TWO media executives have taken exception to a recommendation by a Fiji Human Rights Commission report on the media that no work permits be issued for the media sector.
Editor of The Fiji Times Netani Rika said there was no newsroom in Fiji that was run by a white man.
He said there may be white publishers but there was a clear line between the role of the publisher and the role of the Editor and the locals were doing a good job running their newsrooms.
While he admitted that training was an area that may be lacking in the industry in the past, he was confident they would strive for this aspect this year with two The Fiji Times newsroom staff enrolling at the Fiji Institute of Technology and four at the University of the South Pacific with others already undertaking News Limited online courses, past and present.
"But to insult our journalists by saying that what they write is reflective of what they earn is inconceivable," he said. Mr Rika said what concerned him most was the fact that the report lacked sources and this was ironic as the media had been continuously accused of failing to name sources yet this report was doing the same thing.
"On the matter of having a tribunal we already have the Fiji Media Council and may be we can do more to review the arbitrary process that exists but we already have a council," he said.
"However, once we fund such a tribunal as suggested we are buying that tribunal and this will not be independent in that sense."
Communications Fiji Ltd Managing Director William Parkinson said yesterday, "What does skin colour have to do with media freedom or how media organisations here operate."
"There are not many expatriates in the media industry any way and we only bring in expats because we cannot find the necessary skills needed for the job here," he said.
"We have an expatriate Solicitor General, an expatriate permanent secretary, judges and all throughout society we have brought in expatriates so why is the media being singled out here."
