WHAT ON earth has happened to Radio New Zealand? Or rather, Nights host Bryan Crump? He has apparently dumped professor adjunct Crosbie Walsh, the most informed New Zealand-based blogger and commentator on Fiji affairs (naturally you would expect this calibre as former and founding director of the development studies programme at the University of the South Pacific). Walsh is such a tonic after the plethora of one-eyed and sensationalist anti-Fiji blogs that clutter cyberspace.
According to Walsh, Crump rang him last night, saying he didn’t want the blogger/commentator on any more on Nights programmes. Why? Apparently because Walsh “feels too strongly” on Fiji issues (why not? … he lived there for more than eight years) and he “borders on the emotional” for this programme.
Crump added: “It’s not what a lot of my colleagues want to hear.” Take this as you wish. Three more planned programmes on Nights for Walsh for June, September and November have been canned.
Crump reckons the Nights spot works best with “commentators” and Crosbie is seen as an “advocate”. In fact, Walsh goes to great lengths to get some sort of balance in his blog commentaries, something sorely missing with many media commentators on Fiji. To be fair to Crump, he did invite Walsh to a symposium on Fiji later this year and, according to Walsh, was keen to interview him early next year.
From all reports, Walsh had an enthusiastic response to previous Nights programmes. This has got Café Pacific wondering, especially when it is considered how unbalanced both Radio New Zealand and Radio Australia frequently are on Fiji commentaries. Opponents of the regime regularly have a field day, but many commentators who try to provide a bit more depth into explaining the Fiji “revolution”, as Auckland University’s Centre for Pacific Studies political sociologist Dr Steven Ratuva described it last week, or are not sufficiently PC or are too “soft” on the regime, are sidelined.
A good example of this was a “stacked” Radio Australia feature by Bruce Hill marking the anniversary of the abrogation of the Fiji constitution one year on – four interviewees with a vested interest against the regime: Deported Fiji Sun publisher Russell Hunter – an Australian now living in Apia with an editorial production/management role with the Samoa Observer; an Australian judge, Ian Lloyd, who ruled against the regime; Australian National University professor Brij Lal – one of the three architects of the abrogated 1997 constitution; and Fiji Law Society president Dorsami Naidu versus Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum. Where was the independent commentator to balance this line-up?
Dr David Robie is an associate professor in AUT University’s School of Communication Studies and director of the Pacific Media Centre. He is a former head of journalism at the University of the South Pacific.
Read David Robie’s Café Pacific blog for more on this issue.
David Robie
