Pacific Scoop:
Analysis – By Professor Crosbie Walsh

Fiji’s Public Emergency Regulations (or the PER as they are generally known) were introduced in April 2009 and have been extended – by Presidential decree – at three-monthly intervals ever since.

I have argued previously for all sides on the PER issue, saying that PER should be retained if there are specific, immediate threats against public order and government; lifted, at least in part, if there are only general threats; and lifted completely if the threats are unlikely to amount to anything.

A military government by inclination is likely to find control mechanisms convenient, but a military government committed to essential reforms, dialogue, constitutional and electoral reforms and elections in 2014 is not credible if restrictions are maintained without proper cause. Read more »

Pacific Press Release – Pacific Media Watch

[FIJI] STATE’S FREEDOM STAND

SUVA (The Fiji Times/Pacific Media Watch): Every person has the right  to freedom of speech and expression, including freedom to seek, receive  and impart information and ideas. Read more »

Pacific Press Release – Pacific Media Watch

FIJI MEDIA DECREE TO BE IMPLEMENTED SOON

SUVA (Fijivillage.com/Pacific Media Watch):  The Public Emergency Regulation will be lifted in Fiji as soon as the new Media Decree is implemented. Read more »

Logo: Clean up Fiji - Fiji Times

Pacific.Scoop
Opinion – By Crosbie Walsh

All acts have consequences. In Professor Brij Lal’s case, from one act (and a history of previous acts) there were three consequences in Fiji and more, in happier circumstances, in Australia.

The act? Giving interviews to foreign media when on a visitor’s visa to Fiji where emergency regulations are in place expressly forbidding such activities.
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Pacific Press Release – FemLINKPACIFIC, 11 September 2009

FemLINKPACIFIC’S second Women, Peace and Security report 2009

Our Women, Peace and Human Security reports serve to contribute to a process of change, of defining our own strategies for our future grounded on the fundamental human rights and freedoms we all deserve.
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Apolosi Bose ... researching from Fiji's poverty to political human rights. Photo: PMC/Del Abcede

Pacific.Scoop
By Josephine Latu of Pacific Media Watch

Fiji authorities are using a variety of “repressive tactics” to smother free speech, including short-term arrests and intimidation of journalists, says Amnesty International.

The human rights organisation released a scathing new report early today detailing serious human rights violations under the military regime headed by Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama.
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