Page 5 - IB November 2019

Publisher’s Note

By Samisoni Pareti
Managing Director / Publisher
Samisoni Pareti

Group Editor-in-Chief
WE SUPPORT FREE PRESS
Samisoni Pareti
Editorial Consultant
Samantha Magick
If media freedom is the proverbial canary in the Freedom Forum, tasked with the job of shining
Design Consultant
coal mine for democracy, then most of our democra- a light— or many lights— on the work of media
Albert Rolls
cies in the Pacific are in peril. freedom in Melanesia.
Contributors Whichever point of the compass you look, east or Comprising members in Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon
Sharon Bhagwan Rolls
west, north or south, alarm bells have been tolling, as Islands, Papua New Guinea and West Papua, the
Richard Curtain
so-called democratic governments in the islands work MMFF will also call out government decisions or
Alipati Pareti
to restrict, threaten or ban journalists and the work rules that threaten the work of a free and independent
Nic Maclellan
Rowena Singh they do. media in the region.
This month saw the arrest and deportation from Foes of a free press are becoming very creative in
Kiribati, in the northern Pacific, of a 60 Minutes team the way they work, emboldened perhaps by authori-
Islands Business is published monthly by
from Australia’s Channel 9 television network. tarian regimes who threaten and restrict the work of
Front Page Limited
Editorial & Advertising Offices To the west, the government of Prime Minister journalists with impunity, as well as the pervasive and
PO Box 12718, Suva, Fiji Islands. Charlot Salwai of Vanuatu refused to extend the work deliberate spread of fake news.
Tel: +679 330 3108, 773 1118
and residency visas of Dan McGarry, media director of Food for thought are the words of Christophe
the nation’s only daily newspaper, himself a bold and Deloire, secretary-general of Reporters Without
Emails
vocal stalwart for media freedom in the region. Borders when he wrote at the release of the 2019
Editorial: editor@islandsbusiness.com
Subscriptions: subs@islandsbusiness.com Vanuatu stepped this up with a travel ban one week World Press Freedom Index in April: “If the political
Advertising: marketing@islandsbusiness.com later, denying McGarry the right to visit or reunite debate slides surreptitiously or openly towards a civil
with his family. war-style atmosphere, in which journalists are treated
Printing: Similar disturbing reports against media freedom as scapegoats, then democracy is in great danger.
PrintHouse, Suva, Fiji. have been reported in Samoa and Tonga, while the “Halting this cycle of fear and intimidation is a
media landscapes in the larger nations of Papua New matter of the utmost urgency for all people of good
Guinea, Solomon Islands and Fiji remain precarious. will who value the freedoms acquired in the course of
It is like working around eggshells all the time. history.”
Such trends are nothing to be proud of, they are
shameful actually.
This is why I and the magazine I represent, fully
supported the formation of the Melanesian Media

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All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.
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