REVIEW & OUTLOOK (Editorial)
Fiji's Media Silenced
1 July 2010
The Wall Street Journal Asia
(c) 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
So much for promises by Fiji's military junta to relax the draconian restrictions on press freedom introduced last year. Monday's implementation of the Media Industry Development Decree takes the South Pacific nation one step closer to the complete elimination of independent media.
Under the Public Emergency Regulations, the government installed censors in newsrooms, and newspaper editors and publishers have been intimidated and expelled from the country. So the new decree is simply a legal framework that formalizes de facto control. To add insult to injury, Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum has claimed the law will promote a more responsible media, and Fiji's secretary for information says the decree is necessary for "national security."
So in the name of "national security," it will now be illegal to publish anything that "is against the public interest or order, is against national interest, or creates communal discord." Since the junta sacked the judiciary after a court ruled its government illegal, it is free to interpret these rules as broadly as it likes.
In other words, journalists who insist on practicing journalism will be severely punished. Media organizations can be fined F$100,000 ($50,340), publishers and editors $25,000, and reporters $1,000. The law also provides for prison terms of up to two years. In case anyone was thinking of hiding behind anonymity, all print media exceeding 50 words must use bylines identifying the writer.
In a country where only 10% of the population has access to the Internet, traditional media organizations, especially newspapers, play a critical role in delivering the news. But the potential punishment for publishing anything against the "national interest" threatens the survival of smaller papers.
The coup de grace for press freedom is a cap on foreign ownership of 10%, since the country's three largest daily newspapers are all majority foreign owned. The largest and oldest paper, the Fiji Times, is owned by News Corp, which also owns The Wall Street Journal.
Australia and New Zealand have forcefully condemned the military's attack on free speech and civil liberties. But among the leaders of other Pacific island nations, only Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele has spoken out against the decree. Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare instead chose to give tacit approval to the plan back in April when a draft was released, saying that journalists need to "understand the Pacific people."
The Fijian military is promising to return the nation to democracy by 2014. Given the junta's failure to honor its past promises and its consolidation of power over the institutions that underpin democracy, the future of Fiji looks bleak indeed.
