(PINA/IFEX) – On 25 November 1999, the Fiji Islands government informed “The Fiji Times” that the work permit of the newspaper group’s editor-in-chief will not be renewed. The letter refusing “The Fiji Times” application for the renewal was received on the day the newspaper accused the government of conducting a “vendetta” against it (see IFEX […]
(PINA/IFEX) – On 25 November 1999, the Fiji Islands government informed “The
Fiji Times” that the work permit of the newspaper group’s editor-in-chief
will not be renewed. The letter refusing “The Fiji Times” application for
the renewal was received on the day the newspaper accused the government of
conducting a “vendetta” against it (see IFEX alert of 24 November 1999). The
three-year work permit of editor-in-chief Russell Hunter expires on 31
December and the newspaper had applied for an extension.
“The Fiji Times” is part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation and is the
biggest newspaper publishing group in the Pacific Islands. It is a previous
winner of the PINA Pacific Freedom of Information award for its defence of
freedom of expression and the Fiji public’s right to know. The company has
local editors for its daily newspaper, Sunday newspaper, Fijian and Hindi
language weekly newspapers and a regional news magazine, and an
editor-in-chief for the group posted from News Corporation. Hunter is
Scottish and has extensive newspaper management and training experience in
Britain, Australia, and the Pacific Islands. He was recently elected by the
region’s newspapers and magazines as their representative on the PINA
executive.
“The Fiji Times” said the Immigration Department notified it that an
extension of Hunter’s work permit was refused after the permanent secretary
for information said the position should be localised. The minister for
information is Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry, who in recent months has
attacked “The Fiji Times” and other leading Fiji news organisations. “The
Fiji Times” said it had lodged the application on 8 September. It said it
would appeal against the refusal.
The refusal to renew Hunter’s work permit comes soon after controversy in
July over the government’s initial refusal to give Canadian Ken Clark a work
permit to be chief executive of Fiji Television, another news organisation
Chaudhry has attacked. PINA president William Parkinson said then that the
business of hiring executives should rest with boards and not governments.
He warned that the next step could be the government trying to select chief
executives for all companies. The publisher of “The Fiji Times”, Alan
Robinson, was quoted then as saying the government is trying to take on the
role of management. He said no company would recruit an expatriate if there
was a suitable local. Fiji Television was eventually given a two-year work
permit for Clark after planning court action against the way the work permit
was refused (see IFEX alert of 31 August 1999).
In other developments in the confrontation between the Fiji government and
the country’s independent news media:
– “The Fiji Times” reported police are investigating the theft of a photo
from the home of the editor of “Shanti Dut”, its Hindi weekly. The photo was
brandished in parliament on 24 November by a government backbencher when he
made allegations against “The Fiji Times”, its associate editor and
individual journalists.
– As criticism of this attack grew, Prime Minister Chaudhry distanced the
government from it, saying it was backbencher Muthu Swamy’s “personal view.”
– Parkinson cautioned parliamentarians not to risk putting their own private
lives under scrutiny by revealing personal details about journalists. He
said the Fiji media has until now avoided revealing the private lives of
public figures. Parkinson condemned Swamy’s attack as disgraceful.
– “The Fiji Times” reported its telephones had “run hot” with members of the
public calling in details about the “behaviour and unlikely habits of a
whole host of government MPs and ministers.”
Background Information
On 27 October, there was widespread criticism in the Fiji Islands of threats
by Prime Minister Chaudhry to bring in a government-regulated media tribunal
with powers to impose penalties on the media. One of the country’s three
daily newspapers also reported on the government’s plans to introduce
legislation requiring compulsory licencing of foreign-owned Fiji Islands
media. This included setting strict conditions under which they had to
report and operate or risk losing their licence, and imposing a F$20,000
(approx. US$10,000) annual licence fee.
Parkinson called the threats to the news media a “disgrace” and “unbecoming
of a prime minister of a supposedly democratic country. We have not had this
kind of threat made since the military government in 1987. Fiji is very much
a beacon for the rest of the region with regards to media freedom. We have a
very dynamic media industry which apart from a period around the military
coups in 1987 has been able to operate freely.”
On 26 October, Chaudhry again attacked the Fiji Islands news media and
individual journalists following a series of earlier criticisms. In a
lengthy address, the prime minister singled out three of Fiji’s main news
organisations, “The Fiji Times”, Fiji Television and “Islands Business”
magazine, for detailed criticism.
The Fiji Islands has amongst the most diverse and free news media in the
Pacific Islands. They include: three seven-day-a-week English-language daily
newspapers; weekly newspapers in Hindi, Fijian, and English; news, business,
trade and entertainment magazines; independent commercial, community and
religious radio stations; government-owned public and commercial radio
stations; and commercial and community television. However, the news media
have come under continuing criticism from Chaudhry and his assistant
information minister, Lekh Ram Vayeshnoi. This follows the election of their
new Fiji Labour Party-led coalition government in May (see IFEX alerts).