By Ryan L Maness
Impunity Watch Senior Desk Officer, Oceania

SUVA, Fiji — Coming on the heels of Russell Hunter’s removal earlier this month, new accounts of media intimidation are coming to light in Fiji. 

The first report comes from Graham Leung, the lawyer of New Zealand businessman Ballu Khan, who says that he received a threatening phone call from someone in the Army  Leung, who was writing an article about the difference between the facts on the ground in Fiji and the interim government’s rhetoric, said that he was told by the unnamed caller that the article had been intercepted by the military.  Leung told Radio New Zealand International that the interim government is interfering with freedom of the press and freedom of expression. 

The second report comes from Fiji Times publisher, Evan Hannah, who says that he was summoned to interim Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum’s office on Thursday.  The meeting apparently concerned an upcoming Fiji Times article entitled ‘Exposing the Lie’, which was thought to appear as an opinion piece. The interim AG said that the article “contained factual inaccuracies, was highly emotive and discussed matters that were in court.”  The AG told Hannah that Hannah was not being told what to write or publish, but that as a publisher he should be concerned about the factual accuracy of what is in his paper. 

Hannah has also said that he was told by Sayed-Khaiyum that the article was now a matter of national security.  Of this he said, “This is exactly the situation they used to deport Russell Hunter as publisher of the Sun. I’m not suggesting that the government is lining up to deport me, but I think they are trying to intimidate us.” 

The interim AG insists that the meetings were not at all meant to intimidate members of the press, saying that such meetings have always been common place in Fiji and had been conducted by previous governments.  He said that he merely wanted to meet with the publishers so that all matters could be “resolved amicably.”  He also said that he had received word that the article at issue was not in the Fiji Times database and was not set to be published. 

The editor-in-chief of the Fiji Times has chastised the interim government for trying to create a situation that did not exist.  He said that the whole affair was a great disservice to the the AG’s office, the media and the country. 

In related news, Russell Hunter’s wife, Martha Hunter, who was given twenty-one days to leave Fiji after her husband’s removal, has left Fiji for Australia on Thursday. 

For more information, please see:
Fiji Times — Military threatened me, Leung tells Radio NZ — 17 March 2008

Radio New Zealand International — Publisher of Fiji Times suggests administration is trying to intimidate — 16 March 2008

Fiji Times — Media Council to meet on Tuesday — 15 March 2008

Fiji Times — Interim A-G calls in Times publisher — 15 March 2008

Radio New Zealand International — Fiji lawyer receives threatening phone call — 14 March 2008

Radio New Zealand International — Fiji Times publisher summoned by interim Attorney-General — 14 March 2008

Radio New Zealand International — Wife of deported Fiji Sun publisher leaves Fiji — 14 March 2008

Fiji Times — Interim AG summons Publisher — 14 March 2008