The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the media blackout that started September 15 ahead of the Fijian elections on September 17, and said the media in Fiji must be free to report the next few critical days if the interim government is serious about the country’s return to a democratically-elected system of government. The media blackout, which bans all political...
The International Federation of Journalists has criticized the political environment in Fiji in the lead-up to the country’s first democratic elections in a decade, after two female reporters received death threats for their coverage. A Fiji Sun and a Fiji Broadcasting Corporation journalist each received death threats via telephone and through social media this week. Vosita Kotoiwasawasa, from...
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) joins the Pacific Freedom Forum (PFF) in noting concern about the dismissal of Anish Chand, a broadcast news veteran from Fiji TV, and the confirmed resignation of Ricardo Morris, a Suva based coordinator. According to the PFF, Chand was given his termination notice on May 3, World Press Freedom Day, after voicing his concerns about the need for...
News Corp's Australian arm agreed to sell its Fiji Times newspaper to a local owner, likely ending a dispute with the Fijian government over media ownership, the Wall Street Journal has reported. News Ltd said Tuesday it agreed to sell the newspaper to Motibhai & Co, after the Fijian government issued a decree that the nation's media groups be owned by Fijian companies. Terms of the sale weren't...
Fiji’s main daily newspaper, the Fiji Times, is up for sale following the military regime’s declaration of a media decree requiring all media outlets be owned 90 per cent by locals. The Times is wholly owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Limited. All Fiji media have been under martial law censorship for the last year but the Times has incurred the wrath of coup leader Voreqe Bainimarama, in part by...
A new Fijian media decree that formalizes repressive government control of the media could force the outspoken Fiji Times to close within three months, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Fiji Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum announced at a press conference Monday that the Media Industry Development Decree, drafted in April, is now in effect. The decree requires all media...
A draft decree in fiji proposes to regulate media ownership and news content, while authorising the imposition of fines and prison terms for violations, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, who has maintained a supposedly temporary military rule since seizing power in a 2006 coup, announced the decree shortly before a compulsory three-day meeting...
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has condemned the Fiji military regime's extension of strict media censorship and emergency regulations, saying the regime's effort to stamp out public discussion is undermining all fundamental rights of the people of Fiji. Under the emergency rules, initially imposed in April, the media is forbidden to publish or broadcast anything negative about...
Fiji's military government, which has been questioning several local journalists in custody, should immediately rescind emergency regulations censoring the island nation's media, the Committee to Protect Journalists has urged. At least a dozen local journalists have been interrogated by police since the regulations came into force on April 10, according to the Associated Press (AP). Initially...
Fiji's interim government must relax its reporting restrictions after the government declared a 30-day state of emergency on Friday, the Committee to Protect Journalists has demanded. Three foreign reporters have since been ordered to be deported and one local journalist detained, according to international news reports, and newspapers and broadcasts have been censored. Australian Sean Dorney and...
