Fiji TV's Netani Rika describes regime intimidation
Title -- 5188 FIJI: Fiji TV's Netani Rika describes regime intimidation
Date -- 26 May 2007
Byline -- None
Origin -- Pacific Media Watch
Source -- RA Pacific Beat 27/5/07
Copyright - RAF
Status -- Unabridged
Post a comment on PMW's Right of Reply: www.voy.com/166636/
FIJI: JOURNALISTS DESCRIBE INTIMIDATION BY GOVERNMENT
http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pacbeat/stories/s1933585.htm
HONIARA (RA Online/Pacific Media Watch): A delegation of journalists from Fiji have described how they are being intimidated by Fiji's military led government. At the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) conference in Solomon Islands, they have told of receiving phone calls from the military demanding their presence at the Queen Elizabeth barracks.
The manager of news, current affairs and sport at Fiji Television, Netani Rika, has told Geraldine Coutts how he was called to the barracks.
Speaker: Netani Rika, Manager News and Currrent Affairs, Fiji Television, speaking
with Geraldine Coutts at the PINA convention in Honiara.
TRANSCRIPT
RIKA: I suppose the circumstance seen in Fiji at the moment mean that
journalists live under the threat of the gun. They're always mindful of
the fact that anything that they do can and may be questioned by the
people in authority. When that happens, they immediately begin to
practice a form of journalism which will keep them out of trouble. And
when that happens, it means that the whole truth will not come out and
therefore we live in dangerous times for the industry, for the media
industry.
COUTTS: I just wonder whether, and it's not too painful if you can go
through the circumstances of your phone call from those authorities?
RIKA: I received a phone call about quarter to nine in the morning. The
caller identified himself as a senior officer in the military,
described, told me what his position in the military was and said that,
demanded that I produce myself at the military barrack by 9 o'clock on
that morning. When I arrived, he had told me that I would be directed to
as to what to do next when I arrived at the camp. And when I got there,
my keys and mobile phone were handed in to the guards at the gate and I
was directed to a cell, where I remained for an hour and a half, before
I was verbally threatened, the safety of my family and the workplace
were threatened by the soldier, a corporal, threatened violence on me,
did not actually touch me, although he did spit on me. And about after
he left an hour and a half later, the officer who had called me,
inviting me for discussions at the military headquarters arrived,
proceeded to lecture me on the responsibility of the media in our
society and in the end said well some harsh things may have been said
over the course of this morning and hope we can part as friends, and we
parted.
COUTTS: Just again, not to put too fine a point on it, but there was
quite a bit of intimidation along with the spitting that went on, in
terms of where you were placed in the cell and their position of the
person who was interrogating you, if you like, and the instruments of
intimidation that were used?
RIKA: It's difficult if you were sitting on the floor of a cell. The
person who comes in to harangue you, stands about 6 foot 3, 6 foot 4 in
height and is about the same width across the shoulders and the person
who then who follows sits on a chair, you sit on the floor, and the
pistol strapped to his leg is directed at the level of your eyes. So
yeah, intimidation and there was a lot of a psychological battle I
suppose that went on, even while I was sitting in the cell I could hear
a conversation in the guard room, in which soldiers were attempting to
put across a message to me I suppose that people within Fiji TV were
leaking information to the military or were in collusion with the
meeting. I don't believe that any of our staff were colluding with the
military, but it was a pretty effective way of I suppose wearing one down.
After hearing this, I suppose it was meant to dishearten a person, and
then while the person is still disheartened, a big person comes in and
makes a verbal assault on you. And then at the end, someone comes in and
tries to play the good cop I suppose. It's just yeah a form of
intimidation. But you can understand that if they do it to the person
whose in charge of a news room, of course it's going to have a flaw and
effect down the line, and people are going to worry about the security
of their families, the security of their person, of their homes, and
it's then that they're going to start holding back, I suppose, it's take
a very strong willed person to stand up to such pressure. And we are a
small community. Everybody knows each other. People talk to each other
all the time. You never know when somebody is going to wilfully say
something about you to someone who has the ability or the ability to
harm you, whether physically or mentally.
COUTTS: You've had the phone call. Other colleagues here today have had
the phone call. Are others still getting them?
RIKA: Oh yes, the most recent phone call to our newsroom came just at
the beginning of this week. So the phone calls continue to come. I'm
sure that they're phone calls which come to our people which they do not
report. Unfortunately, there are cases now where people who have no
ability to do anything or have no authority within the military or
within the government to carry out the threats that they make, are
actually starting to make threats on the phone. So, do you know whose
making the call? Do you know whether that person is able to do anything
to you in actual fact and what do you do about it? Who do complain to?
COUTTS: You also expressed a concern, a fear, that when and if the day
comes, that we are all silent. What happens?
RIKA: No, Fiji's been through the coups of 87, 2000 and now 2006 and the
truth has not come out yet. About 87, we don't know the true
circumstances of what happened and who was responsible. In 2000, we
don't know who was behind George Speight. In 1987, Rabuka has always
said that it was the late Sir Ratu Kamisesi Mara who gave him the go ahead.
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