Team New Zealand has successfully defended the America’s Cup on home waters.
Photo: AFP
The Kiwi syndicate wrapped up a 7-3 series win over Luna Rossa with a 46 second victory in race 10 of the regatta on Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf on Wednesday.
“It’s absolutely unreal,” Team New Zealand helmsman Peter Burling said on board Te Rehutai.
“Just coming back to the chase boat and seeing all the people involved in this campaign over three or so years and how many Kiwis are out here supporting the event again.
“We’ve had messages from everyone from the Prime Minister to high school kids to just about anyone you could think of with support and it just means the world to us as a team.
“I don’t think you could think of a much more special environment than this with over couple of thousand boats out every day, the village absolutely packed, people everywhere, to do something like this on home water is something the whole team is incredibly proud of.”
After securing the favoured right-hand side of the course in another tight battle off the start line, Team New Zealand got Te Rehutai’s nose in front to go through the first gate with a narrow seven-second lead.
That buffer was out to nine seconds after leg two, but it was the third of six legs when the defenders really extended to put one hand on the Cup again.
Team New Zealand powered downwind to be 27 seconds in front at the halfway mark of the race and, with a 37 second lead at gate number four, all that was required was two mistake-free legs to secure the series.
That was exactly what they produced, keeping things calm and composed in the last push to the finish before the celebrations finally broke out as they crossed the line.
Despite Luna Rossa’s challenge proving unsuccessful, co-helmsman Francesco Bruni said it had been a fantastic experience.
“I’d firstly like to congratulate Team New Zealand, they’ve done a fantastic job.
“But also I need to congratulate with Luna Rossa, they’re a fantastic team, we proved to the world that we could do it and it’s been hard luck in the last couple of days, but I think we’ve done a great job as a team.”
Photo: Photosport
As he sat on the side of Te Rehutai soaking it all in, Team New Zealand flight controller Blair Tuke said the moment was hard to describe.
“Yeah, wow, what a beauty.
“Unreal. Defending the America’s Cup on home waters, out here on the Hauraki Gulf.
“Unbelievable feeling to know the work that’s gone in from so many people over the last three and half years, and even right back to before we won it in Bermuda.
“It’s been huge from the team, and a massive honour to race here in front of five million Kiwis. To know we’ve had their support … what scenes, unbelievable.”
The other man steering Luna Rossa had been Team New Zealand’s nemesis from San Francisco in 2013, Jimmy Spithill.
As he was after then being beaten aboard Oracle in Bermuda, though, the no-nonsense Australian was gracious in defeat.
“[Luna Rossa] is an incredible team, and really the whole campaign.
“It’s been an absolutely relentless campaign and just to see the passion, the emotion and the work ethic the Italians portray, [it] has definitely been one of the most amazing and campaigns in that regard for me.
“Obviously full credit to Team New Zealand. They developed a fantastic package and are deserving champions.”
After reclaiming the Auld Mug in Bermuda four years ago, the result ensured Team New Zealand had successfully defended international sport’s oldest prize for the second time in history.
The team first won the America’s Cup in 1995 in San Diego and went on to easily fight off the challenge of Luna Rossa in Auckland in 2000.
A Supreme Court judge has found the former legislator who is now the Ha’apai Governor guilty of unlawful possessing of 198kg of turtle meat.
Manuopangai Hingano. Photo/Facebook
Viliami Manuopangai Hingano, 46, was in possession of the turtle meat out of the shell, without it being certified by an authorised officer that it came from a turtle of legal size.
He pleaded not guilty and elected trial by judge alone on 11 August 2020.
Hingano told the court that at about 8pm Thursday 19 March 2020, Mohokoi Tongile’o telephoned him and asked if he could receive his (Mohokoi’s) cargo arriving on the boat the next morning, and told him that there was some fish in it for him too. He said that he told him he would do it.
Hingano told the court that he had no guilty intent to commit this offence and that he did not know that the law required that there be prior approval to kill a turtle.
But Judge Niu didn’t buy it.
“Having heard the accused ‘s background, he being a director in the Ministry of Public Enterprises, and he had been a member of Parliament representing District 12 of Ha’apai which included Lofanga, and having grown up and living in Ha’apai, I do not believe
his evidence that he did not know that an approval was required before a turtle was killed,” Mr Niu said.
The court was told a Police officer Talia’uli Moa arrested Hingano after a joint operation which included three fisheries officers arrived at the Queen Salote Wharf at 10am on March 2020 to check if there were any illegal shipments of catch. The MV ‘Otuanga’ofa arrived that morning from Vava’u and Ha’apai.
Moa said that a man who was standing by one of the ship’s container at the wharf asked him what work they were doing. The man was Hangano, the court was told. He told Hingano that they were inspecting the ship’s cargoes for unlawful marine produce, and he jokingly said to Hingano, “May be you are one of those who ship up unlawful fishing produce”, and then he asked Hingano, “Do you have any cargo?”
The Police officer said Hingano said, “Yes, it’s a small cooler of fish and turtle (meat)”.
The Police officer said he asked him again whether it had turtle (meat) and that Hingano replied yes. He said he asked for his driver’s license and after Hingano gave it to him, he asked him whether it would be alright to inspect his cargo in which Hangano agreed .
Moa said he called the fisheries officers before they inspected the cargoes which was a cooler and stand up freezer. Both were full of fresh turtle meat in crushed ice and there were also two crayfishes and six small fishes.
Contacting Ha’apai Fisheries office
One of the fisheries officers telephoned the Fisheries office in Pangai, Ha’apai to check their record of permits and it was confirmed there was no permit issued for the killing of turtles in Ha’apai in the name of Hingano.
“Having considered all the evidence given and the submissions of both counsels, for which I am grateful, I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that the accused did possess, at Nuku’alofa, on 20 March 2020, 198 kg of turtle meat out of the shell without it being certified by an authorised officer that it came from a turtle of legal size,” Mr Niu said.
“Accordingly, I find the accused, Viii Manuopangai Hingano, guilty and I convicted him of the charge with which he is charged in this trial.”
Video footage caught the moment a bus believed to have passengers inside drove down the wrong side of what appear to be a Tongatapu main road towards oncoming traffic.
Police pull over a bus driving on wrong side of the road. Photo/Screenshot
The footage shows a bus driving towards vehicles driving in the opposite direction down the main road.
The bus can be seen swerving to the side as a white car headed towards it.
It was at that moment a Police van which was sitting in traffic on the left lane can be seen before the bus was pulled over to the left side of the road.
Kaniva News could not independently verify the authenticity of the material.
A motorist managed to capture the blunder, uploading it to the popular video-sharing platform TikTok before it was shared to Facebook by Radio Nuku’alofa FM 88.6 on March 10.
““Thank you to our listeners. Not only you all report on the traffic but you send photos & videos of reckless drivers. Keep them coming & we will keep posting them. Thank you to Tonga Police for stopping this silly bus driver,” the Radio captioned the footage, followed by the hashtag “. #saiaupito #ohnono #busdrivers #police #tonga”.
“Serves you right,” a commenter said.
“It’s about time to have bus lane,” another wrote.
The video clip was accompanied by the song Oh No by the American rapper Kiam Akasi Holley who is known by her stage name Capone.
Two Bloods gang members have been sentenced this morning after the tragic death of a Tongan man in Auckland, New Zealand in May last year.
Samuela Anania Tupou. Photo/Supplied
Janeiro Tapusoa, 28, pleaded guilty to murder one month before the three-week jury trial last year. He has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum non-parole period of 13 years and one month.
Leroy Tinei, 27, was found guilty of murder at trial, and has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 11 years and four months.
Tupou was shot and killed by Tapusoa early on Saturday, May 25 at Seaside Park, while he socialised with his cousin and friends. He was wearing a blue singlet, and blue is associated with the Crips gang, but Tupou was not part of any gang.
A member of rival gang Bloods, Tapusoa was on the hunt for Crips members – known as “searching for crabs”. Tinei was driving the car.
Tupou approached the car the two men were in. He was shot in the chest, top right thigh and back. The men fled in the car as Tupou fell to ground, where he died.
Crown lawyer Kristy Li said Tapusoa shot three bullets at close range from the passenger seat of the car. Tupou was understood to be half a metre away from the passenger window – a random, unarmed victim shot without any warning, she told the courtroom.
“I do not consider there was anything aggressive about Tupou as he approached the Mazda,” said Justice Walker.
This story by RNZ.co.nz is republished with permission
Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown and former prime minister and MP Henry Puna are facing charges of fraud and two counts of improper payment of public money.
Former Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna (L) and current Cook Islands PM Mark Brown. Photo: Phillipa Webb / Cook Islands News
Norman George, counsel for the prosecution, submitted that Brown and Puna conspired to arrange for two charter flights funded out of the public purse to travel to the northern islands of Penryhn and Pukapuka.
The flights uplifted the two winning candidates from those islands and returned them to Rarotonga to form a government after the June 2018 general elections.
The two winning candidates at the time are the current Deputy Prime Minister Robert Tapaitau and Associate Minister of Justice Tingika Elikana
The flights were paid for out of the Civil List budget which is managed by Parliament.
An email from then caretaker Finance Minister Mark Brown to the former Deputy Clerk of Parliament to arrange for the flights, was produced in court by the private prosecutor.
George submitted there was never a mention of bringing other successful candidates to Rarotonga.
The case is being heard by judge alone and presided by Chief Justice Sir Hugh Williams QC.
The charges have been brought about as the result of a private prosecution by Rarotonga resident Paul Allsworth who alleges around $US35,000 was paid for the flights.
Puna and Brown have pleaded not guilty to the charges.
The prosecution has submitted a list of 19 witnesses to call during the trial.
The list includes a number of sitting Members of Parliament including Deputy Prime Minister and Penrhyn MP Robert Tapaitau, Pukapuka MP Tingika Elikana, and former Penrhyn MP Willie John.
Former MPs Teariki Heather and Kiriau Turepu are also expected to take the stand, along with Finance Secretary Garth Henderson and Acting Police Commissioner Akatauira Matapo.
Puna will be represented by lawyer Ben Marshall, and lawyer Tim Arnold will represent Brown.
The Cook Islands News reports the case was first brought before the High Court in 2019, when a private criminal proceeding was filed by lawyer Norman George on behalf of the case’s former complainant Teokotai George.
Cook Islands Prime Minister, Henry Puna, at the Asia Pacific Energy Leaders’ Summit, 1 November 2018, Te Papa, Wellington. Photo: RNZ / Johnny Blades
As with the current case, both Puna and Brown had pleaded not guilty, however days before the case went to trial the complainant instructed lawyer Wilkie Rasmussen, who had taken over the case, to withdraw his complaint.
As part of the charges, the two are alleged to have breached section 280 of the Crimes Act 1969 and s 64(2)(d)(1) of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Management Act 1995-96.
The case is the latest in a number of trials presided by Chief Justice Williams this month that started last week, and intend to fill a backlog after a year-long gap caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
By Sela Jane Hopgood of RNZ.co.nz. The broadcaster’s story is republished with permission
A Samoan-New Zealand lifeguard is encouraging Pasifika to take up swimming lessons in the wake of a report highlighting their over-representation in drowning statistics.
Surf Life Saving New Zealand’s Beach & Coastal Safety Report show Pasifika, Māori and Asians are over-represented in drowning figures.
Photo: Surf Life Saving New Zealand
On average, 36 people drown every year on New Zealand’s coastlines, the report found.
Most drownings occurred on non-lifeguarded beaches or outside of patrol hours, and 87 percent of victims were male.
SLSNZ chief executive Paul Dalton said per capita, although not overall, Māori and Pacific people were over-represented in the figures.
“Their exposure to risk is a bit higher than other ethnicities simply because of kaimoana [food from the sea], the connection they have with the water. They are out there doing stuff, and different stuff to everyone else.”
Last year a University of Auckland study discovered found a majority of cases in New Zealand were not wearing a lifejacket when found.
The study also found the median age of drowning victims was 41 years.
In terms of ethnicity, 37 percent were European New Zealanders, 12 percent were Asian, 24 percent were Māori and 19 percent Pasifika.
University of Auckland study spokesperson Dr Jonathon Webber said the latter two were over-represented in the statistics compared with their percentages in the population, perhaps due to activities of food gathering and fishing.
In 2012, Pacific people were also over-represented in drowning statistics, making up 7 percent of New Zealand’s population at the time, but accounting for 9 percent of the country’s drowning deaths.
Two thirds of all Māori and Pacific drowning deaths were recreational-based.
Large-scale and small-scale fishing in the waters off Madang in Papua New Guinea. Photo: RNZI / Johnny Blades
Surf Life Saving NZ lifeguard John Tuia (who is of Samoan heritage) said there were many Pasifika who did not participate in swimming lessons and it was one of the reasons why there were high drowning rates for that particular group.
“I can personally relate to this because when I grew up in Samoa, swimming lessons was never a priority because we would always swim in shallow water. Also , in the islands there are not many places that run swimming classes like they do in New Zealand.
“Pasifika grow up learning to cover yourself as a sign of being respectful to the public, so wearing swimming togs is not common practice. In general, Pasifika wear t-shirt and shorts to cover up when swimming, but we know heavy clothing is not ideal as these can become water logged and heavy, making it difficult to swim or float,” he said.
Tuia said there were a lot of places in New Zealand where people could sign up for swimming lessons, but financial cost was a barrier for some Pasifika families.
“It’s really unfortunate because Pasifika love the ocean. In every report released by SLSNZ we find that it the people who go diving for food to feed their families that get in trouble in the water.
“The main reason is because they haven’t been taught about water safety,” he said.
Tongan Olympic swimmer Amini Fonua said this was an issue for not just Pasifika, but Pacific people in the region.
“I go back to Tonga every Christmas or every second Christmas and I try to host free swimming lessons for kids because it is bizarre how we live around islands, but we don’t know how to swim, so I hope we can change that.
“We have a tough time with water safety and the swimming school in the Pacific still, so I think having kids learn how to swim and have water safety skills that will last a lifetime I think that’s the biggest thing that makes me happy with what I do.”
Photo: RNZ / Alexander Robertson
SLSNZ is calling for more public education about water safety.
“Education needs to continue with an “ages and stages” approach, so that we’re not just trying to get it all over and done with teaching kids to swim and then leave it at that,” Dalton said.
“We actually need to keep going and recognising all the times and points in your life when you’re engaging in water activities.
“We also need to have cultural responsive forms of education in New Zealand as well.”
A Tongan convicted murderer is being guarded in a special “prison within a prison” along with the Christchurch mosque shooter, Brenton Tarrant, at a huge cost to the New Zealand taxpayers.
A third notoriously violent criminal Hemi Te Poono has been also locked up in the same unit of the prison.
Siuaki Lisiate, who was of Tongan descent, was sentenced to preventive detention for stabbing murderer Graeme Burton, an amputee, more than 40 times with a shank. Burton is serving a life sentence with a minimum non-parole period of 26 years for shooting Karl Kuchenbecker dead in Lower Hutt in 2007.
Lisiate, a Crips gang boss, also known as JFK or Just F***ing Krazy ordered the 2009 execution of rival Bloods gang member, Tue Faavae, at Auckland Prison – the same place where Burton was attacked.
Faavae, 23, was strangled to death with a radio power cord in a gang-related revenge killing.
Lisiate was sentenced in 2011 to life imprisonment for the murder, with a minimum non-parole period of 18 years.
The special prison
The facility, known as the Prisoners of Extreme Risk Unit, was set up four months after Tarrant murdered 51 worshippers and injured 40 others at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques, the Herald reported.
Tarrant was sentenced to life without parole.
“Based within Auckland Prison but run separately, the unit is the operational and custodial function of the Prisoners of Extreme Risk Directorate – a group also established in response to the March 15 terror attack,” it said.
“Its role has since been expanded and Corrections National Commissioner Rachel Leota says it now manages other inmates who present “an ongoing risk of serious violence”.
It also supervises prisoners who have the ability to “influence others to engage in serious violence or threats”.
As well as “violent extremists”, Leota says offenders connected to organised crime groups may also fall under the group’s purview given their “capability to seriously threaten the safety and security of a prison”.
“It is a separate entity – a prison within prison,” a source said of the Prisoners of Extreme Risk Unit.
Unit cost
“It’s a secret squirrel operation. There is a special vetting system for staff to work there.”
Corrections says the unit cost $2.77 million in the year to October 31, excluding the salaries of the six staff in its management group.
That compares to Corrections spending about $1.1 billion in 2020 to guard close to 10,000 prisoners across all its facilities.
The average population at Auckland Prison on any given day in the 2019/20 financial year was 522, a Corrections spokesman said.
A further $150,000 has been spent so far on modifications within the unit to protect the “health, safety and security” of staff and inmates. Leota refused to release specific details because it was “operationally sensitive”.
By Sela Jane Hopgood of RNZ.co.nz. This story is republished with permission.
Former education minister and Tongan academic is calling for the Ministry of Education to reconsider their plans to amend the Tongan language policy.
School children from Tonga’s Ha’apai Islands. Photo: RNZ / Jane Patterson
Last month Education Minister, Siaosi Sovaleni, announced plans to introduce English as a second language for classes one to three. The English language was currently being offered to students in class three through song and poetry.
Tongan academic, Dr ‘Ana Taufe’ulungaki, said there were two reasons as to why she believed the English language should not be taught at such a young age.
Taufe’ulungaki said global research revealed that the best language to teach a child was their mother tongue, a language in which both child and teacher could communicate and understand each other in.
Photo: Supplied
“Although the children are growing up in an environment in which they are surrounded by English through the media, it’s important to instil the Tongan language while the children are young, so that they’re confident in the language before applying those same skills to the English language,” Taufe’ulungaki said.
The maintenance of the Tongan language in the long term was another point Taufe’ulungaki stressed, “as studies have shown that if you do not teach the language to the next generation, the language is likely to be lost,” she said.
“The Tongan language is already at risk and I’m seeing an increase in parents using English as the main language at home. If you think about the broader context here in which we apply the Tongan language, if we are not careful of what we do in education and at home, we can safely say that our language would disappear in the next generation or so.
“The Tongan language is one of the strong indicators of our identity as Tongans. Tonga is the home of the Tongan language and if Tonga does not privilege its own language in its home country, who else would privilege the language?”
Science offered a much more complex view of the relationship with languages evolves over a lifetime – and there is much to encourage late beginners.
Photo: 123RF
A professor of developmental linguistics Antonella Sorace has reportedly told media that broadly speaking, different life stages give us different advantages in language learning.
“As babies, we have a better ear for different sounds; as toddlers, we can pick up native accents with astonishing speed.
“As adults, we have longer attention spans and crucial skills like literacy that allow us to continually expand our vocabulary, even in our own language.
“And a wealth of factors beyond ageing – like social circumstances, teaching methods, and even love and friendship – can affect how many languages we speak and how well.”
A study by researchers in Israel found, for example, that adults were better at grasping an artificial language rule and applying it to new words in a lab setting.
The scientists compared three separate groups: 8-year-olds, 12-year-olds, and young adults. The adults scored higher than both younger groups, and the 12-year-olds also did better than the younger children.
This chimed with the results of a long-term study of almost 2,000 Catalan-Spanish bilingual learners of English: the late starters acquired the new language faster than the younger starters.
Dr Taufe’ulungaki said that with the studies that have been done globally, she would prefer for the English language to be introduced at high school level.
“According to research, a child does not master his or her first language until he or she is about 12 years of age and so if we want the foundation of Tongan to be firm and strong, then we need to delay the introduction of the English language to a later stage until we are certain that our children are strong in their mother tongue.
“But of course politically that would not be acceptable and many parents are now up in arms about the delay of the introduction of English, which is one of the reasons the view was recommended that English be re-introduced as it used to be in the old days at class one,” she explained.
Education Minister Siaosi Sovaleni has yet to respond to RNZ Pacific request for an interview.
However, Taufe’ulungaki did mention that Sovaleni had announced to local media that the government was reviewing the policy and the planned amendments were not confirmed, as they are still considering them.
UPDATED: Democratic Leader Semisi Sika has asked CEO Viola Ulakai of the Tonga Broadcasting Commission and Television Tonga for a chance to give his side of her interview in which Prime Minister Pōhiva Tu’i’onetoa accused him against the government’s road repair work contracts.
(L-R) PTOA Leader Sēmisi Sika, PM Pōhiva Tu’i’onetoa and TBC CEO Viola Ulakai
Sika has criticised the interview as “misleading the country and untrue”.
He claimed it was typical of the broadcaster to release such false information without seeking those being accused in their story for a response.
Sika said it has been too much and it kept on coming from time to time but he has no time to correct them.
“I just leave them to the public to judge,” Sika said in an email this morning to Uluaki and other local news media including Kaniva.
Sika said since some journalists and members of the public kept on asking him for his side of the TBC interview with Tu’i’onetoa he thought it was time for him to do something about it.
“I ask Viola and the TBC to give me an opportunity to respond to the PM’s accusations which were untrue,” Sika’s email read in Tongan.
“I deeply feel the hatred and bad feeling in this interview.”
Ulakai has yet to respond to Sika through this morning’s recipients email network.
Sika’s concerns come after the Prime Minister claimed in the interview that Sika negotiated and signed contract agreements with five private companies to repair roads in Tongatapu, Vava’u, Ha’apai and ‘Eua from May 2018 until May 2021.
As Kaniva News reported last week, Tu’i’onetoa told the interview his government could not do anything to repair and fill potholes recently developing on roads in Tongatapu because of the agreements signed by Sika, who was the former Minister of Infrastructure in 2018.
Responding to the Prime Minister’s comments during the interview Ulakai claimed: “I thank you Mr Prime Minister for sharing the truth so that we understand it. Many people here in Tonga thought the government and the Ministry of Infrastructure had been careless and had left the potholes unrepaired. Now it became clear that that responsibility has been assigned to these contractors for three years until May 2021”.
Ulakai didn’t ask Tui’onetoa whether these companies have breached their contract agreements or whether the government has contacted them to discuss the issue.
She also did not seek the companies or Sika’s sides of the story.
Sika’s denial
Sika denied the Prime Minister’s accusations as untrue.
He told us he didn’t sign the agreements as the law stipulated all government contract agreements must be processed through its Procurement Committee. He said this Committee has the authority to scrutinise companies which bid for its contract works before they offered the jobs to successful bidders.
Sika said the five companies the Prime Minister referred to, namely BB Contractor, Five Star – a company belongs to Sika’s parents, To’a Contractor, Petani Quarry and Veisiale Construction, were waiting for the government to tell them what works to do and which roads to repair.
He said although the contract agreements had been signed, these contractors can only do road works when the Ministry of Infrastructure assigned them their tasks to do.
“If these companies repair a road without seeking permission from the government first the Ministry of Finance would not pay their invoices,” Sika said.
He said he wished the Prime Minister did his job for the country in good spirit.
He said Tu’i’onetoa’s statements to media in which he mentioned him and the PTOA Party appear to show he was holding a grudge against them.
Ulakai and TBC
The state broadcaster has been accused for many years of a general bias and partiality when it comes to late democratic veteran ‘Akilisi Pohiva and the democrats.
Ulakai who is now the new CEO of the TBC and Television Tonga was suspended by the TBC board in 2016.
Her suspension followed a recommendation after late Prime Minister Pōhiva questioned her integrity by saying he was “disappointed” to learn that Ulakai had falsely claimed that a request for a press conference to answer questions regarding his son were made on behalf of the Tongan Media Council.
At the time the president of the Tonga Media Council Luseane Vaea released a press release denying Ulakai’s request.
“I was not aware of Mrs. Viola Ulakai using the Tonga Media Council name for any reason. I was not engaged nor were my employers (FM 87.5) involved in any communication in her request for interviews for media coverage,” the press release read.
At the time Pōhiva said he suspected Ulakai of acting as a mouthpiece for his political opponents.
Ulakai was contacted for comment at the time.
Former General Manager
Ulakai was not alone in this TBC longstanding saga.
Other former TBC senior staff had been accused by the democrats of being royalists and using the broadcaster as a platform to attack them in their unbalanced and partial stories.
In 2017 Kaniva News ran a story headlined – Former TBC boss defends claim interview was example of “highly unfair and partial” news
In that story, former TBC General Manager Nanisē Fifita was accused of conducting a one-sided interview with former Prime Minister Lord Sevele ‘O Vailahi and that she failed to seek responses from those who were being attacked during the interview she hosted.
She didn’t deny the accusation, instead she invited Kaniva News to “look at the one-sided coverage on the same (and other issues) by other media.”
“Are you looking into that as well or just picking on TBC?” she asked.
Fifita was responding after her interview of Lord Sevele in 2014 became a point of heated debate and discussion among social media users at the time, with many criticising it for what they saw as its partiality and imbalance.
In the 42-minute Youtube clip Fifita interviewed Lord Sevele regarding a Parliamentary report on how the TP$119 million loan from China was spent.
The report grew out of inquiry by the Parliamentary committee led by Pōhiva while he was leader of the Opposition and Dr Sitīveni Halapua.
During the interview Lord Sevele attacked Pōhiva and Dr. Halapua and also strongly criticised the Parliamentary committee.
“’Akilisi and Sitīveni, where did you get this lie from”, Lord Sevele asked during the interview.
Fifita didn’t bring Pōhiva, Dr Halapua or somebody else from the Parliamentary Committee to join the interview.
‘Ahongalu Fusimālohi, the former chair of the TBC board, told Kaniva at the time if he had been chairman at the time of the interview the piece would not have been aired without the other side being given the opportunity to respond.
“It is a bad example of what I would call fair and impartial reporting. It is highly unfair and partial”.
Former senior broadcaster Laumanu Petelō
In 2017, the former TBC senior broadcaster Laumanu Patelō clashed with Late Prime Minister Pōhiva during a press conference in Nuku’alofa.
Petelō accused the Prime Minister saying he did not want the TBC to report anything bad about him.
She reminded Pōhiva that he previously accused her of being malevolent.
“Nobody knows, but I can easily tell from your face and the way you presented your questions there was anger. That’s how I looked at it. I may be wrong,” Pohiva told Petelō
“Radio A3Z’s (TBC) history as it came to me personally was not good,” he told the conference.
FAKAMATALA FAKA-TONGA NOUNOU
Kuo kole ‘a Sēmisi Sika kia Viola Ulakai ko e CEO ia ‘o e TBC ke ‘oange hano faingamalie ke ‘oatu ha’ane tali ki he’ena faka’eke’eke mo e palēmia’. Pehē ‘e Sika’, ko e faka’eke’eke ‘eni ‘oku ne takihala’i e kakai ‘o e fonua’ ‘i he ngaahi fakamatala mo e ngaahi tukuaki’i ‘o ia ‘a ia ‘oku ta’e mo’oni
“ ‘Oku ou ongo’i lahi ‘a e taufehi’a moe loto ‘oku ‘ikai ke lelei mei he faka’eke’eke ko ‘eni .”
Na’a’ ne pehē ‘oku anga maheni pe foki e fakahoko mai a e ngaahi fakamatala ta’emo’oni ko ‘eni pea ikai fai hano fakatonutonu he ‘oku lahi pea ta’emotu ‘a ‘ene ha’u pea te ne to’o e konga lahi hono taimi ‘o ka nofo hifo ke fakatonutonu.
“’Oku ou tuku pe ki he kakai ke nau sio mo fai fakamaau he ‘oku ‘ikai puli ha me’a ‘e taha ki he vakai ‘a e kakai,” ko e lau ia ‘a Sika he pongipongi ‘i ha’ane ‘imeili kia Viola mo e ngaahi mitia Tonga.
“Ko e ‘uhi ko e kei ‘eke mai ‘e he ni’ihi ‘o e kau faiongoongo pea moe tokolahi ‘o e kakai ‘oku ou faka’amu peau kole heni ke fai ange mu’a ha’aku fakama’ala’ala mo ‘oatu ha’aku tali ki he ngaahi tukuaki’i ta’e mo’oni ko ‘eni .
“’Oku ou kole atu kia Viola pea moe TBC ke tuku mai mu’a ha’aku faingamalie ke ‘oatu ha’aku tali ki he ngaahi tukuaki’i ‘a e PM ‘oku fakahoko”
