grubsheet

Everything that is wrong with the Fijian media and the way it allows itself to be used as a PR tool for powerful vested interests is encapsulated in today's Fiji Sun story on the Coalition gifting $1.7-million of taxpayer funds to Communications Fiji Limited under the guise of "public service" broadcasting. The Sun's Managing Editor, Frederica … [Read more...] about # CFL’S IDEA OF PUBLIC SERVICE. “THE TRIBUTE TO OUR OWN RADIO STAR WAS THE BIGGEST SINCE MICHAEL JACKSON’S” (UPDATED WED AM)

There is a lot of nonsense being spread about the failings of Fiji's electoral system, just as there is a lot of nonsense being spread about the failings of the 2013 Constitution. And by people who should know better, such as the lawyer and NFP stalwart, Richard Naidu. The (now very) occasional Fiji Times columnist has attracted the ire of … [Read more...] about # DIALOGUE FIJI’S NILESH LAL BUSTS THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM MYTH BEING PEDDLED BY RICHARD NAIDU

There is genuine media freedom in any democracy in which a vibrant, independent media fulfils its duty to the public to hold elected governments to account. And there is the bullshit version of "media freedom" in Fiji, in which the Coalition government uses taxpayer funds to buy off commercial, non-government media outlets to secure their support. … [Read more...] about # ANOTHER NAIL IN THE COFFIN OF GENUINE MEDIA FREEDOM. THE COALITION BUYS OFF CFL-FIJI VILLAGE

Poor Dan Fatiaki. The former chief justice spent years in the judicial and political wilderness until the Coalition recently appointed him Chair of the Electoral Reform Commission to review the nation's electoral laws. His contributions to the national debate thus far have been confined to his prolific letters to the editor of the Fiji Times, … [Read more...] about # SO ARE WE RETURNING TO RACE-BASED VOTING OR AREN’T WE? PRIME MINISTER, THE MINORITIES DESERVE TO KNOW

For weeks, even months, the world has known that Donald Trump intended to introduce wide-ranging tariffs to punish America's trading partners for what he depicts as their ripoff of American consumers and their unfair advantage in the global marketplace. The only question has been which countries would be hit hardest and by how much. So it … [Read more...] about # THE COALITION. DANGEROUSLY COMPLACENT AND HOPELESSLY NAIVE (UPDATED SATURDAY)

Stewart and Faye Resnick - the billionaire owners of Fiji Water - were presumably looking to Donald Trump to improve trading conditions in America for their Wonderful Company and will have been pole-axed by his new administration's decision today to charge a 32 per cent tariff on every Fijian item imported into the United States. Water is by far … [Read more...] about # DONALD TRUMP DEALS FIJI WATER A HUGE BLOW WITH HIS 32 PER CENT TARIFF ON FIJIAN IMPORTS