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Banned reporter Barbara Dreaver hits back at Bainimarama: 'He was MAKING UP FACTS FOR A SPEECH' says the TVNZ Pacific correspondent

10/6/2016

8 Comments

 

"To make up facts for a speech in front of an international audience is beyond me. My story showed children picking grass. Their teachers had told them to because there was no fuel for the motor mower. We didn't say they were eating grass. The story did feature a teacher saying children were turning up at school hungry. They objected to that story because it showed poverty, and that schools had not been receiving funding from government...TVNZ did not have any footage showing tanks in Fiji." - Barbara Dreaver

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Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama was "making up facts for a speech" when criticising New Zealand media yesterday, says a journalist who has been banned from the island nation.

At a banquet to welcome New Zealand Prime Minister John Key, which was also attended by New Zealand reporters, Mr Bainimarama defended blacklisting some journalists and described New Zealand media as "generally hostile".

"Certain journalists in New Zealand and Australia and certain journalists in Fiji think nothing of dispensing with the facts if they get in the way of the politically-motivated narrative they want to tell. We are saying to the news organisations that employ them, send someone else," said Mr Bainimarama.

TVNZ Pacific correspondent Barbara Dreaver and long-time Pacific reporter Michael Field are among those banned from Fiji.

Mr Bainimarama cited TVNZ footage of military tanks in the streets of Suva, even though Fiji had no tanks. He also referred to a claim that Fijian children were starving and eating grass.

This referred to a story by Ms Dreaver in 2008, which was also screened in Fiji.

Ms Dreaver said Fijian media had been told this report was the reason she was expelled, deported and subsequently blacklisted.

"To make up facts for a speech in front of an international audience is beyond me," Ms Dreaver said today.

"My story showed children picking grass. Their teachers had told them to because there was no fuel for the motor mower. We didn't say they were eating grass."

The story did feature a teacher saying children were turning up at school hungry.

"They objected to that story because it showed poverty, and that schools had not been receiving funding from government," said Ms Dreaver.

"At that time, they were trying to win the hearts of people. Experienced Pacific correspondents like myself, Michael Field and (Australian reporter) Sean Dorney were going into villages and doing real stories."

Ms Dreaver said TVNZ did not have any footage showing tanks in Fiji.

Before he left for Fiji, Mr Key had said he planned to discuss the blacklist with Mr Bainimarama.

"I think it's an important step from their point of view to take these journalists off the banned list. I can't force them to do that but I do think it would be the right thing to do," he told reporters.


At Thursday night's banquet, Mr Bainimarama said he wanted to "confront the issue head on".

"No one who reports on events in Fiji fairly and in a balanced manner is excluded. Any journalist is free to criticise my government or me in an opinion piece or report criticism by others in their news stories," said Mr Bainimarama.

But Ms Dreaver said the prime minister and other officials effectively had the right of veto over such stories.

"If you're doing a critical piece (about him), you have to get his comment. If you don't get his comment, it doesn't happen."

"There have been critical stories about Fiji by foreign reporters who have not been banned," says Ms Dreaver.
Ms Dreaver visited Fiji for the first time in eight years as a reporter last weekend - but not for long.

She was given special permission to land for just one hour to change planes for a trip to Kiribati alongside Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett. Source: Radio New Zealand

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"Prime Minister [John Key], history records that in December 2006, a group of us decided that the steady marginalisation of not just one ethnic group but many ordinary and everyday Fijians had to stop. The repeated attempts at nation building in Fiji were constantly being eroded by sectional interests and the elite, who sowed ethnic, provincial and religious division to maintain their grip on power. We had lost tens of thousands of our best and brightest people, who had given up hope in Fiji after the coups of 1987 and 2000. The same elites - with their potent mix of ethnicity, religious chauvinism and provincialism – had coalesced again and were posing another grave threat to national unity. And so we embarked on a revolution to create Year Zero in Fiji. To finally provide every citizen, irrespective of ethnicity, gender, province or social status, with a level playing field. To create a common and equal citizenry. A common identity. Everyone a Fijian. And the constitutional, political and social framework for every citizen to move forward together as you have done in New Zealand and which every country is entitled to do. One nation. One people." - Bainimarama

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8 Comments
Samjha
10/6/2016 10:20:12 am

Frank Bainimarama does what all rogue rulers do : crackdown on critical journalism and critical journalists. He wants only one kind of journalism and journalists : the kind that sings his praise and sucks up to him and his government. That is the kind of " democracy" he has established in Fiji.

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Dekho
10/6/2016 10:30:59 am

That picture of John Key on the red carpet with the dictatorship installed, over dressed military commander Naupote and his military cronies looks so colonial . One white big man looking over the native sepoys!

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Hing Rat
12/6/2016 08:20:22 am

Hey Bayah.

I have to confess I had a chuckle over your post! Very apt description!

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Welcome Home
10/6/2016 10:42:01 am

Hypersensitivity to factual and verifiable information may easily be avoided by application of S M A R T. Specific/Measured/Achievable/Relevant/Timebound. It is used by all professionals these days and school children who are IT immersed. CNN is noteworthy for its SMART reporting and U.S. President Obama applies and uses the term frequently in his speeches. Omission of this tool is instantly recognisable and raises doubt about integrity of data and sources. Opinion is of course another category entirely but democracies must welcome intelligent and thought-provoking views from the widest arena possible. Otherwise they stagnate and regress.

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jml
10/6/2016 11:49:53 am

How low will these low lifers go? And John Key was neighing praises at them.

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Aaraam Se link
10/6/2016 12:15:09 pm

I failed to understand why had the Govt. spent so much to host the NZ Premier.Making matters worse,our Fiji PM ran out of issues and started to attack foreign Journalists without any reason while they were not even present to defend themselves due to ban placed on them.The Fiji PM did expose his stupidity,lack of knowledge/diplomacy,arrogance and above all do'nt give a damn attitude making it absolutely certain that he has ran out of gas and come 2018 ,he would be history.It is easy to be on the top by military backing,but it is difficult to remain on that top most position forever.The Fiji PM should not boast for what tomorrow may bring.If the Fiji PM thinks he can handle the media,than he should take the Journalists head on.....And not be a coward and criticize a Journalist on matters which she/he had never reported.I am sure Mr.John Key regretted his decision to visit Fiji.The Fijian PM stooped too low.He should allow the Journalists in if he is not scared of the truth.He should also allow our own Professor now on blacklist and banned.Come on,PM Fiji is not your freehold property.Your reasons to ban these individuals do not hold any ground.Its sheer arrogance,and that does not last long.

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Socho
10/6/2016 09:19:29 pm

How does one go about " making up facts " - by LYING?
Well, Bainimarama, Khaiyum and their cronies ( Pravin Bala, Ashneel Sudhakar, Koya etc) are no strangers to LYING. That is a well known fact.

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Welcome Home
12/6/2016 07:11:41 am

The most pernicious form of lying is perjury. Lying in a Court of Law to achieve an outcome injurious to a particular party. This has been directly observed in court in Fiji and the beneficiaries of perjury are still round and about. When perjury is permitted to avail and the judiciary is held in contempt a pathway to anarchy is prepared. Too many necessary pillars of integrity are undermined at a single blow. This is why trained and fearless Court Reporters are essential to the Rule of Law. The witnessing of a single blatant act of perjury in open court shall never be erased. It has far-reaching ramifications which may not readily be undone.

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