Open AccessREVIEW: Noted: Human touch, revealing media insights into Speight’s coup
Author(s) -
Christine Gounder
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
pacific journalism review
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.308
H-Index - 13
eISSN - 2324-2035
pISSN - 1023-9499
DOI - 10.24135/pjr.v12i2.876
Subject(s) - nobody , parliament , wife , prime minister , law , government (linguistics) , media studies , sociology , publishing , political science , politics , computer security , philosophy , linguistics , computer science
At 10.45am on the morning of 19 May 2000, Fiji’s Parliament was disrupted when six gunmen entered and demanded the government step down. This is how it happened:
Mr Speaker: (Standing up) What is this?
Stranger No. 1: This is a civil coup, hold tight, nobody move!
Mr Speaker: Yes?
Stranger No. 1: This is a civil coup by the people, the taukei people and we ask you to please retire to your Chamber right now, Mr Speaker. Please co-operate so nobody will get hurt. (p. 18)
This is an extract from Speight of Violence, a book which recalls the memories of the 2000 coup as seen through the eyes of three people—Dr Tupeni Baba, a Deputy Prime Minister in the hostage government, his wife Unaisi and journalist Michael Field.