Local Media Silence on Racism Criticised
The silence and lack of condemnation about racism from the local media in the country has been criticised.
During the Dialogue Event on Media, Human Rights and Democracy at the Grand Pacific Hotel (GPH) in Suva yesterday a panelist raised the point that religious and racial vilification were the biggest forms of human rights abuse in Fiji.
“Thousands of Fijians face racial and religious vilification on a daily basis, but there is a strange silence, the lack of condemnation of this by the media,” said panelist Arnold Chanel.
Mr Chanel is currently a digital editor with Mai Life magazine. He is also a consultant with strategic communications firm, VATIS.
“In 2017 a prominent politician said, in parliament, that the word secular state should be removed from the constitution and replaced with Christian State. This was an attempt to deprive thousands of Fijians of their right to freedom of religion,” Mr Chanel said.
“If this were to happen overseas, there would be a huge outcry from the media, political analysts, pundits and the human rights community at large, but for some strange reason this was absent in Fiji.”
United Nations Human Rights Commissioner for the Pacific, Chitraleka Massey, who was also a panelist, said this issue was indeed the elephant in the room.
“Any form of discrimination is wrong. There is a need for a national dialogue on this issue,” she said.
Media freedom:
On media freedom, questions focused on media regulations and their impact on independent and investigative journalism.
Panelist Romitesh Kant, a researcher on the Moral Economy project in Fiji who completed his Master of Arts in Politics, at the University of the South Pacific, said: “Journalists are unable to practice investigative journalism because of regulations. A good example is the Malolo Island case where a NZ media company had to break this news.”
However, Mr Chanel said investigative journalism was not stifled by media regulations because recently, the media broke an investigative piece on the Lagilagi Housing story, which he said was a great piece of investigative journalism.
“The Malolo Island case being picked up by the NZ media mentioned earlier was not because of Government regulations but because they got to the story earlier. The local media has since run with the story freely and without repercussion,” Mr Chanel said.
“In order for investigative journalism to thrive, we as media need to look on the inside and find that passion. We need to stop looking elsewhere.”
Stakeholders at the dialogue event included civil society organisations, UN Human Rights Commissioner for the Pacific Ms Massey, The British Council and panelists.
Feedback: neelam.prasad@fijisun.com.fj
