While we await responses from Lynda Tabuya, the Prime Minister and the police about the reported existence of a second sex tape involving the notorious Minister for Bonking and Weed, to follow is a prime example of the corruption of the local media and its selective reporting in favour of the powerful while it ignores stories like Tabuya’s repeated transgressions.
The sidelined deputy prime minister, Manoa Kamikamica, is currently on trial for corruption-related charges yet you would think from CFL’s coverage of the proceedings that it is Janet Mason – the former counsel assisting the Ashton-Lewis Commission of Inquiry giving evidence in the case – who is really in the dock.
Late last night, an extraordinary story appeared as the lead on Fiji Village placing the emphasis not on the charges against Kamikamica but the alleged wrongdoing of Janet Mason when she fell foul of the New Zealand Law Society for failing to attend a legal education workshop.
The full CFL story below but this is how its narrative opens:
Wylie Clarke “called out” Janet Mason? This is what that term means:
“To “call out” primarily means to publicly point out someone’s wrongdoing, hold them accountable, or expose bad behavior“.
FACT: Janet Mason was disciplined not for professional misconduct but for failing to attend a professional development course within a required period. She did attend the course but not until after the time frame specified. The High Court judge who heard the appeal specifically said she had chosen to put the interests of her clients and her court appearances on their behalf before her obligation to attend the course.
Some wrongdoing. How terrible of her to put her clients first!
And yet in Fiji, we have a Deputy DPP in the form of John Rabuku who cannot hold the top job because has actually been found guilty of professional misconduct by the Independent Legal Services Commission. And in the case of lawyer Filimoni Vosarogo – the Minister for Lands and Mineral Resources – he has been convicted of professional conduct by the ILSC not once but three times.
In any event, It isn’t Janet Mason but Manoa Kamikamica who is on trial and by any journalistic standard, it was the case against him and the evidence given yesterday that should have been the main focus of the CFL story.
Why wasn’t it? Because, it seems, William Parkinson’s radio network has a bias towards Manoa Kamikamica and a bias against Janet Mason. And in this instance, it has shamelessly allowed that bias to infiltrate its news coverage to manipulate the facts and attempt to influence public opinion.
FACT: Grubsheet understands from someone who was present in the court that it was Wylie Clarke, not Janet Mason, who was really under pressure. He was questioned why Mason’s run-in with the New Zealand Law Society had any relevance whatsoever to the case against his client. And he was taken to task – to use the local parlance – for giving evidence from the bar about his own involvement with the CoI (where he was accused of perverting the course of justice) and breaking one of the most fundamental principles of court practice.
QUOTE: “Most of Clarke’s propositions were so weak they were dismissed out of hand. His questioning and the responses from Ms Mason worsened his client’s case and bolstered the perjury case for FICAC. One of his conspiracy propositions implying the CoI was politically motivated was dismissed by Ms Mason as “arrant nonsense”.
No mention by CFL of “Wylie Coyote” being called out, taken to task or challenged. And again, where is the emphasis in this story of the case against the man in the dock accused of perjury – Kamikamica – rather that the person called by FICAC to give evidence against him? I repeat: It is Manoa Kamikamica who is on trial, not Janet Mason. Not that you’d know it from the main story on CFL-Fiji Village this morning.
William Parkinson’s network is receiving public money from the Coalition at the same time as he is making record profits. The least it can do in return is to report fairly and without bias. Yet it evidently sees its role to support the government and its ministers and manipulate its news coverage to their advantage.
Anywhere else in the democratic world, CFL-Fiji Village would be brought to account for its conduct. And that’s what must happen with any change of government. Because this kind of manipulation is not only a breach of basic journalist ethics but is contrary to the national interest and cannot go on.
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