ABC’s Liam Fox in Fiji to look at election preparations
25 May 2014
MERE NALEBA | Fiji Times
AUSTRALIAN Broadcasting Corporation journalist, and former PNG correspondent, Liam Fox is in Fiji for two weeks to conduct interviews on how the country is building up to its 17 September general election.
Fox said apart from being assigned to cover the build-up to the election, he was also interested in finding out whether reports of a blanket ban on the Fijian media were true.
"I'm also here to see what the media environment is all about," he said.
"I think it's pretty common knowledge there have been concerns that the media is not fully able to do its job in an impartial and objective manner.
"So once again talking to both sides of the argument, people who say that's the case and those that say no that's not the case."
Fox said although he was not able to talk to prime minister Bainimarama, he did interview social welfare minister Dr Jiko Luveni and the elections supervisor Mohammed Saneem.
"I'm here for the elections, to see what the political climate is like, to see the preparations for the elections to speak to both people who are supportive of the government, people who are critical of the government," he said.
"To gauge what people think about, if the elections are going to be free and fair, to see both sides of the argument.
"Also to speak to opposition parties how they are campaigning and if they are facing any difficulty in campaigning."
The result of his findings will be aired by the ABC.
"There seems to be a general feeling that the prime minister will win, a lot of people support him and that is interesting from an Australian point of view, so yeah, we are just talking to as many people as we can to see what the situation is," he said
Fox hopes to return to Fiji in September to cover the general election.
I just saw Liam Fox's story on the upcoming election in Fiji. The story did not contain the view of one Indian Fijian. They are a significant proportion of the population, and those most affected by the 1987 coup.
Posted by: Peter Schwarzbauer | 01 June 2014 at 08:12 PM