News Limited, sole owner of the Fiji Times newspaper, called the move by the Fijian military regime “an appalling assault on free speech and a terrible blow for the fragile economy of Fiji.”
Chairman and chief executive John Hartigan said the decree was a deliberate attempt to force News Limited to sell the business and pull out of Fiji altogether.
He said it retrospectively withdraws permission for foreign media investment, setting a precedent that will unsettle foreign investors in other industries.
Hartigan said the jobs of nearly 200 Fiji Times staff and nearly 1,000 others involved in selling the newspaper are now at risk.
News Limited says it will now explore any options it may have to remain involved in media in Fiji.
Fiji’s Attorney General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum denies that new media laws have anything to do with silencing opposition to his government
The Fiji Times has been a strong critic of the military regime.
Khaiyum conceded that the Fiji Times “has been there for quite some time.”
But he told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat program: “The ownership requirements that have been set have got nothing to do with the criticisms of the Fijian government.
“It’s to do with a policy direction that media organizations, like many other countries have regulated, need to be owned by locals because of the powerful nature of media organizations.”
Sayed-Khaiyum said media groups “need to be part and parcel of the development process of a country, particularly developing countries like Fiji.”
Fiji’s top law officer did not think the newspaper group would necessarily be forced to close.
“They have obviously got various options,” he said. “One of the major ones, obviously, they can sell down the foreign content to local owners.”
