SUVA: Fiji’s permanent Secretary for Information, Sharon Smith-Johns, who is also the country’s chief censor, says Fiji has improved as far as media freedom is concerned.
She made the comment to FBC News after the journalists’ organisation, Reporters without Borders, ranked Fiji 149th out of 178 countries on media freedom - three places higher than last year.
In 2008, Fiji was ranked 79th but last year it plummeted to 152nd place as the interim regime put censors in all newsrooms - days after doing away with the constitution and sacking the judiciary.
Smith-Johns also questions how a country can be compared to another and what media freedom is.
She says the Fiji government only wants the media to report "accurately and fairly". - Radio NZ International/Pacific Media Watch
Pacific Media Watch
