AUCKLAND (RNZ/Asia Pacific Report/Pacific Media Watch): Media commentator Gavin Ellis has condemned the state of media freedom in Fiji in the wake of the arrests and detention of three Newsroom journalists from New Zealand.
He talked to Kathryn Ryan in his weekly RNZ media commentary about the apology of Fiji Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama over the police wrongfully detaining the journalists this week, claiming it rang hollow when it came from the man responsible for the dire state of media freedom in Fiji.
Ellis said New Zealand should take a “jaundiced view” of media freedom in that country and cited many instances of abuses of a free press since Bainimarama came to power in a military coup in 2006.
LISTEN TO THE RNZ PODCAST: Fijian apology versus media freedom
Although Bainimarama now headed an elected government, his administration had “consolidated” control over journalists by turning the military imposed media decree into the Media Industry Development Act.
Ellis cited Fiji’s Online Safety Act, which had been designed to deal with cyberbullying, but journalists feared could become a “trojan horse” against the media.
Commentator Ellis also praised the Pacific Media Centre for its research and publication on Fiji media issues, noting Sri Krishnamurthi’s reporting of last year’s general election and the media, and Fiji journalist Ricardo Morris’ Pacific Journalism Monograph report on Watching Our Words about self-censorship in Fiji.
Also, featured on the Ellis programme this week, is an Australian academic, Dr Denis Muller writing in The Conversation, who attacked his country’s media for violations of media ethics in their coverage of the Christchurch mosque shootings on March 15.
Gavin Ellis is former editor of the New Zealand Herald. He can be contacted on gavin.ellis@xtra.co.nz
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