Washington-based Qorvis Communications has long been the dictator's spin doctor of choice in the Middle East, where it has whitewashed authoritarian regimes and attacked their critics with social media smear campaigns. Its underhanded tactics there, however, proved too much for even some of its own staff members, who quit in disgust. Now the public relations firm has branched out to the South Pacific, where for more than a year it has masterminded the perception management strategy of the dictatorship in Fiji. Military commander Frank Bainimarama seized power there in a 2006 coup, and while he has promised a return to democracy with elections next year, many are beginning to wonder if democracy will ever return to that benighted Pacific outpost after its dictator's latest antics.
