Fiji’s Bainimarama secures pariah status as worst dictator in the Commonwealth
Posted by ZoeWare - 19/07/09 at 07:07 pmCommonweath media NGOs condemn the Fijian government’s paralysis of free speech and free press.
“Media organizations through the Commonwealth have compared notes to conclude that Commodore Frank Bainimarama’s prime achievement as dictator of Fiji is to have attained the worst media reputation in the Commonwealth. With that comes the paralysis of basic human rights – free speech and free press – and the pursuit of policies so retrograde as to drag down his beautiful country socially and economically at huge price to its wonderful people,” the Commonwealth Journalists Association says.
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Category : Human Rights
Tags: Fiji, freedom, Human Rights, journalist, media
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July 29th, 2009 at 12:38 pm
NZ?s foreign minister believes Fiji will be fully suspended from Commonwealth
Posted at 23:35 on 28 July, 2009 UTC
New Zealand?s Foreign Affairs Minister, Murray McCully, says he believes Fiji will be fully suspended from the Commonwealth at some stage.
The country is already suspended from the Councils of the Commonwealth, and the Minister says there has been no positive movement since Commodore Frank Bainimarama?s regime abrogated Fiji?s constitution in April.
Mr McCully, who?s on his way to London for a meeting of the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group, says the retirement of Fiji?s President, Ratu Josefa Iloilo, is unlikely to influence the outcome.
?It doesn?t materially change the nature of the game, it really just adds another building block to the many that are there an array of illegitimate actions and I think that we should regard this as business as usual with the interim regime.?
Murray McCully says the meeting will hear a report on the situation from the Pacific Islands Forum.
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July 31st, 2009 at 7:57 pm
[...] Fiji was suspended from the councils of the Commonwealth in December 2006, following the military overthrow of the Pacific Island state?s democratically elected government. Fiji remains in contravention of the Commonwealth?s fundamental political values of democracy, human rights and the rule of law. See here for an example. [...]
August 5th, 2009 at 9:26 am
Commonwealth Secretary-General says media censorship of Fiji is ‘deplorable’ in Australian radio interview yesterday: http://www.radioaustralia.net.au/pacbeat/stories/200908/s2645941.htm