Transcript
Critics of clause 24 include the lawyer Richard Naidu, who says there's no legal equivalent in any democratic country. He says the words demean and undermine are not defined by law and sanctity doesn't apply.
"I certainly haven't found any provision in the Commonwealth or in any country that calls itself a democracy to clause 24. We're not allowed to undermine or demean the sanctity of parliament. I don't think I've ever heard parliamentarians being described as a collective group of saints, but there you have it."
A professor with the School of Government at the University of the South Pacific, Vijay Naidu, says there is already law to prevent the defamation of parliamentarians. He says if clause 24 is enacted democracy in Fiji will be stifled.
"They seem to attribute qualities to institutions that actually should be under scrutiny all the time and be the subject of public debate and discussions. The parliament is a public institution and therefor should be subject to the scrutiny of the general public."
Clause 24 proposes fines and imprisonment for individuals, companies and their directors of up to five years. The leader of the National Federation opposition party, Biman Prasad, says the clause is a threat to free speech.
"It's all about people and their ability to elect representatives to parliament and therefore they have the right to have an opinion about what parliamentarians or their elected representatives do in and outside parliament. We believe that the essence of democracy will be removed if you are doing anything to restrict the public's right to criticise their elected representatives."
But the chair of the standing committee considering the bill, the MP Ashneel Sudhakar, says clause 24 protects the institution of parliament and not the government.
"People who are criticising that clause they are reading words into that clause and saying that it is preventing or gagging people from criticising MPs or the government. If you read clause 24 nowhere does it state that. The institution of parliament, the speaker and the committees, that's all that that clause mentions. Everybody has a right to criticise the government and its policies that feels they need to do so."
Ashneel Sudhakar says existing defamation law in Fiji only shields individuals, and like the courts, parliament needs legal protection from slander. But the lawyer Richard Naidu says clause 24 could silence dissenting voices.
"Obviously the very first effect of it will be simply to chill any criticism of parliament. That's already the case with laws like the media decree. And so you have these wide, virtually meaningless provisions that aren't really capable of easy definitions in the law, which sit there like a sort of Sword of Damocles just waiting to drop on anybody who the government thinks offends them. So of course the result is that people prefer to stay silent and not take the risk."
Written submissions on the bill will be accepted until May the 15th.
