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OBSERVER EDITOR TALKS ABOUT CULTURE OF FEAR & INSIDIOUS DICTATORSHIP

The editor of the Samoa Observer says that media in the country needs to “do what they’re supposed to do, and that is to be watchdogs of the government, not lapdogs of the government”.In an interview with Pacific Scoop, Samoa Observer editor Mata’afa Keni Lesa, came with a scathing criticism of the country’s Prime Minister, Tuilaepa Sailele, and said that the current government had a negative impact on media freedom in Samoa.Mata’afa called the current conditions in Samoa “an insidious dictatorship”, and he said that it is “basically a one-party state, where the Prime Minister rules above all”.“In this country today, I’m telling you now, there is a real culture of fear among our people, including the public service. They are so afraid to speak up. They are so afraid of this government. They are so afraid of this Prime Minister,” Mata’afa said.The editor’s outbursts came after the Prime Minister recently stated in an interview with Radio Australia that the opposition in Samoa has been “led astray by various subjective comments from the editor of the [Samoa] Observer”.The creation of a controversial media council in Samoa is the background to the feisty oral fight the Prime Minister and the editor has been having.Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele rejected that the government has interfered in the creation of the media council.Mata’afa, however, said that people could “do the math”, and referred to a recent letter from the Attorney-General which stated that the government has instructed the Attorney-General to establish a media council.Government controlThe Samoa Observer editor said that a media council could potentially be detrimental to media in Samoa.“Our fear at this stage is that this media council will become another government body, designed to really shut down the media.”The Prime Minister rejected that the government will have anything to do with the media council, and claimed it will be an independent body.He also said there is an “urgent need” to create a media council due to “a lot of erroneous reporting” and “apologies after apologies after apologies made by the Observer”.“The idea that there are “apologies after apologies after apologies” is wrong,” Mata’afa said.“Put it this way: We are a daily newspaper, we run 365 papers a year. If a lot of apologies mean two or three apologies a year, I’m not sure…again, you decide for yourself.”