Despite a clampdown on media freedom at home, Fiji journalists are represented at the biannual meeting of the Pacific Islands News Association in Vanuatu.
The censorship of media in Fiji under the Public Emergency Regulations is one of the issues on the meetings agenda.
From Port Vila, Walter Zweifel reports:
"The CEO of Fiji's private, Mai TV, Richard Broadbridge, says Fiji journalists need to speak with one voice, highlighting the disunity in the profession that's been hampered by what the interim regime calls the journalism of hope. Attending this conference are also the head of the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation, Riyaz Sayed Khaiyum, the editor of the Fiji Times, Netani Rika as well as Samisoni Pareti of Islands Business. Pita Ligaiula of Pacnews, who was one of the first journalists to be taken in for questioning after the military scrapped free speech, is also present. One of the organisers of the Pacific Media Summit is Francis Herman, who moved to Vanuatu after prolonged harassment in Suva as the head of the Fiji Broadcasting Corporation."
