FIJI: Former Fiji Times editor says departure 'forced by circumstance'

Adam Connors

MELBOURNE: The former editor of the Fiji Times, Netani Rika, says his leaving the 141-year-old masthead - and most probably Fiji for an indefinite period - is something that
has been forced upon him "by circumstance".

Speaking with Geraldine Coutts on Radio Australia's Pacific Beat program, Rika has continued his understated style by describing his acceptance of an offer from Australian National University as being able to "pay the mortgage'"and put his children through school.

ANU in Canberra has offered the acclaimed editor, winner of last year's Pacific Islands News Association Media Freedom Award, a chance to write about his experiences coping with a military regime's control of the nation's media.

Rika has nothing but praise for the staff he is leaving behind.

"I have to say it is the most hectic, tense time in my career as a journalist having to have more than the usual number of news articles ready to run just in case the censors decide they don't like something. So a tremendous amount of work had to be done by the people in the newsroom," he said.

"The business kept changing, sometimes minute by minute, from 8 o'clock [am] to 10 o'clock [pm] on what to run."

Fiji's military-installed interim government has placed censors in every newsroom in the country. The Fiji Times under Rika has contantly stood-out from other media outlets by his solid defence of a short but powerful description of the regime - an "interim government". This description is known to irritate Fiji's leadership.

Rika left the paper earlier this month just weeks after its forced sale under new regime-imposed media ownership laws to the Motibhai Group.

Media continues deterioration
The International Federation of Journalists has joined the Pacific Freedom Forum in voicing concerns over the future of a critical and independent media in Fiji.

Lisa Williams-Lahari from the IFJ's Pacific Media Freedom project, based in New Zealand, tells Pacific Beat's Bruce Hill that Netani Rika's departure is a sign that media freedom is in serious trouble in Fiji.

"I think it's clear from Netani's departure that the state of turmoil that we have seen in Fiji's media freedom landscape is going to continue," she said.

"And I think that is one of the most serious problems that is going to increase and probably continue in Fiji for a long time to come." - Radio Australia/Pacific Media Watch