The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is alarmed as Fiji’s military regime continues to clamp down on independent media and free expression, with the expulsion of a New Zealand journalist and revelations of a government watch list this week. Barbara Dreaver, the Pacific Affairs correspondent for Television New Zealand One, was detained at Fiji’s Nadi Airport on December 15 and refused entry to the country. She was held overnight in a detention centre and sent back to New Zealand yesterday morning.
Fiji’s Deputy Secretary for Information, Major Neumi Leweni, confirmed Dreaver was on a watch list, set up by the Information Ministry in July, and detained because "the reports she filed expressed a totally opposite picture of what is happening" in Fiji, according to news reports.
He warned that all foreign journalists must inform the Ministry of Information about the reasons for their visits and the ministry would then decide whether to allow them entry.
However, Dreaver said she had acquired a ministry pass to film during her visit.
The IFJ’s New Zealand affiliate, the EPMU, was outraged at the treatment of Dreaver and said the interim government’s actions were an attack on press freedom in Fiji and the wider Pacific.
New Zealand’s Prime Minister, John Key, said it was "totally unacceptable" that consular officials were not permitted to see Dreaver while she was detained, and the matter would be taken up with the regime.
“Fiji’s arbitrary detention and deportation of Barbara Dreaver on the basis of the authorities’ displeasure with her reporting once again draws attention to the alarming degree to which media freedoms in Fiji are being eroded,” IFJ General Secretary Aidan White said.
“The ministry watch list, the expulsion of two publishers earlier this year and the harsh penalties sought against two newspapers charged with contempt, among other press freedom violations, reveal a regime determined to deny ordinary people their right to know what is happening in their country. Fiji’s military leaders must recognise this is a no-win situation.”
Dreaver had intended to report on a diplomatic row between Fiji and New Zealand. Fiji’s interim military government, which took power in a 2006 coup, is reportedly threatening to expel New Zealand’s acting High Commissioner if New Zealand does not grant an exemption to its travel ban on family members of Fiji’s military and the interim government.
On her return to New Zealand, Dreaver said she believed the deportation was linked to her reporting in April on the regime’s failure to assist a poverty-stricken village.
Speaking earlier from Nadi Airport, she told TVNZ: “I came here to a job and I'm leaving having not completed that job and that's really frustrating. My job as a journalist is to report on the news, not be the news so I'm finding it incredibly frustrating."
The deteriorating press freedom environment in Fiji was further highlighted this week when Australia’s Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, sharply criticised interference in Fiji’s media under the military government.
Following a meeting of Pacific Island ministers in Suva, Fiji’s capital, Rudd said authorities in Fiji had “belted around the free media” and he criticised Fiji’s failure to meet a timetable to return to democracy, according to news reports.
The interim military government of Frank Bainimarama has made a concerted effort to silence critical reporting throughout 2008. It deported Fiji Sun publisher Russell Hunter in February and Fiji Times publisher Evan Hannah in May. Meanwhile, the Fiji Times and the Daily Post, and their editors and publishers, are charged with contempt of court for publishing a letter to the editor criticising a court ruling upholding the legality of the 2006 military coup.
The IFJ and the EPMU called on authorities in Fiji to make public the Ministry of Information watch list so that media personnel may know whether they are targeted, and to desist immediately from further interference and restrictions on independent media in Fiji.
Noting that journalists in Fiji are working under constant pressure from the regime, both organisations urged the interim government to uphold the rights of all journalists to go about their work free of intimidation or impediment.
For further information contact IFJ Asia-Pacific on +612 9333 0919
The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 120 countries worldwide