The Media Industry Development Act 2010 will be repealed and replaced. Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka confirmed this during an interview at his office in Suva yesterday.
“Yes, the media decree will be very well looked at and I can confidently say now that it will be repealed and replaced by a more friendly Act that can compare with any of the media Acts in the world, in the democratic world,” he said.
“I would like to encourage the journalists to be good journalists and a good journalist is always fair, and balanced in their reporting and allow for the right of reply all the time.
“In the past we tried to even enforce it, so if you say something on your front page against the Government, you must give the Government on the front page the same size letters, the same headline, so that you fight it out there rather than fight the media.” He also reassured journalists in the country that they were free to do their work without fear.
“If I don’t like you, I’ll call you out when we meet outside but in here, I have to talk to you and I have to respect your responsibility of telling the people what’s going on.”
The Fiji Times Editor-in-chief Fred Wesley yesterday welcomed the decision, saying it was long overdue.
He labelled parts of the current laws as draconian, highlighting Part 4 of the Media Industry Development Act, on ‘Content regulation’, which had massive fines of up to $100,000 for media companies and possible jail terms for editors for breaches of the law.
“The media has an important role to play in the mechanics of a developing nation like ours,” he said. “We welcome any plans to empower journalists to do their jobs without fear.”
