Speight Spurns Press Conferences

Speight Spurns Press Conferences

* See PMW items 2801, 2776, 2772, 2770, 2741, 2740, 2739, 2738, 2737, 2735. Fiji TV May 29 Close-Up transcript:http://www.journalism.uts.edu.au/archive/fiji_coup/0529policemandies.html

SUVA: Fiji rebel leader George Speight called it a day yesterday when he announced that he would not be holding any more press conferences for the international media, the Fiji Sun reports.

He accused the media, especially those from abroad, of not presented his side of the story accurately and fairly.

Local journalists would be the only ones allowed to talk to him from now on, he said.

Speight said that he was concerned with the way some reporters "distort facts", giving members of the public a wrong picture about him and his cause.

He also said there were some who would interview him yet refuse to print and broadcast his views.

He challenged local and overseas journalists in Parliament yesterday, asking them to be more "responsible, accurate and fair".

Speight has appointed his public relations official, Josefa Nata, to be in charge of media inquiries from now on.

+++niuswire

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