UPDATE: Fiji access to most if not all blogspot and wordpress sites has now been restored. According to Alterego (see comments, below) who rang Kidanet (one of Fiji's ISPs) the sites were blocked following "a directive from Government.
One commentator thought me wrong to implicate Government unless I had proof (I tried, but proof and indeed much more essential information is almost impossible to obtain thanks to PER and other communication restrictions. The benefits of lifting PER far exceed the disadvantages.)
Other commentators though my post unhelpful in Fiji's present situation (I think it especially helpful at this time precisely because of the situation); that Coupfourpointfive is not a moderate blog (it's anti-government, but relative to many others, I think it moderate), and that I should remove my links to anti-Government blogs. (If I did this, I would be as intolerant as they are. It is not enough to "know your enemy,"you must also talk with them.)
Lest there be any doubt, I support what Government says it is trying to do, and I will continue to expose faulty reporting, unbalanced, negative comments, and unhelpful foreign policies on Fiji. But I will also comment on those Government actions I think run counter to its own, and Fiji's, best interests. To not comment would be to do Government a disservice!
Fiji users of blogspot addresses apparently cannot access these blog sites. The same may be true of wordpress. Although it is too early to determine the cause, it seems likely the Fiji Interim Government is blocking access. If so, this is a truly deplorable development: something like cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Thanks to Coupfourpointfive and Intelligentsiya the solution may be to enter this address into your browser and once this site is accessed, cut and paste the URL you want. For example, www.crosbiew.blogspot.com.
16 comments:
Croz, some evidence might be preferable to an alarmist headline based on supposition that can only raise the level of anti-government hysteria.
"Apparently", "may be, "seems likely, "if so" isn't definitive proof so why run with it?
The blog sites you mention aren't exactly paragons of virtue or custodians of absolute truth.
Coup 4.5 still can't come up with evidence to support its claims that Brij Lal was physically assaulted.
This despite no mention of the alleged assault by Brij himself nor in the latest report on the incident this afternoon from Amnesty in NZ.
Coup 4.5 and Intelligentsiya not only have a history of alarmist misinformation but of refusing to run comments they don't agree with. So for them to scream censorship reeks of hypocrisy.
I'll wait for confirmation of Big Brother Frankie actually blocking access to these sites before I join the Gadarene swine in condemning the man they routinely refer to as "the pig".
But, yes, if it is true, it won't be his most glorious moment.
Croz, pls remove the anti govt links on your page. We really dont need these at a time like this.
Hi Croz, may I also bring to your attention that coup 4.5 is not a moderate blog. It is full of lies and deception
Funny that anti-government blogs are jumping up and down when their sites are all of a sudden not accessible to bloggists in Fiji. There is a simple solution for all these not to happen. Just print factual and truthful information and don't disinform the public. Your blogs won't get blocked if you do the right thing. Enough bullcrap.
I can see, therefore you be.
Yes... accessing from Fiji.
"Never allow anyone to lie to you twice".
So why give these lying, deceptive and deceitful blogs oxygen? What purpose do they serve?
We are unable to access Peter Ridgeway's comments concerning the Chief Justice. No matter. What we must ask is this:
To what end did Peter Ridgeway leave Fiji? To what useful end? Why was he compelled to leave when the Office of the DPP was failing the entire country and its interests? That is a much more compelling question and we should ask Australia and New Zealand how it was that the best interests of justice were NEVER served in Fiji. Dozens of unprosecuted files were left 'in abeyance', uncharged persons were allowed to go free. What manner of justice was this? What temerity to tell us in Fiji that we have no business insisting upon an independent and impartial and EFFECTIVE judicial system! A system which serves our ends and not those of the rabble or of outside entities no matter where they may sit. Democracy demands a judicial system which works and officers of the court who labour without fear or favour to that sole end and to no one else's interests.
Who dares to state the contrary? Will Professor Brij Lal or Peter Ridgeway come forward? Please do and state your case.
Still NO answer from the learned and ineffective people who chose to remain silent and unversed in the vagaries of Fiji's past judicial system under former Chief Justices? This silence speaks volumes. This silence speaks of the 'Torrents of Spring'.
"The whole of that story is true" said Ivan Turgenev of The Torrents of Spring. "I have lived it and felt it personally. It is my own history".
"Years of gladness, Days of glee, Like Torrents of Spring, They flee, they flee"
(From an old Russian folk-song)
Kidanet (a Fiji ISP) initially started by blocking all blogspot.com and wordpress.com addresses.
Connect and Unwired were less draconian.
I called Kidanet to ask about the issue and was told "it was a directive from government", and that the same directive had been given to all ISPs.
Thankfully, they seem to be fine tuning their censorship methods and most blogs at Wordpress and Blogger are now available again.
Whether this sort of censorship continues or not, the government has shown its true colours.
This is absolutely, positively UNTRUE!!!! Accessing you FROM Fiji...
The Fiji Times has already lost so much credibility that I don't know why I'm bothering to highlight this. But it explains much of why the regime is so unhappy with the paper and its coverage.
Notice the headline? "Bainimarama no show at dawn service", Well, Bainimarama left Fiji last night to begin his two week trip to Europe.
The Fiji Times is a joke.
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Oz, NZ, Bainimarama, no show at dawn service
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
+ Enlarge this image
The police band escorts ex-servicemen and representatives of veterans through Suva's Scott Street on their way to Sukuna Park. Picture: JONACANI LALAKOBAU
Update: 10:12AM REPRESENTATIVES of Australia and New Zealand joined army commander Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama in the list of those who did not attend this morning's 5am service for Remembrance Day.
However, representatives of Britain and the United States attended, alongside ex-servicemen, the head of the Fiji navy Frances Kean, Colonel Mohammed Aziz representing the President's Office, and several other high-ranking military officers.
In the capital city, Remembrance Day began with a dawn service at 5am at the military cemetery followed by an ex-servicemen's march through Suva's business district - from the flea market to Sukuna Park at 9am.
The Remembrance March through Suva was led by the police jazz band escorting veterans of the Malayan and World War II campaigns and former soldiers, followed by current members of the Fiji navy, military forces and police.
Celebrations are occurring in three major centres this year - Suva, Lautoka, and for the first time in Labasa.
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I wish one might say that the Fiji Times "is a joke". It is so much less and more: it is pernicious. This newspaper, its publisher and its editor have managed to undermine and to distort development in a small, proud island nation by continually distorting the truth. The reporting or lack of full reporting on the Remembrance Day Parade would be just one example. The Fiji TImes should take note of the position taken by one European Nation with regard to Fiji: Portugal.Portugal - a member of the European Union - has called for Fiji to be permitted to "determine its own destiny and should not be dictated to by outside influence. The Big Stick stance will not help Fiji", said Portuguese Ambassador, Pedro Catarino. "Portugal does not agree with those countries that are demonising Fiji. It will not in any way support any move that will be detrimental to the progress that has been made thus far ty the Fiji Government in returning Fiji to parliamentary democracy".
This was reported by the FijiSUN yesterday on page 16 under the headline: "LEAVE FIJI ALONE, SAYS PORTUGAL".
And what is Portugal? The United Kingdom's oldest ally: seven hundred year ally. A member state of the EU and the home of Jorge Maria Barroso. Portugal lived for many years under a military dictatorship and was painfully impoverished prior to its accession to the EU. One of the poorest nations in Europe. It is now in the middle rank of income.
So what has the Fiji Times to say about Portugal's support for the Fiji Government's reforms which have been overdue and essential to any long-term development? Only those steeped in folly and ignorant of world history would remain silent on this significant statement and fail to see the positioning it indicates. Fiji will move forward, it will reform and it will discard its painful past. Only the Fiji Times foolishly neglects to comment. An urgent history lesson is merited.
On the subject of the Fiji Times, here's a comment posted last week on David Robie's Cafe Pacific:
Explains a lot about why the Fiji Times engages in selective and non reporting.
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You're spot on about the shortcomings of the Fiji media and especially that dreadful Murdoch rag, the Fiji Times.
The FT has been the country's newspaper of record since 1869 yet has chosen to ignore most of the critical political developments in recent months.
For most discerning readers of the paper, its current policy reeks of pique. Highly profitable yet chronically underfunded, the truth is the FT is the main reason why the Fiji media hasn't progressed much beyond undergraduate standard period.
Locals are left shaking their heads that Rupert Murdoch can bestow any award on a paper that nowadays carries column inches of non-news and continually ignores significant national events. In any other market, he'd be laughed out of town.
You now have to buy the FT's rival, the Fiji Sun, to know what's really going on in Fiji, the ultimate indictment of the paper and the two idiots who run it.
Editor Netani Rika fancies himself as some kind of South Seas Donald Woods, waging war against the oppressor and running a highly personal crusade against the regime.
Rather than do the sensible thing and rein him in, Rika is backed to the hilt by the unfortunate Ann Fussell, the woman News Limited installed as publisher after the expulsions of Rex Gardner and Evan Hannah.
Instead of examining how a series of journalistic howlers eroded the FT's reputation and incurred the regime's ire, Rika and Fussell choose instead to wear the mantle of the persecuted.
Fortunately, their readers happen to be much smarter and know that the Fiji Times has brought much of the regime's wrath upon itself.
For 18 months after his 2006 coup, Frank Bainimarama allowed the FT the latitude to get its house in order. It didn't and his patience snapped.
That's called bad management at the paper, not journalistic courage, and the proof of that is when stories are uniformly substandard or just plain wrong.
Now the FT wallows in irrelevance while the preening Rika travels the region collecting accolades for his "courage". It's time to blow the final whistle on the lot of them.
November 3, 2009 4:56 AM
Croz, for all your defence of Coup 4.5, the truth is they censor comment they don't agree with.
They allow some pro-regime material through to give them a veneer of intellectual respectability. But anything that questions their own articles is routinely "spiked".
So for you to say you maintain the link because you don't want to censor others is unnecessarily charitable, even naive.
Those who practice censorship themselves do not deserve to have good men stand up for their right to speak.
The Fiji Times and the Fiji Sun have both made clear their respective positions on the present government. Bloggers on the respective pro- and anti- government websites continue to make unfounded claims that the majority of the population is for, or against, the government.
Newspaper circulation results used to be regularly published, however for some reason this practice seems to have been discontinued.
It would be interesting to see the current circulation figures for the two major dailies and, almost as importantly, the sales trend over the past few months to give an idea of whether the ‘pro’ or ‘anti’ faction could be considered correct.
The picture that such a survey would provide might well be more accurate now than it would have been in earlier years since, given the lack of disposable income, it’s reasonable to assume that only a relative minority would make a habit of purchasing both dailies to get a balanced view.
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