After every military coup comes censorship, but sometimes it can be rather quirky. In Fiji, where the elected government has been ousted by soldiers acting under the orders of Commodore Frank Bainimarama, one of his first decisions was to silence the printed press and broadcast news. But news of that news emerged straightaway on various websites. The commodore overlooked the internet and failed to prevent either of the main newspapers from posting items about what's been happening.
So I read that the Fiji Daily Post is banned from attending press conferences held by the coup leaders and was not invited to cover the swearing-in ceremony for the Interim prime minister. I also read, on the Fiji Times website that the chairman and chief executive of its parent company, John Hartigan of Rupert Murdoch's News Limited, has called on Bainimarama to allow the paper to be published. There was no edition yesterday after soldiers entered the offices in Suva and demanded the right to monitor editorial content. "Fiji's citizens have the right to expect unfettered access to objective, factual news reporting," said Hartigan.
Though these closures are said to be temporary, the situation at the Daily Post , which leaked details of the coup plotters' plans two days prior to the takeover, appears altogether less clear. According to the International Press Institute, coup officers made death threats against its management and staff and its managing editor has gone into hiding.
News programmes on the state-owned Fiji Broadcasting Corporation were initially suspended but its website later reported that the military had withdrawn soldiers from media offices and that there was to be no censorship. FBC's ceo, Francis Herman said, after a briefing from the coup's "chief of staff", Captain Esala Teleni, that the army "is asking us to be careful that out reports will not incite any unrest, any tension, and racial strife." He adds: "Captain Teleni has asked us to be responsible... they will do nothing to stand in the way of [media] freedom and... there will be no censorship."
Some foreign reporters were originally prevented from covering certain events, and the rather sketchy reportage on the New Zealand Herald's front page yesterday suggested that censorship may have been effective. (I'm in Auckland, so I was able to monitor the paper's newsprint issue). No journalist, foreign or domestic, was allowed to get close to the home of the deposed prime minister, Laisenia Qarase, who was held under house arrest. But the Herald is now reporting that, later, he was chased away by the military and has flown to his village in the Lau group of islands far to the east of Suva.
Meanwhile, to add to the general air of unreality, an American reality TV show is still being filmed in the islands as if nothing has happened. "To be shooting Survivor while in the midst of a coup is a bit surreal," wrote its host, Jeff Probst,in an email to a US entertainment website. What a relief to know that Survivor will not be censored!
