Police
officers raided the newsrooms of several publications in Fiji on Saturday to
censor current and past news reporting, BNO News has learned. The move comes
just hours after the president imposed an emergency rule which limits freedom of
speech and gave police expanded powers.
Police officers [are] here at our newsroom, checking what we have reported
and what we [are] yet to report on, a journalist for a publication in Fiji
told BNO News on Saturday: Police officers in Fiji have been dispatched in
teams to various local newsrooms to censor items that have been published and
yet to be published, particularly by newspapers.
A local television [station] got two news items pulled out of their news
segment, a local newspaper we understand had 56 pulled out, the journalist
said. The emergency regulation decree, which was announced by President Iloilo
on Saturday, states, among other rules, that media organizations must submit any
material to the government before it is allowed to be published.
Update:
Last Foreign Journalist Deported
13th April 2009. Based on
article
from
stuff.co.nz
One of the last foreign journalists left in Fiji is facing deportation as the
military regime there tightens its control. Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Pacific correspondent Sean Dorney told Stuff that he had been called to the
Ministry of Information and told they did not like his reporting. He was asked
to voluntarily leave Suva but declined, saying he had a valid visa.
He returned to his hotel and while he was talking to Stuff he received a phone
call from the Ministry asking him report to them: I've no idea what they're
doing now, it looks like deportation.
Dorney believes he is being deported because he reported on how the local media
responded to the censorship. Fiji TV has refused to air a censored bulletin and
newspaper the Fiji Times has run blanks where stories had been censored.
Update: No
Political News Reported
15th April 2009. Based on
article
from
guardian.co.uk
The authorities called in Fiji Sun publisher Peter Lomas and senior journalist
Maika Bolatiki. It is believed the meeting was to do with the newspaper's
extraordinary front page statement, We ban politics in which Lomas announced
that the paper would no longer publish political stories of any kind.
The Fiji Times has also refused to publish any political stories, and the
national television station Fiji One has reportedly done the same.
Three senior News Ltd executives were also summoned to the information ministry
- managing director Anne Fussell, editor-in-chief Netani Rika and company lawyer
Richard Naidu - to explain why the papers ran blanks on their pages (to show
that stories have been spiked due to censorship).
Update:
Radio Off Air
15th April 2009. Based on
article
from
brisbanetimes.com.au
Frank Bainimarama's military regime is forcing ABC to shut down its radio
transmitters in Fiji to limit negative reports about the government's
undemocratic rule.
The broadcaster says it has been ordered to close its FM relay stations in the
capital, Suva, and in the tourist town of Nadi.
Local sources have since confirmed Radio Australia is off the air in both
locations, ABC said. However, it is still able to broadcast in the troubled
country on its shortwave transmitter.
