Fiji cracks down on media

The military-backed goverment has enforced new regulations which could mean monitoring newsrooms and expelling foreign journalists.

By New Statesman Published 29 June 2010

Fiji's military-backed government headed by Frank Bainimarama has passed a new law which attempts to suppress press freedom and tighten controls on local newspapers, radio, TV and internet outlets.

The regulations allow for the expulsion of foreign-born newspaper journalists and the monitoring of newsrooms to ban stories considered negative by the government. They prescribe fines and jail terms for journalists whose work is considered to be against the public interest.

All media outlets in the country must now be 90 per cent owned by permanent Fiji citizens.

The Fiji government has also ordered Rupert Murdoch's Australian news division, News Limited, to sell or close the Fiji Times - the largest newspaper in the country - within three months.

News Limited's chief executive John Hartigan said the government's illegal attempts to withdraw foreign media investment from Fiji are damaging to the country's reputation as an attractive centre for investment.

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1 comment

Sat, 2010-07-03 14:02 — Crosbie Walsh (not verified)

Your story is misleading and very one-sided. What else would you expect John Hartigan to say? His company is an aggrieved party.

There are concerns about the Media Decree but it also has some commendable features, including a code of ethics that many readers of the Fiji Times would say is long overdue.

For a contrary, and I think more balanced account, of this and other political happenings in Fiji, I invite your editors and readers to visit my blog www.crosbiew.blogspot..com .

I have studied Fiji since the 1960s, worked and lived there for nearly ten years, and my most recent visit was two weeks ago. Concerted negative reporting by the foreign media is not helping to resolve a very complex situation.