Greater freedom

By Martin Tiffany

MEDIA freedom is alive and well in Fiji although its record in the six years since the coups has been far from exemplary. The 1987 coups had obviously cast a dark shadow over the country in the eyes of the international community. And the hard line attitude during the time towards the media and journalists did little to help

with journalists getting thrown in jail,

newspapers closing down The Fiji Sun never reopened and radio news being censored.

Following the coups the interim government shook the proverbial big stick at the news gatherers and publishers, threatening annual registration of news papers and/or the annual licensing of the news media. Thankfully, after much oppo sition and debate the plan was finally

dropped.

Under Freedom of Expression, Chapter Two, Section 13, of the new constitution of Fiji, media freedom is guaranteed and protected. It gives the government no legal authority or official policy to control the news media or to muzzle it.

However, a criminal libel decree, proposed just before the May 1992 general elections, did little to prove the interim-government supported media freedom. It was seen as its parting shot at the media. The decree the

interim-government wanted to promulgate

would make libel a criminal offence carrying penalties of up to two years in jail or a FS2OOO fine.

Again opposition to the proposal probably

resulted in it being abandoned.

Indeed Fiji’s current situation has the country’s four main news sources The Fiji Times, The Daily Post, Fiji Broadcasting Commission and FM 96 — praising the new administration. And as Suva lawyer Barrie Sweetman points out the laws that govern Fiji’s media are basically the same as those of Britain, Australia and New Zealand.

Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka, the new Prime Minister, has declared his adminis tration is open and accessible to the mnedia. Apisalome Tudreu, permanenet secretary for Information, Broadcasting and Television, looks at the media as a

sounding-board and government’s link

with the people even though it will not always be kind to the government.

William Parkinson, managing director of Communications (Fiji) Limited which runs the FM96 radio station, says the arrival of Rabuka saw the arrival of free media. He suggests one reason for this is that Rabuka is comfortable with the media and likes the spotlight. Rabuka is a modern Pacific

island leader, one who knows how to handle the media. The Fiji Times editor Jale Moala, too, has a similar opinion of Rabuka. “Rabuka is open, he has never sued anyone and he never retracts anything he has said,” said Moala.

Government-owned Fiji Broadcasting Commission’s acting news and current affairs editor, Francis Herman, explains, “The stigma remains. Many of our journal ists joined when we had restrictions so they

practise self-imposed self-censorship, which

is the worst kind of censorship,” said Herman.

But Herman is quick to tell of their new found freedom. Under the previous govern ment, he said, there were directives for news content from the Ministry of Infor mation, such as the Minister for Infor mation, Ratu Inoke Kubuabola, bursting into the studio in his jogging attire one morning and confiscating a story he did not approve of. (The story was about a satellite receiver dish that had been put up at

government buildings.)

While the Broadcasting Act empowers the Information Minister to control program content, there has been little interference since Rabuka’s administration.

There has been criticism, however, of the content of the nightly News Focus , compiled by the ministry’s video centre and broad cast on “temporary” television service Fiji One. Tudreu agrees this is not a proper independent news service but an infor mation service for the government.

Moala and Daily Post’s , Nemani Delaibatiki, say they have no outside pressures on them when it comes to deciding what goes in the paper.

Delaibatiki, Moala, Parkinson and Herman all however mention one thing that does affect story content - culture.

“Compared to other Pacific islands, Fiji is in a more difficult position as they have two major races (Fijians and Indians) and three

major religions (Christianity, Hinduism

and Islam),” said Moala. “So you have to be sensitive to some issues.” However, he said the people had to be educated to accept more criticism of these sensitive issues as the “world was opening up” and people were being exposed to more outside influences.

Tudreu assures us there are no plans in the pipeline to try and control the media, although there are plans on the drawing board for a media commission. There has

been some apprehension expressed, especi

ally from the media, on the setting up of such a commission. Tudreu said the idea was the commission would advise rather than police the media. □