Transcript
JONE DAKUVULA: We did present a substantial submission, but half way through one of the members objected and wanted us to stop presenting our submission, but that submission has pointed out that they had no power under the Parliamentary Privileges Act. We have three members of parliament - the opposition MPd were expelled last year and we pointed out the bill is designed to legalise illegal actions that have been taken by the Privileges Committee and the government majority and that's what upset them.
DON WISEMAN: It was when you hit that particular part of your submission on the illegal expulsion of the three MPs that they decided to wrap up the presentation of your submission.
JD: Yes, one of the members objected to it continuing. But the other thing that disappointed us was that the media was there and they hardly covered our submission, there was only the Fiji Times and some little piece there and we had sent our submission and a summary it to all of the media and there was no publicity.
DW: It's a very substantial submission that you'd put in and you detailed, to some extent, that there were some jurisdictions you just wouldn’t go down this road, where they're being so punitive.
JD: Yes, and we had looked at Australia and New Zealand legislation and we have recommended to the committee to study the New Zealand and Australian law and the come back to parliament was a better legislation than what they are trying to push through - to criminalise so-called defamation of parliament. There's no such law in New Zealand and Australia. In fact the Privileges Act in Australia and New Zealand they have abolished this potential power of parliament there. It so-states in their laws there and we have recommended not to use their majority in parliament to pass through this but to go back and study better laws and come back.
DW: Do they need law at all in this regard?
JD: I think they need to update and organise the old parliamentary act. This is from the old colonial [times] and there are still provisions there that need to change because we have gone through various coups and the issues to various schools, the issues that are defined there no longer exist, so they need to change those things and they need to update it - that legislation. There's a case for updating it and looking at better similar laws overseas to use here.
DW: I'd just like to go back to your comments about the media ignoring what as I say is a substantial submission. Why do you think they do that?
JD: They are still fearful of the government and fearful of the attorney general and the police, definitely. The attorney general has taken some of the media here to court. Some cases are still going through court, like the Fiji Times where they are charging some of the journalists with sedition. In a number of their decrees - they have inserted various punitive provisions that can lead to the jailing of journalists who report certain issues, make comments on certain issues, so the media is be frightened.
DW: So you can understand the reticence of the journalists and the media?
JD: Yeah, we are fearful. And our submission basically, to change this law and remove this bill because it be a further intimidation and restriction on the freedom of the media here. We don’t need that. I pointed out to them that we already have a Defamation Act, which protects the rights of everybody not to be defamed and I said to the committee "look at the Defamation Act of New Zealand and Australia and borrow from their modern provisions and let's have a new defamation law. You don’t need to have this criminal defamation that will enable the parliament here to act like a court... call up, summon some of the people and send them to jail for five to 10 years, or $100,000 fine and all that.
DW: With regards to the three MPs who have been suspended and you say that they have, in fact, been expelled illegally. You want them brought back in immediately.
JD: We have recommended that the privileges committee should resume and parliament should resume and revoke these illegal exclusions they made, these false allegations. There was also an inter-parliamentary union - it's an international organisation that met last year - and I think many of the democratic countries are members of it. They have recommended to the government to revoke these serious decisions that they made, because they are illegal. They are in the report which is with the Speaker and Attorney General.
