Media Freedom Under Threat In Fiji: Dorney
A controversial Fiji Human Rights Commission-produced report to regulate the media industry has come under fire from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Pacific correspondent Sean Dorney.
“In Fiji at the moment is Fiji’s so called Human Rights Commission there, which is headed by a woman called Shaista Shameem, one of the things that she has decided to do is bring in a guy called Jim Anthony from Hawaii to do a report – allegedly on freedom of the media in Fiji and this report is just a complete diatribe against the mainstream media,” he said when speaking on media freedom issues at a media workshop in Port Moresby.
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“And amongst its recommendations are that they should establish a media tribunal, they it should be funded by 7 per cent tax across the board on all media advertising revenue and a further 7 per cent from all revenue generated from monthly user fees, that all expatriates employed in the media should lose their work permits and no new work permits be renewed – its just a full out tax on the mainstream media,” Dorney added.
Making a comparison of the tolerance of the media in PNG compared to the rest of the Pacific, the ABC Pacific correspondent said the PNG media industry was setting an example for the rest of the region.
“One of the good things about Papua New Guinea is that the media here is a really shining light for the rest of the region. There’s good media here, its free, its gutsy, its journalists are prepared to ask hard questions. Certainly that’s been my experience when I was here and on a number of occasions people from the media have had to band together to oppose attempts by various governments to control the media here. And it’s been a very successful fight, said Dorney.
Last month’s deportation of Australian newspaper publisher Russell Hunter by Fiji’s military-backed government is an example of the intimidation that Pacific journalists are often subjected to in their line of duty.
