REPRESSIVE sanctions imposed by the court in the case of contempt by the Fiji Times newspaper could have a chilling effect on free speech, the High Court in Suva heard yesterday.
Fiji Times lawyer Richard Naidu, in his reply to Solicitor General Christopher Pryde's submission on penalties against editor-in-chief Netani Rika and publisher Rex Gardner, told Justice Thomas Hickie that it was ironic that even the courts of Singapore recognised this point.
Mr Pryde submitted to the court that a six-month jail term and a $1million fine would be commensurate with the gravity of the offence. He said the figure needed to act as deterrent.
"We consider this contempt as of the high order. This is not contempt of the low end," he said. "A strong message needs to be sent out".
"Mr Rika was aware of the Qarase decision, he was aware of the controversy surrounding it, he read the letter, he saw the words "biased" and "corrupt", he didn't do anything about it, he didn't refer it to his lawyers. I think a substantive penalty is justified."
Mr Pryde said that there were "aggravating factors" in Mr Rika's conduct. He said that Mr Rika had 20 years' experience and the fact that he had never done something like this before almost made his conduct worse on this occasion.
Justice Hickie told Mr Pryde that Mr Rika had never been charged with contempt of court before and needed to be given credit for that.
Mr Naidu challenged Mr Pryde's statement that there were aggravating factors in the contempt.
"Mr Rika accepted there was an error, he has no previous convictions, he has pleaded guilty, it wasn't his article, he has apologised, he's of good character, he's a responsible journalist," Mr Naidu said.
"None of this evidence is challenged. What aggravating factors are there?"
