In Correspondents Report, the ABC's overseas reporters give their interpretation and analysis of the week's major events. Report by Philippa McDonald and presented by Elizabeth Jackson.
SYDNEY (ABC Radio / Pacific Media Watch): ELIZABETH JACKSON: After almost three years the censors have left Fiji's newsrooms.
But has it made much of a difference - is it really making freedom of speech?
The interim government has lifted emergency laws but has also introduced new decrees which some fear will still limit freedom of expression.
The ABC's Philippa McDonald has gained exclusive access to the Fiji Times and she's filed this report from Suva.
[Sound of printing press].
PHILIPPA MCDONALD: It's Friday night and the printing presses are rolling at Fiji's biggest selling newspaper.
In the past the Fiji Times was labelled an enemy of the interim government by the country's military dictator, Commodore Frank Bainimarama, and the introduction of a media decree meant Australia's News Limited had to sell off its majority ownership.
For almost three years as many as three censors have been in the Fiji Times newsroom each night, deciding what will go in the next morning's edition.
Fred Wesley is the Fiji Times' editor-in-chief.
What kind of stories were spiked, as a rule?
FRED WESLEY: We had issues that concerned the national airline, Air Pacific, issues that concerned the sugar industry for instance, the water industry.
PHILIPPA MCDONALD: And in that climate Fred Wesley says he told his journalists to beware of the pitfalls of self-censorship.
Is there a free media in Fiji?
FRED WESLEY: Is there a free media? Mmm, to some extent.
PHILIPPA MCDONALD: And to some extent?
FRED WESLEY: Maybe not.
PHILIPPA MCDONALD: Now he says with censors out of the newsroom it's getting easier to publish stories which would have previously been spiked - but they're treading carefully.
FRED WESLEY: It's still allowing us to explore - to explore how far we can go and I think that's a good thing for this country. I think it's good for our readers; I think it's good for the overall development of this nation and I think it's good in terms of moving us forward.
PHILIPPA MCDONALD: Sharon Smith-Johns is the Permanent Secretary for Information for Fiji's interim government.
SHARON SMITH-JOHNS: So from my part, for the Ministry of Information, where we were in the newsrooms censoring, we take a big step back now; that's not my role. It's not about censoring or monitoring the media.
PHILIPPA MCDONALD: But it's about the government message?
SHARON SMITH-JOHNS: It's about the government message.
PHILIPPA MCDONALD: In the weeks after the public emergency laws were lifted in Fiji, a raft of new decrees were introduced.
One allows for the interim prime minster Frank Bainimarama and his ministers to say what they like about an individual and offers protection for the media to print or broadcast it.
Reverend Akuila Yabaki from the Citizens Constitutional Forum says it has the effect of extending parliamentary privilege to an unelected government.
AKUILA YABAKI: There's no Parliament. There's no elected Parliament but then the privilege of being in Parliament, of saying things in Parliament, is accorded to people in ordinary life; to cabinet ministers. They can say what they want and be reported in the media - welcome that to be reported in the media.
But what about the counter - the response or the reaction from people to what they're saying; there's no freedom there.
PHILIPPA MCDONALD: And with elections due in September 2014, Reverend Yabaki says that doesn't help Fiji's transition towards democracy.
ELIZABETH JACKSON: Philippa McDonald with that report from Suva.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
Pacific Media Watch
