The general secretary of the Fiji Media Association Stanley Simpson described the Fiji Achievement in Media Excellence Awards night (FAME) as a time to remember and award journalists for their outstanding work.
“The story of tonight starts a long way back.
“It has been 17 years! Sadly that means that when I last won and when the last FAME awards was held – some of the younger reporters here were just starting primary school.
“But let’s not dwell on that 17 years back in 2008 which was the last time the FAME Awards had a full heartbeat.
He made the comments on Saturday night at the Novotel in Lami where hundreds of media workers gathered to celebrate the FAME awards. “After that the lights dimmed, we walked into a storm none of us prepared for.
“The hard years the Fiji media has walked through some intense fires, we survived emergency regulations designed to muzzle and suppress us, censors walking into our newsrooms to decide what stories we can tell the people of Fiji, long nights rewriting stories to avoid being taken up to camp or avoid being fined under MIDA.
“The constant balancing act between duty and danger to be real, it was not easy to be a journalist in Fiji during those times.
“There were days we were scared, days we questioned ourselves, days we wondered what we were still doing in this persecuted industry, days we felt we were working with handcuffs and sometimes, with blindfolds on too.
“But here’s the truth that fills this room tonight: We did not stop, we did not bow, we did not break, we kept reporting. We kept asking questions.”Despite everything they threw at us they could not stop us from asking questions, we kept working to tell the truth even when the truth felt like a risky thing to carry.
“We covered coups, constitutional crises, courtrooms, and communities rebuilding after devastation, we told stories of grief, injustice, and hardship but we also told stories of resilience, hope, victories, and national pride.
“That’s what makes the Fijian media firm and full of resolve today the triumph even through the hardest years, Fiji’s media produced extraordinary work.
“We have outlived the era that tried to silence us and we have rediscovered our voice and reclaimed our purpose, we must never again allow the press to walk with clipped wings.
“Tonight is not just a night of awards and celebration it is a night of resurrection the new era and now we enter Fiji’s new era of journalism: Sticking to our Code of Ethics.
Our principles of journalism balance, fairness, independence and accuracy braver sharper, more diverse, more inclusive and more determined to do justice to the story of this nation.
“To the younger journalists here you are walking into a media environment many fought hard to give, use it well.
“Protect it fiercely and please don’t take it for granted, to those who have lasted the distance to date: thank you for carrying the torch when the wind was strong.
“Thank you for your stubbornness, your grit, your refusal to walk away.
And to the entire industry remember that we survived. remember what we overcame and remember that a lot of hard work lies ahead.”
The Chief editor of the Fiji Times Fred Wesley speaks during the FAME Awards at Novotel. Picture: ELIKI NUKUTABU
