have resurfaced</a></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>By Shaivalini Parmar</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Human Rights Watch</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>,
one must choose between being an advocate for media freedom and a journalist.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The chairman of the Media Industry Development Authority
(MIDA), the government body tasked with regulating the media, <a href="http://www.fijileaks.com/home/category/all/11">advised</a> a
prominent local journalist in March to make exactly that distinction in his
work—providing a revealing insight on the position of media freedom in the
island-nation. In <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>,
the practice of free journalism remains limited by government retribution against
those who are perceived as critical of the ruling administration.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYQPKC0xgfUwUKaoOB8E8bipvYTuTjLXBirsW0whOgsFjm33QuQKcz01y4ArsFjWhOaqeOKkBubKc9e8jWn-iZ7n3G12yciza72DFx_5gEzfnP5VfKT9j_FvcHfa0-44THTjixK3y0SNTr/s1600/sbslogo_medium.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYQPKC0xgfUwUKaoOB8E8bipvYTuTjLXBirsW0whOgsFjm33QuQKcz01y4ArsFjWhOaqeOKkBubKc9e8jWn-iZ7n3G12yciza72DFx_5gEzfnP5VfKT9j_FvcHfa0-44THTjixK3y0SNTr/s1600/sbslogo_medium.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Special Broadcasting Service</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Parliamentary elections, scheduled for September, should be <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>’s
first democratic elections in nearly eight years. The country has been without
an elected government since Rear Admiral Voreqe Bainimarama seized power in a
December 2006 military coup. Bainimarama’s government arrested, arbitrarily
detained, and imposed hefty fines against journalists. Foreign
journalists, including <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2009/apr/14/fiji-media-crackdown">Sean Dorney</a> of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, who have reported
on topics that the government perceived as controversial, have been summarily
deported.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Multiple cases of government interference of media</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As elections near, allegations of government intimidation
and interference with the media have resurfaced. Newsrooms no longer host
censors as in the immediate post-coup period, specifically after the Public
Emergency Regulations (an act that gave authorities absolute control in
determining legitimate journalism) was lifted in 2012.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But the draconian 2010 Media Decree remains in place. The
decree imposes severe penalties on any publication that MIDA deems threatening
to “public interest or order.” Journalists found guilty of violating the
vaguely worded decree can be jailed for up to two years and fined up to 100,000
Fijian dollars. The decree also severely restricts foreign media ownership in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>.
In addition, the government also issued the Television Amendment Decree of
2012, demanding that all broadcasting comply with the provisions of the Media
Decree. It threatened to discontinue Fiji TV’s license if it broadcasted
anything perceived of as “anti-government.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And where official censorship may not occur as blatantly as
in the past, this last month alone has seen multiple cases of government
interference and intimidation of the media. On June 25, MIDA called for the <a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/for-media/press-releases/fiji-end-harassment-journalists-ahead-election-2014-06-27">investigation</a> of
two journalism academics from the University of the South Pacific (USP) who
commented on the military’s use of torture and on the state of media freedom in
<st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>. The
authority lambasted the pair, claiming the statements were both unsubstantiated
and could cause irreparable damage to <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In another incident in late June, MIDA denied accreditation
to a prominent Fiji-based journalist, effectively barring his attendance of the
Pacific Islands Development Forum in Nadi. —an act that was <a href="http://www.pacificfreedomforum.org/2014/06/fiji-pidf-media-ban-will-incur.html">condemned</a> by
regional media rights groups for its lack of transparency and due
process. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b>Pressure on media to provide pro-government coverage</b><o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Critics have alleged that there is increasing pressure on
local media to provide strictly pro-government coverage. With past contempt
cases against local news outlets including the Fiji Times—in 2013 a Fiji High
Court <a href="http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=253540">verdict</a> imposed
on it a fine of 300,000 Fijian Dollars for republishing an article questioning
judicial freedom in Fiji—it is likely that publishers will continue to verge on
the side of caution. The repercussions from acting to the contrary are too
severe.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
In a paradoxical move this past month, the government
sponsored a series of voter awareness and media training sessions. But without
a critical basis for unbiased reporting and open debate, these programs are
rendered meaningless. When major news sources are deterred from publishing
anti-government views, it creates an unbalanced playing field that will give
pro-government parties an advantage in the upcoming polls.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Authorities have met all allegations of censorship and
harassment with <a href="http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/248166/usp-academics-accused-of-instilling-fear-in-fiji">denial</a>. <a href="http://pidp.org/pireport/2014/June/06-25-07.htm">MIDA chairman Ashwin Raj</a> described
the USP Journalism academic’s statements as “unsubstantiated and
anachronistic,” maintaining that journalists need to stay clear of debating
between legality and legitimacy, and contending that journalists continue to
hold a “plurality of voices.” However, as evidenced by the authority’s response
and subsequent call for investigation, it is clear that certain voices are excluded
from that same plurality.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
If the government is committed to a democratic transition,
it should cease the harassment of journalists ahead of the elections. It is
imperative that authorities lift restrictions on the media, including both the
2012 Public Order Amendment Decree and the 2010 Media Decree.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://twitter.com/ShaivaliniP">Shaivalini Parmar</a> is
a senior associate with the <st1:place>Asia</st1:place> division of Human
Rights Watch.<br />
<br /></div>
Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-63313689293546028422014-07-07T13:17:00.000-07:002014-07-07T19:56:57.407-07:00Will Fiji Times dodge a bullet in Kabakoro case?Suppression orders are routine in cases of domestic violence in most countries, a fact which apparently escaped just about everyone yesterday after word leaked out that the dictator’s son Meli Bainimarama and his beautiful bride of only six months, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosanna_Kabakoro" target="_blank">Hosanna Kabakoro</a>, had both been arrested and charged after a weekend altercation. Most cases of domestic violence go unnoticed by the media, of course, but this one has a double dose of the news value we call Prominence. Any time celebrities are involved, the newsworthiness of a story goes up, and this one was too sensational for a couple of Fiji news outlets to resist. Unfortunately for them, that is a crime under the 2009 Domestic Violence Decree, which allows for a suppression order to be made on the names of the parties involved. The intent is to protect the victim, of course, but the name of the accused is also usually banned from publication if a suppression order is made because publishing it would tend to identify the victim. The question in this case is exactly who is the victim.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxGETjmrG7DUPA3mnsThqTS8ZVA9V-V6s0h3BnS2Fq9JqrdYNZtEWyCNmx9uIBeiCao5Aru-an5anT6s7ZGhfWILMFYB2y1s5vYJLrtkcsipUI7Pv__ZuPCnmyYTNwFYRgCKB9oBophgy6/s1600/hosanna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxGETjmrG7DUPA3mnsThqTS8ZVA9V-V6s0h3BnS2Fq9JqrdYNZtEWyCNmx9uIBeiCao5Aru-an5anT6s7ZGhfWILMFYB2y1s5vYJLrtkcsipUI7Pv__ZuPCnmyYTNwFYRgCKB9oBophgy6/s1600/hosanna.jpg" height="248" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Please don't spoil her beautiful face</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
After the Fiji Times and FBC ran stories naming the couple on Monday, Director of Public Prosecutions Christopher Pryde <a href="http://www.fijileaks.com/home/fijifirst-cover-up-dpp-pryde-issues-media-fatwa-not-to-reveal-the-identity-of-dictators-son-and-daughter-in-law-to-protect-victims-of-domestic-violence-the-truth-is-to-protect-dictator-and-fijifirst-party" target="_blank">sent a memo</a> around to media outlets informing them that a suppression order had been made. He also ordered media to immediately retract any account of the proceedings that had been published or broadcast. It would be impossible to recall every copy of the Times that had been printed, of course, but the newspaper did remove the story it had posted on its website, as did FBC. From the wording of Pryde’s memo, the order was made on Monday morning. It was likely made after regular business hours commenced, or several hours after the Fiji Times would have hit the streets. This could save the Times, which was fined $300,000 for contempt of court a
couple of years ago. Another conviction would likely bring an even larger fine, which could potentially bankrupt the newspaper.<br />
<br />
The question becomes, did FBC air the story before or after the suppression order was made? According to Google, its story was posted online five hours after the Fiji Times story. If it was aired after the suppression order was made, it could be in hot water. We would be amazed, however, if the regime-friendly broadcaster, which is run by the brother of Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, suffers any consequences. If it doesn’t and the Times does, then there will be much justified howling about favoritism.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT8C43FWEwzfm_IGb4rqz-4PtFodIySrx5oGmULrtq_39WhyTt6cmoo6v-EYSrDguL_1QQimJPLyq71Tm46tYOYcNoI5jDKOpXdrju-QmrLTXFcxK_CyS53CtfL75d-DWhY-5aTEPjpCR7/s1600/Hosanna.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT8C43FWEwzfm_IGb4rqz-4PtFodIySrx5oGmULrtq_39WhyTt6cmoo6v-EYSrDguL_1QQimJPLyq71Tm46tYOYcNoI5jDKOpXdrju-QmrLTXFcxK_CyS53CtfL75d-DWhY-5aTEPjpCR7/s1600/Hosanna.jpg" height="204" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The evidence</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Word of the story leaked out Sunday on Facebook, with Fairfax New Zealand reporter Michael Field posting a cryptic item that basically dared Fiji media to investigate. “Reliable reports coming out of <st1:city>Suva</st1:city> that a key figure in the military regime is in police custody and his wife is in hospital in a bad way,” he wrote. “Local media too frightened to report.” Field <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/10240573/Son-of-Fiji-strongman-Bainimarama-arrested" target="_blank">reported the story</a> on Monday, but committed an embarrassing spelling mistake. As if to prove Field wrong, the Times surprisingly ran with the story, perhaps without getting legal advice, reporting that Kabakoro suffered lacerations to her hands and bruises on her body.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
According to Repúblika magazine, in a Facebook post that has
also been removed, Meli Bainimarama faces four counts of assault, was released
on $3,000 bail, was ordered not to have any contact with his wife, and will appear in court again on August 11. Kabakoro
was also bailed, according to Repúblika, “but must appear in the High
Court in the next court date because her charges are more severe. She is
charged with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.” Repúblika also reported
that an interim suppression order had been issued, which could spell
trouble for the Times and FBC, both of which reported the story after
the couple had appeared in court and been released on bail.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
To make the story even more newsworthy, Kakaboro is herself a journalist, being an editor at <i>Mai Life </i>magazine and a former <a href="http://www.indianweekender.co.nz/Pages/ArticleDetails/14/1326/Fiji/Fiji-lass-is-Miss-Congeniality" target="_blank">Miss Congeniality</a> in the 2010 Miss Teen USA contest. Her family <a href="http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=114550" target="_blank">fled Fiji</a> following the 2000 coup and she attended the University of Southern Idaho. She shacked up with Meli Bainimarama, a former soldier who now runs his own company of mercenaries and lives with his parents, and actually moved into the dictator's home with him last year, <a href="http://www.michaelfield.org/baini%20wed.htm" target="_blank">according to Field</a>. Their New Year’s nuptials were not without controversy, Field reported, although not as much controversy as the wedding of the dictator’s daughter eight years previously. (No wonder the junta slurpers hate Field so much. He gets all the dirt.)<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The couple decided to marry on December 21, but a family row blew up and the couple left for Nadi – and a small family-free wedding on New Year’s Eve at a luxury resort. <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region> media sources say local media have been told not to report any of the drama. The daily <i>Fiji Times</i> instead devoted its front page to the Boxing Day wedding of a <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region> clan leader, Anare Peni, 71, to one Merelita Canauvi, 20.</blockquote>
The most prominent person in this story, of course, is the dictator himself, and the blogs are having a field day with the hypocrisy involved. “How many lectures have we had from the leader of Fiji Fist
on domestic violence?” asked <a href="http://fdnblog.wordpress.com/2014/07/07/the-way-of-the-fiji-fist-party/" target="_blank">Fiji Democracy Now</a>. “From the start there has been
a contradiction between the high sounding regime rhetoric and the practice.” Not six weeks ago, the dictator called violence against women a “national disgrace” and vowed to crack down on it. “It is time for all of us to think long and hard about the
treatment of women in our nation because the continuing level of domestic
violence in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>,”
<a href="http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=266872" target="_blank">he said</a>. “Through my government’s initiatives, the police have adopted
a policy of zero tolerance of all violence against women.” It will be interesting to see who gets cracked down as a result of this sorry incident <span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">– </span>husband, wife, or media.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-91327218252165026802014-07-02T21:49:00.001-07:002014-07-04T09:51:36.624-07:00Some excellent questions from Wadan Narsey<div class="tr_bq" style="background: white; line-height: 13.2pt; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in;">
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 13.2pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">Sometimes we get so
overwhelmed with quantity from Wadan Narsey that we lose sight of the quality of
his observations. He has been researching and writing about<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><st1:country-region style="line-height: 13.2pt;"><st1:place><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="color: #333333;">Fiji</span></st1:place></st1:country-region></st1:place></st1:country-region><span style="color: #333333;">’s economy for
decades, and he has a broad understanding of how things work there. He and I
are basically on the same page WRT </span><st1:country-region style="line-height: 13.2pt;"><st1:place><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="color: #333333;">Fiji</span></st1:place></st1:country-region></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333;">media, except that he focuses primarily on ownership,
which is my usual perspective. I believe that with the small number of players
and the heavy hand of government dominating the media landscape in Fiji, ownership is
not yet a consideration. The suppression of voices of dissent is an impediment
to democracy ever visiting these shores again. If ever voices of opposition are
ever heard here again, that will be a sign that media freedom is increasing.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 13.2pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Professor Narsey has
posted a<a href="http://narseyonfiji.wordpress.com/2014/07/03/questions-for-mida-and-ashwin-raj-also-sent-as-open-letter-to-editor-the-fiji-times-fiji-sun-island-business-3-july-2014/" target="_blank"><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>list
of questions</a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>for MIDA boss
Ashwin Raj. While waiting for his undoubtedly eloquent response,
I offer my own answers and/or snarky asides,<i> in italics</i>.</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 13.2pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>“Questions for MIDA
and Ashwin Raj” also sent as Open Letter to Editor </b></span></blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">(<em>The</em><span class="apple-converted-space"><i> </i></span></span><st1:country-region><st1:place><st1:country-region><st1:place><em><span style="color: #333333;">Fiji</span></em></st1:place></st1:country-region></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: #333333;"> </span></i></span><em><span style="color: #333333;">Times,</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: #333333;"> </span></i></span><st1:country-region><st1:place><st1:country-region><st1:place><em><span style="color: #333333;">Fiji</span></em></st1:place></st1:country-region></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: #333333;"> </span></i></span><em><span style="color: #333333;">Sun,</span></em><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: #333333;"> </span></i></span><st1:place><st1:place><em><span style="color: #333333;">Island</span></em></st1:place></st1:place><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: #333333;"> </span></i></span><em><span style="color: #333333;">Business)</span></em><span style="color: #333333;"> </span><st1:date day="3" month="7" year="2014"><st1:date day="3" month="7" year="2014"><span style="color: #333333;">3 July 2014</span></st1:date></st1:date><span style="color: #333333;">.</span><br /><o:p></o:p><span style="color: #333333;">Chairman
MIDA</span> <span style="line-height: 13.2pt;"> </span></span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 13.2pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p><span style="color: #333333;">Dear Mr Raj</span></span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 13.2pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">I totally agree with,
and support your constant reminder to the public, that MIDA should not be, and
is not just concerned about media freedom and/or media censorship, but also the
overall good development of the industry, as is clearly indicated by the name,
Media Industry Development Authority.</span> <span style="line-height: 13.2pt;"> </span></span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 13.2pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p><span style="color: #333333;">I would be grateful
therefore if you would answer the following media development questions, which
have been raised directly and indirectly in the public arena over the last year
or so, some with you as well.</span> <span style="line-height: 13.2pt;"> </span></span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 13.2pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p><span style="color: #333333;">1.
Earlier in the year, you gave a commitment at the World Press Freedom Day panel
that you had written to the editors of the newspapers, seeking clarification of
their policies on what letters to publish and not.</span> <span style="line-height: 13.2pt;"> </span></span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 13.2pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p><span style="color: #333333;">(a)
Could you please tell the public what has been
their response and whether MIDA is comfortable with their position.</span><br /><o:p></o:p>
</span>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Newspapers may have a
written policy on letters to the editor. It is unlikely they have a written
policy on news content. They may have a code of ethics. See<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><i>Warren Breed’s "<a href="http://www.infoamerica.org/teoria_articulos/Warren%20Breed.htm" target="_blank">Social Control in the Newsroom</a>” (1955)</i><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: #333333;"> </span></i></span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">(b)
Could you also please ask all the television and radio stations what their
policy is on interviewing experts on public policy issues in various fields
(for example, the humble field of economics which all political parties, candidates
and voters are focused on currently)?</span> <span style="line-height: 13.2pt;"> </span><span style="line-height: 13.2pt;"> </span><span style="line-height: 13.2pt;"> </span></span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 13.2pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i style="line-height: 13.2pt;"><span style="color: #333333;">The foremost Fijian
expert on economics is probably running against Bainimarama. Dean Biman
Prasad is a keen intellect who puts school-leaver Bainimarama to shame. The
media will have to interview him. Professor Narsey would be a close second, with nobody else really close behind</span></i><span style="color: #333333; line-height: 13.2pt;">,<span class="apple-converted-space"><i> </i></span><i>but
the media will interview him only reluctantly, as he is well-known for telling
the truth. </i></span><span style="line-height: 13.2pt;"> </span></span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 13.2pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;"><i></i></span><span style="color: #333333;">2.
As a “level playing field” is an essential part of the development of a free,
fair, competitive and transparent media industry, could you please inform the
public what is your position on:</span> <span style="line-height: 13.2pt;"> </span></span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 13.2pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p><span style="color: #333333;">(a) tax-payers
advertisement funds being channelled by the Bainimarama Government only to<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><st1:country-region><st1:place><st1:country-region><st1:place><span style="color: #333333;">Fiji</span></st1:place></st1:country-region></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: #333333;"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333;">Sun with <em>The
Fiji Times</em>, the oldest Fijian newspaper, being totally denied</span><br /><o:p></o:p>
</span>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">This is
squarely in the political economy field which Professor Narsey and I share.
Money talks, and you knows what walks. The junta has not been shy about putting
its money where its marching orders are.</span></i><br /><o:p></o:p></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p><span style="color: #333333;">(b) outright
subsidies given to FBC via government budget and government guarantees of loans
from FDB, with no such subsidies given to either Fiji TV or the other radio
broadcasters, Communications Fiji Ltd.</span><br /><o:p></o:p>
</span>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">See above. Through
the purchasing power of the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><st1:country-region style="line-height: 13.2pt;"><st1:place><st1:country-region><st1:place><i><span style="color: #333333;">Fiji</span></i></st1:place></st1:country-region></st1:place></st1:country-region><span class="apple-converted-space"><i><span style="color: #333333;"> </span></i></span><i><span style="color: #333333;">government – or more correctly the borrowing
power – the junta has been able to import the latest techniques of public
opinion shaping. Qorvis is small potatoes in its own
country, but by c</span></i><span style="color: #333333;"><i>ontrolling the media,</i> <i>and thus public
opinion, it can basically rule<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></i></span><st1:country-region style="line-height: 13.2pt;"><st1:place><st1:country-region><st1:place><i><span style="color: #333333;">Fiji</span></i></st1:place></st1:country-region></st1:place></st1:country-region><i><span style="color: #333333;">.</span></i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p><span style="color: #333333;">(c) the
clearly intimidating renewal of the license for Fiji TV on a six monthly basis,
while FBC TV suffers from no such restriction</span><span style="line-height: 13.2pt;"> </span></span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 13.2pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i style="line-height: 13.2pt;"><span style="color: #333333;">Richard Naidu was
never more correct than when he described it as less a licence than a “good
behaviour bond.”</span></i><i style="line-height: 13.2pt;"> </i><span style="line-height: 13.2pt;"> </span></span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 13.2pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">(d) While Fiji TV’s
accounts are available to the shareholders, FBC accounts are not available at
all to the taxpayers who supposedly own FBC.</span><br /><o:p></o:p>
</span>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">There has been a
decided lack of transparency in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><st1:country-region><st1:place><st1:country-region><st1:place><i><span style="color: #333333;">Fiji</span></i></st1:place></st1:country-region></st1:place></st1:country-region><i><span style="color: #333333;">, especially on the
part of the government.</span></i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p><span style="color: #333333;">(e) Mai
TV’s “scoop” at obtaining rights to the broadcast of FIFA World Cup (a
legitimate entrepreneurial transaction admired in the business world) being forcibly
shared by decree amongst the other broadcasters, on financial terms dictated by
the Bainimarama Government rather than negotiated amongst themselves as a
market transaction.</span><br /><o:p></o:p>
</span>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">“Reward your friends
and punish your enemies,” Samuel Gompers, 1850-1924. Enough said.</span></i></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p><span style="color: #333333;">3.
Given that you (and the PS Ministry of Information Sharon Smith Johns) have
often publicly admonished journalists to be “robust” and “boldly investigative”
in their work, did you query Fiji TV and the owners Fijian Holdings Limited why
respected senior journalist and administrator Mr Anish Chand was sacked from
Fiji TV on this year’s World Press Freedom day, because of complaints from the
Bainimarama Government (as was related to you during the World Press Freedom
Day panel at USP).</span><br /><o:p></o:p>
</span>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">From all accounts,
the order to fire Chand came from ASK. Raj was hired by ASK. And he would query
this. . . why?</span></i></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p><span style="color: #333333;">4.
Can you inform the public what your reaction is to this obvious “intimidation”
(to use a euphemism) of a senior experienced award winning journalist, which
clearly encourages other journalists to “self-censor” in the interests of their
jobs and family welfare? You might wish to know that well before
you became Chairman of MIDA, Anish Chand had also been demoted in 2010 for
having friends in the National Federation Party, while another colleague of his
at Fiji TV, Merana Kitione, was also removed from her area of expertise and
work, for similar reasons.</span><br /><o:p></o:p>
</span>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><i><span style="color: #333333;">Only in Bizarro World
would Mr Raj be able to give you a reaction to the obvious intimidation of
journalists in<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span></i><st1:country-region><st1:place><st1:country-region><st1:place><i><span style="color: #333333;">Fiji</span></i></st1:place></st1:country-region></st1:place></st1:country-region><i><span style="color: #333333;">, because he has been the one most pro-active in intimidating them.</span></i></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p><span style="color: #333333;">Yours
sincerely</span><span style="line-height: 13.2pt;"> </span></span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: 13.2pt; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;">
<blockquote>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="color: #333333;">Professor Wadan
Narsey<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><span style="color: #333333;">Suva</span></span></blockquote>
</blockquote>
</div>
Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-81948830970183601052014-06-28T20:32:00.000-07:002014-06-28T20:49:10.213-07:00Discretion needed in moral entrepreneurship<div class="MsoNormal">
Outrages abound for anyone who is forced to live in a military
dictatorship. For a journalist, the natural instinct is to do
everything possible to help by shining a light on the outrages. A similar duty
applies to an academic, especially if an outrage falls within a scholar’s area of expertise. The
response from an academic, however, should be more measured and contemplative.
Making expert comment in the media, for example, would be one way of expressing
one’s informed opinions. Issuing denunciatory press releases . . . not so much.</div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH5hlC7KnpZrPbXxNPheUTf6cHpgRFNo6NcDPLrGJ8RKGl8iRIH86FfU6DHNPNcJHrriFr-3_3ThblKyLWxe2x3qhlfQxhJMmmUB8NzsudhUyX-yyYzMPZVBzaMqyRBL8nS86MjzrFblGk/s1600/Craddock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH5hlC7KnpZrPbXxNPheUTf6cHpgRFNo6NcDPLrGJ8RKGl8iRIH86FfU6DHNPNcJHrriFr-3_3ThblKyLWxe2x3qhlfQxhJMmmUB8NzsudhUyX-yyYzMPZVBzaMqyRBL8nS86MjzrFblGk/s1600/Craddock.jpg" height="320" width="228" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Patrick Craddock</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The situation becomes more complicated if the person is both
a journalist and an academic. In which capacity – and in which manner – should the
person speak out? It gets even more complicated if the person is
a foreigner. To be teaching on a work permit in Fiji imposes some constraints on engaging in domestic politics. The fact that the country is gearing up for its first elections in more than eight years makes the situation even more sensitive. Making expert comment on issues within one’s area of academic expertise is risky enough, as I began finding out two years ago. I was careful not to comment on Fiji politics or culture and to stick to matters of media and media policy, on which I felt I had not just a right but a duty to comment. As media policy is determined by the government, however, any criticism I made of measures such as the TV Decree or the State Proceedings Amendment Decree was taken as political meddling and a government complaint was inevitably made to my employer. As a guest in Fiji, I would never have considered criticising matters such as military torture or police brutality, however odious. There are others, such as <a href="http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/fiji-end-harassment-journalists-ahead-election-2014-06-27" target="_blank">Amnesty International,</a> whose job that is.<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
All of which renders mystifying recent media statements
made by Patrick Craddock and, to a lesser extent, Matt Thompson. The pair, who are
journalism lecturers at a certain regional university, took the unusual step a
week ago of issuing <a href="https://www.facebook.com/republikamag/posts/773436642688439" target="_blank">a press release</a> saying they were “appalled that
one of <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>’s
top journalists was denied accreditation to the Pacific Islands Development
Forum and [that] police allegedly harassed another.” They might have been able to
get away with that, as these are matters pertaining to the media and thus
are arguably under their purview. Scholars don’t usually issue press releases,
however. Press releases are usually issued by the institutions that employ
them. The real problem, however, started when
they criticised Brigadier-General Mosese Tikoitoga, the head of <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>’s
military, for apparently having justified torturing Fijian citizens. Thicko had
told the <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/world/fiji-military-leader-admits-beatings-torture-20140620-zsg90.html#ixzz35zNXvdSI" target="_blank">Sydney Morning Herald </a>he “wouldn’t deny” that
Fijians have been beaten and tortured by the military regime, claiming it
was necessary to stave off civil disorder. “But a lot of these people were
actually trying to instigate violence by creating anti-government movements or
militant groups,” he said. “They were talking on the radio and so on.… If
you let them continue to have a voice, you create a potentially dangerous
environment. So it was the lesser of two devils.” That apparently outraged
Craddock and Thompson. “Do Fijian soldiers beat and torture people they see as
troublemakers while on peacekeeping missions or do they reserve that treatment
for Fijian citizens?” asked Thompson in their press release. “The military
don’t seem to have a clue about democracy. The media have all kinds of absurd
restrictions on them but the armed forces can seemingly do what they want. What
a sad state of affairs in which to enter an election period.” </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
That brought the predictable reaction. First, Thicko
backtracked on his statement. “I did not admit to anything, let's get that
clear,” he told the <a href="http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=272370" target="_blank">Fiji Times</a>. “What I told the journalist at the time was that I would not deny that
some people were taken to task. I said I would not deny it because there were
so many reports done and there were so many investigations carried out on that
issue.” Then Ashwin Raj took umbrage with the allegations of both
journalistic intimidation and military torture. “These reckless academics
are trying to instill fear in the citizens of <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>,” the gnome-like
Chair of the Media Industry Development Authority told FBC. “It’s another feeble attempt to keep us in a perpetual state
of crisis.” He told <a href="http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=272793" target="_blank">the Fiji
Times</a> that the pair should have contacted MIDA and the Ministry
of Information to check the facts before making such statements. “Any
responsible academic as a necessary measure would have first ascertained and
corroborated the facts before making a series of gnomic pronouncements about
freedom.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Exactly what business this was of MIDA is not clear, as it
is charged with regulating the media, not with regulating people who make
statements to the media. Raj was doubtless enraged, however, by the personal
attack that Craddock made on him in the press release. “Where was the
loud-mouthed MIDA when this [intimidation of journalists] happened?” asked
Craddock. “It was silent and still is. The Chairman, Aswhin Raj talks
about robust journalism. It is all mouth water talk. What an insult to freedom
of speech.” Raj responded by <a href="http://www.fijisun.com.fj/2014/06/25/row-over-duo/" target="_blank">calling
the duo</a> “ill-informed, self aggrandizing, self-selected moral
entrepreneurs.” The stoush has now caught the attention of international media, including the <st1:country-region>UK</st1:country-region>
newspaper <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2014/jun/27/fiji-press-freedom" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Raj is also a mid-level administrator at the same
institution where Craddock and Thompson teach, so it wasn’t long before they
were <a href="http://www.fijileaks.com/home/expulsion-beckons-usp-journalism-lecturer-pat-craddock-might-be-gone-from-fiji-by-tuesday-if-he-refuses-to-sign-letter-from-regime-puppy-dr-esther-williams-on-monday-demanding-he-retract-his-criticisms" target="_blank">called on the carpet</a> and asked to repudiate their
press release and promise not to issue such statements again. They were then
each issued a written demand to sign a letter agreeing to restrictions on their
rights to freedom of speech and academic freedom or suffer the consequences. A
deadline of Friday passed. A <a href="http://www.fijileaks.com/home/army-fear-esther-williamns-to-craddock-all-of-us-understand-that-we-dont-live-in-a-normal-democratic-government-situationwhatever-we-put-out-in-the-news-media-we-are-very-careful" target="_blank">second press release</a> was issued on Sunday, this time
under Craddock’s name alone. “The letter implies that there were
inaccuracies in the Media Release,” it noted. “There were none. The army has
admitted that they have tortured and beaten people.” As if that wasn’t defiance
enough, the release unusually included excerpts from a recording of Craddock’s meeting with
university administration, in which a senior administrator is heard saying “All
of us understand that we don’t live in a normal democratic government
situation. . . . whatever we put out in the news media we are very careful.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This effectively seals Craddock’s fate, as he can now expect
to be dismissed for insubordination. The only question is whether Thompson will
follow suit or knuckle under to muzzling by his employer. Unfortunately the
real losers in this spat will be the students whose education has already been
disrupted twice in the past 18 months, first by <a href="http://fijimediawars.blogspot.ca/2012/12/i-have-been-hounded-out-of-fiji.html" target="_blank">my departure</a>, then by that of <a href="http://www.fijileaks.com/home/stop-press-dr-weber-heads-out-revolving-door-at-usp-journalism-citing-favouritism-lack-of-consultation-unethical-pressure-on-him-his-former-predecessor-shailendra-singh-in-line-of-fire-over-study-leave" target="_blank">my successor</a>. Craddock and Thompson were brought in on
short notice under emergency conditions to keep the ship from sinking.
Unfortunately, they may end up being the ones to send it to the bottom.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-20544088693925167992014-06-14T12:25:00.000-07:002014-06-14T17:35:01.034-07:00Dictator inadvertently endorses Fiji Times<div class="MsoNormal">
The bumbling dictator has done it again. Frank Bainimarama
has begun his campaign for the September election, but his rhetoric is so over
the top as to literally defeat its purpose. The oldest propaganda trick in the
book is the Big Lie, under the theory that if you tell a lie big enough, people
simply have to believe it. Bainimarama is apparently intent on testing the
limits of this theory, but the outrageousness of his latest pronouncements could serve to pull back
the curtain enough to reveal his grand deception.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7lIfDa2dqRKRWZf4-e5L9PmnrFMNzjQSvj0iykcBfZBgvzZH8e5epmtyjNKpOP-IXHq3dLFJG-hSX6Jrroye4_9of_mV-5t5Y5r2ZLLK6FnhE9lkJMOmo1ncPfmMzeEtckTpxhucz8071/s1600/baiflag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7lIfDa2dqRKRWZf4-e5L9PmnrFMNzjQSvj0iykcBfZBgvzZH8e5epmtyjNKpOP-IXHq3dLFJG-hSX6Jrroye4_9of_mV-5t5Y5r2ZLLK6FnhE9lkJMOmo1ncPfmMzeEtckTpxhucz8071/s1600/baiflag.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Wrapping himself in the flag</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“Our intentions are pure,” he insisted at <a href="http://fijifirst.com/statement-by-the-leader-josaia-voreqe-frank-bainimarama-at-the-official-launch-of-fijifirst/" target="_blank">the official launch</a> of his FijiFirst party this past week. “Judge for yourself what we have been able to achieve for you
so far, judge for yourself how much life has improved under my government,
judge for yourself the true and genuinely inclusive intentions I have for the
betterment of all Fijians.” Given both the dire state of the Fijian economy and
the brutal repression of political participation seen in the country of late,
such an invitation risked audience members falling down laughing, if such
disrespect would not ensure a quick trip to the Queen Elizabeth Barracks. The
recent fiasco over the withdrawal of a scholarship from a university student
whose only crime was to campaign for an opposition party is just one example of
the stranglehold the government has placed on political participation. The government-mandated
exclusion from the political process of union officials, academics, NGOs and
other intellectuals, not to mention the “old” politicians Bainimarama so
reviles, is further testament to his grip. The uber-authoritarian regime that
has ruled <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
since 2006 has so repressed freedom of expression and controlled public
discourse through its MINFO and Qorvis spin doctors that apparently no lie is
too big for the dictator to feel confident in trotting out. In his Biggest Lie
of all, the military dictatorship has brought Fijians not only prosperity but
intellectual freedom as well. <o:p></o:p></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
[Fijians] have also yearned for a more liberal society where
people can question, ask and think outside the box, without being told not to
do so, because of culture, tradition or religion. All of this has been made
possible under my government. And the work we started 7 years ago, must now
continue for the sake of all Fijians.</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But Bainimarama’s biggest bugaboo, of course, is the news
media, most of which he has been able to either control or co-opt, except for a
couple of pesky outlets such as the Fiji Times and Fiji TV, which try to tell the
truth whenever possible. Thus he just couldn’t resist taking a shot at one of
his favorite targets. “Beware of media organisations such as Fiji Times whose
journalistic standards are not only unprofessional but are blatantly biased,”
he told the captive audience at FijiFirst’s launch. “They seek to distort
facts, manipulate figures and blatantly print misleading headlines and stories.
If they have a political bias they need to declare it.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
In the meantime I urge all Fijians to get other sources of
information other than the distorted views of <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
Times. . . . Many of their senior journalists and associates through social
media and other forums spread misinformation and are anti-government. Therefore
how can we expect them to be professional and give you the right information?</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Questioning any of the junta’s many missteps and even
misdeeds, of course, is not allowed in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>.
Bainimarama much prefers the sycophants at CFL, FBC, and the <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
Sun who will slavishly promote his party line. Luckily, a few brave others
aren’t afraid to speak up about the charade. “We normally have coverage towards
the back of the paper,” Social Democratic Liberal Party leader Ro Teimumu Kepa <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-06-05/an-fiji-opposition-groups-say-elections-won27t-be-free-and-fair/5501788" target="_blank">told ABC reporter Liam Fox</a> while he was in the country recently. “[It comes] after Bainimarama’s photo and
whatever he has to say on the front page, and then after all the supermarket
ads and the sports and film and television ads.” Ro Teimumu added that when her
party has campaigned in some communities, police have turned up afterwards to
question people about what was said. Fox also interviewed National Federation
Party leader Dr Biman Prasad, who was forced to resign his long-held
professorship at a regional university in order to contest the
election because of its proscription against political participation. “We’re
telling the whole world we’re holding an election, yet the world must also see
there are all these restrictions that are in place which do not allow political
parties to engage freely,” he said. “People who are opinion makers, academics,
NGOs, trade union officials, they’ve all been barred from taking part in
political activities and actually talking about issues.”<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
NFP candidate and former Fiji Law Society president Dorsami
Naidu was even more blunt in answering Bainimarama’s charges of media of bias
against him. “I think he’s got to look at himself in the mirror and hear his
own voice played back to him because he has suppressed the media for so long
that he doesn't know what a free media is and what criticism is,” Naidu told <a href="http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/247155/fiji's-leader-challenged-on-media-claim" target="_blank">Radio New Zealand International</a>. “I mean, he thinks he’s above criticism. And if he thinks he’s done the right
thing then let the people be the judge.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The blogs, which have served as the underground press in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
ever since the 2006 coup, are more than happy to shine a light on the regime’s
deceptions. “The Bainimarama government has a lot of faith in propaganda,” observed
<a href="http://fijitoday.wordpress.com/2014/06/06/the-limit-to-lies/" target="_blank">Fiji Today</a> recently. “They’re convinced if they repeat a lie often enough and
stop any political rivals from having access to the media to refute their lies,
the lies will win.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Sometimes I think they could almost succeed. They pump out
publicity and the <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
Sun laps it up. Every day Sun readers are treated to stories of success and
optimism under the ‘popular’ dictator. Inevitably, some people will think good
things are happening somewhere even if they can’t see it in their own
neighbourhood. But there is a problem the propaganda machine can’t deal with –
the truth. When they tell us how much they’ve improved water supply and health
the suspicion grows that we are being fed on a diet of lies. The truth about
water supply and hospitals can’t be hidden from people whose taps are dry or
sick people turning up to clinics that don’t have the bandages or medicines
they need.</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Of course, the campaign has only just begun, and we can
expect much more fun and games in the coming months. The latest
outrage has yet to build steam, which is the admonition the press received the
other day from the Fijian Elections Office, which has apparently taken the media-bashing
baton from MIDA, whose masters are indisposed at the moment, what with Ashwin
Raj being on the sick list and Matai Akauola reportedly resigning to contest
the election himself. Members of the press were summoned to a pre-election
talking to this past week from communications director Josua Tuwere, who was
appointed straight from the ranks of the <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
Sun. According to the <a href="http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=271103" target="_blank">Fiji Times</a>, Tuwere admonished media organisations “to impart the right information to
members of the public about voting.” Stand by for the fallout on that one.<o:p></o:p></div>
Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-54126850278040884582014-05-22T13:19:00.001-07:002014-06-02T10:58:39.802-07:00Young journos speak out against media repressionAs if to prove that not all Fiji journalists have been browbeaten into submission, a few brave young reporters have begun speaking out against the junta's machinery of press repression, which even as it bullies and intimidates media organisations insists with a straight face that the country's press is free. Yet the sourcing for these daring reports leaves much to be desired, which in turn leaves the writers open to recrimination from the regime. As far as the Ministry of Truth is concerned, after all, the press in Fiji is now officially free.<br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhonU8oGqKurrxZGzxXqBuqczL8J1XdR_eBb7vtmbcAC3hwQUMolDrQqs1BJNejCUUtDROzLpBtlxsG_HnddsBF71huLeS5qClHqLRbG-a0AEQ6LM1kGaNVEtkqdpAWehWmSlXnXl_BoPB/s1600/wansol+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhonU8oGqKurrxZGzxXqBuqczL8J1XdR_eBb7vtmbcAC3hwQUMolDrQqs1BJNejCUUtDROzLpBtlxsG_HnddsBF71huLeS5qClHqLRbG-a0AEQ6LM1kGaNVEtkqdpAWehWmSlXnXl_BoPB/s1600/wansol+copy.jpg" height="320" width="206" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Primal scream as apt metaphor</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
The student newspaper Wansolwara devoted most of its <a href="http://www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/sites/default/files/file_bin/publications/201405/Wansol2014-May1.pdf" target="_blank">latest edition </a>to press freedom issues following World Press Freedom Day earlier this month. The issue's editor, Tevita Vuibau, stuck his neck out with a front-page story on the recent
termination of Fiji TV reporter Anish Chand, and an editorial which called for the press in Fiji to play its proper role in the promised return of democracy there with September elections. The problem is that
his story did nothing to cast light on what actually happened to Chand, who was cashiered in what Vuibau described as “shadowy” circumstances. “It is understood
company policies restrict Fiji TV management and Chand from commenting on his
departure,” wrote Vuibau. “Allegations that Chand was sent home
following a phone call from a high government office to Fiji TV also remain
unsubstantiated. Attempts to acquire comments from the Ministry of Information
on these allegations have proved futile.” The story included not even an anonymous source testifying to what actually happened. What we are left with, in other
words, is conjecture and innuendo. As has been well established, this is what the Fiji media are best at. Facts . . . not so much.<br />
<br />
Vuibau, who is also a reporter for
the Fiji Times, led his story off by writing that "former and working
journalists maintain that an element of fear exists among reporters"
as a result of whatever happened to Chand. A climate of fear has existed for
years among <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
journalists, however, so that is not news. It may well have been amped up by Chand's
departure and rumours which have been circulating about what led to it. The problem is that Vuibau's story establishes only what is NOT known. <a href="http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2014/05/pacific-student-newspaper-calls-for-return-to-fearless-fair-journalism-in-fiji/" target="_blank">His editorial</a> inside the issue made a heartfelt plea for the basic standards that anyone who appreciates good journalism hopes to some day see in Fiji's media. “We want journalism to rise again, and to see an end to the
era of the ‘churnalist’ – press release writers and other reporters in too much
of a hurry or too anxious to ask real questions.” Yet while lamenting a truly lamentable state of affairs, it couched the situation in layers of qualification. “Fear, timidness and meekness – whether real or imagined – are assumed to be the rule by many media practitioners and observers in and out of <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>, yet exceptions do exist.”<br />
<br />
At about the same time that Vuibau was going to press with his non-exposé, Ricardo Morris was <a href="http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/programmes/datelinepacific/audio/2595938/decision-to-sack-tv-veteran-came-from-government" target="_blank">taking to the air</a> to provide at least a bit of information, however unsourced. “It has been confirmed by various sources what transpired
that led to Anish Chand’s departure from Fiji Television,” Morris told
Radio New Zealand International's Alex Perrottet. “Fiji Television are piloting a new political show in the
lead-up to the general election, and there were vox pops that were brought in
for the pilot show. The majority of the vox pops had people supporting
Bainimarama, supporting the government, and supporting his proposed party.”<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
So
what we understand is that the suggestion from Anish Chand was that some
attempt should be made to try and get alternative views, try and find people
who hold different views and would go on camera with those views. And it is
understood somebody at that meeting, or who heard about that meeting, then
passed the message on and then a phone call was made from the Attorney General
to the management of Fiji TV. And the rest, as they say, is history.</blockquote>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG2QRzJx12UPyocPEShyphenhyphendYGYOu5gAdxMnHJzzzreye1SyDb385FyWqp0MyQMvARNMwTj6eMaZqaWXnHVYuSYTToTgCRdYK-4wwEtL3vpYR9xekr9pflbt3UEeNEmxlHS7Sdt0uGfUp8iLt/s1600/Morris.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhG2QRzJx12UPyocPEShyphenhyphendYGYOu5gAdxMnHJzzzreye1SyDb385FyWqp0MyQMvARNMwTj6eMaZqaWXnHVYuSYTToTgCRdYK-4wwEtL3vpYR9xekr9pflbt3UEeNEmxlHS7Sdt0uGfUp8iLt/s1600/Morris.jpg" height="200" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ricardo Morris</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Morris, who has been RNZI's correspondent in <st1:city>Suva</st1:city>
for some time now, also told Perrottet that he recently resigned under
pressure as coordinator of the Cook Islands-based press advocacy
group Pacific Freedom Forum. "I have become ineffective in the role of
coordinator because of the pressures that have been brought to bear.” He
did not identify who exerted the pressure, but told Perrottet that
such pressures are brought to bear regularly on media outlets that are not pro-regime. “Probably the bigger media organisations like Fiji Television and Fiji TV,
they come under inordinate pressure every day in all kinds of ways. And, you
know, if there's any kind of complaint about broadcast, pressure comes to bear
on them from the management. And I think that's the circumstances they're
operating under every day.” While not providing any concrete examples,
Morris nonetheless bravely called out the regime for bullying <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
journalists. “I think it's got to be said that there are clear
restrictions. Even if people don't call out the emperor as having no clothes, I
think it should be said, everyone knows that there are restrictions and that
there are things that you can and cannot say.” Morris is also publisher of <a href="http://republikamagazine.com/" target="_blank">Repúblika</a><a href="http://republikamagazine.com/" target="_blank"> </a>magazine, which similarly
focused on press freedom in its May issue. “There exists much frustration, hate and a sense of being victimised for journalists to do their work without fear despite the strong stand by the Fiji Media Industry Development Authority (MIDA) that those in the profession were free to report without any pressure,” wrote Kelvin Anthony.<br />
<br />
The Masters of MIDA will doubtless not take kindly to Vuibau and Morris coming out and saying what everybody knows anyway. Their job is to create an image in the world's mind that the media in Fiji have now been officially freed. Behind the scenes, on the other hand, they are wont to send out barbs to media whenever one dares to criticise the lack of press freedom in the country. Witness the memo that <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/9300729/Fijis-media-harangued-over-article" target="_blank">reportedly went out</a> after the Pacific Freedom Forum protested MIDA's clampdown on freelance journalists last October. “Media outlets, especially the editors, must explain the
reasons for using the PFF article,” wrote MIDA Director Matai Akauola. “It does not mean that when you get both sides, you run
the story. You have to check whether it's accurate.” This effectively sets up MIDA as a virtual Ministry of Truth, deciding what may and may not be reported by the nation's press. Also witness how MIDA Chair Ashwin Raj <a href="http://www.fijileaks.com/home/mida-chairman-rajs-letter-to-abc-re-correspondent-sean-dorney" target="_blank">went off</a> on ABC reporter Sean Dorney for merely telling an interviewer in February that some delegates to the Pacific Islands News Association conference
in <st1:city>Noumea</st1:city> felt
the press in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region> “wasn’t
as free and open . . . as it should be.”<br />
<br />
Unfortunately, the lack of sourcing for Vuibau's article and Morris' interview that call out the regime's deception leave them wide open to retaliation, either under the Media Decree or otherwise. But perhaps the Masters of MIDA would be wiser to just let it alone, as to clamp down again now would be to prove the very point of critics.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-6703555464315937252014-05-08T16:09:00.000-07:002014-05-09T10:20:37.735-07:00Ashwin Raj on the “(Im)possibilities of Democracy”<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The military dictatorship which seized power in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
at the point of a gun in 2006 now promises not just to hold elections in
September. It actually assures the world that what will result will be nothing less than “genuine”
or “deep” democracy. This is ensured, the dictator told the United Nations
General Assembly in September, by the constitution his regime imposed on the
country earlier last year. </div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-gpHyBmdSPVCxKtWnCOR3ESL8YSbXuHOKCl15J783bXD4izPVPsmE7s60ELlCdAl4lbc-6EG1vSn_dkC14QPEc2v233pX-SbwxcHyM6BVrZ0NxFOpFVzpdzu_F3yEbR736kmFkt_9NKTW/s1600/ash+bai.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-gpHyBmdSPVCxKtWnCOR3ESL8YSbXuHOKCl15J783bXD4izPVPsmE7s60ELlCdAl4lbc-6EG1vSn_dkC14QPEc2v233pX-SbwxcHyM6BVrZ0NxFOpFVzpdzu_F3yEbR736kmFkt_9NKTW/s1600/ash+bai.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Birds of a feather flock together</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
“This Constitution introduces the first genuine democracy <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
will enjoy since we gained independence from the <st1:country-region>United
Kingdom</st1:country-region> in 1970,” Frank Bainimarama <a href="http://www.fiji.gov.fj/Media-Center/Speeches/STATEMENT-BY-COMMODORE-JOSAlA-VOREQE-BAINIMARAMA-P.aspx" target="_blank">told the UN</a>. “We finally have a Constitution that is worthy of the Fijian people.” Bainimarama
told the world that his constitution “enshrines principles that are at the heart
of all the world’s great liberal democracies – an independent judiciary, a
secular state and a wide range of civil, political and socio-economic rights.” By
all accounts, he actually said this with a straight face, which would be no
small feat given not only the captive nature of the nation’s judiciary, but also
the limitations that his constitution imposes on human rights in
Fiji, <a href="http://fijimediawars.blogspot.com/2013/03/draft-constitution-giveth-then-taketh.html" target="_blank">especially on press freedom</a>. Hopefully it was not lost on delegates that the regime not only dismissed out
of hand a constitution it had invited an independent commission to draft after
it dared to urge the restoration of human rights limited by innumerable junta decrees.
It then went so far as to <a href="http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21574527-not-all-will-go-strongmans-way-opportunity-blown" target="_blank">railroad its own version into law</a> without even bothering to put it up for discussion at the “constituent assembly”
it had promised to appoint.</div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
This is supposed to ensure “genuine” or “deep” democracy? Of
course not. It’s a charade, a farce. The whole world can see right through it.
The only question is whether the junta can get Fijians to believe it, which is actually
probable given the control the regime exercises over the country’s domestic media
and hence the worldview of its populace. It is unlikely, however, that outside
observers will deem the coming elections free and fair given the
ever-increasing level of intimidation exerted against the nation’s press by the
regime’s new media commissar, Ashwin Raj. As chronicled <a href="http://fijimediawars.blogspot.com/2014/04/who-on-earth-is-ashwin-raj-part-i.html" target="_blank">in the first part</a>
of this look at the background and qualifications of the new Chairman of the
Media Industry Development Authority, Raj is a failed academic who once railed
against the regime. Now he has conveniently come around to enthusiastically
support its aims, perhaps as a result of his own peculiar notions of democracy,
or as he put it in the title of his only known academic publication, its
“(im)possibilities.” </div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
As a graduate student at the <st1:place><st1:placetype>University</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename>Hawai’i</st1:placename></st1:place> in 2004, Raj published
an article in the peer-reviewed academic journal <i>Fijian Studies: A Journal
of Contemporary Fiji </i>which was<i> </i>titled “Spectres of the <st1:place><st1:placename>Neo-liberal</st1:placename>
<st1:placetype>State</st1:placetype></st1:place> and the (Im)possibilities of
Democracy.” The article provides a telling glimpse into Raj’s ideas about how things
should work in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>.
I highly recommend it to your reading, and it will cost you only <a href="http://search.informit.com.au/documentSummary;dn=709227766614887;res=IELHSS" target="_blank">AUS$1.98 to download</a>. Keep in mind, of course, that the article is now a decade old, and not only
have Raj’s ideas doubtless evolved over the past decade, but events have also
altered the political landscape in Fiji. Bainimara’s coup, for example, was still two years in the
offing. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism" target="_blank">Neo-liberalism</a><b> </b>had
yet to be discredited by the economic crisis that gripped the world starting in
2008 and is only just now loosening. (In <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>,
where received wisdom seems to arrive late, if ever, neo-liberalism is still in
vogue, judging by government policies of income tax cuts and an apparent
consensus in favor of slashing the VAT.)</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Just as it would be in an ironic 2007 <a href="http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=74011" target="_blank">letter to the Fiji Times</a>, the bee in Raj’s bonnet in his 2004 article was the proverbial monkey of good
governance. “Good governance and democracy are identified not with the
empowerment of the many, such as those working in the <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
garment industry for low wages,” he wrote, “but with constitutionality, free
elections and a deregulated market.” The implementation of neo-liberal economic
policies posed an inherent contradiction in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>,
according to Raj, due to their withdrawal of entitlement programmes. “One of the colonial legacies of <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region> is that the political imaginary of the nation is
that of entitlements,” he wrote. “It has never been a nation of rights.” Government
insisted that neo-liberal policies would bring economic growth, noted Raj, which
would have a trickle down effect on the country’s social and political
development that was necessary to rescue the economy from the severe downturn
that followed the 1987 coup. The structural adjustment reforms, however, were
implemented while Parliament had been suspended, which had “a serious bearing on
the notion of democracy as unpopular reforms were implemented by a group of
people who were not democratically elected.”</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
While the postcoup state had
promised to ensure indigenous Fijian advancement in the realm of the economic,
it now had to address the tension between pursuing economic liberalization on
the one hand and economic affirmative action programmes as part of its
nationalist agenda on the other. The reform measures pursued had an adverse
effect on the indigenous Fijians as the market did not discriminate between
Indians and Fijians. The burden of public sector reform fell largely on ethnic
Fijians since much of the public sector was dominated by indigenous Fijians. </div>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The displacements following the 2000 coup served
as justification for <st1:country-region>Australia</st1:country-region> to intervene and seek the restoration of
democracy, noted Raj. Through their insistence on good governance, Western
governments such as <st1:country-region>Australia</st1:country-region> and institutions such as the World Bank “create a
regime of ‘truth’ as they decide whether a particular regime of governance is
good or bad and as such become the arbiter of ethical good.” Raj even utilized
the exclamation point, which is rarely seen in academic writing, in making his
argument. “It thus constitutes a shift in the burden and responsibility from
developed countries to developing countries whereby the latter have to ‘clean
up their own mess’ so that it no longer appears to be an external imposition
but owned and implemented by governments that have been legitimated through the
national democratic process of free and fair elections!”<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The World Bank’s apocalyptic scenario for the
Pacific called “the <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/1995-03-16/news/mn-43468_1_pacific-island" target="_blank">Pacific Paradox</a>” and Ben Reilly’s “<a href="http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1488559" target="_blank">Africanization of the South Pacific</a>” thesis, which is characterized by soaring corruption,<b> </b>dismiss
the role of international power differentials that inform notions of governance
and development, argued Raj. “It is here that one needs to examine the
complicity of the intellectual in the production of particular regimes of truth
or reality.” The notion of a public sphere in which anyone can participate in
political debates regardless of their social status was “indeed advocating
freedom of thought as the true condition for enlightenment.”</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
However, when one
thinks of the cacophony of the margins, one is reminded of the rise of experts
and specialists on the one hand and the consistent call for unrestricted
education sanitized of any social prejudice on the other. Certain modes of
knowledge have been privileged over time so that the public sphere becomes a
collective of selective individuals qualified enough to speak for the
subaltern.</div>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: .5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
The powerless classes, or subaltern, suffer as a
result of the calls for good governance by international civil society, he argued, which are fuelled by liberal
individualism. “‘Normalcy’ and stability have been privileged over democracy,”
he wrote. “Governance needs to examine the predicament of the ‘new subaltern.’
Otherwise, any yearnings for democracy will remain a fiction, an incomplete
project of modernity reserved for an enlightened elite engaged with the
pedagogical mission of speaking on behalf of the subaltern.” He
poignantly illustrated his point with an anecdote from his own field research.</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Who decides what are
free and fair elections? To date, I am still haunted by an interview which I
carried out with a subaltern woman during the 1999 general elections in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>. I asked her if she felt her rights were secured
under the 1997 Constitution to which she replied acerbically: “and what am I
supposed to eat in the evening? The Constitution?”</div>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Raj’s article shows some
insight into the dilemma that accompanies the twin goals of development and
democracy. Can an impoverished nation such as <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region> have both? If not, which is more important? It is
fairly obvious which one the junta has chosen, as its moves toward democracy become
increasingly unconvincing. Given his apparent conversion as an apostle of the regime and his new role in advancing its goals through controlling the news that
Fijians get, two sentences from his 2004 article ring louder than the rest. Not only is it “here that one needs to examine the complicity of the intellectual in the
production of particular regimes of truth or reality.” Ironically it is now Raj who is helping to “create a regime of ‘truth,’” and decide whether governance is good or bad. He has himself become “the arbiter of ethical good.”</div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
But wait, it gets even better . . . er, weirder. In the intervening decade
since the article’s publication, Ashwin Raj has been transformed in more ways
than one. His coming out of the closet a few years ago and his advocacy for
gay rights provide us with further insights into his ideas about democracy. In a talk that Raj gave two years ago at an event to mark International Day
Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHOT), he mused that democracy has much to learn from
sexuality. <a href="http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/2012/05/drodrolagi-marks-international-day-against-homophobia/" target="_blank">According to a press release,</a> Raj noted that “entering the protocols of others will play a critical role in
compelling law to engage with our material conditions.”</div>
</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
USP academic and activist Ashwin
Raj, spoke about the future of democracy. While reminding us that those who
espouse to sexual values other then compulsory heterosexuality constitute the
world’s largest and oldest diaspora, he said that democracy has much to learn
from sexuality. They are both at home and in exile. Since sexual identities can
never be reduced to sexual acts, so should democracy strive to be more than
free and fair elections and the performative conventions of constitutionalism.</div>
</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
In other words, the people always get screwed in the end.
It’s only a matter of who’s doing the screwing. Ashwin Raj has obviously done
his best to ensure he will be at the front of that line.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
</div>
Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-7996932476484782282014-04-16T11:40:00.000-07:002019-10-31T11:15:02.684-07:00Who on earth is Ashwin Raj? Part I<div class="MsoNormal">
The new Chairman of Fiji’s Media Industry Development
Authority, Ashwin Raj, has been cracking the whip on the nation’s press – and even
on overseas journalists – ever since his appointment last year. His stridency is
in sharp contrast to the style of his predecessor, FNU literature scholar Professor Subramani, who kept a
low profile and seemed reluctant to carry out the regime’s media diktats. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRk1PVKQQpW0O7G7b5bkpEJ3B0RoA_AD3ESUOei4biGG3xM7GyTJPuGJy7zANyoBUSGAOmfRlp16zEiCH9uv0uK0dkAV53Sv7dOZ-9xtIsdgJIcCXulb373Y7BZBbNbhfKXTWfK6gueHmg/s1600/ash3+(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="198" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRk1PVKQQpW0O7G7b5bkpEJ3B0RoA_AD3ESUOei4biGG3xM7GyTJPuGJy7zANyoBUSGAOmfRlp16zEiCH9uv0uK0dkAV53Sv7dOZ-9xtIsdgJIcCXulb373Y7BZBbNbhfKXTWfK6gueHmg/s1600/ash3+(1).jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ashwin Raj lays down the law to Fiji's media</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Raj
apparently suffers no similar compunction about playing the role of media commissar, and his
assault on the press, both foreign and domestic, over the past six months has been dizzying. Basking in his new-found limelight,
the previously obscure Raj has unleashed a vocabulary that would drive even the
most erudite faculty member to a dictionary. By attempting to impress with polysyllabic
prowess, however, the diminutive failed academic displays an intellectual
inferiority complex that is as enormous as it is obvious.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Raj first moved against Fiji's media last October, when he announced
that MIDA would <a href="http://www.fijisun.com.fj/2013/10/09/media-step-up-role-for-elections-mida/" target="_blank">set up a media monitoring unit</a> to ensure that
coverage of the coming election campaign will be balanced and unbiased. He also
announced that freelancers, public relations operatives, and foreign journalists in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
would henceforth have to <a href="http://www.fijisun.com.fj/2013/10/09/registration-call-for-foreign-media/" target="_blank">register with MIDA</a> and follow the regime’s restrictive Media Decree. The Cook Islands-based Pacific
Freedom Forum <a href="http://www.pacificfreedomforum.org/2013/10/pff-calls-on-fiji-media-authority-to.html" target="_blank">spoke out against the added restrictions</a> as “another layer of scrutiny in what is already a tightly
regulated media environment.” Some <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
media actually dared to report on that story, which apparently led to a <a href="http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/south-pacific/9300729/Fijis-media-harangued-over-article" target="_blank">sharp private rebuke from Raj</a>.<br />
<br />
At the annual Attorney-General’s conference in December, <a href="http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=253632" target="_blank">Raj lashed out</a> against those who saw the Media Decree as an attempt to gag the press.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Alarmingly, little effort has been made to actually enter
the protocols of the Decree and read through its provisions, which provides a
nuanced framework for the enforcement of media standards. If media holds the
State accountable, the question then is ‘who guards the guard?’ What legal
recourse does the public have in the event that the media has wronged them?</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
But these were merely appetizers for Raj’s showdown with journalists
in the New Year. At the Pacific Islands News Association conference in <st1:city>Noumea</st1:city>
in February, he took umbrage with ABC journalist Sean Dorney <a href="http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/program/pacific-beat/state-of-media-freedom-in-the-pacific-discussed-at-pina-conference/1263860">telling an interviewer</a> that some there felt the press in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region> “wasn’t as free and open . . . as it should be.” At a social function that evening, Raj reportedly went off on Dorney, who had also privately urged that PINA should stand up more for press freedom, calling
him a two-faced “Janus” and promising that he would never be allowed back into <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>.
He followed that up with <a href="http://www.fijileaks.com/2/post/2014/03/mida-chairman-rajs-letter-to-abc-re-correspondent-sean-dorney.html" target="_blank">a letter of protest</a> to the ABC’s Managing Director that threw around howlers like “asseverated,” and “epistemic,”
as if to show the Australians how intelligent he was. “Mr
Dorney’s lucubration’s [sic.] are mired in generalisations without any substantiation,”
railed Raj, who simultaneously deemed MIDA a rousing success with regional
governments. “Five months into my appointment, MIDA is beginning to enjoy the
trust and confidence of the international community.”</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The silliness continued in what can only be described as
MIDA’s own version of March Madness. Unable to extract retribution against
Dorney, Raj dragged into his feud the
Pacific Media Assistance Scheme, which is <strike>funded by the ABC</strike> administered by ABC International, <a href="http://www.pacmas.org/profile/cba-pacmas-digital-media-training-project-postponed/" target="_blank">forcing it to cancel</a> a planned workshop for journalists in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>.
Raj then <a href="http://fijilive.com/news/2014/03/pacmas-told-to-distance-itself-from-abc/57004.Fijilive" target="_blank">demanded </a>that PACMAS distance itself from the ABC
and Dorney. In outlining his independent media monitoring unit of "people who have a wealth of experience in the media
industry," Raj then announced that he would also require all media outlets to <a href="http://www.fijisun.com.fj/2014/03/27/mida-sets-up-unit-to-monitor-reporting/" target="_blank">disclose their editorial policies.</a> “I need to know
why certain letters get published at the exclusion of others.” The craziness recently culminated, of course, when Raj could simply stand no more of the Fiji media’s insolence and insubordination. After Fiji TV reported a speech by a chief in the prime
minister’s home province that pointed to ethnic divisions in Fiji society, Raj deemed it hateful and summoned the press for
a stern tongue lashing, even <a href="http://fijimediawars.blogspot.com/2014/04/mida-takes-on-facebook.html" target="_blank">admonishing assembled journalists</a> for discussing such issues on social media like Facebook. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
All of which begs the question, who on earth is Ashwin Raj?
He has absolutely no media experience in his background, from what I can tell,
and as such he would be highly unlikely to enjoy even a scintilla of confidence among
members of the industry he regulates. His most extensive media experience, it seems, comes from reading newspapers and authoring the occasional response. “I would engage with the media as a
bystander,” <a href="http://www.fijisun.com.fj/2013/10/09/media-step-up-role-for-elections-mida/" target="_blank">he has explained</a>. “I’d write letters to the editor.”<b> </b>His lack of expertise on media issues is painfully obvious, and his independence is highly suspect. “I’ve got a six
member board that keeps me accountable,” he has said, yet the membership of
MIDA – which is <a href="http://www.paclii.org/fj/promu/promu_dec/midd2010303.rtf" target="_blank">supposed to include</a> representatives of women,
children, and consumers, in addition to the Solicitor-General and someone with
media experience – is apparently a closely-guarded state secret. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
He is also not a lawyer, as he freely admits, which you would think might come in handy for someone tasked with administering a regulatory act. “I’ve always read law
from the perspective of society,” he reasoned for journalists. </div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
It’s one thing to have pure, legal interpretation of the law
and another to say, well what does it mean for society and how does society
think through legal instruments? Law means nothing unless and until it
materializes in the lives of people.</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
So what do we know about Ashwin Raj and his actual accomplishments? Does he have any to his credit? It is highly unlikely
that any journalist in Fiji would dare investigate, much less report on his background, or lack thereof, under
the current reign of media terror over which Raj presides. That leaves it to this
blog to find out what is known about him and publicize it in order to put the current media climate in Fiji into context. In his day job, Raj is a mid-level
administrator at a regional university. He comes from an extremely modest background,
being born to a Muslim seamstress and a Hindu gardener (at Marist Brothers
school) and raised in a Vatuwaqa shack. His parents' elopement apparently caused his mother to become estranged from her family, which objected to the mixed union, and this caused no small amount of distress for young Ashwin. He came out as gay a few years ago and
was active in the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Drodrolagi.Movement/info" target="_blank">Drodrolagi</a> movement which advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and queer
rights in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region> until quitting the group a couple of
years ago. He then began to ingratiate himself with the regime and has been advancing within it rapidly. He delivered the opening address to the 2012 Attorney General's conference (at about the same time that I was being <a href="http://fijimediawars.blogspot.com/2012/12/i-have-been-hounded-out-of-fiji.html" target="_blank">hounded out </a>of Fiji), at which he declared his admiration for the regime's "<a href="http://crosbiew.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-14th-attorney-generals-annual.html?showComment=1355029757884" target="_blank">surgical strike</a>" in 2006. Within a few months, he had been elevated as the Master of MIDA.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCCcZyVmDdJ8jxFxymF502kK7DID04JyQbMnFNFGv8KrHo807wdORDBpdWms0FrTHo0jfi60dbtAG7wj84VU6F687MGB48ggH4XWZJCVVthhn6gQlgKjsvcMOZ6BRFwZs-p112d-huoNAT/s1600/ashwithhair.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCCcZyVmDdJ8jxFxymF502kK7DID04JyQbMnFNFGv8KrHo807wdORDBpdWms0FrTHo0jfi60dbtAG7wj84VU6F687MGB48ggH4XWZJCVVthhn6gQlgKjsvcMOZ6BRFwZs-p112d-huoNAT/s1600/ashwithhair.jpg" width="136" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ashwin Raj in Hawai'i</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Ashwin Avinesh Raj holds a Master’s degree in Political Science from the <st1:place><st1:placetype>University</st1:placetype>
of <st1:placename>Hawai’i</st1:placename></st1:place>, which he attended from
2002-05 on a <a href="http://www.hawaii.edu/cpis/newsletters/Newsletter.oct-dec02.html" target="_blank">United States-South Pacific Islands scholarship</a> to the <st1:place><st1:placename>East-West</st1:placename> <st1:placetype>Center</st1:placetype></st1:place>. He then enrolled in doctoral studies at Australian National
University’s program in Pacific and Asian History, where he began work on his
dissertation topic: “Allegories of the Human: Rights of Indentured and ‘Free’
Indians and the Production of Humanity, 1879-1937.” That is where his
academic career went off the rails, however. Despite spending a year doing
research in the Fiji Archives, Raj proved to be all talk and no action, failing
to submit even one chapter of his doctoral thesis. He was eventually required
to leave <st1:country-region>Australia</st1:country-region>
on the expiration of his student visa in 2009. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Raj did prove to be a prolific letter writer during his time in <st1:city>Canberra</st1:city>,
however, and some of his submissions to the Fiji Times belie his current
complicity in the regime. “Instead of channelling hundreds of thousands of
dollars to investigate the media and institute meaningless commissions of
inquiry that tell you the obvious,” <a href="http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?ref=archive&id=90892" target="_blank">he wrote in 2008</a> to criticise the Fiji
Human Rights Commission, including its report on Fiji media by University of
Hawai’i political scientist James Anthony, “that money would
have been better spent feeding and clothing the poor and the homeless.” A
letter published the previous year, however,
provides an even more delicious irony given Raj’s current position in charge of the regime’s
machinery of media repression. He began it in a manner eerily similar to <a href="http://www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/sites/default/files/file_bin/201404/MIDA-Chair-statement-on-Hate-Speech.pdf" target="_blank">his recent diatribe</a> against the <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
media, which began: “I’m quite perturbed by the level of public discourse in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
as we head towards the national elections.” His <a href="http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=74011" target="_blank">2007 letter</a> began: “I am perturbed by the mood of public discourse in
relation to the political developments since the 2006 military takeover.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Rampant anti-intellectualism, purist and locationist jibes
and the very curious rise of self selected moral entrepreneurs who give
philanthropy without democracy now seem to be the dominant discourses of this
particular strand of democracy propagated by the proverbial monkey of good
governance called the “interim administration.”</blockquote>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Next: Ashwin Raj on the “(<a href="http://fijimediawars.blogspot.com/2014/05/ashwin-raj-on-impossibilities-of.html?m=0" target="_blank">Im)possibilities of Democracy</a>.”<br />
<br /></div>
Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-31904250282867404102014-04-05T00:07:00.002-07:002014-04-26T19:14:06.415-07:00MIDA takes on Facebook<div class="MsoNormal">
Apparently it’s not enough for the Media Industry
Development Authority to intimidate <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>’s
journalists into self-censorship and timidity. Now the new masters of MIDA want
to also rein in discussion on social media like Facebook. There’s only one
problem. As usual, they don’t seem to have the foggiest notion of what they’re
talking about.</div>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoI-gO5-DaH9u8fiLMQPM5U2pXkBHoJ7_h1EeZrR9fEEx6EnHp5H5ShRytxiU5LhxPQgkNIBbM5xIiLbSx0zFCEvZUA2uO43lRHWCefE7rYCT4Ma8q-riP-hsA3gnA6GG15o_f01gmkqjW/s1600/ash+matai.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhoI-gO5-DaH9u8fiLMQPM5U2pXkBHoJ7_h1EeZrR9fEEx6EnHp5H5ShRytxiU5LhxPQgkNIBbM5xIiLbSx0zFCEvZUA2uO43lRHWCefE7rYCT4Ma8q-riP-hsA3gnA6GG15o_f01gmkqjW/s1600/ash+matai.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small; text-align: start;">MIDA's Ashwin Raj (left) and Matai Akauola</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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MIDA Chair Ashwin Raj summoned the nation’s press to a “mandatory”
press conference the other day, the metaphorical equivalent of a misbehaving child
being summoned to the headmaster's office for a scolding. The nominal subject was “hate
speech,” of which Raj had found Fiji TV guilty (without the need for a hearing,
of course) for broadcasting rather mild comments by a chief in the prime
minister’s home province who pointed to ethnic divisions in Fiji society. As
ethnic divisions aren’t allowed to exist in Frank Bainimarma’s multiracial
paradise, the regime went off the deep end. Its media authoritarians were immediately tasked by the prime minister with bringing to heel not only Fiji TV, but the rest of <st1:country-region><st1:place>Fiji</st1:place></st1:country-region>’s
press corps as well, lest reporting of the upcoming election campaign get out of hand and actually include criticism of the dictator.</div>
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The omnipotent Raj dutifully complied with remarkable alacrity,
quickly finding Ratu Timoci Vesikula to have violated hate speech provisions of
both the <a href="http://www.fiji.gov.fj/getattachment/604e31fc-c7b1-41a0-9686-71377917b6eb/Decree-No-44---Crimes-Decree-2009-%28pdf%29.aspx" target="_blank">2009 Crimes Decree</a><b>
</b>and the recent regime-imposed constitution and referring the matter to <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>’s
Solicitor-General for disposition. He also found Fiji TV guilty of violating
the <a href="http://www.fiji.gov.fj/getattachment/5765b9b4-1b96-4f0d-afc1-3a80e0e2a316/Decree-No-29---Media-Industry-Development-Decree-2.aspx" target="_blank">2010 Media Decree</a> and ordered it to broadcast <a href="http://www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/pacific-media-watch/fiji-mida-orders-fiji-television-apologise-over-chiefs-racist-speech-8540%20" target="_blank">an apology and retraction</a>, as if the speech never happened.</div>
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As a result of this finding, Fiji TV’s licence can now be
summarily revoked by the government under the <a href="http://fijimediawars.blogspot.com/2012/07/and-so-we-have-new-decree.html" target="_blank">2012 TV decree</a>, with no possibility of appeal. Its licence inconveniently came up for
renewal two years ago at the same time that it <a href="http://fijimediawars.blogspot.com/2012/06/chill-goes-through-fijis-news-media.html" target="_blank">made the mistake</a> of airing
interviews with two former prime ministers who questioned the need for yet
another constitution. It has been renewed for only six months at a time ever since
in what has been described as less a licence than a <a href="http://www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/pacific-media-watch/fiji-self-censorship-claims-and-denials-fuel-media-debate-8103" target="_blank">“good behavior bond.”</a><b> </b>FijiTV, which trades on the South
Pacific Stock Exchange, promptly issued a statement to shareholders last week that <a href="https://announcements.spse.com.fj/ftp/news/021725395.PDF" target="_blank">promised to comply with MIDA’s order. </a><o:p></o:p></div>
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This set the scene for Thursday’s remarkable press
conference, an audio recording of which has been <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=T3I5Xn_PchE" target="_blank">uploaded to YouTube</a>. “I’m quite perturbed by the level of public discourse in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
as we head towards the national elections,” Raj began, reading from a five-page
letter to FijiTV which was also <a href="http://www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/sites/default/files/file_bin/201404/MIDA-Chair-statement-on-Hate-Speech.pdf" target="_blank">released to the press. </a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
What is even more disconcerting is the complicity of select
Fijian journalists and media either wittingly or those that remain oblivious to
the laws of <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
despite several awareness workshops on the Crimes Decree, the Media Industry Development Decree and the Constitution.</blockquote>
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Raj was just getting warmed up. In addition to finding the
chief’s statement unconstitutional and in contravention of the Crimes Decree, and FijiTV in breach of the Media Decree (all without the need for a hearing or apparently even
legal submissions), the non-lawyer and failed academic personally absolved himself
of muzzling the press.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
My decision this morning <b>cannot be misconstrued </b>(emphasis
in the original) as an impingement on the freedom of expression or dismissed as
yet another instance of gagging media freedom by MIDA as has been insinuated by
some who are posturing as the praetorian guard of human rights but sadly very
quiet over the issue of hate speech.</blockquote>
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He then ran through the possible punishments for Ratu
Timoci – imprisonment for 10 years – and FijiTV – a fine of up to $100,000 and
imprisonment of up to two years for its senior managers. Raj then announced
that he would take further legal advice on FijiTV’s punishment and ordered retraction as a preliminary measure. In reading his decision, Raj took the opportunity to put the entire
<st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region> news media
on notice and to impose further restrictions and threats of sanction on
them. MIDA will be “closely monitoring the tone of public discourse,” he said, through
its recently-established “independent” <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-03-26/fiji-media-monitor/5347638" target="_blank">media monitoring unit. </a><o:p></o:p></div>
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Not only that, Raj told the assembled media throng, but
henceforth he would require, “in the interests of transparency,” translations
to be provided of speeches given in Fijian and Hindi at political rallies. “It
is incumbent on the media in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
to ensure that there is no dissonance in the content of speeches and texts
presented in either the vernacular or English in their various modes of
delivery.” As further punishment, freelance journalists in Fiji will also now have to register with MIDA and provide "a full declaration of the organisations that they serve."</div>
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As he ran through his seven-point decision which imposed
sanctions not only on the offending parties but by now on all Fijian media,
Raj often deviated from his prepared text to further excoriate the assembled journalists. So
it was when he finally reached his seventh and last point, which was obviously one of some vexation for the regime. Not only had Fijian journalists been
derelict in their duty to report the news to the satisfaction of the regime, but they had been
guilty of *shock horror* discussing it among themselves.</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The conduct of a number of journalists on blogsites leaves
much to be desired. One just has to see their contribution on Friends of the
Fiji Media blogsite. I’m now asking all editors to address this issue as a
matter of urgency.</blockquote>
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Here is where he deviated from his text and proceeded to scold the nation’s press. “This is a question of
professionalism,” he told them. “This is a question of ethical journalism.”</div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Be very careful what you write on these blogsites, because
you’ve got an important responsibility. This is not to suffuse [sic.] the fact
that you have, you know, certain political proclivities. We all have
subjectivity. But that should not come in the way of your work.</blockquote>
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He then singled out, although not by name, two
members of the Facebook group Friends of Media Fiji, of which I am a member. “I’ve
seen a very senior person from DFAT [Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs
and Trade] who I’ve had several meetings with,” he said, obviously referring to public
affairs officer Dennis Rounds, “fully engaging in Friends of the Fiji Media.”
He then took a run at freelance journalist <a href="http://pacific.scoop.co.nz/tag/samisoni-pareti/" target="_blank">Samisoni Pareti. </a></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I know of an ABC correspondent who’s also with Islands
Business, writes all kinds of statements, I mean absolutely callous remarks,
you know, unsubstantiated. That’s not the way journalists should be conducting
themselves in this country.</blockquote>
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Raj insisted that he was not embarking on a “vendetta
against select media outlets” and claimed he was independent. “People are
saying that I’m a lackey of the regime,” he noted. “I’ve got no dog in the
fight, except for the fact that I've got to judiciously undertake this
responsibility.” But his message to
journalists was clear. “Don’t resort to blogsites where you just trash people,
because that is not a sign of democracy,” he told them. “That is not a sign of
freedom of expression.”</div>
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That MIDA is unfamiliar with social media is painfully
obvious from its conflating of blogs with the social network Facebook, where the group
Friends of Fiji Media conducts its online discussions. Blogs have bedeviled the regime for years, ever since it imposed martial law
in 2009 and censored the press. Free online blogging sites such as
Blogger and Wordpress, which had recently become popular, allowed users to set
up sites on which to post their online ramblings. The result was the <a href="http://www.pmc.aut.ac.nz/research/political-blogs-fiji-cybernet-democracy-case-study" target="_blank">Fiji Freedom Blogs,</a><b> </b>which served as a kind of underground press in reaction to the regime’s
clampdown on the mainstream media. The survivors, which are still active five years
later, can be found listed on this blog, which I started in mid-2012 to chronicle
some of Fiji’s media craziness. That misdeed got me <a href="http://fijimediawars.blogspot.com/2012/12/i-have-been-hounded-out-of-fiji.html" target="_blank">run out of the country</a><b>
</b>by the regime’s propaganda machinery more than a year ago. The junta has been
unsuccessful in rooting out other Fiji Freedom Bloggers because most of them
are already located safely offshore and aren’t so foolish as to put their name and
picture on their blog, although the identities of several are well known.</div>
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Social media such as Facebook and Twitter, on the other
hand, are networks and groups of friends who select each other. As a result, their discussions are not available for anyone to read, as blogs are, but only to selected "friends." These groups are self-policing on
multiple levels. At the group level, administrators can delete posts deemed to
be abusive and banish group members who are malicious. This has recently
happened in the Friends of Fiji Media group, whose administrators have
become increasingly concerned with the problem of vitriol hurled between group
members. <st1:country-region>New Zealand</st1:country-region>
journalist Michael Field and myself, being foreigners, are lightning rods for
abuse from regime cheerleaders who have infiltrated the group. The group has also
recently been faced with the problem of rooting out fake members who have obviously (to me, at least) been set up by one particular regime cheerleader for the purpose of
attacking myself and other regime critics. Without revealing the content of
our discussions, which are supposed to be confidential, group members have
recently been mulling its very existence in light of the fact that the regime
has obviously been monitoring it. Apparently not all group members abide by the
ethic of confidentiality, because the regime seems to be privy to our every
word.</div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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But MIDA’s complaint about abuse – “absolutely
callous remarks” in Raj’s words – could be resolved easily enough by simply
complaining to Facebook, which is quite willing to delete abusive posts or
pages. It did so when I complained about <a href="http://marcedge.com/MEW.pdf" target="_blank">this page</a> set up by my bête noire regime
cheerleader. It also deleted an illustration by a regime critic after a <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
Sun reporter complained that it <a href="http://marcedge.com/jyoti.jpg" target="_blank">used her picture without permission.</a><b>
</b>Of
course, that doesn’t prevent the Sun from reprinting Facebook discussions if that serves its purpose of discrediting
regime critics. It did so with <a href="http://www.fijisun.com.fj/2014/03/29/you-be-the-judge/" target="_blank">a recent exchange</a> between political hopeful Roshika Deo and regime hitman Graham Davis, without
Deo’s consent. She promises that a complaint to MIDA will be forthcoming as a result. (How do you like her chances?) Grubby recently quit the blogging business
and went underground as a Facebook troll after I outed him as a regime
propagandist. He <a href="http://fijimediawars.blogspot.com/2013/08/grubby-takes-to-facebook.html" target="_blank">actually inhabited</a><b> </b>the Friends of Fiji Media group briefly last year after <a href="http://www.fijisun.com.fj/2013/08/05/coconut-wireless-164/" target="_blank">the Sun complained</a><b> </b>that we were talking about him behind his back. He tried to give me the
business there, but I gave it back to him in spades and he <a href="http://fijimediawars.blogspot.com/2013/08/grubby-goes-down-and-withdraws.html" target="_blank">thought the better of continuing.</a> It seems that MIDA has other proxies there, although I have been trying to shine a spotlight on them, too.</div>
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Social media, especially Facebook, promises to be a key
battleground in the upcoming election campaign (it hasn’t started yet, has
it?), as Radio New <st1:place>Zealand</st1:place> <a href="http://www.radionz.co.nz/international/programmes/datelinepacific/audio/2590200/social-media-becomes-fiji-election-battleground%20" target="_blank">recently pointed out. </a>You would think that the regime would have the upper hand there, as social
media smear campaigns are a specialty of its Washington-based spin doctors, <a href="http://fijimediawars.blogspot.com/2012/11/whowhat-is-qorvis-communications.html" target="_blank">Qorvis Communications. </a>You’d also think that the $1 million a year Fijian taxpayers pay Qorvis would entitle
MIDA’s masters to some tutoring on the subject of social media. It is badly
needed.</div>
Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-67374614870690669642014-03-13T17:05:00.003-07:002014-03-13T17:08:53.650-07:00Grubsheet website not available<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgcy4fiho2gQGZor5DCKkWb4Lenho0BK-AZxVV9vx2xy7ByLamVodmVtQpFDqWMHKKDzGzOoaFT1J0Yv3yhJazRfhrjLs1788acOWwm8as1WxQ1enz7Ds8lLgSdTk-UPXIrkNeG4G66K28/s1600/Grubby+burns.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgcy4fiho2gQGZor5DCKkWb4Lenho0BK-AZxVV9vx2xy7ByLamVodmVtQpFDqWMHKKDzGzOoaFT1J0Yv3yhJazRfhrjLs1788acOWwm8as1WxQ1enz7Ds8lLgSdTk-UPXIrkNeG4G66K28/s1600/Grubby+burns.png" height="300" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Hilarity courtesy of <a href="http://www.truthforfiji.com/grubsheet-website-not-available---has-davis-finally-realised-he-is-supporting-demons.html" target="_blank">Truth for Fiji</a></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5158558206238658033.post-41901432059894036602014-01-24T22:28:00.002-08:002014-01-24T22:34:42.814-08:00Singapore-style press control? Not in FijiMy article comparing press control systems in Fiji and Singapore has now been <a href="http://gaz.sagepub.com/content/early/2014/01/20/1748048513516903.abstract" target="_blank">published online</a> by Sage and will be forthcoming in the April issue of the A-ranked journal <i>International Communication Gazette</i>, which is published out of the Netherlands. It is a revised version of <a href="http://www.marcedge.com/Censorship.pdf" target="_blank">a paper I presented</a> at the 2011 Fiji Literary Festival. Here's the abstract:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Constraints imposed on the press in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
under the 2010 Media Decree have been compared with the system of press control
in <st1:country-region>Singapore</st1:country-region>.
The two systems are, however, quite different. The type of hegemonic control
that has been achieved in <st1:country-region>Singapore</st1:country-region>
is unlikely to be replicated in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>.
The press in <st1:country-region>Singapore</st1:country-region>
was brought to heel over a period of decades through regulation, including
licensing, and legal intimidation in a sophisticated system that utilizes
corporate control to ensure that journalists exercise self-censorship. A
military dictatorship in place in <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
since 2006 instead criminalized journalism ethics in the Media Decree and has
engaged in repression and censorship of journalists. <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>’s
press system, and the regime’s attempts to control it, were the subject of
intense scrutiny in advance of elections planned for September 2014.</blockquote>
The thrust of the article is that those who liken the crude system of press control introduced by the 2010 Fiji Media Decree to the subtle and insidious system in Singapore are greatly mistaken. The government in Singapore has developed and continually tightened its grip on that country's press over the past 40 years or so. Newspaper companies are required by the 1974 Newspaper and Printing Presses Act to trade shares on the stock exchange. A number of management shares are required to be held by the government, which as a result is entitled to appoint directors to the company's board. The resulting top-down control has brought self-censorship which has been called '<a href="https://www.academia.edu/225107/Self-Censorship_Singapores_Shame" target="_blank">Singapore's shame</a>'. The foreign press has been brought to heel by a series of economic disincentives to criticise the Singapore regime, including huge damage awards for libel awarded by a captive judiciary and the banning or limiting of circulation for offending publications.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHq9DtE1WGxWpxRf4qroKrnRcJz4MKSXnms6bODBg0_3tTATj41o4oMc4bqzmtieeHWVodPZ8B4hIHPYFJMK01oQMK9tE9h-wACHIzmGbR-FmkUg7D9J50GfhS6EnSA55NosafI6yoMsiH/s1600/1.cover.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHq9DtE1WGxWpxRf4qroKrnRcJz4MKSXnms6bODBg0_3tTATj41o4oMc4bqzmtieeHWVodPZ8B4hIHPYFJMK01oQMK9tE9h-wACHIzmGbR-FmkUg7D9J50GfhS6EnSA55NosafI6yoMsiH/s1600/1.cover.gif" /></a></div>
Fiji, on the other hand, has simply criminalised the former code of ethics of the defunct Media Council, threatening fines and even jail sentences in the Media Decree for what were once ethical violations. Foreign journalists who dare to report critically on the regime, such as Michael Field and Sean Dorney, are simply banned from the country, which of course doesn't prevent them from reporting critically. Censorship imposed under the Public Emergency Regulation has conditioned journalists to refrain from criticising the regime, and media outlets that do dare to question dictator Frank Bainimarama are dealt with harshly. Recent examples of that include the Fiji Times being hit with a $300,000 fine for reprinting a soccer story from New Zealand that included a comment from a FIFA official questioning the independence of Fiji's judiciary, and Fiji TV being put on a series of six-month broadcasting licences (as opposed to the usually 12-years) under the TV Decree, which was imposed shortly after it aired interviews with two former prime ministers who questioned the need for a new constitution.<br />
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So how did the misconception arise that <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>'s
Media Decree was patterned after <st1:country-region>Singapore</st1:country-region>'s
repressive press model? It likely began with the controversial 2008 <a href="http://www.fijitimes.com/media-report.aspx" target="_blank">Anthony
Report</a>, which urged that 'wise restraints . . . be culled from the <st1:country-region>Singapore</st1:country-region> legislation
on the establishment of a Media Development Authority.' The dictator then <a href="http://www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=88344" target="_blank">called on the media</a> to be more like the <st1:country-region>Singapore</st1:country-region> media,
'not pro this Government or any government but pro-Fiji nation.' Many thus assumed
that the resulting Media Decree was patterned after <st1:country-region>Singapore</st1:country-region>'s
system, and the myth was perpetuated by a <a href="http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/international/radio/onairhighlights/fijis-singaporestyle-media-model-worrying" target="_blank">Radio Australia interview</a>. A
comparison of the Media Decree with <st1:country-region>Singapore</st1:country-region>
legislation published in the <i>Pacific Journalism Review</i> concluded that
'many of the sections were copied word-for-word' from <st1:country-region>Singapore</st1:country-region>'s 2003
Media Development Act. <a href="http://www.pjreview.info/articles/fiji-media-decree-push-towards-collaborative-journalism-544" target="_blank">The comparison</a>, which was authored by a prominent <st1:country-region>Fiji</st1:country-region>
public relations executive while he was a graduate student at <st1:place><st1:placename>Bond</st1:placename>
<st1:placename>University</st1:placename></st1:place> in <st1:country-region>Australia</st1:country-region>,
was correct as far as it went. It failed to apprehend, however, that <st1:country-region>Singapore</st1:country-region>'s Media
Development Act regulated only broadcasting and online media. Newspapers were
regulated by the Newspaper and Printing Presses Act. How did that gaffe slip through the peer-review process? No wonder PJR is a B-ranked journal.<br />
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Marc Edgehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00510625002771364258noreply@blogger.com0