We are considering the way in which Fiji's political situation is being considered in Australia at this time. We have noted that despite his complaints that no-one understands him, Commodore Bainimarama's views are understood and continue to be heard - and rebuffed - around the Pacific Forum and in the various governments of the region, as well as by the EC, the UN and the USA. He has not been able to persuade them. He presents as one who is unable to admit he has done wrong. This is particularly the case when it comes to matters of public administration, and his conduct leading up to and following on from the coup of December 5th, 2006, is no exception. Because of his self-serving and criminal acts, he continues to grind Fiji into the ground.
But now Grubstreet media, with recent articles and interviews by Walkley and Logie Award winner Graham Davis, have stepped into the breach and want us to consider the 55 year-old military commander as something of a post-colonial hero. These journalistic attempts at painting the dictator in heroic tones have recently been featured in The Australian and on the Sky satellite channel.
In this edition of Nurturing Justice, we want to look at this exposure given to Commodore Bainimarama by Australian media.
You might like to read this material by Davis:
Ř Dictator's Plea to Kevin Rudd - let's talk to help restore Fijian democracy
or this much earlier apologia for a military takeover in the weeks leading up to the December 2006 coup
Ř Fiji Army Chief has a Valid Cause
There is, of course, much more. But for a clear and definitive rebuttal of Davis' attempt to champion Commodore Frank Bainimarama as Fiji's "best hope", the letter by Dr Jon Fraenkel, Senior Research Fellow, Australian National University is highly recommended.
Ř Coup leader has shed his claims to be spearheading reforms
Here there is one prominent issue that requires our attention. The articles by Graham Davis allow Commodore Bainimarama to promote his own self-serving definition of his illegal actions without any criticism. It is as if, for the duration of his interview, Davis forgot that he was actually engaged in political journalism, and ignores the possibility that he has become an accessory to the Commodore's treachery. Of course, Davis might say that critical questions were suspended in order to allow the "despot" to put his views in his own words. But consider the technique he has employed in this "exclusive interview" and keep in mind that his fellow Fijian journalists are not even allowed to report upon, let alone critically review, this event which was happening in their own country! Davis may presume to be "neutral" or "objective" concerning the vision of the Military Commander about the future of Fiji and the South Pacific. But he is the one whose name appears above this article in The Australian, and it is he who they see on Sky Channel - he may in effect say to his readers and audience "you be the judge" but his "objective" presentation of the Military Commander's views takes place while this "objective" presentation is simply out of reach to Fijian journalists. And further, the results of this privileged access to Fiji's criminal military commander are only able to be published because outside Fiji the freedom of the press is maintained.
In his "Despot for Diversity" article, Davis tells us that he was shocked to see Frank Bainimarama raise his hand Nazi-style and exclaim "Heil Hitler" as he responded to a salute by a uniformed non-commissioned officer. Unfortunately for Davis, this article and other things he has written, plus the TV interview, read as an obedient salute to this military dictator. There is something reckless in this pursuit of a "good story". Davis, the journalist, may allow the military strong-man to explain himself in his own words, but where is the sustained critical edge to his questions when Bainimarama tries to justify the ban on Fijian political journalism? Presumably, Bainimarama would welcome Davis's kind of journalism to become the norm in Fiji once the state of emergency is lifted.
As you read these articles and watch the interview, ask yourself whether they were designed merely for consumption in Australia? Were they merely aimed to educate people outside of Fiji? I don't think so. They present the Military Régime's selling of the Military Commander; they give voice to his propaganda about his contribution to Fiji and yet these views are set forth within a Fiji media-context where no critical questions can be asked. That is the perverse aspect of this reporting. Because of this, we judge the journalism of Davis, the editorial decision of The Australian to publish, and of Sky Channel to air the interview, as blatant and manipulative violations of press freedom in Fiji, since this is material which, from the side of the interviewee, is intended to lend support to his military régime's suppression of the media and the curbing free speech!
Consider: will not any Fijian journalist who wanted to criticise Graham Davis's interview or articles in Fiji be prevented from doing so? Of course. That is what the media suppression is all about. But could the same Fijian journalist freely write a rebuttal of the content of these items for an Australian or New Zealand media outlet , as freely as Davis has done under the aegis of the illegal reime? Hardly. They might well do so, and Fiji civil society has many brave citizens, courageous journalists among them. But such a journalist would be putting him/herself in danger. He or she (and The Australian, Sky and Graham Davis) would know about the thuggish intimidation and constant press that has faced Fiji's journalistic corps since December 2006. The editor of The Fiji Times was under continual harassment just before the abrogation of the constitution, when the final semblance of the rule of law was still in place. Now, however, it is rule by Presidential decree at the behest of an unscrupulous lying Military régime. Lying is simply a part of the strategy by which Fijian society is kept under the heel of the military. No criticism is allowed. And the articles and interview by Graham Davis do nothing to challenge that suppression of press freedom.
One wonders how or why News Corp has condoned this kind intra-organisational demoralisation of the journalistic profession? Does its global network of professional journalists count for nothing when there is a good story to be had from a military dictator? Their internal organisation policy is not only destructive; it is inherently self-destructive. In this News Corp seems to manifest similar tendencies, although not as far advanced perhaps, as Bainimarama's administration - an inner decay in the administration of just governance.
We conclude that Davis's latest journalistic efforts are seriously deficient and we go further and judge his compliant attitude toward the military régime as an attack on press freedom - even if it is unintended it is still an attack. These articles are evidence of a dogmatic and un-self-critical search for a "good story" whatever the cost, and in this case it is at the expense of the other journalists who are unable to do their work in Fiji.
What are we dealing with in this decay of just governance which has also manifest itself in the journalistic profession? There are many difficult questions to address. We will attempt to address some of these in subsequent editions of Nurturing Justice. Our view is that Davis's portrayal of Bainimarama as Fiji's "despot for diversity" is a journalism framed by a "neo-neo-colonial" attitude which is prepared to support the suppression of press freedom in the search for a good story. His fellow professionals in Fiji deserve something much better than what he has unkindly presented to them on this occasion.
Nurturing
Justice encourages
a sustained Christian political contribution by seeking justice in the gentle
and merciful rule of Jesus Christ, the ruler over all of the earth's political
regimes.
May
2009 © The
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