The TVNZ article read ‘Doubts surround the future of New Zealander Felicity Heffernan who heads Fiji's electoral office.
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Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) online article, also parroted the news article from TV NZ and published the item, with few changes.
The excerpt of the ABC article:
Fiji Youtube election skit unpopular with interim government
Updated 8 hours 10 minutes ago
Staff at Fiji's electoral office have landed themselves in hot water over a video they made, in which they voice their frustration at the lack of progress the country has made towards democracy. In the video, which was posted on YouTube, staff members perform a skit where they say it will take a superhuman effort for Fiji to conduct free and fair elections. the skit includes New Zealand Supervisor of Elections Felicity Heffernan.
And remaining in Fiji - The United Nations and the Commonwealth have accepted an invitation from the interim government to send a Joint Technical Team to Fiji from the 9th to the 14th of February 2009. The teams will mediate the President's Political Dialoue Forum on a date to be decided. Registered leaders of each of the country's political parties and NGO's are also expected to be prepresented.
Presenter ABC New Zealand correspondent Kerri Ritchie & Geraldine Coutts.
What was quite dubious about this series of news articles, is that the Youtube video was first posted on SiFM, without attribution from TV NZ or ABC.
Further to that, the SiFM posting had added the most important caveat which was, the video was a submission to an online contest, called Democracy Challenge. Even on the Youtube page, the description of the video had clearly indicated that the video was a submission.
Both TVNZ and ABC news articles, had conveniently omitted that detail and spun their articles in a negative light, as if the video was made by Fiji Elections Office employees, gone wild. Another outrageous fact, was that no other local media agency in Fiji had been quoted, confirming the story angle about Fiji Elections Office employees being in trouble, with the Interim Government. Another new Fiji blog, Talking Fiji posting swallowed the parroted article; hook, line and sinker.
Suffice to say, this is the type of gutter type, purposely deceiving and inaccurate journalism, which the region has been force fed by the Trans-Tasman bullies. David Robie's blog latest posting also focuses on the issue of media matters in Fiji.
