2:37 AM |
FIJI: Pacific media freedom awardees condemn latest threats in Fiji
For immediate release: Tuesday 1 September 2009: Pacific media
freedom awardees from Tonga and Samoa are part of the regional
condemnation of the latest threats made against Fiji Times Editor in
Chief and 2009 PINA Pacific Media Freedom Award winner, Netani Rika.
Last week, the pro-Fiji regime Blog, Real Fiji News, named Rika in a
threat which ended: "... your day is coming don't worry about that,
in fact we have one little surprise left for you".
The Fiji Times Editor told a Radio Australia news journalist on Friday
August 28th of "strange visitors at home and a phone call to the
newsroom asking when I would be back."
"The latest threats against a leading and lauded Pacific journalist,
coming as they do on top of earlier attacks on Fiji's journalists,
require the strongest condemnation as they are serious violations of
globally accepted standards of human rights," PFF co-chair, Susuve
Laumaea said from Papua New Guinea.
"The harassment and intimidation of journalists in Fiji and their
families must stop. We urge Fiji's leadership to back off from
supporting an environment where it's OK to rob any person and their
families of the right to security in their own homes, simply because
they have done no crime other than being a journalist. The leadership
must take responsibility and issue a public statement condemning any
threats to journalists," says PFF co-chair Monica Miller, of American
Samoa.
And two former Media Freedom awardees have added their voices to the
Pacific Freedom Forum's condemnation of continuing threats and
intimidation against Rika personally, and Fiji's journalists
generally. Tonga's leading media publisher and twice Pacific Islands
Media Association Award winner, Kalafi Moala, himself no stranger to
serious threats against himself, his family, and his business,
expressed his outrage at the latest threats against the Times Editor
and his family.
"I am distressed by the mindless threats to a fellow Pacific
journalist, and the meaningless persecution of his organisation,"
Moala said from Nuku'alofa, Tonga.
"On behalf of Tongan journalists, I wish to object in the strongest
way possible to the treatment by the Fiji regime of Mr. Rika, and I
call on Commodore Bainimarama and his associates to refrain
unconditionally from this inhumane treatment," he says.
Samoa's publisher of the Samoa Observer Newspaper Group, Savea Sano
Malifa, also voiced "deep concern about the way Fijian journalists are
being treated by the Fiji regime."
"Please convey to the Fiji interim government how outraged we are in
Samoa with their despicable treatment of journalist Netani Rika of the
Fiji Times among others," says Malifa, himself also no stranger to
threats against himself, his family, employees, and business for
upholding media freedom.
"We should all learn from our past. Coups and dictators come and go,
journalists remain to clean up the mess," he says. "I'm told
Bainimarama has blood links to my village of Afega in Samoa. If that
is so, I plead that on the blood of his ancestors and for the sake of
that sacred relationship, he should end this madness."
"Making serious threats against others, particularly threats that
require people simply going about their lawful activities to increase
security around their homes, families, and businesses, is a criminal
offence, and the PFF calls on the Fiji police to investigate online
threats as seriously as threats made via any other medium," says
Miller.
"If the sources of earlier and the latest threats against Netani Rika
are not prosecuted promptly, that completely proves the accuracy of
his remarks about the Fiji police in his recent talk at the University
of Queensland," she said. ENDS
CONTACT:
PFF interim Chair
Susuve Laumaea | Sunday Chronicle Newspaper | Papua New Guinea
Mobile: 675-684 5168 | Office: 675-321-7040 | Email: susuve.laumaea@interoil.com
PFF interim co-Chair
Monica Miller | KHJ Radio | American Samoa
Mob 684 258-4197 | Office 684 633-7793 | Email: monica@khjradio.com
The Pacific Freedom Forum are a regional and global online network of
Pacific media colleagues, with the specific intent of raising
awareness and advocacy of the right of Pacific people to enjoy freedom
of expression and be served by a free and independent media.
We believe in the critical and basic link between these freedoms, and
the vision of democratic and participatory governance pledged by our
leaders in their endorsement of the Pacific Plan and other commitments
to good governance.
In support of the above, our key focus is monitoring threats to media
freedom and bringing issues of concern to the attention of the wider
regional and international commu
For immediate release: Tuesday 1 September 2009: Pacific media
freedom awardees from Tonga and Samoa are part of the regional
condemnation of the latest threats made against Fiji Times Editor in
Chief and 2009 PINA Pacific Media Freedom Award winner, Netani Rika.
Last week, the pro-Fiji regime Blog, Real Fiji News, named Rika in a
threat which ended: "... your day is coming don't worry about that,
in fact we have one little surprise left for you".
The Fiji Times Editor told a Radio Australia news journalist on Friday
August 28th of "strange visitors at home and a phone call to the
newsroom asking when I would be back."
"The latest threats against a leading and lauded Pacific journalist,
coming as they do on top of earlier attacks on Fiji's journalists,
require the strongest condemnation as they are serious violations of
globally accepted standards of human rights," PFF co-chair, Susuve
Laumaea said from Papua New Guinea.
"The harassment and intimidation of journalists in Fiji and their
families must stop. We urge Fiji's leadership to back off from
supporting an environment where it's OK to rob any person and their
families of the right to security in their own homes, simply because
they have done no crime other than being a journalist. The leadership
must take responsibility and issue a public statement condemning any
threats to journalists," says PFF co-chair Monica Miller, of American
Samoa.
And two former Media Freedom awardees have added their voices to the
Pacific Freedom Forum's condemnation of continuing threats and
intimidation against Rika personally, and Fiji's journalists
generally. Tonga's leading media publisher and twice Pacific Islands
Media Association Award winner, Kalafi Moala, himself no stranger to
serious threats against himself, his family, and his business,
expressed his outrage at the latest threats against the Times Editor
and his family.
"I am distressed by the mindless threats to a fellow Pacific
journalist, and the meaningless persecution of his organisation,"
Moala said from Nuku'alofa, Tonga.
"On behalf of Tongan journalists, I wish to object in the strongest
way possible to the treatment by the Fiji regime of Mr. Rika, and I
call on Commodore Bainimarama and his associates to refrain
unconditionally from this inhumane treatment," he says.
Samoa's publisher of the Samoa Observer Newspaper Group, Savea Sano
Malifa, also voiced "deep concern about the way Fijian journalists are
being treated by the Fiji regime."
"Please convey to the Fiji interim government how outraged we are in
Samoa with their despicable treatment of journalist Netani Rika of the
Fiji Times among others," says Malifa, himself also no stranger to
threats against himself, his family, employees, and business for
upholding media freedom.
"We should all learn from our past. Coups and dictators come and go,
journalists remain to clean up the mess," he says. "I'm told
Bainimarama has blood links to my village of Afega in Samoa. If that
is so, I plead that on the blood of his ancestors and for the sake of
that sacred relationship, he should end this madness."
"Making serious threats against others, particularly threats that
require people simply going about their lawful activities to increase
security around their homes, families, and businesses, is a criminal
offence, and the PFF calls on the Fiji police to investigate online
threats as seriously as threats made via any other medium," says
Miller.
"If the sources of earlier and the latest threats against Netani Rika
are not prosecuted promptly, that completely proves the accuracy of
his remarks about the Fiji police in his recent talk at the University
of Queensland," she said. ENDS
CONTACT:
PFF interim Chair
Susuve Laumaea | Sunday Chronicle Newspaper | Papua New Guinea
Mobile: 675-684 5168 | Office: 675-321-7040 | Email: susuve.laumaea@interoil.com
PFF interim co-Chair
Monica Miller | KHJ Radio | American Samoa
Mob 684 258-4197 | Office 684 633-7793 | Email: monica@khjradio.com
The Pacific Freedom Forum are a regional and global online network of
Pacific media colleagues, with the specific intent of raising
awareness and advocacy of the right of Pacific people to enjoy freedom
of expression and be served by a free and independent media.
We believe in the critical and basic link between these freedoms, and
the vision of democratic and participatory governance pledged by our
leaders in their endorsement of the Pacific Plan and other commitments
to good governance.
In support of the above, our key focus is monitoring threats to media
freedom and bringing issues of concern to the attention of the wider
regional and international commu
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