Front page of the Fiji Times
Fiji Times won News Limited’s Campaign of the Year Award on Friday night for its free speech campaign.
The Fiji Times has openly opposed the regime’s censorship on its publication. Earlier this year at a UNESCO workshop in Samoa, the Times’ editor Netani Rika explained his frustration in being muzzled by the regime.
“Basically, any story on government must put the interim regime in a positive light or it will not be permitted, even if balance is provided in the form of a comment from a minister or senior public servant,” Rika told The Australian.
Since the abrogation of the constitution on April 10 this year the Fiji Times newsroom has been allocated censors who removed content deemed unsatisfactory by the regime.
Instead of replacing the censored items, the Sunday edition was sold with the empty white space to illustrate the regime’s control over the newspaper.
“It was a sensation and drove home to the people of Fiji the point that we were powerless to tell the truth, to tell the country what it needed to know,” says Rika. The edition is now a collectors’ item.
During this year, opponents of the military regime including Rika himself have been threatened. In two situations these people have had their car vandalised and their houses firebombed.
The pro-regime blog, Real Fiji News bullied Rika to “…Leave your day job so we can move ahead, you are without a doubt the most evil of them all, and your day is coming don’t worry about that, in fact we have one little surprise left for you”.
Rika told the audience at the Awards that their newspaper’s effort was due to those that have stood by them throughout this year.
“The support of family is so important to what we do and this award is a tribute to our wives, husbands, partners and children.
“This award is also a tribute to all our readers who have stood by us. They have made our circulation grow to new levels,” said Rika as reported by the Fiji Times.
