/ 13 May 2009

Fiji regime warns media of prolonged censorship

Fiji’s military government warned on Wednesday that news censorship and controls over the country’s media could be extended indefinitely.

”At the moment you can say it is censorship,” government spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Neumi Leweni told the Fijilive news website.

”If I was given the choice, I’d leave it there for the next five years.”

The regime posted censors in newsrooms last month as it extended its grip on power in the South Pacific country, and has forced publishers to supply ”positive” news and barred criticism of the government and its actions.

Already more than a dozen local print, broadcast and internet journalists have been arrested, held in police cells and interrogated about news items the regime says breached its controls. At least three foreign correspondents have been expelled from the country.

The regulations were imposed on April 10, when President Ratu Josefa Iloilo overthrew the Constitution, sacked the country’s judges and reappointed military ruler Commodore Frank Bainimarama as prime minister. His actions came one day after the Appeal Court ruled Bainimarama’s 2006 coup and military-led government were illegal.

Foreign governments and international media groups have demanded the regime return to democracy and reinstate media freedoms.

Leweni said the government had seen ”good” results since the controls were enforced and wanted to keep them in place.

The only way for the controls to be lifted would be if media organisations agreed to willingly follow the editorial direction being set by his Information Ministry, he said.

Leweni said Fiji’s media had an ”irresponsible” bent, constantly focused on negative news, carried one-sided and sensationalised stories and were opposed to the regime.

Fiji’s Media Council, an independent grouping of media companies, last month decided to make no further comment on media issues while the military controls remained in place. — Sapa-AP