The editor of Fiji's oldest newspaper has been ordered to jail and the publication has been fined F$100,000 (NZ$104,000) for printing a letter critical of the military regime and the court system, Fairfax Media has reported. Fiji Times editor-in-chief Netani Rika has been convicted of contempt and jailed for three months with a suspended sentence for two years on a good behaviour bond.
The ruling, by Fiji High Court Justice Thomas Hickie, an Australian, is a stunning win for the Voreqe Bainimarama regime over one of its major critics. It came after the Times - owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp - published a letter-to-the-editor critical of the judiciary.
The details: [Link]
The military, which seized power in a 2006 coup that included overthrowing the chief justice, demanded an apology from the Times. When they offered one, the military appointed attorney general Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum rejected it as insincere and ordered his Solicitor General Christopher Pryde to take them to court for contempt.
The original letter had followed a High Court ruling last year in which military approved Chief Justice Anthony Gates and two other judges issued a judgment endorsing the military overthrow of the democratic government of Prime Minister Laisenia Qarase.
In the letter one Vili Navukitu of Queensland wrote: "A dark day in the annals of Fiji's judiciary and legal history was brought about by the totally biased, corrupt and self preserving judgment handed down by Anthony Gates...
"The judiciary was tainted from the day Justice Daniel Fatiaki was forcefully removed and Anthony Gates unashamedly usurped his position. Gates' effort to legalise the immunity is laughable given the immunity was designed to protect him also."
Justice Hickie said in his ruling that the letter was contemptuous "in scandalising the High Court of Fiji and, in particular three of its most senior judges....
"And let there be no mistake, this was a vicious and cowardly attack upon the integrity of the judiciary and, in particular, three of its longest serving judges." He said it was more cowardly because no one of the name "Vili Navukitu" had come forward. "As far as I am aware this is the most serious contempt by a newspaper which has ever occurred in this country," Justice Hickie said.
He said that some of the commentary he had heard about the Fiji judiciary was disgraceful. "Sadly, this has been particularly so from some of those who should know better and who see themselves as amongst the leaders of this country in politics, the law, the media or academia."
Some were from outside the country.
