Global Voices · Michael Hartsell – Contributor profile

Michael Hartsell

Contributor profile · 44 posts · joined 20 April 2009

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My name is Michael Hartsell. Presently I work as a project manager at a public relations firm near Seattle, Washington. I studied Communication & Media at a university in Australia. Ok, actually a few universities. I fell in love with Fiji when I first traveled there in 1998.

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Latest posts by Michael Hartsell

2 December 2010

Fiji Water agrees to new tax and re-opens plant in Fiji

Written by Michael Hartsell · Oceania

Fiji Water agreed to pay a new water resources tax and re-opened the doors to its bottling factory, bringing back 400 workers who had been laid off the day before. Fiji's government will be happy to receive the much needed revenue, but some bloggers ask if that money will ever be paid.

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30 November 2010

Fiji Water closes the tap and leaves Fiji

Written by Michael Hartsell · Oceania

After squabbling with Fiji's government, the US-based premium water company Fiji Water closed its bottling plant and canceled its contracts. While the company's leaders hope to strike a deal with Fiji's military government, an estimated 4,000 people are affected by the closure. Fiji's bloggers and commenters provide their take on the matter.

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26 November 2010

Fiji: Government explains deportation of Fiji Water boss

Written by Michael Hartsell · Oceania

Fiji's government says David Roth, Fiji Water’s local representative, was kicked out of the country because he was interfering with internal affairs. Is this the real reason? What will the deportation mean for other foreign investors? And what about Fiji's bottom line?

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20 November 2010

What does Fiji's government want from Fiji Water?

Written by Michael Hartsell · Oceania

Fiji Water, the expensive beverage in a square bottle, has created one of the richest brands in the world. Does Fiji’s military government want a piece of it?

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3 September 2010

New Zealand

Cafe Pacific's David Robie explains how Reporters Sans Frontières new tool could help Fiji's anti-government bloggers (among others) by creating a high-speed anonymous network and providing a website to host forbidden material.

• Michael Hartsell

Fiji

A reader to the blog Fiji: The Way it Was, Is and Can Be, offers suggestions to increase the military government's commitment to elections in 2014 and thinks there is not a proper dialogue on the future of the country because media censorship remains in place.

• Michael Hartsell