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.
Latest posts by Michael Hartsell
Fiji Water agrees to new tax and re-opens plant in Fiji
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.
Fiji Water closes the tap and leaves Fiji
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.
Fiji: Government explains deportation of Fiji Water boss
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?
What does Fiji's government want from Fiji Water?
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?
Fiji: New protections for anti-government bloggers?
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.
Fiji: How committed is government to 2014 elections?
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.
Has Rupert Murdoch declared war on Fiji?
Fiji's military leaders are pushing for the sale of the country's oldest newspaper, the Fiji Times, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Limited. Has the media mogul retaliated by declaring a war of words on the country?
Does Fiji's media decree affect organization websites?
At the end of July, blogger Jonathan from Oceanic: User experiences from the South Pacific, discovered that bloggers and website administrators are effected by Fiji's new media laws compelling media outlets to register with the government.
Restoring Fiji's mangroves
The blog Fiji Shark Diving explains how the group created the project Mangroves for Fiji, which will offset their carbon footprint and help restore the country's disappearing mangroves, protecting land from soil erosion, serving as fish nurseries and creating a great carbon sink.
Blogger questions Fiji spokesperson on lifting media regulations
Blogger Crosbie Walsh interviewed Fiji's Permanent Secretary for Information on why the government has not lifted the Public Emergency Regulations after the country passed new laws governing the media.
Fiji: Will new media laws lead to better reporting?
Claiming it will introduce media transparency and responsible reporting, Fiji’s government enacted new media rules, establishing a code of conduct for journalists, strengthening local ownership stipulations and creating a set of fines and prison terms to be levied against reporters and media institutions for potentially breaking guidelines.
Fiji: Tackling the land tenure issue
Because of its ties to ethnicity, culture and a growing import food bill, land tenure is one of Fiji’s most pressing problems. The government will soon attempt to reform the country’s land tenure system, which has largely remained untouched since the mid-1970s.
Fiji: Priorities questioned for boarding school
Just a week after Fiji's Ratu Kadavulevu School was closed by the health department because its kitchen wasn't up to code, the country's largest boarding school dedicated a new chapel at the cost of about US $500,000. Wendy, writing in the blog Babasiga, asked why the school kitchen wasn't fixed...
Fiji backs down on suspending Parliamentary pensions
Fiji's government has overturned the practice of suspending pensions to former Parliamentary leaders who have been critical of the present regime. This announcement “is the sort of forward-looking conciliatory acts we need to see more of,” says blogger Crosbie Walsh. Coup Four And A Half says the government has “done...
Global Voices makes list of ‘subversive’ blogs
Fiji Today reports that Fiji's government has created a list of “subversive” blogs (Fiji Today's term) that government workers should not access at work. The report is unsubstantiated. However, “FijiToday questions how Babasiga, Crosbie Walsh, Globalvoicesonline or the Fiji Labor Party could be considered subversive.”
Did internal wounds kill the Fiji Times
Many prognosticators worry about how Fiji's proposed media ownership law will affect the Rupert Murdoch-owned Fiji Times. But a former staffer said in Cafe Pacific both foreign and local management are to blame for the paper's fall.
Fiji: New media oversight proposed
Fiji's journalists have been working under tough conditions since the country's military government abrogated the constitution last year. Now, that government has released plans to oversee Fiji's media.
Fiji: Contradicting censorship
It's hard to prove fully, but for the past six months, blogging platforms (including Global Voices) have been subject to on-again, off-again access problems in Fiji. As another round of blog blocking has been rumored, New Zealand-based blogger Crosbie Walsh writes an open letter to Fiji's Police Commissioner explaining the...
Fiji: History syllabus that should be history
Wendy, from the blog Babasiga, hopes that the history syllabus taught in Fiji's schools is not really from 1960. “Sobosobo, that was colonial! Before Independence, before coup culture!,” she writes.
Fiji: Bloggers debate Amnesty International findings
Bloggers in Fiji and around the Pacific are debating a recent Amnesty International report chronicling the island nation’s human rights record since the country’s president abrogated the constitution April 10
Commonwealth suspends Fiji
The Commonwealth of Nations has suspended Fiji from the 53-nation body for failing to hold elections by October 2010
