A Pacific journalism educator says the Fiji Media Industry Development Authority is putting mind-boggling demands on the media. A row between the Authority and the ABC flared at the recent Pacific Media Summit in New Caledonia over a veteran ABC reporter Sean Dorneys comments on the state of media freedom in Fiji. The Director of AUT Universitys Pacific Media Centre, Professor David Robie, says Mr Dorneys comments are widely shared in the Pacific. He says its laughable that the MIDA is asking for a retraction from the ABC. He says the MIDA Chairman, Ashwin Raj, has called for wider discussion about politics, but it seems his organisation has set itself up as a censor. This is the time now to get as much open media and debate as possible leading up to the elections later this year and here we have MIDA trying to sort of set some sort of limits and effectively a gag on both the ABC and Sean Dorney. Its quite mind-boggling that theyre actually trying to do this, and its a very unprofessional approach. Professor David Robie. radionz.co.nz/international/pacific-news/240116/journalism-educator-says-fiji-mida-demands-are-mind-boggling
Posted on: Fri, 28 Mar 2014 01:54:12 +0000