Crosbie Walsh
HOROWHENUA: The Pacific Freedom Forum (PFF) was established "with the specific intent of raising awareness and advocacy of the right of Pacific people to enjoy freedom of expression and be served by a free and independent media". Its chairman is Susuve Laumaea, based in Papua New Guinea, and the co-chair is Monica Miller in American Samoa.
PFF is registered in the Cook Islands.
The forum is to be commended for much of its watchdog work and its concern about the present lack of media freedom, as it is defined by PFF, in Fiji is understandable but -- with their predisposition to fault the Fiji government on every move, see government boggies in every cupboard, and their apparent need to rely on secondhand information -- they sometimes get things wrong.
The recent report on their website, faithfully republished by Radio NZ International, cites deputy editor Sophie Foster's "sudden leave" as evidence of "confusion at the top of the Fiji Times [which in turn] is a reflection of the further deterioration of media freedom under the
interim regime".
Laumaea takes it further, saying "there’s no longer an independent news outlet in Fiji."
But how come Losalini Rasoqosoqo, a reporter for the Fiji Sun (a paper the PFF claims is gagged and pro-government), reported from Suva about this same "turmoil at the top" before going on to write that "fellow journalists, speaking on condition they were not named, said they believed Rika was forced to go following a meeting between Motibhai executives and Swinstead"?
And on Sophie's absence: "There was speculation in the Fiji Times newsroom that Foster was not happy at being bypassed and [Sunday Times editor Fred] Wesley appointed."
The PFF were right about turmoil at the top, but not in this instance about the lack of media freedom or the probable, or at least equally plausible, reason for Foster's absence from the newsroom.
* PFF website:
http://www.pacificfreedomforum.org/2010/10/spin-and-silence-reign-as-fiji.html
DAVID ROBIE GETS IT ALL RIGHT on Café Pacific: "The doomsday brigade is quickly at it again with its tenacious state gagging scenario at the Fiji Times. Media voices trot out the same tired old media freedom clichés about the fate of the ex-News Ltd newspaper that did so much to dig its own grave.
"Café Pacific prefers to keep an open mind and see what Motibhai’s new publisher, Dallas Swinstead, can produce. Give him time. A breath of fresh air and a strategic rethink of how to go about being an effective newspaper faced with the reality of a military-backed authoritarian regime. A real challenge ..."
* Full article on Café Pacific:
http://cafepacific.blogspot.com/2010/10/back-to-future-at-fiji-times-and-it.html
* Professor Crosbie Walsh is the retired director of development studies at the University of the South Pacific.
- Croz Wash's FTWIWICB/Pacific Media Watch
Pacific Media Watch
