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Welcome to Disinformation | July 06, 2003

Abuse Your Illusions - the follow-up to Everything You Know Is Wrong & You Are Being Lied To is in the store and every bit as essential. The long-awaited Disinformation DVD is in too!
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What The European Papers Say
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Violence Mars Nigerian Strikes
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Religion in the News: June 2003
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www.fijicrisis.com.fj
by Alex Burns (alex@disinfo.com) - August 01, 2001

The baseline of the formulaic coverage is Americans' anxiety about their lack of control over what they believe should be controllable: stereotyped images, stock phrases and common abstractions reinforce an established way of interpreting the news.
~~ Susan D. Moeller

On May 19, 2000, the Wired News service ran a Reuters news agency despatch announcing that the world's first Internet coup d'�tat had just occurred. Earlier that day, rebel leader George Speight and a group of civilians armed with AK-47 rifles stormed Fiji's Parliament House. Speight revoked the democratically elected parliament, and subsequently took over thirty hostages.

What made the event truly historic was that it was captured live by local Internet provider FijiLive.com, and broadcast to the world. Wired News ran a follow-up about possible censorship threats, and then the story disappeared from its news coverage.

According to media analyst Susan D. Moeller, author of the acclaimed book Compassion Fatigue: How the Media Sell Disease, Famine, War and Death (New York: Routledge, 1999), such an occurance is usually the norm in American news media. Judgemental editorial formulas, rapid news-gathering cycles, and tapering international coverage create homogenous formulas and standards that are unconsciously followed.

Few crises are resolved in the news cycle's week. According to Moeller's four-stage analysis of assassination and exigencies, Speight defined initial coverage (TV is usually several news-gathering cycles ahead of print media). By stage two (three days), newspapers had run bulletins and reaction stories. By early stage three (one week), motives had been discerned and an 'objective' narrative structure took shape. Op-eds, 'week in review' summaries, and trends pieces. Moeller's stage four is where the media reasserts the prevailing socio-political order, signalling closure, and the end of the crisis cycle. And now for another Sydney Olympics 2000 scandal.

But over two weeks later, Moeller's stage four has still not materialized, although Speight claimed on June 2nd, 2000, that the hostages would be released by June 5, 2000, "all going well."

Australian and Pacific regional media continued intensive coverage, but the Fiji coup disappeared from many US publications. Unsurprisingly, foreign cover editions of Time and Newsweek suffer a 25% drop in news-stand sales. The coup defied simplified causes and solutions; 'morality play' structures (requiring a victim, rescuer, and villain) were unsuited to the subsequent labyrinth twists involving council elders, military takeovers, and imposed curfews.

Ironically, for a network that deifies Global Village icon Marshall McLuhan, Wired missed some important events of interest to its readers. Just months before the coup, Fiji had announced plans for a multimedia studio city and generous tax exemptions for e-commerce firms willing to relocate. On May 29, 2000, the University of the South Pacific administration abruptly shutdown its journalism faculty site, whose students were independently reporting on the coup. Many other Web sites and Fijian publications have been censored, gagged, or ignored the coup in fear of retaliation.

It's unfair to single out the Wired News team specifically for blame, since services must utilize limited resources and rely on local stringers. And they didn't promote false historical allusions, Americanized iconic news images, or sensationalistic cultural metaphors, as Moeller has carefully documented happened in mainstream coverage of events in Rwanda, Somalia, and Bosnia. But it is an example that should make you pause for thought briefly, to question how you interpret daily reportage of international affairs.

Looking forward through a rearview mirror means little when a country's democracy has just died at the hands of a gun.

The Official Fiji Government Site
One of the first rules of effective coup d'etats is to seize control of your target's global communications facilities. Coup leader George Speight still has a few lessons to learn!

The Fiji Live Network
The now legendary news Web site that managed to stay 'live' during the Fiji coup d'etat (May/June 2000). An excellent resource to continue being informed about the coup and its long-term effects!

The Age: The Fiji Coup
Incisive news and indepth analysis about the Fiji coup d'etat, courtesy of Australia's Age newspaper. A must read!

Fiji Online
Guess who got censored during the Fiji coup d'etat? The 'splash page' featuring glossy tourist photos fooled no one when the blank 'news' section featured the following message: "The section is currently unavailble. Why not chat with someone from Fiji and find out the latest first hand news or check out the bulletin board."

Pacific Media Watch
"An independent, non-profit, non-government organisation comprising journalists, editors, researchers, lawyers and other media workers, supporting media freedom, and examining issues of ethics, accountability, censorship, media freedom and media ownership in the Pacific region."

Fiji Islands Trade & Investment Bureau
The Fiji Islands Trade and Investment Bureau is a body created by Statute to facilitate trade and investment in Fiji. For potential investors, this site contains a wealth of information about investining in Fiji. Take plenty of travellers' cheques and pack an extra gun!

Fiji Crisis: Journalism Students From USP Coverage
When University of the South Pacific journalism students posted a transcript on May 29th, 2000 about the censorship of Fiji television, the university administration shut down their Web site. You can find their brave frontline coverage of the coup d'etat here.

David Robie's Cafe Pacific
Independent Pacific region news coverage and analysis, including invaluable multimedia resources. Make my order a cafe latte, thanks!

Pacific Islands Monthly
Pacific Island Monthly is a leading magazine for Pacific region news and events. Online publication halted in March, 2000, during the coup d'etat. Censorship again?

Operation Chaos
This Review magazine article (April 2000) by Tamarisi Digitaki predicted a Fijian coup d'etat of a different form. In retrospect, an early warning signal?

Overhere Fiji
Over Here describes itself as "the online Fiji news and political magazine," but was gagged during the coup d'etat. Is it now an oxymoron?

The World In 2000
Nothing on the Fiji coup d'etat whatsoever. Read Microsoft mogul Bill Gates' thoughts on the future of electronic publishing instead.

Site Brings Fiji Coup To The World
This Wired News article (May 19, 2000) filed by the Reuters news agency announced the world's first Internet coup d'etat. Once this angle was exhausted, as Susan D. Moeller's four-stage model predicted, the story disappeared from news coverage.

Coup News Back On Fiji Site
This Wired News article (May 22, 2000) by Kim Griggs is a follow-up story on the 'Fijilive.com' Web site, and fears that it had been censored. Then the coup d'etat story disappeared from coverage!

The Search For Cohesion In The Age Of Fragmentation
Sound geostrategic analysis of the multiplistic factors underlying flash-points such as Fiji.

CIA World Factbook: Fiji (1999)
Authoritative geostrategic and demographic information, courtesy of the Central Intelligence Agency.

AAA Matilda Fiji Search Engine
Try the term 'coup d'etat': there is plenty of information on JFK, King, Brezhnev, Ceaucescu, Muslimgauze, Orlov, Khmer Rouge, Khruschev. But nothing on the Fiji coup d'etat by rebel leader George Speight. Proves you can never trust Internet search engines!

Fiji Travel Bureau
Why are you still surfing the Internet, when you can witness - maybe even take part - in some hyper-real disinformation?

Elections in the Fiji Islands
Maybe if we get this coup d'etat over quickly, nobody will notice that we used to elect our president democratically, not by the barrel of a gun!

Fiji Shop
Don't worry about the coup d'etat, just shut up and shop!

Internet Fiji
Don't mention the coup d'etat: it might be bad for business!

Fiji Village
"There have been many questions raised about whether it's safe to holiday in Fiji. The answer is YES" because the political crisis in the country is only centred in the capital , Suva. We have recieved no reports from resorts and hotels of trouble. However if you seek reassurance, contact the Fiji Visitors Bureau." So why is the 'Death Notices' link on the opening page not working?

Natural Law Party: Fiji
"Crime is an expression of stress and negativity in the consciousness of an individual and the society. The most effective method to reduce negativity and stress in collective consciousness is a group of Yogic Flyers. Only such a group can eliminate the basis of crime, violence, and hostility." Guess what? The Yogic Flyers didn't stop the coup d'etat!

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