Any hope the Fijian government might have had to spare the New Zealand Foreign Minister embarrassment over his inaction in coming to the assistance of the suspended DPP, Christopher Pryde, has been dashed, with strong criticism of Winston Peters going Pacific-wide on Radio New Zealand.
The NZ public broadcaster has picked up Grubsheet’s weekend comments on Winston Peters, accusing him of hanging Christopher Pryde out to dry with his petulant attack on him in the Fiji Sun for sending his appeal for assistance to multiple recipients, including the NZ High Commissioner in Suva and the heads of the NZ and Fiji law societies.
There is further embarrassment for Winston Peters because the Ministry for Foreign Affairs in Wellington tells Radio New Zealand that Peters will not be commenting on Pryde’s suspension without seeming to realise that he unloaded on the DPP in his comments to the Fiji Sun in Tokyo.
Well now the story is again all over the New Zealand media, with Winston Peters the target for his inaction as well as the Fijian government for its violations of the Constitution. And every day that passes is merely making an embarrassing situation worse for the Coalition and now the NZ government.
Without being immodest, the accompanying story is also one in the eye for Grubsheet’s critics who continually assail me with the taunt of being irrelevant. I said from the start of this appalling saga that I would be relentless in highlighting the unlawful conduct of the Fijian authorities. Now it is not just a domestic Fijian story that has thrown an unflattering spotlight on the Coalition government and our judicial system but it has also enveloped and embarrassed the New Zealand Foreign Minister.
How much longer can this go on? Well, as long as Fiji wants it to. But none of it is good for the country’s image or confidence in its criminal justice system, and especially on the part of the citizens of other nations who may already be working in Fiji or are contemplating doing so. Because what has happened to Christopher Pryde is an outrage that doesn’t inspire any confidence at all.
Thank you Mr Davis for all your efforts, we need more people like you to expose the rort in Fiji
đź’Ż agree. Fijian media should hang their heads in shame. What a disgraceful situation to be for the freedumb press.
Worth repeating again that the same Fijian media along with various ngo’s wildly celebrated with song and dance and much merry making on removal of media decree. Cried like babies too each others shoulders “with joy.” One would be forgiven to think they’d been released from years of solitary confinement.
Sadly, instead of fair transparent reporting-without fear or favor, Fiji media went mute.
Bravo, GD!!
Cried with joy…..lol…Stanley Simpson of MaiTV come on down!
Good on you Graham.
Journalism lesson 101 learnt but never actioned by our mainstream media, to hold our taxpayer-paid leaders to account for their misdeeds, shortcomings and so on. Post-2022 media freedom at work? The real one is at work in ANZ and even neighbours like Vanuatu. Thanks GD, and keep unearthing please, or else we will remain blindfolded.
Grubsheet should also reach out to Barry Soper. A very senior political journalist in NZ. He will get much more coverage than Radio NZ.
It also needs to get TV coverage….Jack Tame.
Fiji media only had the appetite to challenge Aiyaz Khaiyum. He also tended to be rather abrasive to them when he felt cornered.
Fiji media will not challenge anyone in current govt…it’s almost like they don’t see anything to be challenged. Or it’s an ongoing deference to the leaders as if they are in the presence of revered saints or the pope at the Vatican, and showing chiefly respect.
No one has the nouse (intellect) or ability to ask incisive questions like western media. Feed Winston to Mike Hoskins or Heather duPlasi Allen on ZB radio in NZ, they will expose any cracks or incompetence brighter than Janola. Mike Hoskins gave Jacinda Arden such grillings that revealed her to be of fluff rather than substance. She permanently got someone else to appear on weekly morning interviews when she could not handle the heat anymore…never done before by any PM in recent memory.
Fiji media will never have the sharp piranha teeth needed in the mainstream Ampitheatre.
GD
You seemed to be the only voice of the “opposition” in Fiji; highlighting the injustices how the country is slowly sliding into potentially chaos later on. Fiji no longer has an effective opposition to monitor its “checks and balances”, and the PM together with his cohorts of idiots are running Fiji as a “soft” dictatorship. Literary getting away with anthing without being accountable. Because there is no one to challenge them except perhaps your column.
Meanwhile, I still consider that the international trade union movements and some politically sensitive NGO’s could play a role in punishing Fiji by highlighting what is going on, including one-way ethno-nationalist cleansing, racism, favouritism of one race over another and so on. The iTaukei community should be reminded that India this time won’t let the Fiji Indians suffer in silence, and in the US, the Republican and Democrat parties’ have American Indians in some powerful positions of power. PM Rabuka had gotten away with his coup the first time but any more skullduggery from him would result in international boycotts, embargoes and other such like actions against his regime, should he continue to promote ethno-nationalism at the expense of other races.
Morning Grubsheet and readers
Rabuka made another announcement. Peters upset that Pryde complained
That is not an announcement. It is something we already know. It’s just that it has taken the Joe Biden of Fiji a few days to catch up.
On ya GD