Foreign Correspondents' Association

QUO VADIS FIJI?

On 4 May, award-winning Fijian-born Australian journalist Graham Davis briefed FCA members in Sydney on the complex situation in Fiji and the outlook for the Pacific Island’s future. With a population that is 60% indigenous and a leader intent on creating a democracy with equal rights, including land, for all Fijians, foreign correspondents learned that Australia and New Zealand could help.

	Graham Davis visited Fiji at the end of April 2009 and interviewed armed forces chief Commodore Frank Bainimarama, providing an unprecedented close-up of the man who wants to take Fiji forward, but who is finding little support since President Ratu Josefa Iloilo abolished the nation’s constitution and judiciary on 9 April this year, prompting the Commodore to step down from his post as self-appointed prime minister. While appointing himself head of state, Mr Iloilo said a "soon-to-be-appointed interim government'' would prepare the country for democratic elections in September 2014, at the latest. In the meantime, Commodore Bainimarama has undertaken to maintain law and order in his country of 775,077.
Click to view a video by Giovana Vitola of Graham Davis’ briefing and Q&A session.
Part I
Part II

Short biography

Graham Davis was born in Fiji and is a multi-award winning Australian journalist who has reported throughout the world from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. He is keenly interested in developing countries, having worked widely in Africa and the Asia Pacific regions.

Graham is best known for his incisive investigative stories for the Nine Networks’ flagship Sunday program, which he joined in 1983 after a radio career in the BBC, ABC and Macquarie Network.

His reports won Walkley and Logie Awards in Australia, along with the major media prizes in science, medicine and education and a New York Festivals Award in the United States.

Graham has also reported for the Seven Network, SBS Dateline and the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent.

He has written for the Bulletin magazine, The Australian, the Sydney Morning Herald, and the Fiji Times.

Graham has judged major media awards in Australia and New Zealand and he was on the national panel that reviewed the Australian journalists’ code of ethics.

He is also an accomplished speaker, having addressed major industry conferences in Australia and Fiji.

He is currently creative director for Sydney production company, Grubstreet Media, which recently produced and televised the Asia Pacific Screen Awards for global broadcaster CNN International.


Photographs Copyright Barbara Barkhausen