Tuesday April 14, 2009
Grab a historic copy of the (censored?) Fiji Times
When the Fiji Times launched a redesign of their flagship newspapers a few months ago, I don’t think they were contemplating the sort of strong use of white space evident in today’s (Sunday, April 12, 2009) Sunday Times.
I guess this has been building since the powers that be decided to vet the news pursuant to the freshly minted Public Emergency Regulations 2009, which provide for the “control of broadcast and publications”. Pictured here are pages 2 and 3 of the Fiji Times.
That’s a whole lot of ‘control’, and not much ‘publication’. And below is the editorial page (page 6).
The national sense of humour seems to have suffered somewhat.
For those of you wondering how we got to this state of affairs:
- On Thursday, 9th April 2009, Fiji’s Court of Appeal ruled that the interim government was unlawfully appointed and that the appropriate course of action would be for the President to appoint an independent care-taker Prime Minister to take the steps necessary to bring Fiji to an election
- Appearing to accept the court decision, Bainimarama vacated his position as interim Prime Minister of Fiji that evening
- The next morning (Good Friday – 10th April 2009) the President, Ratu Josefa Iloilo held a press conference at which he read a prepared statement in which he claimed to revoke the 1997 Constitution and declared himself Fiji’s Head-of-State under a ‘new legal order’
- This extraordinary departure from the previous day’s court ruling was variously greeted with approval (Aiyaz Sayed-Khaium, Swani Maharaj, Shaista Shameem, Ropate Sivo) and dismay (Rev. Akuila Yabaki, various regional neighbours, Graham Leung, and Peceli Kinivuwai)
- Public Emergency Regulations came into effect and police and Ministry of Information officials moved into news rooms around Fiji to monitor content.
- Iloilo wasted no time appointing a new government, reappointing in Bainimarama as Prime Minister and swearing him in at 10am on Saturday 11th April. His entire interim cabinet were then reappointed and sworn in at 3pm on the same day.
- Fiji One news airs it’s major news bulletin at 6pm, prefaced by a notice that the content had been censored. The news reader refered to 2 stories that could not be broadcast.
- Bainimarama addresses Fiji in a televised speech, proclaiming a fresh start for Fiji, vowing to remove the politics from governance and promising elections before September 2014
- Soon after 8pm an email message was sent to members of SotiaCentral.com, a popular Fiji-based social networking site, stating:
“The new Fiji Interim Government has issued regulations requiring publishers to first submit all content to Government officials for clearance before publishing it. Because you, not we, generate this content, we are unable to comply. Accordingly, sotiacentral.com has been taken down until further notice.”
The site currently displays a notice to the effect that it has been taken offline by the owner. - The 12 April edition of the Sunday Times hits the streets with large section of pages 2 and 3, and parts of page 6 removed and replaced with a notice: “This story could not be published due to Government regulations.”
- David Robie claims on his blog, Café Pacific, that the Fiji Times’ editorial management met with Major Neumi Leweni from the Ministry of Information, who told them that the Fiji Times would be shut down if they printed blanks again.
- Fiji TV does not broadcast any part of their usual news programs. A brief notice to that effect was displayed at 6pm.
- Fiji Times publishes it 13 April edition; notable for a complete absence of any coverage of the government. Their web site did not carry any news updates during the day.
- Communications Fiji Limited (CFL) station, Legend FM (heard at 5pm, could have been broadcast earlier) declares their inability to broadcast some stories due to the enforcement of the Public Emergency Regulations 2009.
- CFL stations and website run an interview with Major Leweni in which he states that they object to ‘negative’ reporting but refuses to clarify the parameters of said negativity.
- In the same interview, Major Leweni advises that a planned meeting of the Media Council would be pointless.
- Fiji TV airs a full, 1 hour news bulletin.
- 14th April: Shailendra Singh, writing for Pacific Media Centre, notes that journalist Sean Dorney from the ABC, along with Sia Aston and Matt Smith from New Zealand channel TV3, have been deported.
*Updated (13 April):* Added several new developments to the chronology.
*Updated (14 April):* Added link to Public Emergency Regulations. Added several new developments to the chronology.
Filed by Jachin Sheehy under Living-in-Fiji