On World Press Freedom Day (May 3, 2023) there was an excellent two-page personal account by The Fiji Times Chief Editor (Fred Wesley) on “Never again must we be suppressed”.
To refresh your memory about the personal trials and tribulations faced by not just the brave journalists but also their families (including their traumatised young children) read also the two-page article by Anish Chand “Staring at a brickwall” (The Fiji Times, May 3, 2023) and the article by Serafina Silaitoga “The truth shall prevail”.
But what struck me in Fred Wesley’s penultimate sentence “For many years, when members of our team were harassed, ridiculed, and threatened with assault and sworn at, we had no one to turn to”.
So despite the many happy speeches that Press Freedom Week on the repeal of MIDA, no one asked firstly, why the organisations responsible for the protection of media freedom clearly failed; and secondly, why has there been no public censure applied on those who were clearly guilty of actively subverting media freedom.
They include not only the military and police, but also some media owners, publishers, and some thoroughly unprofessional journalists.
Why has Fiji society not even “named and shamed” the guilty one, as a small deterrence for the future?
Or is all forgiven and forgotten, as is merrily happening in the rest of Fiji society, with salusalu flying everywhere — the only growth industry in Fiji so far.
My article tries to indirectly answer these questions.
My personal perspective on how media censorship became a monster under the Bainimarama government, can be seen in my 29 writings in Section I (Media Censorship Under a Biased Media) of my Volume 3 Our Struggles for Democracy in Fiji: Rule of Law and Media Freedom (see the contents opposite), available for sale at the USP Book Centre.
The readings in Section I, on virtually every aspect of the media and the questions I raise above, point out the effective censoring roles of the police and RFMF, Fiji Sun and its owner, Fiji Broadcasting Corporation and government, MIDA and its chairmen, PIDF, and even the regional University of the South Pacific.
The “Cens” in many of the titles show how they were banned from ordinary Fiji media, but nevertheless appeared on blogs freely available in Fiji (like my own NarseyOnFiji) and globally also on outlets like Fijileaks, CoupFourPointFive, and AUT’s Pacific Scoop.
Perhaps the most important reading which discuss the role of media owners, publishers, and journalists is reading 74 “Media moguls and media independence” (2013) (Cens).
This 2013 article gives many pointers on how fully independent institutions and organisations must be set up so that media owners, publishers, and journalists like Fred Wesley or Anish Chand can turn to for protection against the evil use of state power that Fiji has witnessed during the Bainimarama government’s 16 years in power.
Introduction to section I
Just before the 2014 Elections I put a video on Youtube explaining why the media censorship was so unfair to the Opposition parties and candidates –
