SUVA (Pacific Scoop / Republika / Pacific Media Watch): A Fiji academic has partly blamed the “corporate” owners of news media in the country in effectively silencing the media in a gagged speech now published in the latest edition of Republika magazine.
Professor Wadan Narsey, who was forced out of the Fiji-based University of the South Pacific because of his outspoken views critical of the military-backed regime, was booked by students to deliver a media freedom day speech earlier this month.
But university management reportedly blocked the speech in which he says “the Fiji regime’s decrees, public stance and prosecutions of media owners, publishers and editors, have effectively prevented the media from being a “watchdog” on government.”
“Some media organisations are now largely propaganda arms for the regime,” he says.
“But it is unfortunate that some critics are targeting journalists, who are minor cogs in the media machine.
“The reality is that journalists are totally under the control of editors and publishers, who in turn are ultimately controlled by the media owners.”
Professor Narsey says the “real weakness” in Fiji’s media industry is that Fiji’s media owners are not “dedicated independent media companies”.
‘Extremely vulnerable’
Instead, they are “corporate entities with much wider business interests which are far more valuable to the media owners than their profits from their media assets”.
His speech, invited by the USP Journalism Students Association to mark the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day on May 3, continues:
“This is exacerbated by the reality that the media owners’ other investments are extremely vulnerable to discretionary government policies, which can cause greater financial harm than the media profits are worth.
“There is therefore every financial incentive for Fiji’s media owners to ensure that their media organisations do not get on the wrong side of the regime by being independent and critical as a “watchdog” function requires.
“To ensure a strong and independent media, Fiji’s media ownership must be divested to dedicated media operators, and not held by Fiji’s corporate giants.”
Professor Narsay accuses the Fiji Sun of being a “blatant propaganda arm of the military regime” while the Fiji Times “now practises self-censorship”.
The Fiji Times, once owned by the Murdoch’s News Limited, was bought out by the Motibhai Group of companies in September 2010 because of a regime decree requiring local ownership.
Newspaper penalised
“The regime has been penalising The Fiji Times by denying it advertising revenue amounting to more than $1 million a year, all now diverted to the Fiji Sun.
“A Fiji Times editor and publisher have been hauled into court and faced heavy penalties over what many would see as minor infringements.”
The rival Fiji Sun is owned by the CJ Patel family, “a large corporate player in the Fiji economy with major importing and franchising interests involving many international brands”.
Professor Narsey was also critical of the Fiji Media Tribunal and its foundation chair, Professor Subramani, for not coming to the defence of “vulnerable journalists and editors who have been at the mercy of the Fiji regime”.
Independent journalist denied media interview by 'silent' USP
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Pacific Media Watch
