Dictatorship Crumbling,: NZ Herald Editorial

 MY EDITORIAL ON THE NZ HERALD EDITORIAL

Freedom of the Press — You’re Joking!
 
I received an email from Claire Trevett, the deputy political editor of New Zealand's largest circulation newspaper, last Monday. “I read your very good analysis on the Ratu Tevita situation and I was hoping to speak to you at some point today to get some comments on the developing situation,” she wrote. We spoke for a while that afternoon and last Wednesday the NZ Herald published her story NZ may yet admit Fijian fugitive.
It reported two comments contrary to those typically published by the NZ media recently. Fiji Solicitor-General, Chistopher Pryde Pryde was cited as rejecting claims that LtCol Mara would not get a fair trial in Fiji, saying there was no interference by Government in the courts' decisions. And I was cited as saying the situation was embarrassing for the commodore but I believed Ratu Tevita's actions were “ personal and the issue would subside quickly. We all know Fiji is divided,” I said, “but I don't really think Ratu Tevita can split the military from Bainimarama." 
 
At long last, I thought, a factual article with opinions from people of differing views, leaving readers to form their own conclusions. My faith in the NZ media went up a notch, but it was not to last. 
 

Cartoons reinforce the written and verbal bias.

On Saturday, the NZ Herald Editorial announced ”Dictatorship's Hold on Fiji is Crumbling. ”  I have no idea who actually wrote the editorial. The Herald does not use bylines and has several editors. The most surprising thing about the editorial is not that it swallowed and echoes Ratu Tevita's story but that it provided not one shred of evidence to support the claim in its heading. 
 
We learn that “sooner or later Fijians will wake up; that ”dictatorships fall when basic human resentment … can no longer be repressed (and) Fijians have much to resent.” 
 
We are told that Ratu Tevita's flight “shows that resentments now boil within the regime,'” and, to take the words from the horse's mouth, that Fiji is a "hateful dictatorship;" the PM is “ill, morally and intellectually bankrupt, and acting as a "hand puppet" of Fiji's civilian Attorney-General, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum,” and that Ratu Tevita's YouTube video “also targeted those still serving in the armed forces.” 
 
We are told Ratu Tevita was arrested before fleeing, and the arrests were “not reported in the censored Fijian media.” In fact, the State Prosecutor asked for his arrest after he appeared in court on a charge of sedition because he thought he (and the other accused BrigGen Pita Driti) were flight risks. But the judge (who, we have been told, is not independent of government influence) disregarded the prosecutor's request and granted them both bail. 
 
We are told that Bainimarama thought himself betrayed because Ratu Tevita and Pita Driti “had given advice to their commander on how to soften the regime's approach to public dissent.” This is Ratu Tevita's uncorroborated story, and the sedition charge was quite unrelated to this “advice,” if indeed it ever took place. 
 
We are told “the advice he gave Commodore Bainimarama ... led to his being charged and now his public stand from Nuku'alofa exhibit great courage deserving of national and international support.” 
 
We are told that “Fiji has predictably dragged out allegations that the formerly trusted colonel is being investigated over missing funds from Fiji Pine.” When, in fact, the allegations were around well before he fled. They had even been mentioned on the anti-government blogs. 
 
And, finally, we are told “ a leading Fijian Establishment military man is calling things as they are” which leaves me wondering if the NZ Herald invited Ratu Tevita to ghost write the editorial.  As for the heading, the “Dictatorship's Hold on Fiji is Crumbling,” even one small shred of evidence would have given the story some credibility.  
 
This is the is the state of my country’s reporting on Fiji.