18 May 2015

Fiji media decree debate spawns awareness

3:14 pm on 18 May 2015

The president of the Fiji Media Association says a failed attempt to derail the controversial media decree has at the very least generated discussion about the issue.

An opposition motion to review the Media Industry Development Decree was defeated in Parliament last week.

The bill's author, National Federation Party leader Biman Prasad, told Parliament the 2010 decree had seriously undermined media freedom.

The president of the Fiji Media Association, Ricardo Morris, says the government has no willingness to review it.

It's not a great surprise that the motion was defeated, but at least it brought the issue to the public's attention through Parliament, and that it was debated in an open forum, despite the outcome.

He says a lot more people are becoming aware of how important media freedom is.

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Photo: PMC

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