Fiji

Fiji's military leadership on Saturday lifted emergency regulations it had been using to stymie the country's press since 2009, according to local government websites. Good news? Maybe. Yet the regime still restricts the media, and anyone else who dares to question the legitimacy of the 2006 coup that brought its leaders to power--suggesting they are more concerned about appearances than press freedom.

Dear Commodore Bainimarama: Five years after the military coup that brought you to power in Fiji, we note with concern the letter to you by Human Rights Watch and other organizations that was issued Friday. We would like to underscore their points on press freedom restrictions in Fiji.

New York, June 28, 2010—A new Fijian media decree that formalizes repressive government control of the media could force the outspoken Fiji Times to close within three months, according to international news reports.

New York, April 7, 2010—Fiji’s military regime should withdraw a draft decree that would regulate media ownership and news content, while authorizing the imposition of fines and prison terms for violations, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. 

New York, May 13, 2009--Fiji's military government, which has been questioning several local journalists in custody, should immediately rescind emergency regulations censoring the island nation's media, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

New York, April 13, 2009--Fiji's interim government must relax its reporting restrictions after the government declared a 30-day state of emergency on Friday, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Three foreign reporters have since been ordered to be deported and one local journalist detained, according to international news reports, and newspapers and broadcasts have been censored.

New York, May 2, 2008--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemned the deportation of the Australian manager of leading daily Fiji Times by the interim military government of Fiji today.

New York, December 7, 2006—The Committee to Protect Journalists today congratulated the media in Fiji for successfully resisting censorship attempts by the leaders of Tuesday’s military coup.

Executives from the daily Fiji Times newspaper, Fiji TV and two radio stations, Radio Fiji and FM 96, refused to comply with orders to stop critical reporting on the island’s precarious political situation. They also successfully demanded that soldiers stationed in newsrooms and outside media offices be removed. The media executives, along with the independent Fiji Media Council, rejected the new government’s demands at a meeting Wednesday with acting military commander, Capt. Esala Teleni, journalists told CPJ.

The vicious murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Pakistan focused international attention on the dangers faced by journalists covering the U.S. "war on terror," yet most attacks on journalists in Asia happened far from the eyes of the international press. In countries such as Bangladesh and the Philippines, reporters covering crime and political corruption were as vulnerable to attack as those reporting on violent insurgency. Seven journalists were killed in 2002 for their work in Asia.