The Media Council chairman Daryl Tarte spelt it out in very simple and direct terms media freedom in this country has to be protected.
May we never sink to the depths of media control that exists in places like Zimbabwe, he says.
The recent attention on the media, after the removal of Fiji Sun publisher Russell Hunter and the Fiji Human Rights Commission's report on media freedom brings to light the real threat the media faces each day of being gagged.
Like Mr Tarte, a lot of right thinking people including many in the government who unfortunately cannot publicly admit this, will readily agree, that the media should be free.
We all know a free and vibrant media is the hallmark of any civilized country a reflection of society.
The FHRC report proposes to invoke and strengthen laws as well as copy media laws from countries such as Singapore where the press is bound by draconian laws and controlled by financial groups close to the ruling parties.
In such countries, development is used as a smokescreen by government to ignore or even score basic individual freedoms. Of course there would be elements in power who would want to control what the citizens of their country ought to know.
And there would be those who would not want people to know about the abuse of public office and public money and the growing cancer of corruption. We have said so many times before that for accountability to work, it is up to an effective media to keep a critical eye on those in power. For this, Government must be thankful instead of defensive.
In any society, the media and the government cannot see eye to eye. But government must get away from the negative and siege mentality that the media is out to get them.
It is unjustifiable and totally irresponsible for it to continue to threaten media freedom just because journalists are reporting news unpalatable to the Government.
Of course the media has to be responsible as well. Any professional media must exercise at all times a sense of responsibility.
We should all understand that.
The press can be a very powerful weapon in a developing country such as Fiji and great care must be taken by the media as well.
Any efforts to restrict media freedom would be detrimental to the country and could contravene basic democratic tenets, especially the freedom of expression and speech.
When the media is responsibly and effectively doing its duty, it should discover and disclose frequently. This will mean at times coming into conflict with government.
But the Government should be fully aware that curbing media independence is not the way to go.
In the long run it only weakens government because the vital watchdog role the media plays is ineffective and reduced to almost nothing.
