Abuse of media freedom in Australia and New Zealand - Michael Field's credibility questioned

Report by : Thakur Ranjit Singh

FIJI government has raised concern about the standard of reporting on Fiji in the New Zealand and Australian media, which have been accused of publishing wrong, incorrect, misleading and malicious news on Fiji.

 Speaking to the Fiji Sun newspaper yesterday (7 July), Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama called on the Australian Government not to interfere with the internal affairs of Fiji. This comes in the wake of a reported comment by an Australian Foreign Affairs official whose statements were published in the News Limited owned newspaper The Australian. News Limited also owns The Fiji Times, and has been given three months to sell 90 per cent of its shares in Fiji under its new media decree.

The report in The Australian quoted the official as saying “the people may have no choice but to stand up to him (Bainimarama) and his thugs.” Bainimarama branded this statement as inciting the people of Fiji to rise against his Government, and promoting further unrest.

 In the meantime, Fiji Broadcasting Corporation Limited (FBCL) reported that the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has filed a complaint to The Australian newspaper last Monday over that article anonymously quoting an Australian Foreign Affairs official.

 In the article titled “Perfect One Day, Brutal the Next” the unnamed Australian official allegedly said that the people of Fiji may be forced to take on “Bainimarama and his thugs.”

 Foreign media and their standard of reporting have also come under criticism from Fiji’s Attorney-General Aiyaz  Sayed-Khaiyum who branded the media reports as “deceit, lies, inaccurate and exaggerated which were designed to paint a false picture and harm the country

  He accused the foreign media of breaking basic rules of journalism to get back at the Fiji Government.

 "All these things are reported as if they have happened but they have not, in fact they are inaccurate, they are dishonest. It would now appear that we have a situation that the media in Australia and New Zealand have decided that they will wage a campaign against Fiji and that campaign is based on deceit and lies so even though they talk about freedom of expression, of getting the right information across, the fact is they are the first ones to break those principles and values,” he told Fiji Sun.

  Mr Sayed-Khaiyum picked one New Zealand reporter Michael Field and accused him of constantly writing misleading reports about the situation in Fiji.

 Speaking to Fiji Sun, he also questioned Mr Field's so-called expertise on the Pacific, saying he has been banned from a number of Pacific island countries including Tonga, Kiribati and Fiji.

 "I think Michael Field really needs to look at himself. He needs to perhaps go into some form of therapy to get over this bogey that he is trying to create. Michael Field, let me remind you, is a journalist who was also removed from other Pacific island countries. This is because he feels he has some kind of licence to go ahead and print and say whatever he likes about the Pacific and even though facts may come in the way, he is going to ignore them, yet, he is being portrayed as some expert on the Pacific," he told Fiji Sun.

 Picking on another case of “disinformation”, Croz Walsh, a former USP academic and publisher of website “Fiji, the way it was, is and can be” has been critical of Field’s stories, this time in the Dominion Post (“Kiwi pair can leave Fiji with just 2 bags”,  7 July, 2010 ) where Field alleges that Hamilton couple, Heather and Jim Sherlock had been made prisoners in their own resort in Fiji and were being forced out this week with one piece of baggage each.

 Military reservists working for a private security company have occupied Lagoon Resort, owned by Sherlock, since May. Field quoted Sherlock’s   sister, Noeleen Bernhard, as saying that her brother and his wife had been told to go this week, leaving behind three container loads of their personal possessions. Field further quoted her: "It's been very intimidating. They are soldiers and they are forcing the couple out, no mistake.” Field said in the article that “the Sherlocks' ejection comes as the military regime of Voreqe Bainimarama has begun issuing decrees – which cannot be challenged in court – effectively seizing foreign private property.”

 In the meantime, a Radio Fiji news report of 7 July, 2010, titled “NZ resort manager clears the air”, former Lagoon Resort owner Jim Sherlock is reported as saying he was not in a dispute with the Fiji government over the closure of the resort in Pacific Harbour. The Resort was seized in May by the Fiji Development Bank, who filed that Sherlock has not repaid his loan.

 Sherlock told Radio Fiji the disagreement was with the FDB over the repayment conditions of a $300,000 loan, and this dispute would be resolved as a corporate issue with the relevant authorities.

 Meanwhile Sherlock has refuted claims in overseas media (the Dominion Post) that he has been told to leave the country with just a suitcase.

“No! That’s a Michael Field one! I have only talked to Michael Field once and that was in May. He told me of a story he was going to print and I told him it was completely wrong. He wasn’t going to let the truth get in the way of a good story so he went ahead and printed it!"he told FBC News.

 In his Dominion Post story, Filed also reported on an unnamed source regarding land grab by the government:    “Another New Zealand family, who do not wish to be named, have been told to leave their farm by a military-linked ratu or village chief. “

 Croz Walsh said that by the time he was able to clarify this misleading and untrue story more fully, Field would have inflicted more damage to the credibility of Fiji as an investment destination.

 Writing on his website, Croz said that:

 “This is not the first time his stories have had the potential to adversely affected the Fiji economy and its people's livelihoods. Two months back he misleadingly reported a typhoid outbreak in Fiji's most popular tourist area when he knew the area affected was nowhere near the tourist area and highly unlikely to affect tourists. And he still persists there's a cover up.”

 Croz clarified that the alleged "imprisonment" commenced two months ago when the couple failed to meet outstanding loan interest repayments. He accused  Field of  not mentioning those debts and  failing to provides little to no background or  explanation for their eviction and deportation except a “presumed capriciousness  by Government and brutality by "soldiers" (reservists working for a security firm).”

 Croz further added that someone to whom he had referred Field’s two latest stories called them "vindictive, deceitful journalism and an abuse of New Zealand's media freedom."

 “If the two stories do in fact turn out to be substantially incorrect or misleading, I wonder whether it is responsible for editors and publishers to continue using Field's stories. His past reputation, and his personal website, should provide sufficient warning that everything he writes on Fiji needs checking before publication,” he posed this advice to those New Zealand and Australian media outlets which give prominence to such misleading and “non-professional” standard of journalism.

New Zealand and Australia accused in the conspiracy theory on MSG - Acting Australian High Commissioner to Fiji 'expelled'

Report by : Thakur Ranjit Singh

FIJIAN Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama has accused Australia and New Zealand of working behind the scene to derail the upcoming Melanesian Spearhead Group meeting scheduled at Natadola Resort, Nadi on 22 and 23 July, 2010. This comes in the wake of deferment of the scheduled meeting by the Chair of MSG, the Vanuatu Prime Minister Edward Natapei. The deferment is attributed to what Natapei calls an “impasse over Fiji's hosting and chairmanship of the event needed to be resolved.’ Fiji Sun reported.

  Speaking to Fiji Sun from Daeleon, South Korea, Prime Minister Bainimarama expressed his disappointment at the New Zealand and Australia action what he said  would result in a destabilisation of relationship between the Melanesian Spearhead Group (MSG) countries. He accused the MSG chairman, Natapei of ‘listening a lot to Australia and New Zealand who are on a mission to dissolve the MSG.”

 Bainimarama told Fiji Sun that “Mr Natapei's call would not do any good towards the relationship of the MSG brothers. Australia and New Zealand are trying to embarrass Fiji by dissolving the MSG. If there is no MSG then MSG leaders will be reluctant to come forward and discuss their issues and problems."

Commentators on Fiji see this development as a threat to the future of the MSG, the only major regional group where Australia and New Zealand were excluded.

 This is what Croz Walsh, former USP academic and publisher of website “Fiji the way it was, is and can be” has to say:

  “In addition to the latest about-face by Natapei and the MSG, we have the Australian-PNG meeting in Alotau last week when PNG agreed to two Fiji clauses in their joint communiqué. Then there’s the report that the Australia's Acting High Commissioner in Suva has been urging MSG countries to boycott the Fiji meeting (and presumably similar actions in Australia and other MSG countries). And Vanuatu's hosting of the Forum meeting next month. It would be most surprising if there were not a link between these happenings.”

Citing the Editor-in Chief of Island Business, Laisa Taga, Croz Walsh reported this on his website:

Australia actively trying to undermine MSG Plus meeting Letter from Suva has been reliably told that the Fiji foreign ministry has on two occasions summoned the acting Australian high commissioner Sarah Roberts to appear before the Secretary of Foreign Affairs. This was after the Ministry was told by several heads of missions based in Suva that the Australian envoy had been “attempting to influence them from accepting invitations to the MSG.”

 This was again repeated by her in the most recent meeting of the Diplomatic Corps here in Suva.
It is also been alleged that Ms Roberts had invited heads of missions in Fiji to participate in a discussion on possible evacuation scenarios of foreign nationals in the event of political instability.
 In the wake of this development Australian Acting High Commissioner to Fiji, Ms Sarah Roberts has been declared persona non grata and told to leave the country, as reported by Radio Fiji News.

 Fiji’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Ratu Inoke Kuboubola is reported by Radio Fiji News as saying that the Australian government had been engaged in strategies to undermine Fiji's sovereignty and weaken the economy, and this had been further highlighted by calling on MSG countries, especially Vanuatu, not to attend the MSG Leaders Summit. He further added that Australia had no business in the MSG leaders’ summit but had continued to discourage MSG member States from attending the meeting.

 Last Night, Radio Fiji reported Australia’s Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith admitting Australia had indeed been lobbying against the meeting.

 Meanwhile, in a strongly worded Editorial, Fiji Sun not only hit back at Australia and New Zealand governments, but their media and journalists as well:

 “The politicians and bureaucrats in Canberra and Wellington will see this as a triumph for their continuing efforts to isolate Fiji. Their anti-Fiji news media, such as Fiji Times owners News Limited in Australia and so-called Pacific Islands experts like Michael Field in New Zealand, will trumpet the Fiji isolated line.

 But what it really shows yet again is how much control Canberra and Wellington exert over the South Pacific islands, and how they are willing to use it to bully island nations to get their way, “said Fiji Sun