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Kiwis accused of fabricating Fiji news
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Posted on Dec 04 2000
Suva (The Fiji Times, Fiji’s Daily Post, Fiji Sun, FM96, Radio Australia/PINA Nius Online) – A New Zealand television channel has raised the ire of Fiji’s Interim Government for allegedly fabricating a news item about the intimidation of Indians in Fiji.
New Zealand’s TV News on Wednesday aired a news item showing a shooting incident which it claimed took place in Labasa, The Fiji Times reported today.
The footage showed Fijian civilians with automatic weapons allegedly shooting at an Indian school complex.
The interim administration says it will formally protest to the New Zealand Government about the contents of the news item, the Fiji Times said.
In a report to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Fiji High Commissioner in Wellington Isimeli Bainimara said the news footage included the building of makeshift sheds, reported to a refugee camp in the North.
Mr. Bainimara said New Zealand Foreign Affairs Phil Goff was asked for comment and as usual he did not hesitate and condemn Fiji’s interim administration.
“As I had not received any report of indiscriminate shooting in the last few weeks and also as the footage was suspiciously beefed up from some earlier occurrences, I immediately contacted the Acting Commissioner of Police, Moses Driver, for clarification and was told that no such incident had taken place anywhere in the North in the last four weeks,” he said.
Mr. Bainimara said he contacted the reporter who filed the story and was told the incident had occurred in Fiji in the last two weeks.
“I told him that his report was unethical and irresponsible journalism and that I would be filing an official complaint to the Broadcasting Standards Authority,” he said.
Mr. Bainimara said he had conveyed his disappointment to Mr. Goff who “was very defensive”, the Fiji Times reported.
