Sadly, it is another case of a Cabinet Minister shooting the messenger, with the Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries slamming coverage by this newspaper in a televised program on Wednesday.

La’auli Leuatea Schmidt was on the Soalepule program, which went to air on Wednesday night on the Congregational Christian Church Samoa (C.C.C.S.)-run television station.

He was incensed at the Samoa Observer coverage of last month’s C.C.C.S. annual conference at Malua, specifically the calls by the church members for content aired on the C.C.C.S. TV station to be monitored by their leadership and or even cut due to the politicisation of the programs.

He was responding to a question from the Soalepule program host Paiali’i Tapuala Oloapu, who asked whether he was ever contacted by Samoa Observer for a comment on the matter. He even claimed that as an employee of the church-owned TV station, he didn't hear such requests from church members calling for the axing of his televised program. He then asked the Gagaifomauga No. 3 M.P. if the Samoa Observer report is true or whether the newspaper had "made up the story" just to increase sales. 

Looking at Wednesday night’s Soalepule program, it was obvious that Paiali’i didn’t do his homework on the issue, before asking the Cabinet Minister for his comment on this newspaper's coverage of the church’s annual conference last month. If Paiali’i had bothered to make it his business to read the story – as you would expect any top TV program host would do prior to going to air – he would have seen the direct references in the Samoa Observer story to C.C.C.S. members living in three districts. 

The church members of the Apia-i-Sasa'e, Faleata, and Vaimauga districts had raised their concerns with the church’s Missionary Committee. The feedback from the three districts to the church’s Missionary Committee was part of the documentation that was collated and put in a file (see page 45 of the report) as part of the Committee’s report for deliberation in last month’s C.C.C.S. annual conference. 

If Paiali’i wanted to give “balance” to his program, he should have interviewed the church leaders of the three districts or better still, brought them on his show so they can tell the viewers if their positions highlighted in the Committee’s report were incorrect and not representative of their views.  

The decision by Paiali’i to make this issue the agenda of his program on Wednesday night has only exposed his shortcomings as a presenter of a television program. In fact, he misled the viewers of the C.C.C.S. TV by making the claim without even providing the evidence to support his position that the church’s members never made such requests last month. Looking at the way he conducted himself on the show, in relation to this particular issue, it is not surprising that the viewers in the three districts are questioning the content of the Soalepule program and calling for its axing.

We also question the accuracy of the Minister's comments that this newspaper has been publishing unbalanced stories and failed to seek his comments. The fact is Samoa Observer has always gone out of its way to get comments from all Cabinet Ministers including La’auli. In fact, on certain occasions, we’ve delayed the publication of certain stories or statements, on the understanding that the responsible Minister will respond by or before an agreed deadline. However, we must also state for the record that there have been occasions – since the Fa’atuatua i le Atua Samoa ua Tasi (F.A.S.T.) Government came to office – when a Cabinet Minister refused outright to comment when asked by our reporters.

Another tactic employed by some Cabinet Ministers is to create more bureaucratic red tape for our reporters by referring them to subordinates in their ministerial offices, who have their own procedures on how they handle press queries, and there is no guarantee on when a response is expected. And this is despite the Cabinet Minister being given the opportunity, there and then, to respond to questions.

The accusation by La’auli that reporting by the Samoa Observer is “inciting unrest within the country” is also far from the truth. The Agriculture and Fisheries Minister should be reminded of his own conduct in the last fortnight, which triggered uproar amongst ordinary citizens. This followed revelations that a tour company linked to his children was given the sole contract for the visiting Chinese delegation. The local tour operators – with many years of experience – wouldn’t be up in arms if the Minister was transparent and publicly released details of his links to the Hong Kong-registered firm that organised the tours. In retrospect, La’auli, as a senior minister in the former H.R.R.P. Administration and now the current F.A.S.T. Government, is familiar with our style of journalism.

And having been in the news business for over four decades, we must also state that the goalpost has not changed for this newspaper, in terms of its values of being independent, objective and impartial in its coverage of issues that matter to ordinary Samoans. At the end of the day, we owe it to the people to continue to do our jobs without fear or favour and to hold every government of the day accountable.