The United Front for a Democratic Fiji says its survey on media bias is hard evidence political reporting there is not fair and balanced.
Transcript
The United Front for a Democratic Fiji says its survey on media bias is hard evidence political reporting there is not fair and balanced.
UFDF says it researched the Fiji Sun and Fiji Times newspapers from the first of April to June the 18th to find out how the Bainimarama government and opposition groups were covered.
Its coordinator, Mick Beddoes, says the Bainimarama government, the Media Industry Development Authority and the Fiji Sun have all said the media is fair, but this data proves them wrong.
He told Mary Baines while the data speaks for itself, it is unlikely anything will be done about it.
MICK BEDDOES: They talk in general terms about the fact that media is free and media is fair. So there is only one way to determine whether what we actually all can see constitutes in real terms a bias, or if it's just the fact they get so much coverage that we consider it to be bias. So I thought there's only one way to do it and that is to go and actually survey all the newspapers. You will see from the actual percentage that we managed to capture, that it is a reasonably high percentage.
MARY BAINES: The findings show the Fiji Times is more balanced in its reporting with 58 percent covering the Bainimarama government, but the Fiji Sun coverage for the regime never dropped below 73 percent. How did you get this information?
MICK BEDDOES: I first established the categories. What I call the top billing, whether there was a headline with a picture on the front page, a headline with what we call just a bold introduction of the article inside the papers and therefore the front page picture, how often does the party get it or a particular organisation, and then the front page article. Not always is the picture relating to the article on the front page. And then we counted by the number of articles.
MARY BAINES: Were you surprised by what you found?
MICK BEDDOES: No, for me it was simply an endorsement about what we have already articulated. I have been attacked by the Fiji Sun in particular for making unsubstantiated remarks about them being bias. Well I now can categorically state that I was talking about facts. All of this is in breach of the Media code of ethics and practices.
MARY BAINES: Do you think the Media Industry and Development Authority is doing enough to hold these media outlets to account?
MICK BEDDOES: Well on the performance to date, the answer to that question is absolutely not. I have some pending complaints with the Media Industry Authority and they haven't acted on it and mine is some four, five months old. Yet the minute a chief made a comment they spun on it almost immediately and raised merry hell.
MARY BAINES: So do you think that from this information that you have got together, anything's going to come of it? MIDA is going to do something about it?
MICK BEDDOES: I don't expect any of the organs of government prior to the election will do anything to compromise Frank Bainimarama and the Fiji First and any of their other players. What is important though is by being specific about the information we now have, even with the margin of error, it is still an overwhelming confirmation that media bias exists in Fiji and essentially that's what we wanted to determine and we have now determined that. So whether they do anything or not about it, you know, that's up to them. But if they don't do anything about it, then they're simply confirming what the perception is about the neutrality about certain organs of government.
The Media Industry and Development Authority chairman, Ashwin Raj, says he is not available to comment.
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