Fiji’s media have protested the censorship imposed by the country’s military commander by canceling evening news broadcasts and leaving large parts of newspapers blank.
The government of Commodore Frank Bainimarama asked an Australian reporter to leave yesterday, in a sign that international coverage of the latest military power grab is being closely scrutinized.
Australian Broadcasting Corp correspondent Sean Dorney said he was initially told he would be deported.
“They called me to the immigration department this morning and informed me they were unhappy with my reporting, which was being broadcast on the local Fiji One network,” Dorney said.
He said he was allowed to return to his hotel to pack and was then asked if he would leave voluntarily.
“I said no. I’m here to report and my visa is still valid, and now I’m awaiting further information,” he said.
It is not known when he would leave the country.
Fiji’s latest political upheaval began on Friday, when Fijian President Ratu Josefa Iloilo abolished the Constitution, fired all the judges and declared a state of emergency in response to a senior court’s ruling that Bainimarama’s regime was unlawful. He set a timetable of five years for elections. He denied he was acting at the behest of Bainimarama.
The next day, Bainimarama was sworn in as prime minister and quickly tightened his grip on the country, posting censors in newsrooms and roadblocks on the capital’s streets.
“Emergency regulations are in force,” Bainimarama said in a national address late on Saturday. “However, these regulations are only a precautionary measure.”
Military-backed “information officers” stood watch in newspaper, news radio and TV offices to prevent the publication or broadcast of any reports that, Bainimarama said, “could cause disorder.” Police were granted extra detention powers.
The Fiji Times, the country’s main daily, published its editions on Sunday and yesterday with several blank spaces where stories about the crisis would have appeared.
“The stories on this page could not be published because of Government restrictions,” read the only words that appeared on Sunday’s page two.
Fiji’s main TV station, Fiji One, refused to broadcast its nightly news bulletin on Sunday, instead showing a simple message written across a black screen: “Viewers please be advised that there will be no 6pm news tonight.”
The network later informed viewers that it could not present some prepared stories because of the new censorship regulations.
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd on Sunday added to the international scorn directed at Bainimarama following his latest actions.
“Australia condemns unequivocally this action by the military ruler of Fiji to turn this great country into virtually a military dictatorship, with the suspension of freedom of the press and actions which undermine prosperity for the ordinary people,” Rudd told reporters.
CONDITIONS: The Russian president said a deal that was scuppered by ‘elites’ in the US and Europe should be revived, as Ukraine was generally satisfied with it Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday said that he was ready for talks with Ukraine, after having previously rebuffed the idea of negotiations while Kyiv’s offensive into the Kursk region was ongoing. Ukraine last month launched a cross-border incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, sending thousands of troops across the border and seizing several villages. Putin said shortly after there could be no talk of negotiations. Speaking at a question and answer session at Russia’s Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin said that Russia was ready for talks, but on the basis of an aborted deal between Moscow’s and Kyiv’s negotiators reached in Istanbul, Turkey,
In months, Lo Yuet-ping would bid farewell to a centuries-old village he has called home in Hong Kong for more than seven decades. The Cha Kwo Ling village in east Kowloon is filled with small houses built from metal sheets and stones, as well as old granite buildings, contrasting sharply with the high-rise structures that dominate much of the Asian financial hub. Lo, 72, has spent his entire life here and is among an estimated 860 households required to move under a government redevelopment plan. He said he would miss the rich history, unique culture and warm interpersonal kindness that defined life in
A French woman whose husband has admitted to enlisting dozens of strangers to rape her while she was drugged on Thursday told his trial that police had saved her life by uncovering the crimes. “The police saved my life by investigating Mister Pelicot’s computer,” Gisele Pelicot told the court in the southern city of Avignon, referring to her husband — one of 51 of her alleged abusers on trial — by only his surname. Speaking for the first time since the extraordinary trial began on Monday, Gisele Pelicot, now 71, revealed her emotion in almost 90 minutes of testimony, recounting her mysterious
Thailand has netted more than 1.3 million kilograms of highly destructive blackchin tilapia fish, the government said yesterday, as it battles to stamp out the invasive species. Shoals of blackchin tilapia, which can produce up to 500 young at a time, have been found in 19 provinces, damaging ecosystems in rivers, swamps and canals by preying on small fish, shrimp and snail larvae. As well as the ecological impact, the government is worried about the effect on the kingdom’s crucial fish-farming industry. Fishing authorities caught 1,332,000kg of blackchin tilapia from February to Wednesday last week, said Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, vice president of a parliamentary
RSS