Fiji

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.

Fiji's diverse and energetic media have remained strong despite ongoing political instability in the country. Tensions between indigenous Fijians and the ethnic Indian population dominate political and social life and are often played out in the media, which include several English- and Hindi-language newspapers, the partially privatized Fiji TV, and two major radio broadcasters that operate English-, Fijian-, and Hindi-language channels.

Shortly after U.S. president George W. Bush arrived in South Korea's capital, Seoul, in February 2002 for a state visit, the North Korean state news agency, KCNA, reported a miracle: that a cloud in the shape of a Kimjongilia, the flower named after the country's leader, Kim Jong Il, had appeared over North Korea. "Even the sky above the Mount Paektu area seemed to be decorated with beautiful flowers," KCNA said. The piece was a whimsical effort to trump news of Bush's visit to the other side of the divided Korean peninsula, according to The New York Times.

Journalists across Asia faced extraordinary pressures in 2001. Risks included reporting on war and insurgency, covering crime and corruption, or simply expressing a dissenting view in an authoritarian state.

CPJ's two most striking indices of press freedom are the annual toll of journalists killed around the world and our list of journalists imprisoned at the end of the calendar year. Asian countries registered disproportionately high on both counts--with more journalists killed in Afghanistan than in any other country, and China once again the world's leading jailer of journalists. Nepal, shockingly, took second place on the imprisoned list, with 17 journalists detained as of December 31, 2001, due to a sweeping crackdown on the Maoist insurgency that had severe implications for the press.

Ongoing political turbulence continued to plague Fiji's media. Tensions between indigenous Fijians and those of Indian descent are often played out in the media, which is divided along ethnic and linguistic lines.

The year began with Court of Appeal hearings to determine the legality of prime minister Laisenia Qarase's interim government, which was installed with military backing in July 2000 after a failed coup by businessman George Speight tipped Fiji into chaos. The court was also charged with deciding whether Fiji's 1997 constitution, which the military suspended last year, remained in force.