Fiji Media Inc.

Fiji Media has come across some important challenges recently in two different stories, one dealing with Fiji TV's recent tango with the Police and the other with the book launch by Fr. Kevin Barr.

First story titled "We Were Denied Media Freedom" was paraphrased from Fiji TV's lawyer appears in an article by Fiji Times and covers the recent arrest of Fiji TV crew for disobeying a lawful order. "Freedom of the Press is limited to those who own one", a quote from A.J Liebling, which Cafe Pacific writer David Robies corrected me on in a sterling post.

The excerpt:

We were denied media freedom'

ERNEST HEATLEY
Thursday, January 24, 2008


POLICE detained and interrogated a television crew for five hours yesterday for allegedly "disobeying a police order" while covering a school dispute in Nasinu.

Reporter Emily Moli and cameraman Shalendra Datt were ordered into a police van and removed from Rishikul Sanatan College where they were assigned to cover the dispute between the school management and the principal.

Their arrest follows claims by Superintendent Waisea Tabakau of the Valelevu Police Station claimed that the two had failed to abide by a lawful order.

He had told the crew that they were interfering in police business by filming the goings-on at the school yesterday morning.

The pair said they were at the school property at the invitation of Rishikul College management.

SP Tabakau and about 20 officers of the Police Tactical Response Unit arrived at the college, escorting ousted principal Mahendra Pal.

Mr Pal was locked out of the college on Monday by an angry management who refused to acknowledge him as principal.

Ministry of Education officials and the police attempted to have Mr Pal reinstated.

As the officers escorted Mr Pal into the college, SP Tabakau ordered the TV crew to leave.

When they continued filming the event, the senior officer told the journalists they were "disobeying a police order."

Fiji TV Legal Manager Tanya Waqanika described the detention as "totally baseless and totally unjustifiable." "We were denied media freedom," she said.

"Our journalists were shooting inside the private premises on the invitation of the school management." Two more Fiji TV employees were detained at noon after they shot footage from outside the school compound on a public walkway.

Reporter Edwin Nand and cameraman Trevuz Chung were told to get into a police van. They were also told by SP Tabakau that they had disobeyed a lawful order.

They were released a short while later along with the equipment that police had seized.

Ms Waqanika said they would lodge a complaint with the Police Commissioner and the Fiji Media Council on the treatment.

The other story in another article from Fiji Times titled "Media Owners Distort Electoral Process: Barr", covers the gate keeping role of the media during elections.

Media owners distort electoral process: Barr

Saturday, January 26, 2008

MEDIA ownership by a few rich elite has been cause for specific distortion of the democratic electoral process, poverty activist Father Kevin Barr claims.

In his book Thinking About Democracy Today, which was launched earlier this week, he said the media was used to protect the interests of its own class and suppress any criticism of the status quo.

"Their particular influence can affect the outcome of an election," he said.

If "big money" is needed for democratic elections, then democracy can never be truly inclusive of the people, Father Barr writes.

The issue of media freedom has been under the spotlight for some time particularly since talks of a legislation to govern the industry was introduced by previous governments, he said.

"The internal policies of those who own media networks seriously curtail the news which filters down to us. They decide what we should see and hear and what we should not see and hear.

"The media moguls mostly come from families of the extravagantly wealthy who have a particular perspective on the world. Consequently much of what is reported to us is far from neutral," Father Barr said.

He said those who reported the news were not free to report the news and were subject to certain fear because of inbuilt policies and prejudices of those they serve.

The Fiji Times Editor-in-Chief Netani Rika who has served the company for 15 years said while the company was owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Limited, he had never once received a call from him or the publisher dictating how the newspaper should be run or what news to cover.

"Our newsroom is an independent operation within The Fiji Times and we attempt to report all the news, fairly and truthfully. We report without fear or favour. We welcome all views that help broaden our news coverage and our doors are open to everyone.

"If Fr Barr takes issue with the news we do or do not cover, he is welcome to bring the matter to us," Mr Rika said.

Communications Fiji Limited's Managing Director William Parkinson said it was a shame Fr Barr did not take the time to meet with media organisations to research these issues fully.

"Instead it would seem he has stuck to the usual sweeping generalisations thrown around by the misinformed. If he conducted real research he would find a very different story actually exists," he said.

Questions sent to Fiji Television Limited remained unanswered.

The usual defense by the Fiji Times and Communications Ltd. Perhaps consumers of Fiji news should look into Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting(FAIR) website and the contents, reinforces Barr's views on the matter.



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Aust, NZ Relax Travel Ban.

A task team of the National Council for Building a Better Fiji (NCBBF) said it appreciates the decisions of New Zealand and Australia to relax the travel ban on those involved in drafting a people’s charter for Fiji.

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Who Has The Fastest Downloads In the Pacific?

Coconut Wireless comments on the recent deal(termed Radisson accord) regarding the deregulation of Fiji's telecommunications industry.
While an Island Business article reviews the players in the ISP sector and their promises to bring broadband to Fiji.
The excerpt of I.B article:

Broadband at Long Last?
But bumps on the superhighway may make the wait longer.

Dev Nadkarni

Hope may be round the corner for Fiji's Internet services consumersfrustrated with snail-paced access speeds, dropping throughputs, linebreaks, and other assorted woes. Come May, the country's surfers couldbe whooshing the web at broadband speeds, downloading songs, even movie clips, at blitzing speeds. For, offering wireless broadband connectivity is I-Pac Communications Fiji Limited, a joint venture between Australian company I-Pac and Fiji's leading broadcaster Communications Fiji Media (CFM).

The joint venture announced the service last month at a press conference in Suva. A licence for operating the service had been issued to the company as long ago as in 2001 by the ministry of information,communications and media relations.

The service provider's technology is wireless throughout, thus completely independent of the telecom network. From sourcing its bandwidth from FINTEL to distributing the service to homes, offices and people on the go, the technology is wireless.

"Access speeds begin at 256 kbps (kilo bits per second) and go up to 1m (mega) bps," says John Pollock, I-Pac's executive chairman. This would be a bonanza for most users, as presently, dial up customers can hope to get connected at a top speed of 56 kbps, though the averagerarely exceeds 33. Users having to share a connection on networks are far worse off.

Besides, the advantages of a wireless connection are obvious. Consumer scan be connected to the network at any place where the wireless network exists. To begin with, this means places around the Suva-Nausori-Lamibelt, Nadi, Lautoka and parts of the Coral Coast -an area that comprises most of urban Fiji.

CFM's radio towers at strategic locations on Viti Levu will be instrumental in providing the wireless network. Consumers wishing toget on to the service will however have to buy some hardware -a special modem whose base version is expected to cost around F$ 300 (versions with hub-capabilities will cost higher). CFM managing director WilliamParkinson says these modems will be made available through consumer electronics stores nationwide.

I-Pac's licence covering radio frequencies of 2.3 to 2.4 and 3.4 to 3.5GHz (giga Hertz) matches with that of Sydney's wireless services provider Unwired, thereby enabling Fijian customers to connect to the Australian network seamlessly whenever they visit Sydney and forUnwired's customers to do so when they are in Fiji. This is a major selling point for tourists, says Pollock. Similar wireless networks exist in New Zealand and are being introduced all over the world.

A connection to the web is just one facility that the service offers.It also has capabilities of voice transmission and delivering a pay TV channel on an Internet Protocol (IP) platform. But Pollock is vary. "We will not provide voice transmission services," he says. "And not pay TVat least for some time now." I-Pac's guarded approach to questions ontelephony and television are understandable. For both voice telephony and television are holy cows in Fiji and anything concerning the two need to be dealt with carefully.

Already, the announcement of the service has caused a stir that could grow into a full-blown controversy in the coming months complete with legal wrangles. Telecom Fiji has gone on record in the past that itcould not recognize any licence that allows provision of Internet services to parties other than its subsidiary Connect, thanks to the exclusive right to terminate all calls within Fiji. The company says its has legal opinion that holds that this exclusive right precludes any other entity providing such a service.

In fact, there are said to be six or seven ISP aspirants whose applications are pending for this very reason. Telecom Fiji has its own reasons for holding on to exclusivity pending deregulation and the absence of any road map and an interim plan and of course the deadlock on its tariff rebalancing proposals (see accompanying story on tariffrebalancing).

But the new wireless entity claims to provide Internet services completely independent of the telecom network, so the question of interconnection does not seem to arise, which is perhaps the reason the company was given a licence to operate by the communications ministryin the first place.

When contacted for his reaction to the new wireless provider's announcement, Lionel Yee, chairman of Amalgamated Telecom Holdings(ATH), the holding company that owns Telecom Fiji and its subsidiary Connect, did not comment, saying that a statement would soon bereleased by Telecom Fiji.

In reply to queries from Islands Business, Telecom Fiji publicrelations manager Salote Uluinaceva issued a statement saying: "Thetelecommunications industry is currently a strictly regulated market.This is a licence issue and we are reserving our position. Our lawyersare currently examining the issue. There should be an agreed road mapto a deregulated market."

In the months preceding the December announcement, the ministry ofcommunications had apparently tried to sort matters out betweenI-Pac/CFM and ATH concerning the conflicting perceptions of exclusivityand one might have thought the matter had been resolved. Telecom'scryptic statement seems to point the other way, though.

Undeterred, Pollock and Parkinson are going ahead with their plans.Technical testing would progress in the coming months and a testservice would be up by April, says Pollock. From a business standpoint,the company plans to cash-in on the pent-up demand for broadband accessin the country and expect a part of the approximately 10,000 dial-upcustomers will switch allegiance. The company is still working out itspricing plans. As for bandwidth, there seems to be plenty to spare: ofthe 32 Mbps available from FINTEL in Fiji, only 18 Mbps is in use.

For Fiji, broadband may well be round the corner. But it looks likethere will be a few bureaucratic and legal bumps to negotiate on thesuperhighway before surfers can really see themselves whooshing off.

Doing a little checking on the advertised speeds claimed by some companies, I decided to compare their claims and the actual speeds as measured using an independent speed measuring website called Speed Test.

Connect Fiji has a complicated pricing framework for their advertised download speeds.





FINTEL also is offering broadband services.



Vodaphone's new 3G network also has claims of super-fast speeds.



Results of the speed measurements in Fiji are as follows:

ISP comparison of download speeds in Suva.




ISP comparison of upload speeds in Suva.



Download speeds in Nadi.




Upload speeds in Nadi.



To compare with other nations.

Australia's broadband speeds divided by region.



New Zealand download speeds, divided by city.



New Caledonia download speeds.



Guam download speeds.



Northern Mariana download speeds.





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Australian defence homes returned to Fiji’s interim Govt.

SUVA, FIJI ---- Fiji’s interim government has taken possession of three out of the 10 defence homes located in Suva’s exclusive Domain Road area.Fiji Military Force spokesman, Colonel Mohamed Aziz confirmed to the regional news agency, PACNEWS the three homes were returned to the interim government last week.

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Fiji's Tax Agency Happy With Court Order.

The Fiji Islands Revenue and Customs Authority is happy that the Lautoka High Court has told Natural Waters Viti Limited to pay a bond before they export Fiji Water until the 31st of January.

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Fiji Water granted leave to export

Fiji Water has been granted leave by the High Court in Lautoka today to resume exports of the product until January 31. The court will then sit further to deliberate on the matter, it was ruled today.The court sat at 9.30 am today. No further information was available immediately.

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Monday ruling for Fiji Water case

The High Court will rule on Monday whether the Fiji authorities can continue to block Fiji Water exports to the USA.A special court sitting to hear the matter, brought by Fiji Water Limited on Thursday, took place in the High Court in Suva today, and has been adjourned for ruling in the High Court in Lautoka.

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Fiji Water sues Fiji tax department

Natural Waters of Viti Limited, the manufacturer and exporter of Fiji Water, announced today that it had filed court proceedings against the Fiji Islands Revenue & Customs Authority (FIRCA) to resume exports of Fiji Water.

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String Theory On A Political Dimension in Fiji.

Stumbled upon an interesting paper titled "Historical Analysis of Population Reactions to Stimuli- A Case Study on Fiji" a document authored by Sen Kikkert and Patricia Dexter from Australia's Department of Defense, Department of Defense Science and Technology-Land Operations Division.

It is debatable how a pseudo Historical Analysis case study is being churned out by a Department of Science and Technology. However, when considering the Fiji's Interim Government's plan for a Lands Use Commission as published in a recent Fiji Times article; the document may have some value from a macro perspective, despite some historical flaws and socio-political, geo-political minimization. For example, Rory Ewins's research on Fiji's 1987 coup is a micro analysis.

The excerpt of Fiji Times article:

State approves land body

VERENAISI RAICOLA
Wednesday, January 16, 2008

The interim Cabinet has approved the formation of a Committee on Better Utilisation of Land which has been aggressively opposed by a Fijian political party.

Cabinet based its decision on a submission by the interim Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama yesterday.

Commodore Bainimarama said the committee came about as a result of a resolution by the interim Cabinet last year that the Ministry of Fijian Affairs team up with the Native Land Trust Board and the Provincial Administration to approach landowners regarding ALTA leases that had or were about to expire.

But Soqosoqo Duavata ni Lewenivanua Party spokesman Peceli Kinivuwai said the interim administration should not be suggesting the formation of such committees.

Mr Kinivuwai said Fijians were wise enough to utilise their land and find solutions to their own problems without influence from outside sources without a mandate from the people.

"Our party does not see the need for non-Fijians to deal with our land," said Mr Kinivuwai. He found it strange that members of the interim administration proposed to resolve the land issue when it did not belong to them.

Mr Kinivuwai said as opposition leader in 2002, Mahendra Chaudhry had engaged in talks with the elected government on land and later backed out.

"It simply does not make sense that after backing out then, today Mr Chaudhry says he has solutions to the land problems," said Mr Kinivuwai.

He said landowners needed to be consulted over such a sensitive asset.

Commodore Bainimarama said four teams with representatives from the Ministries of Indigenous Affairs, Provincial Development and Agriculture, the Department of Lands, the Native Lands Trust Board, as well as the provincial councils would visit and meet landowners in key areas in the central, eastern, western and northern divisions.

"The teams would explain to landowners the possibilities and benefits of re-leasing their land to tenants wishing to pursue farming activities," said Commodore Bainimarama.

The interim Prime Minister said land was the most productive resource of every country and provided wealth to many.

"Fiji was blessed with good climate, productive land, keen and skilled farmers and yet we cannot fully exploit the land," he said.

"The Fijian landowners who own almost 90 per cent of all land on communal basis have unnecessary fears that their land can be alienated or removed by tenant farmers who are largely Fiji Indians.

"Politicians and nationalists caused reluctance among Fijian landowners from leasing their land because of absolute misadvised lies and political manipulation espoused by narrow minded politicians and other individuals.

"The ultimate result has been a national disgrace, loss of livelihood for landowners and the tenants as well as loss of farm knowledge and skills."

He said Indians lived in Fiji for close to 130 years and had never taken an inch of Fijian land held under customary ownership.

"The perception of uncertainty and fear instilled in the minds of landowners needs to be removed and this can be done through a massive outreach campaign organised and funded by the Government to expose and educate the Fijian landowners about the many good things which continued leasing of land would bring to them, tenants and the country as a whole."

"The Fijian landowners are now also increasingly realising the many disadvantages they are facing as a result of their unwise decision not to continue leasing their lands," said Commodore Bainimarama.

He said the consultation would convince landowners to lease their land.

The committee will comprise the Permanent Secretaries of the Prime Minister's Office, Indigenous Affairs, Provincial Development, Lands, Agriculture and the chief executive of the Native Land Trust Board while being chaired by the Permanent Secretary for Indigenous Affairs.

The committee will also examine the relevance, viability and acceptability or otherwise of NLTB's proposal for some incentives to be offered to the landowners and a paper on this will be prepared and taken for Cabinet consideration in their next meeting.

Reactions to the story was published in Fiji Times "Have Your Say" Column, igniting vitriolic postings bordering on racist.
Fiji's Interim Prime Minister, realizing the dangerous under current, was quick to condemn the negative spin on the proposed initiative, from fear mongers with an ethno-nationalistic mindset. Teresia Teiawa's paper underscores the complexity and dove tails into the population stimuli thesis raised by the paper.


The except of Fiji Times article:

Voreqe condemns land use critics

1454 FJT
Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Update: 2.58pm INTERIM Prime Minister, Commander Voreqe Bainimarama has strongly condemned suggestions that the interim Government's proposed land use initiative is geared towards changing land ownership.

And he has called on those making those comments and SDL party not to mislead the landowners and politicise the land issue but let landowners decide what is good for them. He has warned politicians and nationalists not to create unnecessary fear and whip up the emotions of the landowners.

"The traditional Fijian landowners who own almost 90 per cent of all land in the country have unnecessary fears that their land can be alienated or removed by tenant farmers who are largely Fiji Indians," Commander Bainimarama said.

"The reluctance of Fijian landowners resulted mainly from bad advise, lies and political manipulation espoused by narrow-minded politicians and other individuals."

"The Fijian landowners are now realising the many disadvantages they are facing as a result of their unwise decision not to continue leasing their lands."

[Bainimarama]said the proposed initiative by the interim Government has nothing to do with ownership of the land or changing land legislations and policies but it was to generate interest amongst the landowners for better utilization of their land.

It is also ironic to note that this "Lands Use Commission" was a concept floated by Fiji's 1999 democratically elected Government and it has been argued that the issue was used a political ammunition by elements supporting the status quo. Suffice to say, the same fears being echoed from the same elements of danger.






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Please review military’s role: Fiji PM

Fiji’s military head and interim Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama has asked the National Council for Building a Better Fiji to review the role of the military.

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Fiji Water and FIRCA In War of Words Over Value

The Fiji Islands Revenue and Customs Authority (FIRCA) has rejected claims by Natural Waters of Viti Limited (bottlers of Fiji Water) that the company was making a loss of $3-4 million after the tax authority blocked Fiji Water exports in what it described as “inconsistency in terms of the value of water being exported”.

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USA slates FIRCA over Fiji Water

The US State Department today entered the fray between Natural Waters of Viti Ltd (bottlers of Fiji Water) and the Fiji Islands Revenue and Customs Authority after FIRCA blocked exports of Fiji Water citing inconsistency in terms of the value of water being exported.

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Some straight shooting over Fiji crook who was bashed

Poneke has written about the silliness pervading our media with anything to do with Fiji and the Ballu Khan case in particular. He (is it a he or a she) correctly notes that BK is closely aligned with bent deposed PM Qarase. That means that some of Khan’s business dealings under Qarase’s corrupt regime may well have come to the attention of the authorities as they battle to clean Fijian politics and business up from essentially 40 years plus of corruption, nepotism and favouritism that the old system operated under. The same system that the Ratu’s pillaged for personal gain until Bainimarama took over.There is also a old adage in Auckland that if Peter Williams is representing you then dollars to a knob of goat shit you are as guilty as hell.My mate Adolf also points out the almost required foolishness of our media.

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Tax authority blocks Fiji Water exports

FIRCA chief executive officer Jitoko Tikolevu explains that it is a valuation issue.He says FIRCA deals with the pricing of all the water being exported from Fiji.“There is some inconsistency in terms of the value of water being exported, shown in the export documents in our own source of information,” he told Fiji Live.

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Prelude To The Sol.

Mazaworld published an article on climate change that was actually set in Fiji, titled "Meltdown Fiji" and was part of the Al Jazeera series called Witness.

Part 1 of Witness on Kabara, Fiji.



Part 2 of Witness on Kabara, Fiji.

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Fiji govt names permanent secretaries

Fiji’s interim Government has retained the 19 permanent secretaries to support the reconfigured 12-member Cabinet and named an acting PS for Agriculture.In a statement today, Public Service Commission Rishi Ram said Richard Beyer, a current employee of the Agriculture Ministry, will act as permanent secretary while the position is advertised.

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National Council to have 45 members

The proposed National Council for Building a Better Fiji (NCBBF) will have a total membership of 45, the interim regime has revealed.It will comprise members of a number of civil society organisations, provincial councils and the Government.

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More Vice Than Virture-NLTB's General Manager.

Happy New Year to All S.i.F.M readers.



Native Lands Trust Board has found itself under fire from many quarters regarding the lease for Seventh Day Adventist education institute, also known commonly as Fulton College.

A Fiji sun article quotes from the landowners who won a decision from Fiji's Appeals Court that concluded that Native Lands Trust Board had erred in issuing a lease without the succinct approval from the landowners. Apparently the current General Manager of Native Lands Trust Board, Semi Tabakanalagi actually issued the 75 year lease documents, according to the landowners.



The excerpt of the Fiji Sun article:

Clan loses faith in NLTB
Last updated 1/2/2008 8:33:22 AM

A group of landowners who issued an eviction notice to an educational institution says it has lost faith in the Native Land Trust Board.

Yavusa Salatu had issued an eviction notice to Fulton College after the NLTB and Australasian Conference Association a branch of the Seventh Day Adventist Church which manages the college failed to discuss the issue of a 75 -year lease to the college.

Yavusa Salatu spokesman Jo Waqa said the eviction notice was issued only because of the frustration of the landowners and their lack of confidence in the NLTB and its general manger Semi Tabakanalagi.

The landowners claimed that in 2002 Mr Tabakanalagi had issued a 75-year lease to ACAL without their consent. "It was he who in 2002, as deputy manager NLTB, issued a 75-year lease without the consent of the landowners who then obtained an injunction against the NLTB. This injunction is still in place today," Mr Waqa said.

Mr Waqa said the landowners were frustrated because despite the military clean-up campaign, Mr Tabakanalagi was promoted to general manager. The landowners regretted the eviction notice but Mr Waqa said NLTB and ACAL had denied the landowners what was rightfully theirs. Efforts to get comments from Mr Tabakanalagi were futile.

NLTB board chairman Ratu Epeli Ganilau said he was still in Taveuni and was not aware of the allegations. He referred all queries to Mr Tabakanalagi. The SDA church also refused to comment on the issue.

Fiji TV article reveals the state of frustration on the part of landowners, who seemed to be given the run around by the NLTB. The excerpt of Fiji TV article:

Fulton College served eviction notice
31 Dec 2007 00:53:45

On the eve of the New Year, the management of Fulton College has been served with an eviction notice, to vacate and remove all their buildings and structures. The Yavusa Salatu in Tailevu says they had no choice but to issue the notice as school management had failed to engage in further dialogue, over their compensation claims that's worth millions of dollars.

Transpacific Union Mission President, Waisea Vuniwa says they have received the eviction notice and have handed the matter to their legal counsel at Howards. Upon receiving legal advise, they will determine their next course of action.

This is the eviction notice served to the Australasian Conference Association Limited, which operates the Tailevu School, Fulton College. The notice is signed by the heads of three mataqali claiming to be the legal landowners from the Yavusa Salatu, that owns the 100 acres of land where the college seats.

The notice is effective from tomorrow, which gives school management 30 days to vacate the school, and to remove all their buildings or structures. This group that hand delivered the eviction notice this morning. What the landowners are asking for are damages worth millions of dollars, following a High Court case in July this year that, there were not properly consulted when the lease was issued to the College.

The Fulton College principal is away in Australia; the Vice Principal is on leave and could not be reached for comments. The SDA's Transpacific Union Mission that looks after the school could not be reached for comments when this bulletin was prepared, as management was attending a meeting over this eviction notice.

According to the NLTB website, the organization was aware of the lease expiring as early in 2002 and the press release also acknowledges the differences between the landowner and the tenant; which probably explains why the NLTB via Tabakanalagi illegally extended the 75 year lease without the landowner's approval. The 2007 Appeals Court decision literally threw a spanner in the works, of manufacturing consent for landowners and it is probable that similar actions by NLTB have yet to receive media attention.

Radio NZ International article explains briefly on the decision by Justice Filimoni Jitoko. The excerpt:

Fiji teacher training college may be forced to close

Posted at 22:46 on 19 July, 2007 UTC

The future of a regional teacher training college operated in Fiji by the Seventh Day Adventist Church has been thrown into question following a Suva High Court ruling yesterday.

Fulton College in Tailevu about 50 kilometres from Suva has been training teachers for church schools since 1940.

The Fiji Times reports that an action brought by traditional landowners sought a court declaration that part of the land on which Fulton College is situated is native reserve and therefore cannot be eased to anyone unless it is de-reserved.

They took the matter to court when the Native Land Trust Board was in the process of issuing a new lease after the previous lease expired in 2005.

In his judgement, Justice Filimoni Jitoko noted that the Native Land Reserve Commissioner in the 1950s, the late Sir Ian Thompson, had ruled that 40-hectares of the 200 hectares used by the college should be returned to the landowners.

Justice Jitoko said the plaintiffs’ land was declared native reserve in 1983 and the NLTB must act now to rectify the situation by consulting with the landowners and the Seventh Day Adventist Australian Conference Association Limited.

"The landowners claimed that in 2002 Mr Tabakanalagi had issued a 75-year lease to ACAL without their consent. "It was he who in 2002, as deputy manager NLTB, issued a 75-year lease without the consent of the landowners who then obtained an injunction against the NLTB. This injunction is still in place today," Mr Waqa said. "

Furthermore, the current NLTB General Manager has a cloud of disrepute hanging over his head as earlier S.i.F.M posts have outlined.

NLTB man denies collusion claims

By MAIKA NAGALU

A senior Native Land Trust Board officer had defended himself against allegations that he was used by Tui Tavua Ratu Ovini Bokini to alter some land leases to landowners. Board deputy general manager operations Semi Tabakanalagi denied the allegations by some members of the chiefly household landowning unit in Tavua that he had been colluding with the Great Council of Chiefs chairman on land leases.

[Tabakanalagi] said he was not working with Ratu Ovini for criminal intent but for working relationships only since he is the chief of the vanua of Bila and is the traditional head of his landowning unit.

"Collusion for criminal intent is an absolute no and is categorically denied," said Mr Tabakanalagi. He said that he only worked with Ratu Ovini on official matters relating to his work."The Tui Tavua is the supreme chief of the vanua of Tavua and is the traditional head of his mataqali Tilivasewa. His views and decisions on land they own is to be respected and is to be considered," said Mr Tabakanalagi.

NLTB is empowered to deal with native land, he said, for the benefit of native owners and basically "this is our benchmark in the decision-making that we make in our business". Members of the chiefly household landowning unit had filed their complaint to the Anti-Corruption Unit at the beginning of this week citing two cases where Mr Tabakanalagi allegedly altered leases to two of the landowners.

"I am all confident we have made the right decisions in the cases involved," he said. "Two of the cases", Mr Tabakanalagi said, " are still in the tribunal court".

Ratu Ovini did not want to comment and referred all queries to his traditional spokesman.Tavualevu Village spokesman Apisalome Uuisova said they had already called a vanua meeting where the group that had filed complaints to the military is also expected to attend for a resolution.

It is now emerging that every land deal Tabakanalagi was involved in, seems to reverberate with impropriety, including his board seat with Yaqara Studio City project which was addressed in the SiFM post titled "The Trouble With Native Land Administrators".

Other contested cases heard in Fiji court, is the Mahogany plantation landowners who took NLTB to task and subsequently won their case, as described by Radio NZ International article.

Fiji Native Land Trust Board weighs up options following court ruling on leases

Posted at 06:54 on 07 March, 2005 UTC

Fiji’s Native Land Trust Board is considering its options in the wake of a Court of Appeal ruling that all 99-year leases on native land outside urban areas are illegal.

The legal challenge was brought by a landowning unit whose land was leased by the NLTB to the government for 30 years to plant mahogany before the board cancelled the old lease in 1974 and issued a new one for 99 years.

But, the NLTB’s deputy general manager, Semi Tabakanalagi, says the ruling is just one case and doesn’t mean there will be a flood of similar litigation. He says the ruling only applies to those such leases that were issued on undeveloped areas before 1984 regulations which allow the board to issue 99 year-leases.

“Basically, as I said, we are looking at our records on other leases that may be affected because of this ruling. We’ll have to look at our leases portfolio and look at the different terms and different users and then assess which ones fall into this category as was decided upon in that case.”

Semi Tabakanalagi says appealing the Supreme Court decision is an option for the board.

Sadly, Tabakanalagi downplays the precedence of the Mahogany case, as with the Fulton case and this underscores the dubious motives of the person.








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