Bangkok Post: Fiji strongman slams media over coup criticism

Published: 28/03/2012 at 01:32 AMOnline news: Asia

Fiji's military strongman Voreqe Bainimarama defended his treatment of the media Tuesday, saying much of the criticism his government faced were misguided and unbalanced.

Fiji's military strongman Voreqe Bainimarama, pictured here in 2010, defended his treatment of the media Tuesday, saying much of the criticism his government faced were misguided and unbalanced.

Bainimarama introduced strict media censorship after seizing power in a 2006 coup, also tightening ownership laws to force foreign media owners such as Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. out of the Pacific nation.

The military leader, who has relaxed some controls over the media ahead of elections scheduled for 2014, said he took action because journalists were not reporting independently and did not understand his aims.

"The quality of journalism in Fiji did not have the ability to offer balance to what was occurring," he told a Pacific Islands News Association media summit.

"I have heard journalists talk about the rule of law and get comments from others, but they themselves did not understand what it meant."

He criticised reporters who "latched onto the cry of democracy, only to be really supporting governance that did not offer equality in the voting system".

Bainimarama said he did not expect the media to be pro-government, but added it must be "pro-Fiji".

"Your job is to inform our citizenry, inspire constructive public debate, fight corruption," he said.

In 2010, Bainimarama changed foreign ownership laws to force New Corp. to sell its controlling stake in the Fiji Times, which at the time offered feisty coverage of his government's actions.

At various times since the 2006 coup, troops have been stationed in newsrooms and the ministry of information has censored media content.

Bainimarama said the Pacific had a "troubled" media culture and urged newspaper and broadcasting companies to invest more resources in journalism, saying there would be much to report ahead of the 2014 elections.