Fiji Government in no rush to change Media Industry Development Decree

The president of the Fiji Media Association says the government will be in no rush to agree to calls to change the Media Industry Development Decree.

Ricardo Morris, who is also the editor and publisher of Republika Magazine, says there is definitely a degree of self censorship practised by the Fiji media as a result of the law passed in 2010 during a period of strict censorship. Fiji’s opposition parties have called for its repeal. Morris says the association had a productive meeting last week with the chairman of the Media Industry Development Authority, Ashwin Raj, who promised to make representations to the government on its behalf. “Changing the media decree is nigh on impossible right now because of the way parliament is structured, so that’s not going to happen realistically but we keep calling for these changes at least for the powers that be to hear us out.”