Online Newspapers, Live TV Channels, Radios

The media outlets in the Fiji Islands are in a troublesome situation. They are to maintain a large number of restrictions while publishing and broadcasting news. In fact, the government is liable for this. It does not want that the common people should know the truth. So, it tries to impose a sense of restrictions on the media outlets. The government also wants that the media outlets should remain under its control so that it could continue its works without any trouble. In fact, only the media outlets have the scope to question the government policies. So, when the government adopts any weak or feeble policy, it becomes an issue of discussion for the media outlets.

So, to prevent such issues, the government of the islands has initiated penalties for the rule violators. The government has a provision of different punishments for them. and the tradition has begun since 2010. And to protect the government from the outer world about imposing such punishments, it has named it as ‘to protect the public interest’. But in reality, this is the way to keep the media away from the government activities. Often the government has to take decisions that go against the nation and the media outlets publish them that make the government feel insecure or embarrassed. So, this is a tool for the government to keep everything under control in the Islands.

The scenario is worst for the private media outlets. They are to bear the most of the troubles as they do not comply with the government rules in some points. Though the government-backed outlets are a bit conscious about the matter, the private outlets completely ignore the facts. They try to expose the truth as much as they can which results in often their punishments. A notable number of the journalists have experienced the matters and been punished in different ways for violating the rules. The media outlets are under the risks of heavy penalties including punishments. They have termed the decree as a barrier to the media industry.

The censorship on media outlets has a good number of issues related to it. The news industry is now unable to express the thoughts and opinions clearly fearing the decree of punishments. Many of the news editors and journalists are threatned to jail or other penalties. In fact, the promotion of the self-censorship has also limited the ownership of the media outlets as well.

There are several types of media outlets are available in the country including print and broadcast. Among the broadcast outlets, radio is the most popular one. This is, in fact, they key source of communication across the islands. The radio stations are available in both public and private ownership. And they have different types of contents for the listeners around. The listeners of the outer islands mostly rely on the radio. This is the most important source of information for them.

The islands have three daily newspapers and they have a notable circulation. The newspapers publish a wide number of news and information for the readers around. They also maintain the self-censorship issues while publishing the news. In fact, this is a common practice for them.

There are three free-to-air television channels available in the country. And they broadcast the programs in English. But the contents are highly interesting and attractive for the audiences. The news is shown for about an hour every day that contains all the necessary information for the audience.

The use of the internet is random in the surrounding areas. The users browse the internet to know about the world happenings and maintain their social profiles.