IT is unfortunate for politicians to discourage the public from believing a particular newspaper, says NFP leader Professor Biman Prasad. He made the comment following comments by Minister for Economy Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum during a national budget consultation at the University of the South Pacific on Friday where he told those in attendance not to believe what they read in The Fiji Times.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum was asked by a student on how reasonable ministers’ salaries were.
To which he responded: “Don’t believe everything you read in The Fiji Times, that’s the first thing I’ll say to you,” Mr Sayed- Khaiyum said. “I’m telling you a fact, and they have a lot of misreporting. And they have a propensity to do that.”
He said the question was asked by a student in Nadi who made reference to salaries of ministers in certain countries which were quite low.
“And I said to him that you have done a selective selection of countries because I can also point out many other countries who pay a lot higher.”
Professor Prasad said politicians could have a view of how the media should conduct themselves but they should not be discouraging people from or taking a stand on a singular media organisation.
“The real issue in this country is the Media Decree and the ineffectiveness of MIDA (Media Industry Development Authority) in dealing with the important issues relating to media freedom and how journalists can be encouraged to write stories without fear or favour.
“Obviously I wouldn’t go out there and discourage the public not to read or listen to media organisations,” Prof Prasad said.
“I believe in absolute media freedom, independence of the media.
“When you are in government, any point of biasness from your government to any media organisation can put a lot of fear among the people as well as journalists.”
MIDA chairman Ashwin Raj said Prof Prasad had once again used the Media Decree to confuse the real issues ordinary Fijian were faced with.
“His recent statement alleging that the real issue in the country is the Media Decree and the ineffectiveness of MIDA is quite frankly an oxymoron precisely because he has had unfettered access to the media to publicise his claims and misguided statements and his most recent statement is testament to that,” Mr Raj said.
“Furthermore, it behooves a member of Parliament of Professor Prasad’s ilk with all his credentials to actually help address real issues that affect ordinary Fijians such as alleviation of poverty, access and equity to services, and fundamental human rights violations of those with access to no social mobility rather than calling for resignation of public office holders and walking out of Parliament, which sadly seems to be his only political legacy.”