Newly appointed Minister for Information, Lynda Tabuya says every public service broadcast grant which totals $11 million will now be tied to measurable public outcomes.
While delivering her ministerial statement, Tabuya she they will require weekly civic education programmes, local language youth debates, balanced rural coverage, and transparent reporting on viewer and listener reach.
Tabuya stresses they are not funding fluff – they are funding facts and fairness.
She also confirms that next month and hopefully in partnership with the Fijian Media Association, they will carry on with the town hall meetings, partnering with the Ministry of Information.
She also says that what happened to her last year was personal and it became public and she carries it with her as a lesson in humility and what it means to hold public trust.
Tabuya was removed as the Minister for Women, Children and Social Protection and Cabinet after a nude video was leaked online last year.
She says regardless of its legal implications, that lesson now guides everything she does.
Tabuya stresses that the Ministry will champion facts and truth and they will do so plainly, promptly and persistently.
She says they will launch a Civic Media Fellowship to train 50 young journalists and digital creators by the end of 2026.
Tabuya says they will also be deploying digital information kiosks to all government service centres.
She says starting this quarter, they will be asking every ministry to submit a one-page communication plan.
The Minister says they are also building a central digital dashboard - a real-time calendar that tracks government announcements, prevents overlaps, and coordinates messaging.
She says that by January 2026, they will relaunch the government's website, not as a static archive, but as a live platform for policy, programs, services, and feedback.
Tabuya also says that by December 2025, they will complete the digitization of Indian indenture records and by the end of 2026, they will digitize up to 50 percent of the National Historic Collections, making them available to students, researchers, and every curious citizen.
Meanwhile, Opposition MP Jone Usamate has questioned the rationale behind Tabuya’s appointment, saying the Prime Minister’s earlier public position appears to have been reversed.
He says Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka had clearly stated he would not bring Tabuya back into Cabinet but it has now been “flip-flopped.”
Usamate says this flip-flopping is a hallmark of this government, it says one thing one day and does another the next.
He also questioned the need for both a Minister and an Assistant Minister in a ministry with only around 40 staff.
The MP says that in Fiji, we are paying 200 times the amount of money that people in other countries are paying their leaders.
He says this shows that maybe the calibre of the ministers here is such that they don't have the capacity to be able to handle the portfolios.
Usamate says when you have ministers with very small portfolios, they start doing the job of the Permanent Secretaries and the Directors because they don't have much to do.
Usamate further suggested there were other capable individuals in Parliament — including MPs Aliki Bia and Lenora Qereqeretabua — who could have been considered for the role.
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