Scandalising the judicial system has come at a heavy price for the venerable Fiji Times, its former publisher, Brian O’Flaherty, and the current publisher and editor, Fred Wesley. Sentence was passed on the paper today after it was found guilty of contempt for republishing comments about Fiji’s judiciary made to the New Zealand media by Tai Nicholas, the Secretary of the Oceania Football Confederation. The comments appeared in the sports pages of the FT and the paper claimed, in mitigation, that they’d fallen through the usual editorial checks. That lapse has come at a huge cost.
The Fiji Times itself has been fined $300,000 and has to pay the amount in 28 days. Fred Wesley has been sentenced to a term of six months imprisonment suspended for two years. And O’Flaherty has been fined $10,000. The paper and two individuals concerned also have to pay $2,000 each in costs to the Attorney General’s Office as the applicant in the case.
This is the second time in five years that the Fiji Times has been convicted for contempt of court. In 2008, contempt proceedings were brought against the paper, the then editor-in-chief, Netani Rika, and the then publisher, Rex Gardener. In that instance, the Fiji Times was fined $100,000, Rika received a three-month suspended prison term and Rika and Gardener were both required to enter into good behavior bonds.
In the interregnum, the ownership of the Fiji Times passed from Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited to Fiji’s Motibhai Group, led by the convicted felon, Mahendra “Mac” Patel. Patel has already served a 12-month jail term for abusing his office as Chairman of Post Fiji by organising the purchase of a clock through the Motibhai company, Prouds. A bench warrant has since been issued for Patel to answer further corruption charges but he maintains that he is unfit to travel to Fiji because of continuing medical treatment in Sydney.
Is “Mac” Patel a fit and proper person to preside over the stewardship of Fiji’s oldest newspaper, founded in Levuka in 1869? How much longer can he stay away from Fiji and comply with the ownership provisions of the Media Decree? One thing is certain. The continuing drama at the Fiji Times still has a long way to go.
Is it a case of sloppy journalism and management, Graham, or do they deliberately like to ‘push the envelope’? By the way, for those interested, if you have a moment, please see my tribute to Iliesa Delana down a few stories, under “Comments”. This piece which I was asked by FASANOC to write, was presented to him by our President Ratu Epeli at Iliesa’s Hall of Fame induction dinner on 25Jan.
Sad to see the Fiji Times is a shell of its former self. I buy the Sun now to find out what’s going on.
The Fiji Times: “For yesterday’s news tomorrow.”
Thank you, Mr Davis. A very good question about Mr ‘Mac’ Patel.
Fiji Sun Patron is also very right. I read the Fiji Sun too. Anyone who is really living in Fiji knows it is a much better paper than the Fiji Times.
The Fiji Times has become a serial contempt of court offender. Rika is the same, and will continue to get the CCF into trouble. You can write good stories without accusing the judiciary of bias, or of not being there, or of corruption.
Graham, I think the fines and prison sentences are out of all proportion – you would have been complaining if the boot was on the other foot – that one of your deputies at Grubsheet had reproduced comments from someone abroad – accusing Australian judges of bias etc – unless you and others are saying that Fiji Times had deliberately seized on the comments to push the bias claim – I don’t think s0 – knowing that Khaiyum as been gunning after them from the day he came into office because the paper had been refusing to call him Minister, instead of using Interim Minister. You are talking as if there will never be another tomorrow in Fiji and these present lot will be ruling Fiji for the next 50 years
Out of proportion for a third time offender? Come on, it was lenient. A jail term might have served to prevent any repeat offending in the future. The more times you commit the crime, the longer you do the time. Lets not personalize the issues without evidence. The judge seriously sentenced the FT because it won’t call him a Minister?! Give us credit for some common sense.
Does this confirm Fiji Times’ recidivist nature?
More like a habitual offender with a political motive- to attack the judges as a means of attacking the government.
The Fiji Times must be closed down. We want high quality journalism like the Sun and not this pernicious venom produced by FT. The sentence was far too lenient and jail terms of no less than than 10 years are called for. Mr Davis and we all know that the judiciary is fully independent or did the judge go along with the sentence requested by our leader Khaiyum?
Bloody damn the Fiji Times. They should be closed down for good. Bloody idiots they are.
Sorry to be the discordant voice among all of your fans who appear to be willing to cheer the Fiji Times into the ground, but I am intrigued to know where is the judicial outrage, contempt of court proceedings, government sabre-rattling etc. over this Fiji Sun case below which – to the best of ability I understand – is still outstanding.
http://www.fijisun.com.fj/2012/05/09/court-report-contains-errors/
Read through the whole list of complaints that Pryde makes – four detailed complaints of basic, ‘gross’ errors of fact, and two complaints relating to ‘impressions given’ about the competency and professionalism of the DPP.
Now close your eyes and imagine that the Fiji Times had made those same mistakes. See what I mean?
In the 2008 instance the Fiji Times pleaded guilty after publishing a letter on October 22 that was critical of the judiciary. The FT wrote a fulsome and contrite apology, and pleaded guilty in court, but received substantial fines and one suspended jail sentence (‘extraordinary harsh for what some might regard as fairly mild criticism.’- respected journalism professor David Robie).
A virtually identical letter was published word for word in the Daily Post on October 17 but, judging by the returnable dates, contempt of court proceedings against the Post do not appear to have been started until after the Fiji Times action. I can find no record online of what the status is of the AG’s action against the Daily Post. But I think it’s a reasonable inference to draw that although both newspapers made the same mistake, one newspaper’s mistake was a greater than the other. (Or to quote Robie again, ‘These are indeed Orwellian times in the Pacific nation’).
It is important to remember that both the 2008 and current situation were crimes of omission rather than commission. Although the newspaper has the ultimate responsibility for anything it chooses to publish, in neither case did the Fiji Times originate the offending material, in neither case did they make such elementary factual errors as Pryde alleges the Fiji Sun did, in neither case did their journalists themselves create such a negative impression of the DPP.
So if one were to ask is there one rule for all, applied without fear or favour, what would the answer be?
Perhaps a clue: we found out today the Media Industry Development Decree, which precipitated the sale of the Fiji Times from Murdoch to the ‘convicted felon’ Mahenda Patel as you call him, has been handily amended to give FBC a huge advantage over its media competitors in radio and television in Fiji.
Turns out that FBC can get into bed with any foreign entity it wants, and needs only a stake of 15 percent and one seat on the board (according to Fijivillage.com).
Declaration of interest: I used to work at the Fiji Times both as a journalist and subeditor, and for the Daily Post. I have not worked for the Fiji Sun but I was involved in the Fiji Rugby Union’s decision to ban the Fiji Sun after documents from the registrar of companies showed a prominent rugby writer at the newspaper was a shareholder in a sports promotion company that the writer used to spruik relentlessly through the paper’s sports pages.
Charlie,
I think this is a very long way to say “hands off the Fiji Times”. You are quite wrong to say these two cases of contempt were sins of omission. Even the Fiji Times lawyer, Jon Apted, concedes that the first case in 2008 was a deliberate and wilful contempt on the part of then editor-in-chief, Netani Rika. In any event, they have both been judged to have scandalised the system. If the latest case is appealed and the decision overturned, I, for one, will be delighted. But until that happens, the conviction stands. Questioning the verdict and getting your facts wrong – as you have here – doesn’t help.
Graham, don’t play that old trick and attack me for things I did not do: I didn’t question either verdict, I left it David Robie to question the judgement handed down in 2009, and I don’t believe I got any facts wrong.
I clearly stated the Fiji Times’ guilt in 2008 and that they had admitted their guilt and written a very contrite apology.
All my comment did was merely point out two things:
-where is the case against the Daily Post for publishing the exact same letter five days before the Fiji Times?
– and that whatever besmirching or scandalising of the judiciary had taken place in 2008 and this year, the poisoned fruit had come from a source external to the Fiji Times.
This was to the make a specific point, in contrast to the apparently unresolved case of the Fiji Sun from last year. In this instance a pro-regime newspaper is alleged to have made a litany of dreadful, basic court room errors and cast grave aspersions on the competency of the DPP, and apparently walked away with nary a slap on the wrist.
And, yes, if you want put it like that, Hands off the Fiji Times. On behalf of all of those who have worked there, and all of those who need our daily fix of Hagar the Horrible, the best Horoscope in the country, Modesty Blaise, Nadi Aircraft Movements, Big Ben Bolt, the Word Jumble and most especially the Phantom
Charlie, you are playing the old trick of moving the goalposts. You quite specifically said the following: “It is important to remember that both the 2008 and current situation were crimes of omission rather than commission”.
It is demonstrably a crime of commission when an editor chooses to run something – whether it be from another source or generated internally – that brings the judicial system into disrepute. That was the situation in 2008. In the latest case, it was argued that it was a weekend, the editor didn’t sight the offending article and that it slipped through the internal protocols put in place to prevent such instances after the 2008 case. That is arguably a “crime of omission” but the presiding judge didn’t accept that argument.
Now you could say that the penalty imposed is excessively harsh but that is another argument.
PS Charlie. Nostalgia clearly ain’t what it used to be. Some of the features of the FT you refer to – the Nadi aircraft movements for one – are long gone and exist only in the fond imaginings of long departed expatriates. I’ve got today’s paper is front of me and I can’t find Modesty Blaise or The Phantom either.
Clearly Graham we agree on one thing – for reasons of plurality and competition Fiji would be considerably the worse if the Fiji Times were to close (‘I, for one, will be delighted’ if the latest fines are reversed on appeal).
Rather than having a pop at my nostalgia (one of the unforeseen consequences of the paper passing out of Murdoch’s hands was that many of the syndication rights to Phantom et al passed with them) and my residential status, rather even than respond to my queries about what one might observe is a clear double standard both in terms of FBC and the pay TV market, and rules applied to the Fiji Times vs the Fiji Sun and the late Daily Post, why not address your considerable talents to making the case for the survival of the Fiji Times.
I have the appetite to tell Truth to Power on this but I don’t have the pulpit you have in the Fiji Sun and I don’t have the ear of anybody within the regime. Why not contact Professor Robie whose opinions you have quoted at length to make the case against Marc Edge and in the broader sense to make the case for a less confrontational ‘development journalism’ favoured by the regime. Why not ask him what his thoughts are on what is unfolding with the Fiji Times, why not ask him to co-author a piece with you?
You can say many things about Murdoch but he remains a newspaperman at heart for all the good and bad that that entails. Mac Patel is not, was not and never will be in that category. For him, I imagine there will be no emotional tug whatsoever if he makes the decision – under the weight of fines, the cost and uncertainty of the appeal process etc. – to switch the thing down and turn the whole enterprise into a real estate / commercial print shop play.
I am not the first to observe (or rue the fact) that when all that you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. I can’t change that with respect to the Fiji Times, but perhaps you can. If, that is, you want to.
Oh, and of course my third point was that the recent amendment to the Media Decree presents us with the bitterly ironic situation that while the Decree proper cast Murdoch/News Ltd as inappropriate to hold anything more than 10 percent of the Fiji Times, the amendment means that the very same Murdoch/News Ltd is completely fit to hold upto 85 percent ownership of the far more lucrative pay TV market so long as the other 15 percent (and one seat on the board, as quoted by Fiji Village) is held by a government-owned media entity – of which there is only one.
Mr Davis it is very good that you are putting Mr Charlie Charters in his place.
It is very well known that Mr Charters is married to Mrs Mere Samisoni’s daughter Vanessa.
Mr Charters is very anti anything to do with the Bainimarama Government just like his mother-in-law Mrs Samisoni is. At least Mrs Samisoni lives in Fiji.
Mr Charters lives in England and he has not lived in Fiji for a very long time.
I also know for a fact that the Fiji Rugby Union does not want anything to do with him because of the problems he caused them before he suddenly left Fiji. He used them just as a way of promoting himself.
Fijian at Heart:
1. Yes, Mrs Samisoni is my mother in law but that is not what forms my political views. Never has been, never will. I read and loved and then worked for the Fiji Times many years before I even met Mere. If you had to characterise my political views they would be (after 4 coups) profoundly anti-coup not pro-this person or anti-that person. To paraphrase George Orwell, the reason these things are called revolutions is because – with the best will in the world – coups just end up taking us back to where we started from
2. Yes, I live in the UK as do about 5000 fellow Fiji citizens, and all of us – certainly in my case – for reasons of work. If it helps explain things, you should consider my time away from Fiji now to be similar to the many years Graham Davis spent away in Australia. Does that make him any less passionate or engaged in the issues of Fiji?
3. About my time at Rugby House, I know you don’t know what you’re talking about. The FRU is in almost weekly email contact with me, and the last time I was in Fiji in August I was asked to a three-hour discussion about how the FRU might secure sponsors, make more with what it already had. The invitation came from the CEO and it was he, the then marketing manager and operations manager who attended. I was happy to oblige. I hold a perhaps unfashionable point of view that in a complicated and fractured country like Fiji getting the Fiji rugby national teams fully resourced and functioning to the best of their ability is the highest calling a non-politician like myself can hope to contribute to my country.
If you would like to share with me your email address, I would happily pass on the last contact from the FRU which came in only two days ago.
As for attacking people behind the cover of anonymity, I think Graham Davis has many descriptions for that sort of person.
Graham, it seems is perfectly fine for you to open your fan club comments page and allow your supporters to cast aspersions, abuse other people, and even you making false claims against certain individuals – the only difference is if it was Fiji Times, Khaiyum would take the paper before the court – and his judges wouldn’t hesitate to make an example of them – just look at this one – where is the evidence that Charlie Charters used FRU and what has his marital links to Mrs Samisoni got to do with the exchanges between you – “It is very well known that Mr Charters is married to Mrs Mere Samisoni’s daughter Vanessa.
Mr Charters is very anti anything to do with the Bainimarama Government just like his mother-in-law Mrs Samisoni is. At least Mrs Samisoni lives in Fiji.
Mr Charters lives in England and he has not lived in Fiji for a very long time.
I also know for a fact that the Fiji Rugby Union does not want anything to do with him because of the problems he caused them before he suddenly left Fiji. He used them just as a way of promoting himself.”
“By-stander”,you and your ilk appear willing to use any device to attack me. I made no comment whatsoever about Charlie Charters and his personal circumstances. So kindly attack those who have, not me.
Mr Charters, I do not think there is any chance of the Fiji Times closing. They are a part of the Mr Patel’s Motibhai Group which everyone knows is very wealthy after decades of getting preferential treatment from former prime ministers and governments.
I think it is very good that the Fiji Sun is now much better because the Fiji Times used to be very dominating when they were the only main paper. One of the academics wrote a thesis about how the Fiji Times biased reporting helped the 2000 coup by the Speight gang.
I also think the relationship between some of their women reporters and Major-General Rabuka is well known.
I am glad to hear that you are still trying to help Fiji Rugby Union. But I also am involved in rugby a bit and I am told you used Fiji Rugby Union to get yourself a job with a big international sports marketing company in Hong Kong and then left suddenly.
It is very good if you are now trying to put something back.
Mr Charters, I hope you are not asking for a commission for this help. My friends tell me you and Mr Jeremy Duxbury were big rivals because of this commission business.
Fijian at Heart, I am afraid you have been sadly misinformed by your friends.
I was working in Hong Kong for a big international sports marketing firm (ISL, which famously went bust in April 2001) before moving from Hong Kong to Fiji in June 2001 – not the other way round. (I did move from Fiji to Hong Kong once but that was in 1992.)
I resigned from the FRU in February 2004 and gave six months’ notice, leaving Fiji at the end of August 2004. Hardly very sudden.
In August 2004, my family and I moved from Fiji to the UK (not Hong Kong) not so that I could get back into sports marketing but so that I could try to become a writer.
I wouldn’t describe Jeremy and myself as rivals. We had differences on a number of issues but, I think, we agreed on far more than we ever disagreed on, and remain both deeply passionate about Fiji rugby.
I was and am a huge fan of his media work and to the best of my knowledge he did an exemplary job handling the sponsorship side of things when he worked with the Fiji Rugby Union.
I do not know what commission his company charged. I know I was on zero salary while I worked at the FRU and took 2 percent commission on the value of any new sponsorships I introduced and for existing sponsors 2 percent of the value of any sponsorship increases I was able to generate. These figures can be confirmed by basic calculus applied to any of the FRU’s audited accounts from the years I worked there.
Financially it was the least profitable three years of my working life but it was definitely the most rewarding and enjoyable three years of my life as well.
And no, I am not asking for any commission or fee for the work I have done for or the advice I have given the Fiji Rugby Union.
Relevance please, Dear Readers. This posting is about the Fiji Times, not Charlie Charters and his prowess or otherwise as a rugby administrator. His prowess as a writer is well established. Vinaka.
Mr Davis, I am sorry about that. Here is the part of my comment about the Fiji Times.
I still think there is never any chance that the Fiji Times will close like Mr Charters seems to think. The Motibhai group are very big and have lots of money and they use the Fiji Times all the time to advertise all their businesses.
I also think the media in Fiji is much better now the Fiji Sun and FBC have become as strong as the Fiji Times and Fiji Tv.
Mr Charters, I do not think there is any chance of the Fiji Times closing. They are a part of the Mr Patel’s Motibhai Group which everyone knows is very wealthy after decades of getting preferential treatment from former prime ministers and governments.
I think it is very good that the Fiji Sun is now much better because the Fiji Times used to be very dominating when they were the only main paper. One of the academics wrote a thesis about how the Fiji Times biased reporting helped the 2000 coup by the Speight gang.
I also think the relationship between some of their women reporters and Major-General Rabuka is well known.
Just reading the comments above, Charlie Charters comments that the Sun did not get sued for contempt of court last year for getting court reporting wrong and casting aspersions on the DPP. How could they be sued? Getting a story wrong is not contempt of court is it? Nor is criticizing DPP. I thought contempt was bringing judges into shame, or pre judging guilt of someone. Maybe I am wrong Graham but I don’t think the Sun could be sued for writing the wrong court story.
Peter, actually that is not true. Only two months after the Fiji Sun was launched the newspaper received a substantial fine for contempt of court for a report that was shot through with basic reporting errors. These included that the accused was facing more than 30 counts when in fact it was only 8, and that the testimony was made in camera when it was actually made in open court.
It is hard – reading the contemporaneous report that I have linked to below on the Fiji Sun case in 1999 and comparing this to the Pryde complaint from 2012 – to see a difference between the scale of the errors. The 2012 report also cast aspersions, alleged by Pryde, on the competency and professionalism of the DPP whereas there were no such aspersions cast by the Fiji Sun in 1999. Arguably this makes the 2012 report even more serious.
The point that I was making right at the start of this commentary was not that the Fiji Times are blameless, but that they do not seem to have had the same treatment as either the Daily Post or the Fiji Sun. Under this regime, the Fiji Sun makes grievous errors that would seem to reach an already established standard of contempt of court, they receive hardly even a slap on the wrist. Imagine if the Fiji Times had committed those same mistakes.
Charlie, are you suggesting that this unequal treatment of the Fiji Sun and Fiji Times is on the part of the DPP or the judicial system?
Let’s get back to tin tacks. In its latest contempt, the Fiji Times quoted Tai Nicholas as having said “there is no judiciary in Fiji”. He pleaded guilty to the charge.
I’d be interested to see what evidence you have that the Fiji Sun has published something similar since 2008 that has brought the judiciary into disrepute and that hasn’t been prosecuted.
The case you have quoted surely relates to the DPP, not the judges themselves. They are quite separate. The DPP decides whether there is a reasonable chance of any prosecution succeeding. The judges decide, independently, the merits of the case.
Graham, I think you are conflating two separate points – scandalising the judiciary and contempt of court.
I have not accused the Fiji Sun of scandalising the judiciary.
I did however point out that last year they ran a court report that appears – if you take Christopher Pryde’s allegations at face value – to be pretty stunning in its general lack of accuracy, while also – alleged Pryde -to question the professionalism and competence of the DPP (not the judiciary).
Your reader Peter (and even Marc Edge in another forum) questioned whether being inaccurate in a court report was actually an offence.
Yes it is, as shown by the 1999 case. This was a similar instance where the Fiji Sun’s court report was at considerable variance with what took place. The result was a fine and front-page apology for being in contempt of court.
My observations are not about the Tai Nicholas/Fiji Times case which is still, hopefully, to be appealed and which you and I both hope the FT might win some kind of reprieve.
My observation right at the start was to ask your readers to imagine whether the Fiji Times would have got the same gentle tickle on the wrist had it been the FT making the same deliberate mistakes (aka acts of commission) as the Fiji Sun is alleged by Pryde to have made.
I think we know the answer to that particular, What If?
Marc who?
http://www.asiapac.org.fj/cafepacific/resources/aspac/fiji2406.html
Close the FT. We all know under our beloved Regime that there is no corruption and transparency is always showcased through the Fiji Sun , a totally independent Newspaper and MINFO. There is no nepotism; those related to the Regime members who holds high office are fully qualified to do so.
I know the Regime salaries are well below world salary rates which is really unfair as the sacrifices does not match the rates.
The FT knows fully well that the legal system in Fiji is better and more accountable than Australia and NZ.
These anti government are dreaming up all these allegations even though the Regime has given equal access to the media who are under no threats to print their stories.
I know all the facts above because the Regime told me so.
Errors in a court story only amount to contempt if they are prejudicial to the interests of justice and there is a real risk that a person will not get a fair trial. Covering in camera hearings is contempt in a criminal trial because of the above test. These are two different types of contempt. The third is contempt when you attack the judiciary in a way that brings the judiciary into disrepute. The third type gets the heaviest sentences because it is an attack on the judiciary as an institution. The first two usually get wrist slapping. The Sun, the Post and even the FT have been guilty of the first two and got wrist slapping. Only the Times, Vijay Parmanandan and Mehendra Chaudhery have been found guilty of the third. Parmanandan went to jail for 6 months.
Mr Charters you seem to always look down on locals. I know you would be much happier if those Australians still owned and were running the Fiji Times like when you worked there. I also think you will always try to attack the Government no matter how much good they do.
I read the Fiji Sun very day instead of the Fiji Times because it provides much more news than the Fiji Times now and is a much better paper. Many of my friends and people I work with feel the same way.
Every day the Fiji Sun also has its Publisher’s mobile phone number and email on page 2. If anyone has any complaint about anything the Fiji Sun has reported they are invited to contact him straight away.
I am sure the mistake in the court report you seem to be trying to make such a big issue about would have been corrected straight away.
I think it seems to be very different to the contempt of court case and scandalising the court.
The Fiji Times did not apologise, correct or anything. It was reported that they denied the charge all the time and then they even repeated the offence. It was also their second contempt of this type in a row.
The judge’s comments why he was giving the Fiji Times a $300,000 fine because of this were reported by the Fiji Sun. But I checked the Fiji Times website and their report does not mention any of this part of what the judge said.
Mr Charters the Fiji Sun today had on its front page the story of the people of Beqa asking the Prime Minister to stay on because of all the development that is happening. The other day the people in Naitasiri also said the same thing. This seems to be happening a lot. What do you say about that Mr Charters?
Fijian at Heart. I don’t know where you get this idea that I look down on locals. Perhaps you can provide me with some evidence of this …
I have said positive things about this government in the past most recently about how they whipped the country into a state of preparedness for the cyclone and the way in which Lautoka was cleaned up immediately afterwards (and looked great for the Uprising 7s). There are many things an army and military mentality does very well. There are some/many things it does not do well.
You and I don’t have to agree. We don’t have to like the same newspaper. We don’t have to support the same team. You are happy with the Fiji Sun – good for you. You think the Fiji Times is not a good newspaper – that’s fine also.
But I put my name to my comments because I believe in what I say. That has given you the opportunity to attack me, my family and my time working for the Fiji Rugby Union, which you have done. Of the things you have accused me of (‘I also know for a fact …’) the only thing you have got right is that I currently live in the UK and my mother in law is Mere Samisoni. What you have not done is debate the points raised.
These include: for all the focus the government has placed on trying to raise standards in the media industry, there is a very strong suggestion that two standards are being applied. The mistakes that the Fiji Sun (and the late Daily Post) can get away with, and the mistakes of the Fiji Times.
The recently amended Media Decree sets out explicitly two standards: Fiji TV and Mai TV (Fiji-owned) cannot enter into a joint venture with an overseas pay TV operator but FBC (Fiji taxpayer-owned) can. Why this distortion? Why would it be possible for Murdoch’s pay TV interests to own up to 85 percent of a pay TV JV but not 85 percent of a newspaper?
On the subject of the Fiji Times, yes, the newspaper screwed up. Has done in the past, will do in the future (if it survives this – Mahendra Patel may well be rich but he did not get rich through newspapers or the media. This is a nice-to-have part of this empire not a have-to-have). But the Fiji Sun has screwed up as well, as has FBC, FM96 etc. That is true of all newspapers and media because of the environment in which they work.
From my own personal experience I believe the Fiji Sun remains a deeply ethically challenged newspaper because the person who caused the newspaper to be banned by the Fiji Rugby Union still works there. That person used and abused editorial coverage to enrich themselves and the company in which he was a shareholder. The documents to show this should still be available at the Registrars for anyone who cares to check. And if you would like further evidence please contact the former CEO of the FRU who was deeply involved and completely outraged to discover this.
That’s why I respect your right to choose the Fiji Sun as your newspaper of choice. But having been on the wrong end of their prejudicial coverage before, you have to respect my right not to take their cheerleading of this government as seriously as you do.
Fijian at Heart … as if to prove my point about how fallible news organisations are, this appeared on the FBC website. One of two wholly false statements about Qarase’s status with respect to Fijian Holdings.
‘Qarase is serving a one year term after being found guilty on six counts of abuse of office, three counts on failure to discharge of duties as Managing Director of Fijian Holdings Limited.’
He was never MD of Fijian Holdings Ltd.
Yes, Charlie, mistakes in the Fiji media are chronic. My problem with your argument is that you have equated contempt or scandalising the judiciary with a routine editorial error. It is not. Maintaining public confidence in the judiciary is essential in any country. Undermining that is a serious offence and not just in Fiji.
The essence of your argument is that the Fiji Times can be somehow excused because every other media outlet in Fiji makes mistakes. That is nonsense. The judge found that even if it was a mistake, it was a mistake that was inexcusable because instituting protocols to prevent further lapses were a condition of the 2008 verdict.
You have every right to defend the Fiji Times and argue that it is being unnecessarily pilloried, even victimised. But I think you’ve chosen the wrong issue on which to mount your case. When even certain rabid regime critics ( what’s his name again? ) refuse to line up with you, surely you must realise that your argument is dead in the water.
We all know that the judiciary is independent. We know that the Fiji Sun is the better paper and we know that pigs walk on their hind legs. So close the FT and enjoy the journalism of hope the Sun is giving us so generously.
We all kno that the Fiji Times has been the paragon of excellent journalism in Fiji. It has been totally ethical, fair and unbiased. None of its editors ever had any personal vendettas or political agendas; no, it all a figament of our imaginations, we who have been reading the paper for decades. All the research showing consistent and various ethical and legal breaches commited by the Fiji Times is all rubbish. The paper was never part of the colonial establishment that published virulently racist views and comments. Paper never indugled in skirt journalism, it’s all bullshit. Could it be that the paper’s tanished record finally caught up with it? Hell, no! what tarnished record? you must be joking!! Cpuld it be the arrogance and utter disregard of some its past editors caught up with it. No way, the paper has an impeccible record!!
Very well put, Karma.
Fiji Times’ demise is lamented.
But part of the blame lies with owners and some former editors who felt all too powerful and untouchable. They lost all sense of balance.
This was so evident during the chaudhry government’s term.
Times’ found an Indian led government easy to bully.
yes, Times criticised Fijian govts.
But it saved the best for an Indian-led government.
Yes, mahen was an arse, and I have no sympathy for him.
But no denying the Times amd its vindictive editors went overboard with its campaign to oust him.
Of course there are the standard and usual denials from the Times.
If anyone has any doubts, go to the archives and read the Times’ coverage of the chaudhry government.
It will be an eye opener about the power wielded by the Times. and the kind of havoc editors can wreak with that kind of power.
The fate of the Times did not eventuate overnight.
It is the result of colonial hangover, a legacy based on arrogance and a holier than thou, preachy attitude. Len usher’s ghost still loomed large. His legacy was picked up by some expat editors and publishers.
One name – Russell Hunter looms large.
News Limited paid a pittance to its reporters and only made token attempts to provide training.
There was never ever any training budget. It was ad-hoc, with a bit of money thrown in every now and them towards the effort.
because of lack of systematic training, knowledge about media laws ethics has always been poor at the Times.
Ultimately News Limited in Fiji was consumed by its own stinginess towards its local staff. So don’t just blame the 2006 coup, Times made itself an easy target for dictator Frank.
But pardon me if I do not shed too many tears for the Times.
It paying the price for past crimes, including exploitation of local staff.
The Fiji Times represents the worse type of Murdoch right wing smugness. Hunter and Rika pursued those who disturbed the Fijian establishment with a vengeance. If the judiciary got in the way, the judiciary was attacked too. They were not afraid because they believe that Fiji was and is meant to be governed by the elite of all races, the European businessman, the Indo Fijian professional and the taukei chief and nouveau riche. The smugness continues to afflict the Fiji Times.
Charlie Charters – bro as the saying goes – “You just can’t argue with stupid !” and in this case you are wasting your breath justifying yourself to Graham and the rest of these dillusional people. A coup is a coup is a coup ! And vultures like Graham will always show up to feed off/on the misery of a dying nation.
Karia Kaluta, I agree with you that a coup is a coup, but can we say the same thing about democracy, in the Fiji context. “Dillusional” is more befitting for the “democracies” we had in Fiji.
Better a vulture than a prize turkey in this instance, KK. Dying nation? Only in the minds of the brain dead. Misery? Only for those who hanker for the swaggering arrogance of the SDL. Unfortunately for us “vultures” there’s no carcass to pick over. Fiji is alive and well and powering ahead.
Dying nation? Ho ho ho! Never mind anything anything else, the gifts of sewing machines to rural women have given real life to the rural women who have been neglected under successive nationalist “itaukei” governments. It has given them life after being left to pasture by “democratic” governments. Dying indeed.
Fiji times was set up by the Poms with editors such as len usher (mason-secret society) and his cronies (english, kaindia and I-taukei) who followed freedom of speech principles but were really promoting different agendas. FT caused racial and religious hatred between the races in Fiji, since they divided the indian/fijian labour movement after the strikes in 57.
The Gleaner in Jamaica did the samething to promote the British Govt’s neo-colonialist agenda of ruling the black masses.
White man been ruling dark skinned people for centuries and they reap monetary benefits by dividing and ruiling.
First they take your “gele” and then the mining, oil, banks, heavy machinery, pharmecutical and chemical coys, etc, make billions from resources that belong to the i-taukei. they u poor, get loan from me (IMF, World bank).
Your land and you are getting ripped off!
George Speight was going to sell the mahagony at half-price with $500,000 deposited in his acct. Mahend caught him and rest is history.
Bob marley said: u dont know who to trust children. your best friend can be ur enemy and your enemy your best friend.
the 87 coup – Dr was going to nationalise the mine and protested against nuclear testing in mururoa. (Remember french Renault trucks flowed in after 87 coup?). kai india sa taora nomu gele, etc etc – the coup happened – end of story.
the English moved Indians and Africans all around the world, so they can profit.
divide n rule eg: hindus are heathens, so people were burning n looting temples to cause fear amongst Indians so they felt in droves – christian v hindus v muslims – English gain with the help of some of our own people. The rest of the population – lako raice yaloyalo!!
at least we are lucky (even after guns were found in 88) as there was never any mass killings – peace be with you all.
fiji will come right becuase all the kai valagi countries, are currently screwing fiji, EU does not want to give the money for sugar industry re-hab, aust aid has slowed down, Kevin rudd got rid of fiji from Pac forum by giving $$ to Samoa and Tuvula – they speak on behalf of their ‘chq book mate’ against Fiji.
Some one said a coup is a coup – so were was your love in 87? no, u were brain washed by FT, Fiji Sun etc. wrongly. why? GG (Pres), PM, Commander of RFMF, commander of Police Forces, Prison services, etc had all i-taukeis at the head- no threat from indians.
all made-up to cause friction betw the races in Fiji and FT main culprit incl Vijendra Kumar – editor.
Even though a few people died after the failed Mutiny in nabua, there was no mass killings but with a race-based SDL in power 2005, the situation was rife for bloodshed -but frank put a stop to that. thank the lord.
now the table has turned: gort rid of english set up instn: GCC – why? english rule the chiefs and hence indirectly control the country – until frank came in. Evan rambo aplogised, what for? he was a puppet, the big wigs all lived off-shore. The interests of businesses (and their owners) is to big to give up – so use Mara and army to have a coup.
Okay must admit have been harsh with the dying nation comment !
@ Alu Paratha – yes lets give them women sewing machines – WOW !!! It is 2013 and the best thing that this govt has come up with is sewing machines. Magnificent! Now they can patch up their husbands sapo after they walk a kilometre or two to fetch water and after they make Alu Gaigani and Roti for their husbands and also clean the house – maybe back to the sewing machine to patch up the children’s school uniform and maybe have some time to actually sew that dress or pants that the neighbour is going to pay $10 for. How about a program to teach the MAN of the house to stop drinking grog till the wee hours of the morning, take a tea spoon of cement and harden the f-up and become innovative and make some money. yes mate keep our women where they belong … the subservient human beings that they are supposed to be.
@ Graham – one recommendation mate – FISH OIL – Omega 3 will do you some good. I would rather you quit treating Fiji (which is your birth country and mean buggerall really) like a fly in fly out mining town – pillage and plunder while you can.
@Sunny – YAWN
KK, how on earth am I “plundering and pillaging”? As if. This is in the same category as your “dying nation” comment. It’s you who needs the Omega 3, mate, though I suspect – judging from your over-extravagant hyperbole – that its reputation for warding off alzheimer’s would be wasted on you. Too late.
Graham, your posting to KK was one of the funniest I have read. I really enjoyed it. Vinaka
Karia Kaluta, I think Sunny has put time and thought into this response. You should read it and think about it instead of yawning. We are now really independent for the first time and not being controlled by the neo colonialists. We now have a true place of our own on the world stage and are not just lackeys of Australia and New Zealand governments. Wake up to what is really happening and the better Fiji that is rising.
@ Karia Dil (black heart)
How patronizing to laugh at the poor. A simple sewing machine means the difference between poverty and empowerment. But how would you know what it is like to be so desperate that even electricity is a luxury and where children cant go to school because they have to travel to Lautoka from the Yasawas to buy uniforms. As for men drinking grog, there is no law against lazy men, but guess what, when the women in the house earns by sewing, she wears the pants!!
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