Fiji

I contacted Christopher Pryde, the Director of Public Prosecutions in Fiji via email. I asked about the ad that the NZ Law Society banned and the details of the position. His reply:

There is only one at this stage but it is fairly high level. I had intended to advertise some more junior posts in a few weeks. I’m still always interested in hearing from anyone who might be interested in working in the office.

This position, as with my position and all positions in the office are non-political which means we look only at whether there is sufficient evidence for a reasonable prospect of conviction in court. As Director, the decision to prosecute (or withdraw charges) is mine alone and I receive no directions from any government minister and certainly not the military.

Here is the job ad the NZ Law Society banned:

The Job Ad the NZ Law Society banned

The Law Society is now censoring recruitment advertisements in Law Talk. The Fiji of Directorate of Public Prosecutions wanted to advertise for qualified New Zealand lawyers for positions they have available. This would of course been a good thing with New Zealand qualified lawyers able to impart their knowledge and belief on the Fijian legal profession.

Instead the Law Society has banned the adverts essentially wanting to censor the advertising of jobs in Fiji.

Christopher Pryde, the Director of Public prosecutions says:

An email to the Office of the DPP this morning (3.2.12), said “The New Zealand Law Society Board has decided unanimously that the NZLS will not accept advertisements for legal positions in Fiji under the current interim military regime”.

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Mr Christopher Pryde, said it was unfortunate that the NZLS was involving itself in politics and preventing New Zealand lawyers from hearing about job vacancies in Fiji.

“It is unfortunate that New Zealand lawyers are being denied the opportunity to decide for themselves whether they wish to take up legal positions in Fiji. By refusing to allow us the right to advertise, the NZLS is effectively censoring what New Zealand lawyers know about Fiji.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in an independent office and the Director of Public Prosecutions has the sole responsibility for criminal prosecutions in Fiji. This is without recourse to any Government minister, including the Attorney-General. The Office in that regard is non-political.

This is the bizarre part of the Law Society’s action. They think that this is a “smart sanction”. In fact it is highly dumb.

What shall we do with people charged with rape or robbery or murder? Send them to New Zealand?” he said.

Mr Pryde said he remains concerned that the NZLS continue to have an inaccurate picture of the Fijian situation, in particular of the judiciary and the courts.

“My invitation to the NZLS still stands. They are welcome to visit Fiji and meet and talk to anyone without restriction so that they can obtain for themselves a first-hand appraisal of things in Fiji. In the meantime, we would appreciate the NZLS allowing lawyers to decide things for themselves and allow us the right to advertise” he said.

Oh..so the Law Society has acted based on the inane drivel published by Barbara Dreaver and Michael Field, both of whom haven’t been in Fiji for some years and they also haven’t haven’t bothered to go anf find out for themselves the situation in Fiji.

Actions like this are stupid and hardly contribute to enabling Fiji to return to democracy. in point of fact they hinder the path to democracy by allowing the impression that independent bodies such as the Directorate of Public Prosecutions to be maligned as political corrupt.

One thing the Law Society has done though, by dabbling in foreign politics, is opened themselves up to a challenge for whatever status they enjoy with the Charities Commission.

New Zealand has responded positively to the news that emergency laws are to be lifted in Fiji.

The Government has welcomed Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama’s announcement that emergency laws in the country will come to an end on Saturday.

New Zealand has been calling for the public emergency regulations to be lifted since the Fijian military regime introduced them in 2009.

The regulations give the regime extended powers, restrict people’s rights to gather in public, and censor the media.

In his New Year’s speech, Commodore Bainimarama announced the regulations would come to an end on January 7 and a consultation process for a new Fijian constitution would be announced in the next few weeks.

Commodore Bainimarama said removing institutionalised discrimination and addressing corruption would be among the aims, the Fiji Times reported.

“The constitution must establish a government that is founded on an electoral system that guarantees equal suffrage – a truly democratic system based on the principle of one person, one vote, one value,” he said.

Frank Bainimarama is making progress in Fiji despite the best efforts of New Zealand and Australia to hinder his every step. He has announced that martial law will cease on 7 January.

Bainimarama, who seized power in a military coup in 2006, says he will hold elections in 2014.

He claimed that the existing voting system was racially based with indigenous Fijians having greater voting power than the ethnic Indians who make up around 35 per cent of the 900,000 people.

He said Fiji had been mismanaged and hindered by greed and selfishness.

“You and I must not allow a few to dictate the destiny of our country for their own selfish needs,” he said.

He warned features of a new constitution will be non-negotiable.

“The constitution must establish a government that is founded on an electoral system that guarantees equal suffrage – a truly democratic system based on the principle of one person, one vote, one value.

“We will not have a system that will classify Fijians based on ethnicity….”

Consultation would begin next month: “To facilitate this consultation process, the Public Emergency Regulations will cease from 7 January 2012.”

Sounds like he’s doing better than New Zealand to remove racism from politics.

Freshly sworn in as Foreign Minister, Murray McCully jumps straight into the job and…sticks up for a bloody unionist:

Foreign Minister Murray McCully has conveyed to Fiji’s foreign minister New Zealand’s disappointment at the regime refusing a union delegation entry to the country.

The group, including CTU president Helen Kelly, wanted to investigate allegations of human and labour rights breaches by the Bainimarama government.

It was turned away at Nadi airport.

Mr McCully says there’s direct action the Government can take.

“What we’re hoping for is that Fiji’s going to listen to the fact that the international community want to see some movement in the right direction, this is not movement in the right direction.”

He says they’re looking for signs from Fiji that there will be free and fair elections.

Sheesh Murray, you are having a ‘mare. Instead of sticking up for a hobbit hater how about making some meaningful offers to Fiji for assistance on the road to democracy. Once again NZ wags the finger and tut-tuts over Fiji.

Why aren’t we offering to send some Electoral Commission folk up there to assist? How about some experts in conducting a census? Both of things are areas Fiji needs desperate advice on before they can hold free and fair elections.

If we don’t do anything to help then China sure as hell will. Then let’s see how Helen Kelly would get on visiting and protesting China’s influence in the South Pacific.

Helen Kelly, the chief hobbit hater was detained and then deported from Fiji where she was off to stir up trouble.

The president of the NZ Council of Trade Unions and several other union delegates have been detained by Fijian authorities.

Helen Kelly and others from the delegation flew in from Sydney today on what was to be a three-day mission to investigate allegations of human and labour rights abuses by the Fijian government.

ONE News has learned the group were detained at Nadi Airport and that members had their SIM cards confiscated.

The group were due to be deported back to Australia this afternoon.

Fijian media yesterday reported that the delegation would be denied entry.

Kelly said in a statement yesterday the group would continue regardless, at the request of  Fijian unions and civil society groups.

Yeah good luck with that. A sovereign nation has denied they don’t want a union hobbit hater in their country and they have turned her away. There is no way she is ever going to get entry to Fiji.

I wish they had deported her to Siberia.

From a speech by journalist Graham Davis on jornalism and Fiji:

Judgment and integrity are the qualities that make journalists respect the facts, the confidences of those who give them information, strive to be balanced and fair, give their stories context and polish and re-polish them – however tight their deadlines – to get them as close as possible to an adequate facsimile of the truth.

And I say facsimile because journalism is the most imprecise of arts, not least because one person’s truth can be another person’s falsehood.

You can, however, strive to have integrity and judgment.

So let’s just talk about this in the Fiji context, as seen by someone like myself…born here and a former citizen, having reported local events but who’s spent a lifetime in the foreign media, on the outside looking in.

And what a picture Fiji presents right now – an entire country hostage to the premise of one person’s truth being another person’s falsehood.

So much of what is said about Fiji in the international media is woefully short of integrity or judgment.

Indeed, we live in a truly parallel universe when it comes to media coverage ….alleged versions of the truth so polarised that your ordinary reader, viewer or listener can be excused for having no idea what to believe.

Never mind your average person with only a passing interest in the country. Even so-called experts have trouble working out who’s right and who’s wrong, such is the deluge of misinformation on Fiji masquerading as fact.