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WELCOME HOME on Fiji Media: 'Many journalists just don't do their job'

2/5/2017

5 Comments

 
The AWOL media began to become more than obvious as serious organised crime got going in performance gaps. In Nadi Town from 2005 a series of murders of business people began. Mostly, these attacks by cane knife took place at the entrance or gate to the victims' homes or place of business.

On 16 September 2006 a father was attacked arriving home just after 8pm and the attack was witnessed. The case dragged on for several years. The perpetrator even escaped from custody outside Lautoka High Court and got himself to India for a period of time. The small baby left behind in Nadi with his mother was only two months old. The couple had been to New Zealand for fertility treatment. No newspaper nor directly contacted Nadi or Lautoka journalist would touch this grizzly story nor the 2005 earlier one.

The names of reporters who failed to measure up are known and some still work in the Fiji media. Women were also murdered: in nightclubs; on beaches and others were routinely threatened with harm of one kind or another. Then .......Police Post Bures were serially set on fire in what now may be termed 'terrorist arson'. The aim was seemingly to strike fear and despair into the local population already besieged by home invasions, rapes and violent assaults.

The press were given plenty to work on but they chose to 'play mum'. Meantime, some of the family members where husbands had been killed, chose to leave for Australia or New Zealand to seek solace and safety. We did not discourage them. We actively assisted them to do so with alacrity. What standing or rating does the Fiji Media deserve from Reporters Without Boders? Sanctuary for a Fijian female journalist was sought in 2002 before she left to go to Eire/N Ireland. Her weight had fallen to a dangerously low level and still she was under duress in her Suva-based job.

Where was the support she required in Fiji? Why was there so little professional backing for those reporters and women police officers who wished to perform appropriately in a pervasive climate of threats and fear? The Chambers of Commerce were not ignorant of the facts. They were challenged - they shamefully failed us.
5 Comments
Samjoe
2/5/2017 11:51:32 pm

So tell us Thakur Ranjit Singh what is the quality of journalism in the
" New Fiji " created by your coup heroes Frank Bainimarama and Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum?
Has it got better in the political environment we now have under coupist Bainimarama and Khaiyum's rule?

Reply
Dekho
3/5/2017 12:37:04 am

Yes, that's true. Since the 2006 military takeover Many journalists in Fiji have not been doing their job in the way the profession demands they do their job. They have been cowered into submission by political coercion. But what's worse is that some spineless journalists started to sing the praise of the repressive rulers. They know who they are. And, we know who they are. They are the most shameless lot.

Reply
Tomasi Tabanidalo
3/5/2017 07:47:19 am

A lot of journalists are serving self-interest and playing into the hands of the political powers. Some has lost all dignity and self respect. Fiji times carries a lot of dead weight with former Fiji sun rejects like Fred Wesley, Elenoa Baselala, Lice Mavono to name a few. Fiji sun's new breeds are all flowing with the tide as it is financing their bread and butter. They are so deep into FF tunnel that no light can ever be seen. Fiji times lost its integrity for inciting the 2000 coup with its anti-chaudhary agenda. Fiji sun is doing the same by demolishing the opposition at every opportunity. Print media is a lost cause in Fiji.

Reply
Welcome Home
3/5/2017 10:28:29 am

A newspaper conspicuous now by its absence but never forgotten - the Daily and Sunday Post - was responsible for serious dereliction of duty to inform and to safeguard its own employees. Invariably, Editor/Managers were culpable. In 2005 when crimes of a most serious nature in the Rakiraki area came to light- the failure to act or respond upon information led to suspicion that the Editor must be complicit. This was shared with then Police Commissioner Andrew Hughes. Likewise, Chambers of Commerce boards must fall into the window for their failures to show serious, humane interest after reliable data was passed in the absence of Police response. A correction must be made to date of Daily Post journalist receiving SOS sanctuary prior to going away to Eire: it was prior to May 2006 election and tensions were high. The fate of DP is now history but some very unpleasant characters worked there. We would need to wonder about the 'offer' of a Police Post within a 30min radius in rural areas of Fiji? After twelve years of arson attacks and a frequent failure to respond to a variety of complaints including signing the police post Register at Lomolomo every fortnight for visits made when a bailed rapist failed to have a Bench Warrant issued against him over nine months in 2009, this seems one promise 'Beyond the Pale'.

Reply
Welcome Home
5/5/2017 06:37:25 pm

It is reported today that a number of Police Posts are to be closed. Are we kidding? The Vuda Police Post was Officially opened in late September 1999 by HE late Tui Vuda and later Vice President and then President of Fiji Ratu Joseva iloilovatu Uluivuda. Indeed, the local community after approaching the Tui Vuda traditionally in Viseisei had invited him to state where he believed the Police Post should be located. He made it clear that the Vuda Marina was preferred due to its risk profile for various criminal activities. He was 'Spot On'. The Turaga Na Tui Vuda had been approached as a direct result of the arson attack upon the Hindu Temple at Vuda Point Road. Many residents attended a Public Meeting held at The Anchorage Resort as they were fearful of repercussions. They were right to be. On May 19 2000 hell broke loose in Muaniweni and in riots in Suva with Parliamentarians taken hostage for 56 days. The Vuda Post was also the first Police Post to be visited in W. Division by Police Commissioner Andrew Hughes shortly after arrival in Fiji in 2003. He was invited to Afternoon Tea and met with many members of the public of all communities. There would need to be rational thinking behind the closure of the Vuda Point Post. Over many years it has served the community in the most exacting of times.

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