Phony Fiji Sun

Somebody should let Fiji's self-appointed bully-in-charge Voreqe Bainimarama know the 'www' in URLs stands for 'World Wide Web'. Censoring a newspaper in a small South Pacific nation is easy. If the Fiji Sun and Fiji Times were the only papers on the planet putting Bainimarama's antics to print he'd be a Prince of Democracy.

But they aren't. And he ain't.

Hillary Clinton's recent trip to Australia brought a straightforward, and brief, Australian Associated Press wire report headlined Push for Return to Democracy in Fiji:

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the United States will work with Australia to push for a return to democracy in Fiji.

"We're going to be working together with Australia to persuade the military government in Suva to meet its commitment to bring back democracy to Fiji," Ms Clinton told an audience in Melbourne on Sunday.

It's no surprise this bit of news wasn't run by either of Fiji's two gov't-censored papers. And I guess it's not surprising that the Sun, a grimy tabloid even before Bainimarama dispatched a military overseer to its newsroom, ran an article headlined 'Bid to isolate Fiji fails as Washington steps up contact' that mentioned Clinton's visit to Australia but NOT her quote regarding the return of democracy to Fiji. In fact, it amateurishly reports what 'is likely to have been discussed' -- a full day after the wire report detailed EXACTLY what was discussed. An example of Bainimarama's wishful thinking becoming wishful and wildly inaccurate reporting. The Sun doesn't allow the sharing of individual articles, so here it is, in its entirety, with more wishful reporting in bold:

Australia’s campaign to isolate Fiji for its failure to hold early elections has backfired, with the US and other important powers side-stepping Canberra to build influence with the Fijians.

Kevin Rudd’s tough policy towards the Fijian Prime Minister Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama, inherited from the Howard government, is failing and could damage his campaign to win a UN Security Council seat for Australia.

A switch in approach towards Commodore Bainimarama, to hold him to his promise of elections in 2014 and help in preparations, is likely to have been discussed when Foreign Minister Rudd and Defence Minister Stephen Smith met Hillary Clinton and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates in Melbourne for annual talks.

In recent weeks, the US has intensified contact with Fiji, as part of a new foreign policy of being more "visible and effective" in the Asia-Pacific region, partly to counter China’s rising power.

Mrs Clinton included Fiji's Foreign Minister, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, in a meeting in New York with senior Pacific leaders, and her assistant secretary of state for East Asia and the Pacific, Kurt Campbell, who is also in Melbourne, told a congressional committee the US wanted dialogue with the Fiji regime as long as the 2014 election date was firm.

"[Fiji] is the centre, sort of architecturally, of transportation and the like in the Pacific," Dr Campbell said.

"It is high on the American priority to figure out if there's a way that we can be helpful in engaging diplomatically. We are stepping up our co-ordination and dialogue with New Zealand and Australia, who we also believe have key critical interests in Fiji."

Fiji's UN envoy, Peter Thomson, said that he had been assuring foreign officials that the 2014 election timetable was "set in stone".

A new US embassy building soon to be opened in Suva will now include a regional office for an expanded aid program in the South Pacific, it was announced last month, in a step to compete with China’s vigorous civil aid and growing military ties, which are filling a vacuum in training and equipment created by Australian and New Zealand sanctions.

Note the mention of China's "vigorous civil aid and growing military ties" at the article's end. Reads like a threat ... because it is.