Australian Broadcasting Corporation On Notice
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) says it stands by its report of the claims made by the National Federation Party in a letter to the Supervisor of Elections against FijiFirst general secretary Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum.
An ABC spokesperson told the Fiji Sun that the article titled ‘Fiji’s Attorney General caught in extraordinary dispute days out from the national election’ was based on numerous sources familiar with the story which included a response from the election office.
In the letter, the NFP claimed it was told that Mr Sayed-Khaiyum was present at the printing press on the morning of December 1 and had ordered that CCTV cameras at the printery premises be turned off.
It also claimed that Mr Sayed-Khaiyum had refused to leave the premises when the FEO staff and police requested him to leave and only left the premises after the Supervisor of Elections was called to the scene.
The ABC spokesperson said the story revealed important allegations regarding the Fiji election and the independence of electoral processes which Fijians and all audiences have a right to know about.
In a press conference on Thursday, Mr Sayed-Khaiyum refuted the claims by the NFP and questioned the credibility of the ABC and its journalist in Fiji, Lice Movono.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum claimed the ABC had decided to run a story on claims by NFP without covering a major response by the Supervisor of Elections.
He said the ABC story did not report the fact that the ballot papers stopped printing three days prior to the date mentioned in the letter.
He also said the ABC and the journalist in question never got in touch with him to verify the claims.
ABC Response
An ABC spokesperson said the fact that ballot papers stopped printing three days prior to that was reported in the radio and online stories.
“We had also published an Editor’s Note on the video of the live TV story to ensure this piece of information is included there,” the spokesperson said.
“Also a detailed digital story which includes responses from the Supervisor of Elections on the ABC News website was published.”
The spokesperson also confirmed that the ABC did attempt to contact the Attorney-General’s office for comment before the story was published.
The spokesperson said Movono had worked with the ABC for many years and she was dedicated to independent, impartial journalism that keeps audiences informed.
FEO Responds to ABC
Supervisor of Elections Mohammed Saneem said the FEO had received a very unsatisfactory response from the ABC, in which the media organisation has completely failed to show responsibility as a media organisation and demonstrated a high level of defensive behavior.
This Mr Saneem said was despite being given more sufficient information,
ABC logo. evidence and facts to demonstrate that Ms Movono and ABC were wrong.
Mr Saneem said ABC had been put on notice of which they would need to retract the story and issue a public apology before 4pm Saturday.
Failure to do this, the FEO will take legal action which would mean limited to canceling ABC’s accreditation to cover the 2022 General Election.
“We have also asked some pertinent questions in relation to the ethics and journalistic principles adopted by this particular news organisation in our response to them today (Friday),” he said.
“It is rather shameful at this stage that we have to do this. That despite being shown so many facts and evidence, it proves that their story was wrong.
“Yet, the ABC is so reckless and is continuing to publish these stories without any sense of responsibility, rather than shameful at this point.”
Meanwhile, Ms Muavono was not present at the FEO press conference on Friday afternoon.