Sensible Sentencing
Over the last few weeks and months our journalists have made a lot of noise about the Fiji Government's censorship of the press. Where will the press's neutrality be they ask? How can they ask the balancing and critical questions?
Yesterday was the reporting of the Sensible Sentencing Trust annual event held in the Beehive in Wellington. Garth McVicars, the creator of this group was interiewed on TV1. And I had to wonder if I was watching an infomercial for the Sensible Sentencing Trust. Where, I wondered were the balancing and critical questions? Absent!!! Completely absent. Our media, or at least, TV1 (and my expereince is as bad of TV3) failed to do their job.
McVicars wants parole abolished. The interviewer (Greg Boyd) lamely agreed, wondered why things were as they were, and suggested that McVicars simply was stating common sense. Is this our cherished free press at work?
So is this what we want our country to be known for, as imprisoning more people per head of population than anywhere else in the world. We are second to USA at the moment. How do we pay for this? Do we give back our tax cut? where do we build the new prisons? No-one wants a prison near them except if you have family in there. Is this really the best way to deal with crime. It makes victims feel better, but will it just lead to even more victims. Nope, none of these were asked. TV One, you were pathetic.
Yesterday was the reporting of the Sensible Sentencing Trust annual event held in the Beehive in Wellington. Garth McVicars, the creator of this group was interiewed on TV1. And I had to wonder if I was watching an infomercial for the Sensible Sentencing Trust. Where, I wondered were the balancing and critical questions? Absent!!! Completely absent. Our media, or at least, TV1 (and my expereince is as bad of TV3) failed to do their job.
McVicars wants parole abolished. The interviewer (Greg Boyd) lamely agreed, wondered why things were as they were, and suggested that McVicars simply was stating common sense. Is this our cherished free press at work?
So is this what we want our country to be known for, as imprisoning more people per head of population than anywhere else in the world. We are second to USA at the moment. How do we pay for this? Do we give back our tax cut? where do we build the new prisons? No-one wants a prison near them except if you have family in there. Is this really the best way to deal with crime. It makes victims feel better, but will it just lead to even more victims. Nope, none of these were asked. TV One, you were pathetic.
Comments