Cogito, ergo sum. I think, therefore I am. (René Descartes, mathematician and philosopher,1599-1650)

Monday 16 January 2012

Censorship Gone or Easing

The following items have been reported in the Fiji media over the past few day. Check out the links to read the full stories. Most were unlikely to be reported under the Public Emergency Regulations.

QARASE SPEAKS UP. Fiji’s ousted Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase welcomes any positive decision made by the Bainimarama government (to lift the emergency regulations) but says things are still restrictive. Speaking to FijiLive Qarase said everything is still restrictive even after the lifting of the Public Emergency Regulations (PER).

FIJI LIVE POLL. Do you think the Methodist Church should be given a permit to hold their annual conference? Yes 49%, No 51%.

THE CITIZENS CONSTITUTIONAL FORUM 
has called for a review of the Public Order Act to encourage public participation without recrimination.

METHODISTS ON PERMIT REFUSAL. Fiji Life  reports: "For the first time in the history of the Methodist Church of Fiji a new president will be elected without the annual general meeting. This after the church was forced to breach its own constitution in order to appoint a new president following denials of a permit by government to hold the annual conference."

METHODISTS KEEN TO PARTICIPATE. The Methodist Church in Fiji and Rotuma is keen to be part of the national consultations for Fiji’s new Constitution. [This is good news.  They refused to participate in the People's Charter discussions and told their members to vote against the Charter.

COMMISSIONER of Police Brigadier General Ioane Naivalurua  has told his officers in the north to stand up to criticism and negative comments in the media or similar statements made by those living abroad. [Previously, the existence of criticism was rarely acknowledged.]

BUSINESS FORUM DISCUSSES BUDGET. The Fiji Sun  reports:"A large number of business affiliates are expected to gather for the 2012 Nadi Chamber of Commerce and Industry Business Forum, scheduled for the 28th of this month. The theme of the forum is Budget 2012 and the Private Sector." Discussion of Government's performance is unavoidable with such a topic.

FIJI'S MOST POPULAR PERSON
. I have not been following this story closely but from what I recall FijiTV and Vodafone launched a most popular person poll that closed one day early. At that time Premila Kumar of the Consumer Council was first, the PM was second, several people had voted more than once, and  thousands of text messages were still to be counted. There have been accusations of multiple army votes. I would class the poll a fun thing and not worry too much if I were the PM. The Australian PM  would be in ecstasy if she were ranked seventh, even in a scientific poll!  But the matter is to be  investigated by the Commerce Commission to see whether the poll was conducted in "a fair and transparent way." If not, FijiTV may be taken to court.

4 comments:

sara'ssista said...

Fiji most popular person... yes and this speaks volumes baout 800 texts being sent from government numbers to try to steal the result for their boss. A fair point has been raised, even if described as a 'fun thing', what sort of legnths will some people go to distort the poutcome of even this poll, what are they going to do in 2014 with the propsed elections to make sure their man gets in !!

Reality Check said...

Croz
The following (from the ABC) may help you as you stuggle for reality and some honesty of thought? Plenty more if needed in the international press over the last few days
"If Fiji is to return to democratic rule in 2014 as promised by the coup-installed military government, there was little indication of it in 2011. This year saw possibly the strongest and most wide-ranging crackdown on civil society ever seen in the coup prone nation. Many aspects of society were affected, including the media which is now completely censored. Bruce Hill looks at the year that was for one of our closest neighbours." Perhaps the money on Qorvis would be better spent on the increasing poor in Fiji?

Yeah right said...

Isn't the issue not who is the most popular person ( who cares really?) but the lengths to which Fiji TV went to deny that it was the PM? They can now say all the votes came from one phone but did their rules say that it was not allowed to make multiple votes from one phone? No they did n't. So why even let out that kind of information including the number of the voter on the blogsites? The issue is Fiji Tv's proven hostility to the government which in turn will reflect on it's fair reporting up to elections. I don't care who won. But I care that the media is so biased. I do not believe this was an honest mistake. If it was they wouldn't have released telephone numbers of the voters on the blogs!

sara'ssista said...

Well I care about the lengths some in this regime will go to to wina competition when you say it doesn't mean anything. You go then to attack the Fiji TV who is headed by the brother of the regime's AG?? Lets look at why some in this regime would go to such lengths for their boss to rig a meaningless competition if it was so 'meaningless'. How about Vanity?