The Fijian Elections Office says a live news video published by ABC News has significant misreporting and distortion of critical information in their report that raises serious questions on the accuracy and credibility of the report, the journalist and the ABC itself as a news agency.
This is regarding a report by ABC on the matter where the National Federation Party is alleging the General Secretary of the FijiFirst Party Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum was at Star Printery on the 1st of December during the printing of ballot papers.
In a letter to the ABC that is posted on the FEO Facebook page, Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem says the ABC must take full responsibility for its conduct and the conduct of its reporter.
Saneem says they require that the ABC publish widely an apology and also exact clarifications of its mischievous actions without any reduction in the prominence it had given to the initial story.
He says FEO received and responded to letter for the National Federation Party on Tuesday last week and the same afternoon the FEO received an enquiry from the ABC.
Saneem says the most essential point in the FEO response was that the ballot paper production had concluded at the Star Printery on the 28th of November and the last batch of ballot books were transported from the printer just after 7pm under police escort and in the presence of media, police and political party agents and observers.
He says to put it in simple terms, after the ballot paper production ended on the 28th of November, the FEO engagement with Star Printery for ballot paper production ended and it also meant that no more ballot papers would be printed at the said premises.
The Supervisor says logically speaking, this would mean that the NFP complaint lacked any merit as it alleged that the printing was ongoing on 1st December and on this basis alone, every single allegation in the letter fails and is without merit and appears to utterly be based on misconceived facts.
He says the ABC’s Fiji based accredited reporter was not present at the final dispatch event despite all media having been invited.
Saneem says Fijian media had all reported widely with great accuracy on the conclusion of the ballot paper printing process.
The Supervisor says the reporter despite having full access and custody of the FEO response, failed to disclose that she had read it and also failed miserably to highlight the most critical point in the response.
He says they are shocked that despite making such a simple clarification as it contained in the full response by FEO which was conclusive to resolve the complaint, the journalist publishes her opinion and labelled the FEO’s response as ‘defensive’.
Saneem is asking ABC to explain the basis of this judgement by the reporter.
He further says the reporter miserably fails to understand that the NFP allegations were without any evidence or merit and she fails to understand that on 1st December, Star Printery was not printing ballot papers anymore.
Saneem says these raise so many questions on the competence of the reporter.
He says the FEO is also concerned that the ABC attempted to portray the entire electoral process in the manner it did based on the incompetence of one reporter and not only has ABC concealed critical information that would allow a reasonable thinking person to understand the actual facts, it has effectively contributed to the disinformation propagated by the NFP.
The Supervisor says they note the entire story that was published appears to have been designed to bring disrepute to the Fijian electoral process.
He says the reporter mischievously proceeds to pass judgement on several matters and appears to give her personal subjective opinion on all those matters without any actual sense or proof and at one point, it is clearly obvious from the body language of the reporter that she is fully motivated to make those judgement perhaps out of personal interest.
Saneem says they question how the ABC allows such report that are completely without any merit and evidence to flourish on its channel.
He also says the ABC also covered the FEO response in such a poor manner, it failed to inform its audience of the most critical facts that proved the allegations incorrect and instead the reporter judges the response with exact facts as ‘not helping matters’.
The Supervisor says she is expecting an ‘investigation’ while completely oblivious to the reality and feeding to the sensationalism.
He further says the FEO is deeply concerned and astonished at the same time on the manner in which the ABC has propagated false information and the actions of the ABC reporter need to be evaluated against the codes of conduct and the ABC must take accountability for the same.
Saneem says it goes without saying that the report is based on misconceived facts, conceals critical information that would allow a reasonable audience to decipher the truth and contributes to the disinformation on the Fijian electoral process.
Questions have been sent to the ABC. They are yet to respond.
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