Fiji rights group lashes out at NZ, media

A leading Fiji human rights group has launched a fierce attack on Foreign Minister Winston Peters claiming he was trying to "curry favour" with New Zealand's "media empire" in an election year.

Fiji Human Rights (FHRC) chair, Shaista Shameem, also bitterly attacked a Fairfax Media journalist, Michael Field.

Her organisation is the constitutionally independent guarantor of Fiji human rights but she has become a strong supporter of Fiji's military and in a report last year claimed the deposed government was committed to genocidal behaviour towards minority Indians.

Her attack on Mr Peters was in response to his claims her commission was acting at odds with human rights principals.

"The NZ Foreign Affairs Minister is clearly currying favour with the media empire in NZ in what is an election year for him," she said.

"He is taking on the cudgels on behalf of a number of NZ press outlets, for example the Dominion Post, which have grossly misrepresented the Fiji situation since December 2006,"

Shameem said Peters' Government had passed the "draconian" Electoral Finance Act which "effectively muzzles" people commenting on Government policies.

She attacked the New Zealand Human Rights Commission, saying it failed New Zealand voters.

"Mr Peters is advised that the anti-corruption strategies currently employed by the Interim (Fiji) Government and supported by the FHRC will have the effect of preventing people like his NZ First MPs from using state funds to purchase their personal clothing items, such as underwear. Mr Peters should recall that particular embarrassment [the ‘Tuku Morgan underwear' saga] to his party 10 years ago," Shameem said.

"Fiji's interim government's national agenda will also prevent NZ First ethno-nationalist-type political platforms from taking root in Fiji. No one who lived in NZ in the 1990s will ever forget Mr Peters' racist, anti-Asian, NZ First political platform and progroms [sic]," she wrote.

 "Mr Peters would be well-advised to tend to his own backyard first as he prepares to attend the Foreign Affairs Ministers meeting of the Pacific Island Forum starting this week."

The FHRC earlier this year published a study on the independence and freedom of the Fiji news media. It called for tighter controls, which Peters criticised.

In her statement today Shameem claimed Michael Field had a negative impact on that report.

"The FHRC's media report findings, particularly of interference with Fiji's internal affairs by NZ media conglomerates and journalist Michael Field, are completely on point as a critique of media neo-colonialism, paternalism and racism," Shameem said.

- © Fairfax NZ News