Difference of opinion splits Pacific media body

Campbell Cooney, Pacific correspondent

Last Updated: Tue, 4 May 2010 19:51:00 +1000

The Pacific Island News Association (PINA) has its headquarters in Fiji, although 100 per cent of Fijian journalists questioned in a survey recently feel they are unable to report freely there.

And just what it is doing in Fiji came to the head again on International Press Freedom Day, on Monday.

PINA and its wire service, Pacnews, are based in Fiji and like all media there, operate under censorship restrictions of the military regime.

So far, the association has resisted calls to relocate.

In recent months, criticism of the news association's manager and president has become louder.

Partner

President Moses Steven was criticised anew for a statement released on International Press Freedom Day, on Monday, which appears to call on Pacific media to forego its watchdog role and instead become a partner with national governments.

Mr Steven told Radio Australia's Pacific Beat that while in developed societies, participants knew how public debate should be conducted, "we in the Pacific are still adopting these (democratic) systems and a lot of our people don't understand them." That left the way open for "friction".

He said opponents of governments should be reported, but the media itself should not seek "to change governments".

But the deputy editor of the Fiji Times, Sophie Foster, says a survey she carried out indicates 100 per cent of journalists questioned in Fiji say they were not able to report freely.

Ms Foster was in Brisbane, Australia, for a UNESCO conference, 'Freedom of Expression: The Right to Know', to mark Press Freedom Day.

She says as a result of censorship regulations in place in Fiji for more than 12 months, there is a worrying trend towards journalists self-censoring.

They are "being systematically forced into being selective with the type of stories they explore", Ms Foster said.

Cook Islands publisher and PINA vice-president John Woods says the organisation's Fiji-based secretariat "is dysfunctional and out of control".

Mr Woods told the Brisbane conference the association board voted to suspend the membership of the Fiji Ministry of Information, responsible for censorship in Fiji.

Unrecorded

But the vote was not implemented - or even recorded in the minutes of the board meeting.

So the censor remains a member.

"Our secretariat cowers under the military regime," the publisher said.

"Fiji's media restrictions are the very antithesis of press freedom and what we are supposed to represent."

A new decree governing the media - still with harsh restrictions - is soon to be implemented in Fiji.

And Moses Steven says the news association is again looking at its position, and will reconsider its decision not to leave Fiji.