Outrageous and criminal ... We have witnessed how one moment of madness will set this country back by decades. This illegal takeover must end. The democratically elected People's Coalition has to be restored.The Fiji Times never repeated that message and in fact later in the five weeks appeared to strongly sympathise with the rebels.
The newspapers quickly referred to "self-proclaimed head of state" George Speight when clearly there was only one legitimate President, Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara. Likewise, Ratu Timoci Silatolu was being called "interim prime minister". Just because the elected government was being held hostage, it did not mean that it was no longer the legal government.
The Fiji Times published the only profile about Speight's pyramid sales and insurance career - written by a News Ltd journalist. (A Murdoch News Corporation subsidiary owns The Fiji Times.) (Fiji Times, 2000b) There was no in-depth local profile written, something matching a mahogany-and-Speight piece in The Sydney Morning Herald by Marian Wilkinson which exposed how the coup leader stood to gain a financial "killing" from an American timber resource company - until the Chaudhry Government was swept to power and trashed the deal. By day seven, The Fiji Sun was already calling the rebels the "Taukei civilian government".
Criticism of the media was beginning to emerge. The fact is that some journalists had basked in the glow of coupmaster Speight - something that is hard to imagine in hostage situations in other countries. And this raises ethical questions about how "cosy" the media was with the terrorists. Said one foreign journalist: "They [rebels] feed us, give us a bathroom and look after us. I like them." But that was before the Fiji Television raid on May 28 after which many international journalists fled the country. -- Extract Fiji: Why the Media Were Also Speight's Hostages - David Robie. Click here for full paper. Photo of Speight during the hostage crisis, Cafe Pacific.
15 comments:
Well, well - at last we are getting to the core of problem. One had not previously read the David Robie analysis but he was right on the button. This is where the rot really set in. What did the Fiji Media Council do about it? It jumped right in there with them all. How could it not? It too was party to the ill-advised Duavata Initiative donations which most major media companies and organs had already signed up to. They were hoist on the petard of political corruption and by that one effort they joined a terrorist-inclined power base. Fellow travellers with terrorism. Not one of them chose to stand up and say 'that just will not do'. Not one of their reporters did so either. What does that say about them and of their duty to the integrity and survival of a nation, its investors, its citizens and its supreme law? The one they make so much fuss about now? They simply ignored all of this and threw in the spade for some 'fun'. But this was not 'innocent fun': this was the birth of impunity in the face of terror. Not unlike the IRA; not unlike the Red Brigades; not unlike all those who capitulate in and are complicit in the face of hostage-taking, riots, arson, "thuggish action and destructive ambition" ( US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Stormont two days ago).
The lasting test for integrity is.....consistency of position. Why would it not be? Test positions and then judge those who take them. A failure to pass this test is a loss of reputation and credibility unless an honest explanation is proferred about a change of stance ("When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, Sir?" - Maynard Keynes)
Who consistently in the Fiji Media over ten years or more stood up for 'right action' in the face of external and internal pressure? Name one, just one with the courage and tenacity to stand against terror and corruption. Difficult?
The Fiji Times needs to be closed down. Period.
Is the UN listening or reading this one must ask? In the middle of a saga concerning alleged corruption and subversion of the Afghanistan Election, my vote and my sympathy is with Peter Galbraith. Where was the 'Peter Galbraith' for Fiji in May 2006? How was it that the May 2006 elections in Fiji were allowed to be ennumerated and conducted in such a shambolic fashion? Did the UN/EU/Commonwealth Observers have the courage and the tenacity to query what was going on? No they did not. But neither did the Fiji Media. They chose "not to know". Like the familiar Three Monkeys, they 'Saw no Evil, heard no Evil and Spoke no Evil'. Yet evil was all around. What a wonder that was ..... and still is! Hats off to the Peter Galbraiths of this world. Someone should award him a medal.
The press began its campaign against democracy in Fiji the day the F.L.P. was elected, kept it up with the 'cult of Rabuka' whose full or half page portrait appeared somewhere at the front of every issue for the following year, went on to incite unrest promoting the ravings of Tora and following through with its support for Speight & other criminals.
But that's not all, after the attempted murder of Bainimarama during a mutiny the 'free press' took up the cause of the mutineers. The murderous C.R.Ws became the victims with barely a word for the 4 loyal soldiers who were killed in the line of duty. This appalling misrepresentation of news was still running off & on untill Dec 2006.
@ Tropicat
You are absolutely true on this. If only we can turn back the time and trace how the Fiji Times was going about their reporting back in 1999, the evidence of their collusion with others to destabilize the Fiji Labour Party government was so evident it doesn't require second thought to close them down for good. I tell you, if I were the leader of Fiji now, I do not have to have second thoughts or seek the opinion of others to close this foreign agent down.
What stance will the Fiji media take on a certain person who has been charged and bailed for corruption and intends, it would appear, to remain in a position remunerated from public money or donated public funding. This would be outrageous. We are no longer in that place, surely, where such contempt for proper conduct was a daily occurrence? Who will now find contemptuous disregard for due process and for behaviour consistent with best practices tolerable? The public waits and watches and expects that stepping aside is the right thing to do until a 'not guilty' of all charges is established. That is the ONLY right thing to do in the circumstances and you know that it is.
So now the media, and in particular the Fiji Times, are to blame for all the woes of the last 40 years?
I can see it the headlines now...'regime defends coup - the Fiji Times made us do it' or 'Regime defends coup - Al Queda helped train Fiji journos'........
Drive by media, using News Corp ala FOX news, definition of "fair and balanced'.
@ caromio
This is a ridiculous assumption and a logic move that cannot be made. It suggest moreover that you fail to understand the importance the press plays in helping to form 'a free and fair' society through simply doing its job in a balanced, informed and professional way. Without a multiplicity of media ownership as occurs in developed countries, the media in small nations must be supportive of nation-building and of inclusiveness. If it is not, then havoc will be wrought. A little transparency would go a very long way. Surely, that is not too much to expect. Failing this, 'caveat emptor'. Read the press on-line and see who survives.
@Anonymous
'Caveat Emptor'?
Well you said it,not me....let the market decide. If enough people decide they don't want a particular media outlet then its up to that outlet to respond.
And if a particular outlet is regularly being dragged before the Press Council or through the courts for inaccurate or false reporting then one would hope they would mend their ways.
How often has this happened to the Fiji Times?
No one is arguing against transparency or that the Murdoch press has a well known political agenda wherever it operates. If they are breaking any laws, they should be prosecuted.
Shooting the messenger doesn't work and the constant bagging and persecution of the media for being 'irresponsible' is a tired old metaphor for illegal corrupt regime scared of exposure.
You expect transparency from the media but not from your so called 'Interim Government'?
You really need to come up with something a bit more original Anonymouse - how about discussing the relationship between Lotus Garments and the military command?
@ caro(visa)mio
"Shooting the messenger doesn't work and the constant bagging and persecution of the media for being 'irresponsible' is a tired old metaphor for illegal corrupt regime scared of exposure."
This kind of statement is the tired old metaphor.
In the world today, the media is no longer the messenger for factual and unbiased reporting like I learnt in high school. The media today sing on their masters tune. Period. End of discussion.
Governments today end up being corrupted because they really do not rule anymore. Today, money rules. Whoever has the money has the power. Most of those money sit outside government control.
To underscore what I had just said above, take a very good look at the conduct of major news organizations in US, Britain, and their proxies in Australia and New Zealand during the lead up to Iraq and Afghan war.
There are plenty other examples where the media was directly and indirectly responsible in shaping public opinions for the shadowy motives of the ruling classes, rich elites, powerful individuals, etc.
@ caro(visa)mio
"There are plenty other examples where the media was directly and indirectly responsible in shaping public opinions for the shadowy motives of the ruling classes, rich elites, powerful individuals, etc."
Sorry should have read -
There are plenty other examples where the media was directly and indirectly responsible in shaping public opinions to benefit the shadowy motives of the ruling classes, rich elites, powerful individuals, etc.
@anonymous
I don't think anyone would argue about the conduct of many media outlets in the lead up to Iraq...though one could also argue that the leaders of the UK, Australia and the US were so determined to go ahead that they didn't need any prompting from the media to do what they did.
The present situation in Fiji has nothing to do with transparency in the Murdoch press - or any other media organisation - the regime doesn't like criticism, certainly doesn't want any public examination of its actions and is behaving like any other tin pot dictatorship in the way it treats the media.
You can wax lyrical as much as you like about things like 'Caveat Emptor' - and I'm still not sure how that applies to your argument but I'm sure you will find a way - but it is the thugs in the regime who need examination, not the media.
Soory the media needs major re examination. To say that the Times is ok because it was never dragged before the Media Council is nonsense. Who sits on the Media Council? with daryl Tarte there, and the old boys of the media world, the Council can not pretend impartiality. And no, the world leaders may have done the deed anyway, but the media failed to hold them accountable by telling the truth about what was one of the greatest con jobs in the world. It was called the weapons of mass destruction. The invasion of Iraq was a war crime. When did the media last tell that to the public? Where are the calls in the Murdoch press in Australia for Howard and Downer to get their comeuppance?
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