As we celebrate World Media Freedom Day today, the Fijian Media Association is heartened by the country’s remarkable progress on the Reporters Without Borders media freedom index for 2026.
Fiji improved it's ranking by 16 places, now standing at 24th globally, up from 40th last year and 84th in 2023.
They say it's been three years after the draconian media law was repealed and significant improvements made following the return of media freedom.
The RSF World Press Freedom Index shows over half of the world’s countries now fall into the “difficult” or “very difficult” categories for press freedom, the lowest in the 25 years since the index was first published.
The FMA is calling on all stakeholders, including government officials and civil society, to work collaboratively to ensure a safe and supportive environment for journalists, allowing us to report without fear or favour.
They say the achievement for Fiji should be attributed not only to the media workers continuing to uphold the values of independent journalism to keep communities informed, but to everybody in this country who recognise and defend the importance of a free media for a healthy democracy.
The FMA says while it is a moment to be celebrated, they are acutely aware of the various threats to individual media workers and the wider industry that continue to overshadow media development in Fiji.
In recent months, there have been several separate developments that have the potential to influence and shape how the media works and serves the community.
They say summoning of journalists to testify in court cases has been a particularly pointed moment, and its ramifications of this judicial action on the industry and the sources it depends on is something the FMA is acutely aware of.
FMA further says the recent statement by the Minister for Information, Lynda Tabuya in Parliament regarding what she referred to as “mal-information” and “misinformation” by the reporting on the broken-down lift at the Colonial War Memorial Hospital in Suva, also signals the kind of pressure the media continues to be subjected to.
They say apart from the systemic issues the media and the people who work in the industry continue to contend with, the growing problem of the hard-drugs crisis and its impacts are also being felt in professional and personal ways.
They add that this adds a layer of complexity that journalists need to navigate, while continuing to uphold the values and ethics the industry aspires to.
