{"id":941332,"date":"2023-01-01T22:08:36","date_gmt":"2023-01-01T22:08:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?p=82452"},"modified":"2023-01-01T22:08:36","modified_gmt":"2023-01-01T22:08:36","slug":"fijis-draconian-media-law-to-be-repealed-for-free-society-says-gavoka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/01\/01\/fijis-draconian-media-law-to-be-repealed-for-free-society-says-gavoka\/","title":{"rendered":"Fiji\u2019s draconian media law to be repealed for \u2018free society\u2019, says Gavoka"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>By Pauliasi Mateboto in Suva<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Fiji Deputy Prime Minister Viliame Gavoka says the Media Industry Development Act will be replaced soon.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to members of the media after the coalition agreement signing for Fiji&#8217;s new government on Friday, he said the three leaders were in harmony in terms of repealing the Act.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAbsolutely free, we want to remove any kind of prohibitions and restrictions,\u201d Gavoka said.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ojs.aut.ac.nz\/pacific-journalism-review\/article\/view\/986\"><strong>READ MORE:<\/strong> Behind the Fiji censorship: A comparative media regulatory case study as a prelude to the Easter putsch <\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/ojs.aut.ac.nz\/pacific-journalism-review\/article\/view\/152\">The evolution of media laws in Fiji and impacts on journalism and society<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/?s=Fiji+Media+law\">Other Fiji media law reports<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>He said it was the wish of the coalition government for the media to be free and for the people of Fiji to live in a free society.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe want you to be totally free to act and that is also the part of understanding &#8212; we live in a totally free country,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/asiapacificreport.nz\/category\/pacific-media-watch\/\"><em>Pacific Media Watch<\/em> reports<\/a> that Associate Professor Shailendra Singh, head of the University of the South Pacific regional journalism programme, commented on Twitter:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Fiji\u2019s much-criticised punitive Media Act to be replaced &#8212; question is replaced with what? Since its implementation 13 yrs ago no one has been charged under the Act underscoring its redundancy.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But it was like a noose [around the] media\u2019s neck and blamed for self-censorship\/chilling effect.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><em>Pauliasi Mateboto<\/em> <em>is a Fiji Times reporter. Republished with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Fiji\u2019s much-criticized punitive MediaAct to be replaced- question is replaced with what? Since its implementation 13yrs ago no one has been charged under the Act underscoring it\u2019s redundancy. But it was like a noose in media\u2019s neck and blamed for self-censorship\/chilling effect. <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DiwUv93CPp\">https:\/\/t.co\/DiwUv93CPp<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Dr Shailendra B Singh (@ShailendraBSing) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/ShailendraBSing\/status\/1609339811265142784?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 1, 2023<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Pauliasi Mateboto in Suva Fiji Deputy Prime Minister Viliame Gavoka says the Media Industry Development Act will be replaced soon. Speaking to members of the media after the coalition agreement signing for Fiji\u2019s new government on Friday, he said the three leaders were in harmony in terms of repealing the Act. \u201cAbsolutely free, we<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":41,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[432,5,495,55730,35886,6,94,652,9268,358,12,14,653,1743,1,55419],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941332"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/41"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=941332"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":941363,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/941332\/revisions\/941363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=941332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=941332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=941332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}