Fiji Times editorial - Put up or shut up
Title -- 5386 FIJI: Fiji Times editorial - Put up or shut up
Date -- 20 March 2008
Byline -- None
Origin -- Pacific Media Watch
Source -- The Fiji Times 20/03/08
Copyright - FT
Status -- Unabridged
Post a comment on PMW's Right of Reply: PMW feedback pmc@aut.ac.nz
Fiji Times editorial:
PUT UP OR SHUT UP
www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?item=leader
Times employee handed in article: A-G, 20 March 2008
SUVA (FT Online/Pacific Media Watch): The interim Attorney-General has a duty to tell the people of Fiji who gave him the document he claims was to be published in this newspaper on March 15.
For more than a week, he has tried to create a situation in which to accuse The Fiji Times of attempting to destabilise the nation and the interim government. We have done no such thing.
On Friday, Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said he had possession of a document which had been sent to the interim Prime Minister, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, from persons within this newspaper. This is not true.
No member of staff of The Fiji Times had ever seen this document until it was shown to the publisher on Friday afternoon. It has never existed on any data base within the company.
Our investigations show that the document to which Mr Sayed-Khaiyum referred was created by Suva lawyer Graham Leung and was circulated to four people, one of whom was public relations consultant Matt Wilson. Mr Wilson claims to have been threatened by a member of the security forces and told the military had intercepted a letter to this newspaper.
For the sake of transparency, we will admit that Mr Wilson was once chief reporter of this newspaper. If this is the link the interim Attorney-General makes between the document and The Fiji Times, we are disappointed.
So what is the truth, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum?
Who really gave you the document?
And why do you continue to insist that the material was leaked from The Fiji Times when it was neither created nor received by any member of the staff in this organisation?
We had no intention of ever publishing the document. It would be impossible to publish material which we did not possess. It is pertinent to ask what agenda the interim Attorney-General has with his continued attack on the media in general and this newspaper in particular?
Perhaps it is also time for Mr Sayed-Khaiyum to make public exactly what he said in that meeting on Friday, March 14. The interim Attorney-General should be ashamed of himself for creating a situation which never existed.
For the record, these are the facts:
- The only copy of the document we saw was in Mr Sayed-Khaiyum's office
- The Fiji Times never received, created or intended to publish the document
- Suva lawyer Graham Leung, by his own admission, wrote the material to which the interim Attorney-General referred.
Should Mr Sayed-Khaiyum have evidence to disprove our stand, it is time for him to put that material to the public.
If he cannot do so, he should desist from making unfounded comments about our organisation and its staff.
It's time, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum, to put up or shut up.
* A report filed online later today by The Fiji Times:
Times employee handed in article: A-G, 20 March 2008
www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=84373
Interim Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says the article that was supposedly going to be printed by The Fiji Times was given to the Prime Ministers office by an employee of the newspaper.
"The article sent was a hard copy and it was given by a person who apparently works at The Fiji Times," said Sayed-Khaiyum.
www.fijitimes.com/story.aspx?id=84373
PACIFIC MEDIA WATCH is an independent, non-profit, non-government organisation comprising journalists, lawyers, editors and other media workers, dedicated to examining issues of ethics, accountability, censorship, media freedom and media ownership in the Pacific region. It is now published by the Pacific Media Centre at New Zealand's AUT University. Launched in October 1996, it has links with the Journalism Programme at the University of the South Pacific, Journalism Studies at the University of PNG (UPNG) and the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ), Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand. The website is hosted by the Association of Progressive Communications (APC).
© 1996-2008 Copyright - All rights reserved. Items are provided solely for review purposes as a non-profit educational service. Copyright remains the property of the original producers as indicated. Recipients should seek permission from the copyright owner for any publishing. Copyright owners not wishing their materials to be posted by PMW please contact us. The views expressed in material listed by PMW are not necessarily the views of PMW or its members. Recipients should rely on their own inquiries before making decisions based on material listed in PMW.
For further information and joining the Pacific Media Watch listserve,
go to http://lists.apc.org.au/listinfo.cgi/pacific_media_watch-apc.org.au:
Email: pmc@aut.ac.nz
Pacific Media Centre
Fax: (+649) 921 9987
Mail: PO Box 92006, Auckland 1142, Aotearoa/New Zealand
Website: www.pmw.c2o.org
Return to Pacific Media Watch