Fiji Islands government goes ahead with buying newspaper shares

(PINA/IFEX) – On 10 February 1999, the Fiji Islands government went ahead with a controversial move to become the biggest shareholder in one of the country’s two daily newspapers, according to media reports. The “Daily Post” of 11 February 1999 (local date), in a report headlined “Govt buys Post shares”, quoted Fiji Islands Finance Minister […]

(PINA/IFEX) – On 10 February 1999, the Fiji Islands government went
ahead with a controversial move to become the biggest shareholder in one
of the country’s two daily newspapers, according to media reports. The
“Daily Post” of 11 February 1999 (local date), in a report headlined
“Govt buys Post shares”, quoted Fiji Islands Finance Minister Jim Ah Koy
as saying: “We’ve finalised the deal today and we’re now one of the
shareholders of the Daily Post.” The English-language “Daily Post” also
publishes one of the country’s
two Fijian-language weekly newspapers, “Na Volasiga”.

**Updates IFEX alert of 9 February 1999**

The government’s move to buy the forty four percent shareholding in the
“Daily Post” previously held by the Fiji Development Bank had been
criticised by opposition political parties and PINA. It came just three
months before the country’s first general elections under a new
constitution replacing one imposed after two 1987 military coups.

Ah Koy told the “Daily Post” that he would like to see facilities,
working conditions, and standards at the “Daily Post” improve. He said
the government had made a deal with the other shareholders, the
Australian insurance company Colonial and the Unit Trust of Fiji
investment group, specifying that once the changes were in place they
would float shares on the stock exchange. “We have a foreign owned
newspaper,” Ah Koy said in reference to the country’s biggest newspaper,
“The Fiji Times”. “Now we’re going to have a locally owned one.”

Background Information