FIVE of the six directors of Fiji Times Limited appeared before Magistrate Sufia Hamza in the Suva Magistrates Court yesterday.
The directors and Fiji Times Limited are charged with breaching the Media Industry Development Decree 2010.
Nancy Tikoisuva appeared for the Director of Public Prosecutions while Devanesh Sharma appeared for the five directors and Jon Apted for Fiji Times Ltd.
The charges arise from claims that director Mahendra Patel did not meet the residency requirements for directors of media organisations under the decree. Mr Patel was not in court yesterday.
Ms Tikoisuva told the court that Mr Patel had not yet been served as he is overseas.
She said the DPP would be taking steps to serve him under the Criminal Procedure Decree.
Ms Tikoisuva advised the court that she had just served disclosures of the DPP's evidence on the defence lawyers.
The defence lawyers requested an adjournment to discuss the disclosures with their clients before they entered their pleas.
Mr Sharma also advised the court that he had made representations to DPP to withdraw the charges against the five directors.
Ms Tikoisuva confirmed receiving the representations and advised the court that the DPP would need time to consider them.
Magistrate Hamza granted bail in the sum of $2000 to each of the five directors present and required a $2000 surety from each of them.
She also ordered the directors to notify the court whenever they wished to leave the country. The matter was adjourned to April 29.