Lloyd Burr
WELLINGTON (TV3 News/Pacific Media Watch): Fiji’s runaway military chief Ratu Tevita Mara invited the media to a community function in Wellington last night - then banned them from asking or recording anything.
Mara organised the function to allow Fijians living in New Zealand to ask him questions about his former boss, Commodore Frank Bainimarama’s regime in Fiji.
But on arrival, members of the media, including 3 News, were informed that a recording ban was in place and they could only sit in on the meeting.
Media were also told they could not ask questions if they stayed for the meeting.
Earlier yesterday, at another meeting, Mara condemned media censorship.
“With the media censorship in Fiji, nothing is getting out and the international community does not know anything about what [Bainimarama] is doing,” he said.
Mara’s spokesperson, Pro-Democracy Movement president Sai Lelea, also said that he “would like to acknowledge the role the press plays in a free, democratic society”.
But last evening, the press was banned from playing any role in reporting the voices of those Fijians in New Zealand concerned about the military regime back home.
The reason for the ban was to protect the identities of those who turned up so they wouldn’t be blacklisted by the Fiji government.
Lelea said Fijian people living in New Zealand were scared of being identified because if what they said got back to Bainimarama, they might not be allowed back into Fiji.
The meeting is just one of many this week for Mara, who met earlier today with officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
He would not say what occurred in the meeting or if there was any outcome.
Mara also meets with the Maori Party today.
He will head back to Tonga before making his way around the Pacific to garner support against Bainimarama’s regime.
Laura Frykberg's Nightline report on Ratu Tevita Mara and the media
Pacific Media Watch
