Power of the press
PRESS power is ultimate, and its impact beyond comprehension. Only when it is silent, as it was on Saturday, May 14, 2022, for The Fiji Times, did many detractors even realise the real power of the press. Recalcitrant individuals, who complain bitterly about it, use it daily, as their grapevine or coconut wireless. Despite this at least one former minister was going to public meetings and openly robustising The Fiji Times at every opportunity and telling their audiences ‘do not buy The Fiji Times’ as it is full of lies and half-truths.
Where are they today? Look around you. The Fiji Times is still here today, as it has been since 1869. Who is more resilient? The press or this former FijiFirst government minister of economy and his cabal of mates, who all appear to have deserted him now. He is not even in Parliament, how things can change in politics. They say every dog its his day, and how the fortunes have changed.
The critics of the press have been found to be dead and buried in their own tide of half-truths; and now in 2023 they all are destined to the annals of history and the dustbin; and no one will even care to write history books about their distorted and convoluted form of politics. So much pain, ridicule and suffering must have been felt by fine people running this publishing house, who burnt their midnight lamp, to bring Fijians the newspaper, without fear or favour. Roadblock after roadblock, court case over a letter to the editor matter, the Australian publisher requested to be removed, and then full local ownership of the company demanded!
My hats off to them – every single human being at The Fiji Times, past, present and future, who have all been part of the system. I say thank you and that all Fijians do care and understand what you have gone through, and we are sure that under the leadership of the people’s government, this will never ever happen to your organisation or any other for that matter. What you have endured is tear jerking and we all support your editor-in-chief Fred Wesley.
People take for granted, the efforts of hundreds of journalists collecting news from every nook and cranny, every hour of the day and night. Editor-in-chief, subeditors, journalists, technical, and administrative staff – all in a team, each one manning a cogwheel of a combination of many hundreds of cogs. Each one as important as the other, whether big or small and capable of stopping the press at any time.
The power of the press is phenomenal. It can inform, educate, excite, amuse, ridicule criticise, hold the government and its apparatus to account, do investigative journalism, ensure that there is good governance, order, and transparency, drive out crime and corruption, hold parliamentarians and citizens to account, report on the state of the nation, and among many other things, ensure that democratic ideals are adhered to without favour or fear.
The power of the press relies on independent journalism, and this can only flourish if the nation has media freedoms, with no barrier toward responsible news gathering, reporting, and publishing. Apart from this, media freedom ensures that the people of the nation are allowed to express themselves freely, write opinion and letters to the editor columns, without fear of victimisation.
Media freedoms means that the media is allowed to go about its duty without any interference and has complete editorial independence. The sub-editors and the editor-in-chief are completely at liberty to not reveal their sources of information, and neither required to release any material, data, books, publication, and source names to any entity like the government apparatus, the military, or the police.
Citizens need to know the purpose of a free press. It ensures that people are free to impart as well as receive information freely, and that no one entity or organisation with a hidden agenda is controlling the narrative. If the political, economic, social or any other narrative is being controlled then the public will not get the right information and will often base their decisions using fake information.
A free press and the correct narrative independently gathered and distributed, thus will ensure that the electorate will make informed choices. This is extremely important during elections when the electorate needs to know the true state of the nation, as an example.
Nations are given a media ranking annually by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) which is a comparative analysis of where each nation stands in ranking.
Fiji was ranked as the worst place for journalists, in the Pacific region, in the latest assessment by the global press freedom watchdog, in their 2022 report. Fiji’s placing was 102 out of 180 countries, slipping 47 places, from its 2021 position of 55 to 102 in 2022. In comparison, New Zealand was ranked 11, Australia – 39, Samoa – 45, Tonga – 49, and Papua New Guinea – 62, according to the above report.
Fiji’s MIDA (Media Industry Development Authority) Act 2010, Section 88, says that the MIDA Act and decisions made under the Act cannot be challenged in any Court, Tribunal, Commission, or any other adjudicating body. This is alarming indeed. No journalist can work with the threat of a ‘butchers knife hanging from a thread six inches above his or her head’ as an analogy, and still come out as a great investigative journalist. We the public will bear witness to many converging, as well as diverging views, as well as political spin – and grand posturing, by political figures.
However, the media as the fourth estate will bear witness to – the good, the bad, the ugly – and then analyse, distil, refine, and present the ‘news’– for our consumption, in a more dignified and wholesome manner.
No newspaper worth its salt can be a slave to the institution that it is bound to question and hold account, as the alternative newspaper has been. In this regard The Fiji Times is a shining example of how one can survive even under one of the worst crusades against it, day in day out by a regime hell bent on its destruction; but at the end of the day – the regime was defeated and lies today in tatters, and The Fiji Times, which even today remains a beacon of hope for the people of this nation, as the fourth state, marches on unblemished, and remains as strong as ever.
■