Fiji’s leading newspaper has three months to change its ownership structure so 90 per cent of its shareholders are Fijian citizens or it will be forced to close, the military-led regime said Monday.
Armed forces chief Commodore Frank Bainimarama launched a media crackdown after seizing power in a December 2006 coup. Foreign reporters and media managers have been expelled, and dozens of local journalists arrested and interrogated. Military censors operate in media newsrooms on a daily basis.
Announcing the latest measures Monday, Fiji Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum warned any news organization that fails to comply with ownership requirements “shall cease to operate as a media organisation”.
He mentioned by name the Fiji Times, the country’s oldest and largest newspaper owned by News Ltd – the Australian branch of Rupert Murdoch’s New York-based News Corp. News Ltd did not immediately respond to the government’s decree.
Last December, Bainimarama accused the Times and Fiji TV, the country’s largest broadcaster, of being “perverse” and biased for not recognising his government.
The new decree establishes a tribunal to monitor the media’s compliance and ensure nothing is printed or broadcast against the “national interest or public order,” Khaiyum said.
Regulations would require all printed news to name the author and similar provisions would apply to broadcast material.
A media organisation is now liable for fines of up to 100,000 Fiji dollars (NZ$71,000) for breaching content regulations. Journalists face fines of up to F$1,000 (NZ$712), and publishers and editors could be fined as much as F$25,000 (NZ$17,800).
Khaiyum said the decree provides “for proper accountability and transparency of all media organisations,” introduces “responsible reporting on the part of the media organisation, and provides the members of the public with more effective recourse for any complaint against media.”
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