Radio New Zealand - Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa

Fiji Media Council says balanced coverage more critical now than ever

Posted at 03:49 on 27 March, 2009 UTC

The Fiji Media Council says providing balanced coverage of events in the country has never been more important than it is at the moment.

His comments come after those attacks on the homes of the editor-in-chief of the Fiji Times and a security recruitment agent.

The military, the police and the interim government claim the media’s portrayal of these attacks is imbalanced.

But the council’s chairperson, Daryl Tarte, says that under the circumstances, the media are reporting these events as objectively as they can.

“The media in Fiji, just as in Australia, is entitled to be be partisan if they want to be. It’s probably more dangerous to be partisan in Fiji than it is in Australia but the fact is that I think most media in Fiji are trying to report as objectively and in a balanced way as they can. It is very dangerous for them not to do so. And the examples of the recent attacks on the editor of the Fiji Timjes is evidence of this”