Asia Pacific Network: 3 February 2001
MEDIA: 'PACIFIC EDITOR STIRS UP INTERNET STORM'
"A New Zealand academic and Fiji's feisty and diverse independent media have been slugging it out in a brawl spanning the internet," claims Pacific magazine in its February edition. What it doesn't tell its readers in the unsigned article, is that its southern edition editor-in-chief Peter Lomas is the person who stirred up the internet "brawl". Nor does it tell its readers that the magazine downloaded a copyright photograph of media academic David Robie from the USP journalism website Pacific Journalism Online without permission to illustrate the article.
By PETER LOMAS
if the magazine was up-front with its readers
Pacific (inc Islands Business) Magazine
- link only!
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY
Pacific magazine's distorted online version of 'NZ academic stirs up Pacific storm'
Significantly different from the print version - including even the heading.
Independent reports on the Fiji Times and media standards issue
Radio Australia's Pacific Beat interview with David Robie on the Fiji media
The "Coup coup land: The Press and the Putsch in Fiji" paper that caused the fuss
Readers' views - post your comment on the Toktok feedback page
BRIEF POINTS about the Pacific Magazine article, "New Zealand academic stirs up Pacific storm", pp 42-43, in its February edition:
The article purports to be an "objective" account, when in fact it is an unsigned diatribe skewing the facts. The editor-in-chief, Peter Lomas, should come clean on his role and reveal his conflict of interest for the readers at large.
The article uses a 12-round boxing match metaphor (13 rounds in the online version) but offers no result. Every boxing match has an outcome - a knock-out, TKO, a win on points, or a draw. It is quite obvious the blue corner had no argument, hence the bitter personal attacks.
The only "slugging" has involved the Fiji Times and PINA. I guess, in their arrogance, these organisations see themselves as the "Fiji media" when in fact there are seven major media groups in the country, plus the PINA secretariat.
Pacific magazine's "Suva newsroom" research is so cursory that it does not even have a copy of the article that is being published and which it claims that some of the media has critiqued. I never made any hard copy of my paper available at the December conference, nor did I make it available for publication on the JEA conference website. Nor have I published it on any of my websites. In fact, it will not be published on my websites until it appears in a journal - which is the normal academic process. Other websites acquired premature copies and published them - and as discussion was in the public domain, I provided appropriate links to those independent websites.
Neither the Fiji Times nor Pacific magazine have ever approached me in good faith for a copy of the actual paper. PINA Nius Online went public with a story that seriously misrepresented the paper without contacting me or checking that it had a copy of the actual paper.
The so-called Fiji Times "rebuttal" failed to make its point - it was a rambling letter based on hysterical personal abuse and dishonesty.
Fiji Times editor-in-chief Russell Hunter is misleading in the quoted statement claiming that he wrote an editorial defending my academic freedom. He is referring to an editorial on 31 August 1998 and that was published after I wrote a letter of complaint to him about bias in the Fiji Times.
Pacific Magazine has downloaded a copyright photograph of me from the USP journalism website Pacific Journalism Online and published it without permission.
While the magazine purports to be giving an objective account, it made no mention of independent and professional news media coverage of the affair outside of Fiji - such as Radio Australia's Pacific Beat, which was balanced and fair. Nor did it mention the journalists who support my analysis.
While Pacific magazine was reasonably thorough in its acknowledgement of titles and status of the selected media executives it quoted, it was sloppy and unprofessional when naming the USP academic staff - such as Dr Biman Prasad, Dr Mark Hayes and Professor Scott MacWilliam - by selectively leaving out their titles.
Pacific magazine's sanitised account of Dr Prasad's statement did not publish these quotes:
"The Association of USP Staff believes that Mr Robie is being unnecessarily defamed ...
"I am sure that you will defend Mr Robie's right to speak as an academic and if the Fiji media disagrees with him then it should be debated publicly and David's paper should be given coverage by the media and not only their criticism of the paper."
Finally, while the Fiji Times is described as "award-winning", there was no mention made by Pacific magazine of the standing ovation for the USP Journalism programme website which won the premier Dr Charles Stuart Prize at the Ossie Awards presentation in Mooloolaba - an event the three Fiji journalists witnessed for themselves.
No other Pacific journalism programme has matched that honour.
David Robie, Cafe Pacific publisher
Pacific magazine's distorted online version of 'NZ academic stirs up Pacific storm'
Significantly different from the print version - including even the heading.
Independent reports on the Fiji Times and media standards issue
Radio Australia's Pacific Beat interview with David Robie on the Fiji media
The "Coup coup land: The Press and the Putsch in Fiji" paper that caused the fuss
Readers' views - post your comment on the Toktok feedback page