AUCKLAND ( Radio NZ International / Pacific Scoop / Pacific Media Watch): The Paris-based global media freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders has condemned the media blackout in Fiji this week before today’s election, Radio New Zealand International reports.
The Electoral Decree banned all reporting on political campaigns from Monday morning, with the punishment for offending up to ten years in jail and F$50,000.
The ban has now lifted after the close of polling tonight at 6pm.
The head of the Reporters Without Borders Asia-Pacific desk, Benjamin Ismaïl, says the scale of censorship is “out of proportion”.
The director of AUT University’s Pacific Media Centre, Professor David Robie, says he agrees, and the rules are deemed to include international media organisations, which is impossible to enforce.
“Banning all political comment for several days, for a 48-hour period and introducing prior censorship is both draconian and unenforceable.”
Dr Robie says one of his student journalists reporting from Fiji for Pacific Scoop had an article on Fiji’s economic relations with China put on hold by the authorities today until 6pm tonight, after the close of polling, as it dealt with the “political economy” of the country.
Reporters Without Borders and the Pacific Media Centre have recommended a constitutional amendment on media freedom and adoption of a freedom of information law in Fiji in their joint submission in the UN Human Rights Council ahead of Fiji’s Universal Periodic Review by the council next month.
Watchdog hits out at Fiji’s media ban
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Pacific Media Watch
