Disgust as Fiji censor fronts media freedom panel
Updated
Some delegates at the Pacific Islands News Association conference in Vanuatu have questioned why a military censor from Fiji was allowed to appear on a panel dealing with media freedom in the region. The controls that Commodore Frank Bainimarama's government has imposed over the media in Fiji has been a recurring issue at the conference.
Presenter: Sean Dorney, Australia Network's Pacific Editor
Speaker: Netani Rika, Editor in Chief of Fiji Times; Lance Corporal Talei Tora, Fiji Information Ministry; Mark Scott, ABC Managing Director
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DORNEY: The two yearly conference of the Pacific Islands News Association has devoted several panels to media freedom. A late change to the panel I was chairing meant a Fijian journalist was replaced by a military officer from Fiji's Ministry of Information. After detailing instances of how his journalists were being harrassed and censored, the Editor of the Fiji Times, Netani Rika excused himself.
RIKA: You will forgive me, however, if I excuse myself at this stage for I no longer feel comfortable in the presence of people who will not treat us with courtesy at home but expect to be treated with it off shore.
DORNEY: Fiji's Information Ministry is a paid up member of the regional media association and the military censor told the conference censorship was needed in Fiji because the Fiji media had been irresponsible.
TORA: Ongoing quantitive and qualitive analysis has further revealed the following equation - divisive racial policies, plus politicians with vested interests plus irresponsible media equals policial and social unrest.
DORNEY: The Managing Director of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Mark Scott, gave a keynote address in which he rejected the Fiji Government's claims that censorship was for the good of Fiji.
SCOTT: Such comments ignore the lessons of history and ignore the factors that gave rise to the tragedies of the past. The experience around the world is that a free and independent media is a cornerstone in a society which demonstrates good governance in the interests of all its people.
DORNEY: Some delegates have questioned why people who actively censor the media are allowed to be part of the region's premier media organisation.
