(PINA/IFEX) – Fiji’s Assistant Minister for Information has again stressed that a new Media Council will be set up under government legislation to replace the news media’s present self-regulatory council. The Assistant Minister, Ratu Josefa Dimuri, is quoted in “The Fiji Times” of 25 August 1998 as saying: “We certainly cannot have a News Council […]
(PINA/IFEX) – Fiji’s Assistant Minister for Information has again stressed
that a new Media Council will be set up under government legislation to
replace the news media’s present self-regulatory council. The Assistant
Minister, Ratu Josefa Dimuri, is quoted in “The Fiji Times” of 25 August
1998 as saying: “We certainly cannot have a News Council and a Media Council
running at the same time.” He added that it did not matter how often the
news media’s existing council changes its name because the new council being
set up will be “empowered by the new media laws.”
**Updates IFEX alert of 10 August 1998**
Dimuri told “The Fiji Times” that this new Media Council is needed because
the current council does not have broad representation. The new Council set
up under the media laws would be more accountable to the public, he said.
“In the new media laws a method of selection, endorsed by the Information
Minister, will be laid out,” Dimuri said.
The news media-funded Fiji News Council recently changed its name to the
Media Council. It has also adopted all the recommendations made in the
Thomson Foundation’s review of Fiji’s news media legislation. Consultants
from the Thomson Foundation of Britain came to conduct the review at the
request of the government. The council expanded its membership to include an
equal number of public and news media members. It has an independent
chairperson and an independent complaints committee with no news media
representatives.
Media Council secretary Bob Pratt told “The Fiji Times” that public members
of the Council are invited by the independent chairperson and represent a
broad cross section of the community. They are people of high standing in
the community. He also said the Council’s complaints committee now hears
complaints about advertising and programming as well as news, as recommended
by the Thomson Foundation report.
Background Information
Fiji’s news media organisations say that the present Fiji Media Council
meets the recommendations made by the Thomson Foundation consultants. The
Council, a PINA member, acts as a self-regulatory body for the local news
media and also promotes freedom of expression and information, ethics and
professional standards.
On 29 January 1998, the Government said the Cabinet (government ministers)
had approved the drawing up of new media laws which include an independent
media regulatory council but exclude suggestions for licensing newspapers
and magazines. Cabinet had accepted most of the recommendations of the
Thomson Foundation report. The consultants recommended against licensing,
but suggested the expansion of the then Fiji News Council (see IFEX alerts
of 30 January 1998 and 9 December 1997.)
In special sittings of Fiji’s House of Representatives and Senate ending on
16 July 1998, an Emergency Powers Act 1998 was passed despite concern from
the news media, trade unions, community activists and some opposition
parliamentarians (see IFEX alerts of 17, 13, 9 and 7 July 1998.) The act
includes a section enabling the introduction of regulations for “censorship
and the control of and suppression of publications, writings, maps, plans,
photographs, communications and means of communications.”
