So many people are confused about the changes to Walesi – Shamima Ali

Fiji Women’s Crisis Centre Coordinator Shamima Ali says life is already very difficult and she is finding it hard to understand the changes the Government is making to Walesi.

While speaking at the Fiji NGO Coalition Human Rights Day Picnic at the Park at My Suva Park, Ali says what is this all about in this time of COVID-19 and when cyclones are about to come.

Ali also says the elections are next year and people should not be swayed by freebies and demand what is important to them.

She also urged women to stand up for leadership positions.

The government has made the decision for television companies to move from analogue to the digital platform, Walesi.

This means that people in the affected areas will only be able to access the TV signal via a Walesi set-top box connected to their home television set with a UHF antenna or through the Walesi app or via a Walesi satellite dish connected to the set-top box.

People in the affected areas can no longer access a TV signal via an antenna connected to their television set.

Fiji Television Limited says the shutting down of the analogue transmitters in Suva and Nadi is in accordance with correspondence from the Ministry of Communications and is in line with phase one of the Government’s planned switch-over process from analogue to digital television, Walesi.

FBC CEO Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum had said the switch over is good for the people as the picture and sound quality will be better.

Mai TV Director Stanley Simpson said there are benefits that will come from this switch-over however they would have appreciated a bit more time to do this and any increase in transmission fees by Walesi will severely impact the television broadcast business in the country.