Fiji

According to media reports, during a seminar at a university the attorney general said, “Are journalists being locked up? Are journalists being told what to write? No!”

The transition of leadership at the council will come to nothing if the military regime does not relax its stranglehold on free media and free speech, PFF says.

The IFJ said ASTW members would be compromising their integrity to accept the hospitality of the regime in the current circumstances.

A threatening message against a newspaper editor recently appeared on a pro-Fiji regime blog.

PFF is encouraging the management of Pacific Islands radio station Niu FM 531pi to launch an investigation into the suspension – and then reinstatement – of veteran Fiji journalist Bulou Amalaini Ligalevu.

Sign PFF’s electronic petition, calling for an end to the so-called “Public Emergency Regulations”, which severely restrict media rights and freedom of expression.

PFF has warned the AIBD to keep the agenda to its July conference free from interference by Fiji’s military regime.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) condemns the Fiji military regime’s extension of strict media censorship and emergency regulations

(IFJ/IFEX) – May 11, 2009 – The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is relieved to learn that two journalists detained without charge in Fiji since May 9 were released today. However, the IFJ once again condemns the draconian censorship being applied by Fiji’s military regime, which has posted Department of Information censors in all news […]

(PINA/IFEX) – 3 May 2009 – As the world celebrates Media Freedom Day, we in the Pacific are thinking of our colleagues in Fiji who have nothing to celebrate because their freedoms have been forcefully curtailed by the ruling government. Media practitioners in Fiji are restricted from reporting negative or ‘inciteful’ stories against the caretaker […]

Pita Ligaiula, a journalist with Pacnews, the Suva-based regional news agency owned by the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA), was detained reportedly because the regime objected to his articles for The Associated Press (AP)

(CPJ/IFEX) – Fiji's interim government must relax its reporting restrictions after the government declared a 30-day state of emergency on Friday, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

(PINA/IFEX) – Overseas journalists covering Fiji’s political crisis have been deported as the military-led regime tightens its control on the island’s besieged news media. ABC Television journalist and veteran Pacific commentator Sean Dorney, together with a television crew — reporter Sia Aston and cameraman Matt Smith — from Auckland’s TV 3 network, were taken in […]

(IFJ/IFEX) – The following is an IFJ media release: IFJ Condemns Military Leader’s Call to Close Fiji Times The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) calls on Fiji’s interim military government to put an immediate stop to efforts to shut down the country’s independent media, following a call by a senior Army officer for the closure […]

(PINA/IFEX) – Fiji’s media freedom is under threat again after police searched two media organisations for airing politically-sensitive stories. “Fiji Times” newspaper and Fiji TV were both served with search warrants by police for copies and sources of two letters that were published by them. Assistant police spokesman Atunaisa Sokomuri said on 10 March 2009 […]

(PINA/IFEX) – The Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) strongly condemns the actions of the interim Fiji government in its continued targeting of the Fijian media by deporting “Fiji Times” publisher Rex Gardner. Gardner is the third newspaper publisher and Australian to be deported by the interim Fiji government in less than a year. The move […]