The government says it had no influence over $200,000 in funding for a documentary ahead of Fiji’s election about a Fijian cabinet minister facing down a scandal.

The Ministry of Pacific Peoples funded the film Algorithm of Shame: In the Village, Everybody Knows was released in May, and tackles the impacts of social media in closely connected communities.

Marketing describes it as a “powerful Pacific-led documentary set in Fiji that exposes the devastating impact of online shaming in the age of social media, where algorithms reward outrage, humiliation, and exposure without care or accountability”.

The film focuses on two people: trans woman Rhonda who lost her friend to online abuse, and Fijian politician Lynda Tabuya.

The film’s release just ahead of the Fijian election — set for sometime between August and February, with no firm date yet confirmed — could be seen as softening the image of Tabuya ahead of her potential re-election.

Given the New Zealand taxpayer funding, it is vulnerable to accusations of political interference by another government.

However, the film’s executive producer Tuki Laumea told RNZ the New Zealand government had “no editorial control over this documentary”.

“It is incorrect to say this film is about Minister Lynda Tabuya. Minister Tabuya appears in approximately 15 percent of the film,” he told RNZ.

‘Highly topical issue’
“The film is about the highly topical issue of social media harm in Pacific communities, including its impact on young people, its links to suicide and several other serious issues related to online harm.”

“This film was shown three times on Mai TV in Fiji in May and early June. It was not made widely available online and is currently unavailable to view anywhere in the world, including Fiji and New Zealand. No wide public release date has been set.”

Tabuya, the former Minister for Women, Children and Social Protection, was consigned to the back benches over a leaked video of her dancing naked that went viral on Christmas Eve 2024.

She had been pushing to ban porn sites in Fiji, but was dismissed as a minister on Boxing Day by Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka.

Fiji police later described the video leak as an invasion of privacy, and Tabuya herself said it was made for her ex-husband and that her phone was stolen and hacked.

The police cybercrime unit — acting on a complaint Tabuya had laid — eventually identified two suspects in the leak, and Rabuka welcomed her back to Cabinet in August as Minister of Information — a role he previously held himself.

He said at the time she was “well-suited to spearhead the government’s public relations machinery through the Ministry of Information” with her “personality and her accessibility to the press and the media people”.

Independently produced
In a statement, the Ministry for Pacific Peoples pushed back on questions about whether the funding could be seen as electoral interference, softening the image of a foreign Cabinet Minister beset by scandal.

A spokesperson for the ministry said the documentary was independently produced through the Moana Reo Media Fund, administered by Pacific Media Network.

“The decision to fund the documentary makers $200,000 was made independently of the ministry through an established funding process, which means editorial content of funded projects was not influenced by the New Zealand government in any way and cannot be seen as electoral interference,” a spokesperson said.

“The documentary focuses on the broader social impacts of online harm, cyberbullying and digital shaming, which are issues affecting communities globally.”

Similarly, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said the documentary was “independently produced and independently selected through an established funding process”.

“The government does not influence the editorial content of funded projects. This is not a New Zealand government commentary on Fijian political matters,” a spokesperson said.

Pacific Peoples Minister Paul Goldsmith said in a statement: “The Moana Reo Media Fund was funded under the previous Labour government. It is administered by the Pacific Media Network, which operates purposely at arm’s length of the ministry and ministers.”

Public interest documentary
Foreign Minister Winston Peters declined to comment.

Laumea, a filmmaker for two decades, is the co-director and co-producer of the “independently produced public-interest documentary about the impact of social media harm in Pacific communities.”

“This film received public funding, as does public-interest journalism across New Zealand and the Pacific, including RNZ and Pasifika TV through PCBL.”

“The minister is among several voices in this film, including a religious leader, a lawyer, students, advocacy groups, a counsellor, the Online Safety Commission, community leaders, a male survivor and a trans rights activist.

“Minister Tabuya is in a unique position to contribute to this conversation because of her very specific and public experience of online abuse,” Laumea said.