Roland Koroi
AUCKLAND: The New Zealand Press Council has ruled against the Sunday Star-Times newspaper for an article on Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama which was deemed "grossly inflated".
NZ Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully complained against the article written by reporter Michael Field, who has been banned from Fiji.
In the January 30 article, headlined "Fiji dictator’s World Cup freebie” and “Military hard man can’t be kept out”, Field wrote that New Zealand faced the “embarrassment” of being “forced” to host Bainimarama and former naval commander Francis Kean during the Rugby World Cup.
The article featured photographs of Bainimarama and Kean with a caption stating that they “would be exempt from the visa blacklist imposed after the 2006 coup”.
McCully argued that the assertions were incorrect and “grossly inflated”.
He also claimed that various assertions, including the headlines and caption failed to meet journalistic standards of accuracy, fairness and balance.
Ruling in McCully’s favour, the Press Council said a fair voice was not sought to balance the claims made in the newspaper report and the complaint was upheld on the grounds of a lack of accuracy, fairness and balance.
The Fiji government has regularly attacked the credibility of reports written by Michael Field – accusing him of bias and writing false and misleading articles against Fiji. - Fiji Broadcasting Corporation/Pacific Media Watch
Pacific Media Watch
