A free, fair and unregulated media is absolutely vital for true and genuine democracy.
Acting Prime Minister and Minister for Finance, Professor Biman Prasad highlighted this during the Pacific Media Partnership Conference 2025 at Suva Civic Centre this morning.
Professor Prasad says the media should be able to amplify the voices of not only the government but also the opposition without fear.
He says hosting this important event on our shores is meaningful as Fiji is unequivocally committed to democracy and freedom.
The Acting Prime Minister says many young people in this country today who grew up in the culture of the 2006 coup and its aftermath still believe that asking questions can lead you into trouble.
He says many employers, academics and activists now warn him that as a result of this, there is a lack of critical thinking in the next generation. He says without critical thinking, they will not be able to resolve the pressing national problems, but the learning from the past is also being challenged by the realities of the present.
Professor Prasad says mainstream media is challenged by a set of rules that do not apply to social media, such as being accountable under national laws, media and business, employment and environmental regulations, and laws relating to defamation and privacy as well as following ethical standards of journalism.
He further says in 2023, the well-known civil liberties organization, Freedom House, ranked Fiji the most improved country in the world for civil liberties as a result of a change in government, which is no accident.
He says one of their first acts in the government was to repeal the oppressive Media Industry Development Act and also ended the business of exclusive government contracts to selected media.
Professor Prasad says as a government, they are criticised for a lot of things, both in mainstream and social media,and some of that criticism is justified, and they are far from a perfect government. He further says they feel it's a bit unfair, but all governments feel that way sometimes.
He also stressed that the former Fiji Sun editors waited every afternoon to be told by the former government what the following day's headline would be. Professor Prasad says in Fiji for many years, the theme of public broadcasting was the euphemism for a gross abuse of public funds for political propaganda.
He adds that the government allocated a total of $10.4 million in funding in the last budget for public service broadcast, and already two private media organizations also have received some portion of those grants.
