The condition of sale of Sky Pacific by Fiji Television to Digicel was tabled in Parliament on Wednesday.

Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum told Parliament that he didn’t know the terms and conditions under the Sale and Purchase Agreement.

He made this comments after Opposition MP Aseri Radrodro sought an explanation on the issue.

“Sky Pacific, Fiji TV and Digicel are not Government entities; we do not know the terms and conditions of the Sale and Purchase Agreement; we simply look after the regulatory side of the issuance of the licence,” Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said.

Mr Radrodro then claimed according to a statement released from Fiji TV chief executive officer that the condition of the sale was subject to the Attorney-General’s approval.

The A-G refuted the claims saying they were not privy to the sale conditions.

“Here is the Shadow Minister for Telecommunications, Public Enterprises whatever it maybe and the three wise men behind him; they do not understand finance and commerce.

“On one hand he is talking about Sky Pacific and Digicel; they forget that under the Media Industry Development Decree, there was a complete restriction on foreigners owning media organisations in Fiji.

“We made an amendment to allow for the sale because Fijian Holdings Limited came to us and said they wanted to sell Sky Pacific to Digicel; we made amendments that was approved by this House, but there are certain conditions attached to the regulatory side of it,” he said.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum further said Government had no decision on how much it was sold for.

“If the media organisation reports the sale, that is the technical problem -that is their fault; we are here to tell you exactly what Government gets involved in.

“Digicel came forward and said they wanted to add another channel, TVWAN, which comes from Papua New Guinea; you would have seen a lot of sports; we immediately gave it to them and they started airing it on the date they wanted, April 7,” he said.

Mr Sayed-Khaiyum said he couldn’t understand what the Opposition was driving at.

“On one hand they want to protect Fijian Holdings, on the other they want to fly the flag of Digicel; what do they want?,” the A-G asked.

Edited by Manasa Kalouniviti

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