Supervisor of Elections, Mohammed Saneem says the Fijian Elections Office has put the ABC on notice to correct their news and if they do not apologise and correct their story, the FEO will be inclined to take necessary legal actions under the Electoral Act for publication of a false statement by the ABC reporter.
However the ABC says they stand by their reporting on this issue, which was based on numerous sources familiar with the story and included the response from the Elections Office.
This is regarding a report by ABC on the matter where the National Federation Party alleged Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum was at Star Printery on the 1st of December during the printing of ballot papers.
The Fijian Elections Office has also called on ABC and its reporter to apologise to the people of Fiji and correct their story for reporting on disinformation against Sayed-Khaiyum.
Saneem says the media organization has completely failed to show responsibility and has demonstrated a high level of defensive behaviour.
He says despite been given more then sufficient evidence and facts to prove that their story was wrong, the ABC is so reckless and continuing to publish these stories, and without any sense of responsibility and in fact, today they had a talk back show and they went on to allege that this incident had taken place.
He says this intends to be a full on smear campaign against the FEO possibly to challenge the role of the FEO and the Multinational Observer Group and the credibility and integrity of its members.
Saneem says how can this be fair reporting without getting the full response from FEO as the reporter's aim was to clearly demean the electoral process in Fiji in a very condescending approach due to her own political affiliation.
The FEO asks if she was quoting a source, then was it TikTok.
While responding to our questions, ABC says this story reveals important allegations regarding the Fijian elections and the independence of electoral processes which Fijians and all audiences have a right to know about.
The ABC says the fact that the final delivery of ballot papers had finished before the alleged incident took place was reported in the radio and online stories and they have published an Editor's Note on the video of the live TV story to ensure this information is also included there.
They say a detailed digital story which includes responses from the Supervisor of Elections is on the ABC News website.
The ABC further says they did attempt to contact the Attorney-General’s Office for comment before the story was published. They add the reporter has worked with the ABC for many years and she is dedicated to independent, impartial journalism that keeps audiences informed.
Meanwhile, Sayed-Khaiyum has said he was in Labasa on the 1st of December.
Sayed-Khaiyum says this is something that they are going to raise with the Multinational Observer Group and they will be writing a letter to the ABC and raise it to the relevant authorities.
Saneem had earlier clarified 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.
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