Dismay over media crackdown in Fiji
Updated
Fiji's military Government says foreign media are most welcome in Fiji, a day after shutting down Radio Australia's FM transmitters in Suva and Nadi and deporting the Australia Network's Sean Dorney earlier in the week. Applications for journalists who want to visit will however be considered according to the reporter's track record on writing stories about Fiji. Meanwhile, journalists inside the country continue work under heavy censorship, and some who have crossed the line have ended up in jail.
Presenter Kerrie Ritchie
Speakers: Police spokeswoman Ema Mua, President of the Fiji Landowners Association Ratu Osea Gavidi, Asia Pacific Spokesman for Reporters Without Frontiers Vincent Brossel, International Federation of Journalists Deborah Muir
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KERRIE RITCHIE: There's now a team of police officers in Fiji which goes around to newsrooms, questions the journalists and looks over what stories are being written. Ema Mua is the spokeswoman for Fiji police. How many reporters have now been arrested?
EMA MUA: Two. Two so far and the rest were just given warnings but we haven't actually proceeded to another level in terms of arrests, it's just taking them in for questioning.
KERRIE RITCHIE: The internet is being restricted and the military regime has shut down ABC radio transmitters in Fiji. The President of the Fiji Landowners Association Ratu Osea Gavidi says people are struggling to stay informed.
RATU OSEA GAVIDI: In the islands we rely on radio, we have no access to television. The majority of our people do not read the newspapers, the majority don't see television, so they rely on radio - both in the vernacular languages and in English. So that's why radio is very important to us.
KERRIE RITCHIE: In the past week three local reporters have been arrested and three international journalists have been deported. The interim Government's spokesman, Major Nuemi Leweni has just sent out a press release, saying foreign media representatives are most welcome to visit. Mr Leweni couldn't be reached on his mobile for an interview. He says in the release that the Government isn't stopping journalists from coming to Fiji. He believes reporters should come and see for themselves that life in the country is normal. But he does go on to say that foreign media must apply to the Permanent Secretary of Information for a visa and the secretary will endorse applications based on how the person has reported about Fiji in the past and on the undertaking that they will report accurately and responsibly. Vincent Brossel is the Asia Pacific spokesman for the organisation Reporters Without Frontiers.
VINCENT BROSSEL: It's a sort of strain by army Governments to impose censorship, to try to restrict news to positive news, and in fact, one of the few countries in the world with this sort of previous censorship system is Burma. And you know that Burma is one of the worst dictatorships in the world. So it's very sad to see Fiji going to this very bad record. And the fact that they have also been expelling foreign journalists, it shows they are not comfortable and very hostile with foreign media reporting about the situation.
KERRIE RITCHIE: Deborah Muir is from the International Federation of Journalists.
DEBORAH MUIR: International organisations and Governments and individuals need to continue to campaign very vigorously and not give up on Fiji at all.
KERRIE RITCHIE: She says the interim Government may have closed internet cafes and blocked newspaper copy but the truth will get out.
DEBORAH MUIR: Some of the technologies that are available through which you would still need to use the World Wide Web are the way to go. There are various communication technologies, be it even just instant messaging and phone messaging, in which information can be circulated. This is a common practice, for example, in Pakistan during the 2007 emergency regulations. Information was being circulated rapidly by mobile phones. The government wasn't able to control it at all.
