More heavy-handed treatment of the media in Fiji is worrying, Prime Minister John Key says.Fiji's military regime has ordered media organisations, including the Fiji Times, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, to change ownership structures so 90 percent
More heavy-handed treatment of the media in Fiji is worrying, Prime Minister John Key says.
Fiji's military regime has ordered media organisations, including the Fiji Times, owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, to change ownership structures so 90 percent of shareholders are Fijian citizens or they will be closed down.
Armed forces chief Commodore Frank Bainimarama launched a media crackdown after seizing power in a December 2006 coup. Foreign reporters and media managers have been expelled, and dozens of local journalists arrested and interrogated. Military censors operate in newsrooms on a daily basis.
Mr Key said the move was a worry.
"I was concerned, it looked very heavy-handed and reiterates what we have been saying for quite some time -- that we want to see democracy restored in Fiji because we want a fully operating economy and environment.
"When you start banning media and telling organisations to sell their newspapers, to me it sounds like a step too far.'
New Zealand Media Freedom Committee secretary Tim Pankhurst said yesterday the measures were part of a disturbing trend towards dictatorship, and another reason why New Zealanders should boycott travelling to Fiji.
"I believe that individuals should take action against them [Fiji's military regime] by not holidaying in Fiji," Mr Pankhurst said.
Heavy-handed actions the government had taken in the past indicated it could follow through on its threat to close the Fiji Times if News Ltd did not comply with the new measure, he said.
When the new measures were announced in April, Fiji Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum described the newspaper as "the purveyor of negativity, at least for the past three years".
"This is a media organisation that does not recognise the government, does not call the prime minister the prime minister," he said.
Others measures included in the decree include establishing a tribunal to ensure nothing is printed or broadcast against the "national interest or public order", Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.
The decree also makes media organisations liable for fines of up to 100,000 Fiji dollars ($NZ71,245) for breaching content regulations. Journalists publishers and editors can also be fined.
The Fiji Times is Fiji's oldest and largest circulated newspaper and is wholly owned by Murdoch's News Ltd.
News Ltd chairman and chief executive John Hartigan called the measures "an appalling assault on free speech and a terrible blow for the fragile economy of Fiji."
