Jet

Long Post Alert!

(The) Jet is the first community newspaper in Fiji, published monthly from Nadi and my springboard to dive into the media scene in the country. I'll be focussing mostly on the print media, getting into TV and radio would make this too cumbersome for even the most patient A-Zer. 

Morning papers off the newsstand in early Aoril

The print media in Fiji is overwhelmingly English based, considered by some to be elitist. There are hardly any newspapers published in standard Fijian or in Fijian Hindi that have a comparable circulation. 

The Landscape

Incidentally, when I first came, I searched for Fijian literature - the names that came up were few, authors and poets writing mostly in Hindi and English, I could not find anyone that wrote in Fijian. The only playwright/screenwriter of note is Vilsoni Hereniko, who writes in Rotuman, the language of Rotuman islands, also part of Fiji and the Fijian language-scape. Mary Rokonadravu, a Fijian author of mixed Indo-Fijian and Fijian heritage, has won the Commonwealth Short Story Prize twice in the regional category, writing in English. Read her award winning short stories here and here. The few Fijian books that I have found online are all texts used in high school. Not much available for grown ups' leisure reading to begin with, so forget about any translations. 

In other words,  the linguistic landscape in Fiji, like everything else, is massively complex and a complicated product of its colonial past. Vastly different from the places I have inhabited so far -  Egypt and the Gulf countries, with their unifying and rich tradition of Arabic literature going back two and a half millennia, established literary awards and celebrated authors, including a Nobel Laureate in literature. India with a huge diversity of languages, 22 recognised scheduled languages but nearly 400 listed by Ethnologue. Even the newest among those 22 is nearly a millennia old and each one has its own unique literary traditions, which most native speakers take great pride in and which form a part of their identity. And of course any number of established national book awards, literary festivals, a hugely celebrated Nobel Laureate in Literature and now also a vernacular Booker Prize awardee. Additionally, both the Arabic and Indian vernacular media go back to the early 19th century. 

Of course neither Indians nor Arabs are free from the snobbish perception that equates the acquisition of a foreign language (usually the language of the colonists in countries with a colonial past) with being well-educated. But there is also a robust attachment and celebration of the vernaculars alongside, a history of active development and promotion of the native tongue(s). 

That feels vaguely different in Fiji. Sure, the constitution is available in three languages, but the road signs, the names of buildings, the hoardings - except for an occasional bula, vinaca,  are all in English. There are very few bilingual signages, leave alone trilingual. This perception also bolstered by the fact that Fijian uses the Latin script with some modifications. 

Fijian literature has developed only after Fiji became independent, from 1970 onwards, before which the story-telling traditions were predominantly oral. After independence, the USP offered creative writing courses, the Commonwealth Foundation conducted workshops - in English. It is possible that the population of native speakers/the level of interest did not support designing courses in the vernaculars? Fijian schools mandatorily teach both Fijian and Fijian Hindi to all children, but that policy was set only in 2014. Therefore, it is not surprising that the vernacular press is still in a nascent stage and English dominates everyday life and also the media.

To sum up then, the Fijian population 1) is small, 2) is linguistically diverse, because Fijian itself has several dialects, and the Indo-Fijian community speak Hindi, Gujarati and Punjabi. That diversity is under threat and narrowing - Fijian dialects are being lost, Nepalese, Malayalam and Tamil spoken by the Indo-Fijians have already been lost, 3) though literacy rates are high in Fiji, it is not known with any certainty how much of the population outside the tourism sector actually reads English (I can tell you that there's a noticeable lack of any worthwhile bookshops!) 4) it is scattered across a hundred odd islands, often inaccessible due to weather or terrain 5) internet penetration is around 75% in Fiji, but usage is restricted to main cities mostly, networks are poor in the interiors and connections/speeds are often slow even in urban areas. 

Thus the media market in Fiji is fragmented and different outlets target the different segments. Radio with its access across the islands is probably better able to serve the public as far as news goes. Now that the backdrop's established, let's get into the media scene. 

The Dailies

There are three main English dailies - The Fiji Times, Fiji Sun and Fiji Village. The first, The Fiji Times, set up in 1869, is the oldest, with a circulation of around 28,500 from Monday to Friday, going up on the weekends.  The web version has around 700,000 hits a month.  It has other ancillary publications, some in the vernaculars. Individual circulation figures for their entire product basket is not available.  Like all pioneers in any market, they have the highest awareness and the largest share.

Fiji Sun, privately owned by Sun News Group, is a daily newspaper set up in 1999. Specific circulation figures are not available, but they claim to have a share that 'will work the hardest' for advertisers. Fiji Village is an online news site, it operates several radio networks also in English, Fijian and Fijian Hindi. All media houses are privately owned and have been accused of political bias sometime or another. Read more here and here.

MIDA

Predictably, the media environment has not been characterised by its freedom in Fiji, what with the history of coups d'état and fiddling the constitution at the drop of a hat.  In 2022, Reporters Without Borders ranked Fiji at 102/180, the worst among the South Pacific nations. 

(Just as a point of offhand political interest and vague unease, Fiji actually did better on press freedoms than all the other countries I've lived in, as shown in their ranks below -  

Nigeria = 129/180,  UAE = 138/180,  India = 150/180, Bahrain = 167/180 and Egypt = 168/180 

Clearly, it matters not a whit what system is in place - military regime, absolute monarchy, authoritarian rule or democracy, freedoms are being carpet bombed indiscriminately, so is there some misery-loves-company type solace in that?! Seriously though, I still can't process that India with a duly elected government has managed to drop lower than the UAE, a federation of absolute authoritarian monarchies, in just a few short years!)

Anyway, to get back to the point, why? Why was Fiji ranked the worst among the South Pacific? That's because in 2010, after the 2007 coup, several harassed journalists and one constitutional crisis later, the Media Industry Development Authority of Fiji unilaterally passed an Act that severely curtailed journalistic freedoms. The Act prevented foreign ownership of media and also imposed pretty stiff penalties on individual journalists and media organisations for content deemed to be "against national interest and public order." It is claimed that no one was prosecuted or even booked under it subsequently, but as you can imagine the existence of the Act itself was enough to shut the press up pretty quickly. The Fijian Media Association which represents journalists' interest has repeatedly criticised the Act as being unduly restrictive and interfering. 

After the new government was formed in December 2022, new PM Rabuka announced that the Act would be reviewed and replaced if necessary. Subsequently, the Minister for Communications announced a review of the Act, and the Attorney General (who formally appoints all the office bearers of the Media Industry Development Authority) apologised to the Fijian journalists for the injustices they have suffered. PM Sitiveni Rabuka later committed to end the era of media oppression. 

Accordingly, a draft bill was released which ended content restrictions but held on to restrictions on foreign ownership.  This was rejected by media organisations which wanted the Act to be repealed in its entirety. Therefore the government tabled a bill to repeal the Act on 3rd April. Listen to it being tabled by Attorney General Siromi Turaga in the clip below:  

And on 6th of April the bill was passed by 29 votes to 21 and 3 abstentions. Read about that here and here. At least one media related story with a potentially happy ending!

All this month I'll be writing about Aspects of Fiji, which is where I'm at the mo. And where the sum of its constituent parts is justifiably greater than the whole!

Did you know that Jack's of Fiji was named after its founder-owner Jekishan Khatri? The store was opened in 1969 in Nadi to market Fijian handicrafts and souvenirs for the tourists but has now diversified to many other products, including jewellery. It also has outlets outside Fiji in the South Pacific. Find out more here. 

~ Thank you for reading this extra long entry! :) ~ 

Posted for the A-Z Challenge 2023