SCROLL DOWN TO OTHER WEEKEND READING.
ADB (and RADIO NZI) ON THE FIJI ECONOMY. Once upon a time RadioNZI made some attempt to report news of Fiji objectively but for some time now it has only been publishing negative news, or news that can be construed negatively. If you don't believe me, check out their website for their reports on Fiji and compare with those on other Pacific Island countries.
Their latest is a report from the Asia Development Bank that the economy "is trapped on a low growth path despite an overall economic benefit to the Pacific region from a gradual global recovery and firm finances in Australia."
Highlighted are low private investment caused by government actions (localisation of the news media, price controls and the Fiji Water saga — all of which were reported on negatively by the overseas media and so were at least partly caused by them!) and the fact that Fiji is spending more than it earns. So is New Zealand. To reinforce the negatives, they cite an ADB officer in Suva, Emma Veve, who says the bank is not approving grants or loans for new activities to Fiji for the time being. My understanding is that Government has not asked for any — for the time being.
Ms Veve also referred to the need for structural reform, issues in the sugar industry, the need to right size government, civil service issues, and state-owned enterprise reform.
What she did not say — and what RNZI obviously did not enquire further about — is that all of these issues, raised months and years back by the ADB and the IMF, are currently being addressed by Government. RNZI journalists only need to read this blog to learn about progress on most of them.
RADIO NZI COULD HAVE REPORTED THIS...
Construction has started on phase two, a multi-million dollar first ever water theme park and a mega mall. The 60-acre development will consist of a 10-acre theme water park featuring wave pool, a variety of water slides and chutes and a lazy river, a 200 plus store mega shopping mall consisting of its own cinema complex, medical centre and shopping/warehouse outlets, and. a 200-unit four-star hotel complex. It is hoped all three phases of the development will be completed next year. -- Based on 2010, No:2173.
-- OR THIS.
FIJI BOLLYWOOD. Several Indian film companies are scouting for locations in Fiji, where significant tax breaks are on offer. They say the incentives and government invitations have been a major drawcard for film producers and directors.Making films in the country will create jobs and have a positive impact on the economy.
The question in this year's Global Corruption Barometer asked how you would assess your current government’s actions in the fight against corruption? Interestingly 3% were undecided, 9% said it was ineffective and "a surprisingly 88% said it was very effective. That is the Fiji ratings that have come in this report.” The 2010 Barometer probes the frequency of bribery, reasons for paying a bribe, and attitudes towards reporting incidents of corruption.
INSTEAD ...
WE HAVE MORE RADIONZI BIAS. "Fiji's interim prime minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, has hinted at a delay in drafting a new constitution. Last year, the interim regime abolished the 1997 constitution and said work on a new one would begin in 2012 and be finished in 2013. According to the Fiji Times, Commodore Bainimarama now says it should be in place come 2013 or 2014, when the interim regime has promised it will relinquish power to an elected government. He says developments are also focused on sectors such as health, education and water supply. He says those, and the People's Charter, are what the government wants implemented by 2013 or 2014."-- Radio New Zealand International, 16 December, 2010 UTC. The item blurs the distinction between when dialogue will start (2012) and when Constitutional (and Electoral reforms) will be complete. The institutional and infrastructural reforms that Bainimarama says he wants "implemented by 2013 or 2014" have started already, they are ongoing, and they are independent of the constitutional and electoral reforms.
The firm date for the Electoral reforms has always been at least 12 months before the elections in September 2014. It is expected both sets of reforms will take place in tandem but the priority is the Electoral reforms so that new political parties have time to form and organize in preparation for elections with new rules and electorates.
The suggestion that Bainimarama was hinting at delays (and the inference that he should not be believed, and that even the elections may be delayed) is pretty typical of the standard of their reporting.
I'd welcome a counter-claim, backed by evidence, from Radio NZI, if they have the moral fortitude.
8 comments:
And add this story below to the Radio NZI bias list. Oprah's Fiji visit to Fiji hit the NZ mainstream media headlines but just showed how selective and flaky the NZ mainstream media is.
Solicitor-General returns with good tidings: http://www.fijisun.com.fj/main_page/view.asp?id=50340
Positive response will soon flow into the country to help the improvement of the law sector.
This follows the successful meeting in New Zealand by the Solicitor-General Christopher Pryde with New Zealand Law Society president Jonathan Temm.
Mr Temm was not able to attend the Attorney-General's Conference in Denarau, but is keen to visit Fiji.
Mr Pryde said their meeting was positive.
"We discussed various issues concerning the legal profession in Fiji. Mr Temm has agreed to look at assisting the Fiji legal profession in providing continuing legal education courses in the New Year." Justice Pryde said.
Mr Pryde had earlier extended an invitation to Mr Temm to attend the 12th Annual Attorney-General's Conference in Denarau but Mr Temm was unable to attend due to work commitments.
The Attorney-General's conference was attended by 360 people.
What moral fortitude can be expected from a media organisation that has degenerated as a lapdog when it should have been a watchdog? RNZ is the lapdog of NZ Governments, and especially its Foreign Affairs Ministry and sings from the same hymn sheet as that of the Government. At least I expected that with some University-trained journalists from the Pacific, at least the national broadcaster would be more responsible and balanced in its reporting. While dwelling on views of doomsday armchair critics, RNZ chooses to ignore those for comments and response who refuse to sing from RNZ song sheet. There are those in NZ who know Fiji a lot better than those chosen by RNZ for response.
The credibility of journalistic standards at RNZ has been challenged by Croz and hope for the sake of credibility of its news worthiness, RNZ Management will pay some heed to those who know Fiji better than them. Dwelling on negatives and posting destructive stories does not do the region any good.
RNZ need to pay heed to detailed criticism on its negative coverage on Fiji.
Croz, never mind Radio New Zealand. I hope you've had a chance to examine the latest Wikileaks material published by the NZ Herald that details the NZ take on the talks in Wellington 2006 between Frank Bainimarama and Laisenia Qarase. What a joke! NZ is utterly out of its depth in dealing with Fiji. I read the account of these discussions with utter amazement. There doesn't seem to have been any sophisticated insider knowledge whatsoever. If it wasn't so serious, it would be laughable. Read it yourself and wonder in abject incredulity how a country with the pretensions yours has could be such a babe in the woods about its next door neighbour. I get better intelligence at Traps on a Saturday night! NZ. Land of the slow, home of the timid. Pathetic. Franky played you guys for a break. So who's the kai Colo here? I'm sorry but I'm shaking my head in absolute disbelief!
Geez Croz, your pathetic whinning that you don't get to speak on the wireless when m field does all the time is getting tiresome. perhaps you should figure it out by now that on the radio you sound very pompous and unyielding... its not your politics that keep you off, its your inability to broadcast that does that. get some coaching, lighten a little, and i am sure you will make the panel someday
@ RNZ ... Some people commenting are readily recognized by their choice of words, especially then they misspell them.
Whinning. A word used by chemical engineers when referring to "quasi techs" during an impotent internet tirade.
"Is whinning about someone elses whinning considered.......ah......whinning?" Quote from 'actual' chemical engineer. (How did the fool get through university)
@ RNZ and Whinning:
a composite word? Semantically indeterminate? Or just plain confused? Why not just use a dictionary - if you have one! Too lazy or too sure of yourself - with little or no reason.
@ Tebbut Poll results on the Fight against Corruption in Fiji...
Interesting results but not particularly comforting. The too simple questions: Has corruption increased? Has corruption decreased? Are revelatory of....nothing much of use or interest to any of us who are serious about the issue.
The taxpayers of Fiji need to take corruption and the toll it has taken on all their lives and living standards much more seriously than this Tebbut Poll allows. It is killing jobs and incomes. It has divided families and forced people into exile.
3% on the TI Global Barometer still "UNDECIDED". For heaven's sake: what is wrong with them? We are saved by the 88% (too high to be credible?) who tell us that they believe "Government's actions against corruption are very effective". Well, one would like to join them but that result is premature and suggests that they were not considering their answers with care. The 9% who think that government's actions are "ineffective" might be deemed to know. They are possibly part of it for certain they speak of what they know. Is this too cynical? Until we see taxpayers attend the Fiji Courts, fronting up to see those who have almost stripped the cupboards bare and there is no determination to pay back what they stole, we may not sleep soundly at night: not one of us! Should hard labour be introduced for those serving time for corruption especially "Abuse of Office". One rather thinks so. Can we prepare a Robben Island for these vultures? There must be somewhere suitably remote and bracing?
@ Tebbut Poll and the restitution/reparation of public money "gone AWOL" in various Fiji institutional and individual scams....
In addition to the Fiji case and relevant to it, perhaps we should pay attention to the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court at The Hague who has commented upon a Wikileaks release concerning alleged stolen taxpayers' and other public monies in Sudan: US$9billion. The funds are alleged to be stashed in various bank accounts and the whereabouts "are known". Senor Ocampo seems to believe that they might, putatively, be accessed eventually and that internally displaced persons in Darfur, for example, might be compensated eventually for their suffering. This would raise significantly important issues for places which have also suffered terrorist acts against their citizens. Particularly, when these citizens were of one or another minority ethnic group and were dispossessed by raids on their small-holdings, farms and their livestock. Sound familiar? Watch the International Criminal Court and Senor Ocampo closely in 2011.
All those who planned and took part in acts of terror within Fiji in 2000 and who failed to be prosecuted or to turn themselves in, should think carefully about their immediate future. Does their liberty and freedom from prosecution sit well with their conscience? A former DPP might well consider the alleged failure of judgement applied with the prosecutions required. Consider 'The Wages of Terror' and where justice might set them? There is no statute of limitations for Crimes against Humanity. Why not ask Senor Luis Ocampo? or turn to Geoffrey Robertson QC, who won the Chandrika Prasad Appeal in March 2001 'pro bono publico'. There are many yet who wait to see the 'pro bono' efforts of Mr Robertson applied to their particular case. Ten years later.
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