Fiji Government wins complaint against Radio NZ

The Fijian Government complained about an interview with on Nine to Noon on 7 March 2008. NZ rejected the complaint so they went to the BSA. And they won.

They've sent me a copy of the decision: bsa-decision-28-8-08 (large pdf) that upholds four complaints of inaccuracy.

Now I have been a pretty strong critic of the Commodore and his Government myself. But there is no reason to make things sound worse than they really are there. The four items the BSA upheld were:

  1. Radio NZ were wrong to state the management of Broadcasting was military appointed (the Board is unchanged from before the coup)
  2. Radio NZ were wrong to broadcast that a journalist had been given just 8 days notice to leave Fiji when it was 21 days
  3. Radio NZ was wrong to state a Judge who got mugged had publicly criticised a report which upheld the legality of the coup. There was no evidence the Judge had done , yet alone if it was linked
  4. Radio NZ were wrong to state the Judge's house was burnt down, when it was not

Radio NZ do not have to broadcast a correction. The publication of the finding is meant to be “punishment” enough. The BSA hasn't actually got around to putting it up on their website yet despite the decision being made on 28 August 2008.

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