12 May 2009

Calls mount for PINA to leave Fiji

9:53 pm on 12 May 2009

A newspaper publisher from Tonga says calls are increasing for the Pacific Island News Association to move its headquarters out of Fiji because of the restrictions placed on media there.

Kalafi Moala says a Pacific Freedom Forum workshop last week in Apia was a a good chance to identify infringements on media freedom, learn ways of dealing with conflict and be informed about the rights of journalists.

He says talks focused on Fiji with calls for PINA and its regional news service PACNEWS to move elsewhere in the region.

Kalafi Moala says the PINA secretariat's response to the emergency regulations decree that restricts media freedom and demands positive stories about the military led regime, has been disappointing.

"Principally where PINA is supposed to be the regional organisation that deals with media freedom in the Pacific, PINA has been very, very, silent on the situation in Fiji so there needed to be the emergence of another group or another gathering of journalists to express their views and opinions on it."

Kalafi Moala