SUVA, Fiji Islands (PMW): The Fiji Government has attacked "media hysteria" by the local and foreign-owned news media, accusing Rupert Murdoch's Fiji Times of "fanning the fires of sedition and racism".

In an eight-page advertisement in the Fiji Sun of 30 October 1999, headlined "Government responds to media hysteria", the Government continued the latest tirade against news media sparked off by Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry at this week's launching of a new self-regulatory industry code of ethics.

The Fiji Sun also published its own editorial overview and reaction on the issue of media credibility and the Fiji Times published Chaudhry's speech in full - the first newspaper to do so independently.

The Government's advertisement also carried the speech text and documents purportedly showing how the Fiji Times "distorted and doctored" a report about alleged security threats to members of Parliament.

It also published further attacks against the Fiji Times, owned by a subsidiary of the Murdoch News Corporation Ltd group but published for the past 130 years, and against a prominent local news magazine owner, Islands Business publisher Robert Keith-Reid.

"The hysteria kicked up by certain media bosses and journalists in Fiji on Government's suggestion to set up a media tribunal is an over-reaction and completely unwarranted," said the Government advertisement.

"Since coming to office five months ago, Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry has been subjected to an unrelenting series of attacks and anti-government stories by a foreign-owned newspaper and to a lesser extent, the country's only television station [Fiji Television Ltd], whose journalists and editors have close links to and sympathise with opposition parties and the former government [of military coup leader Sitiveni Rabuka].

"Fiji is a multiracial country. It is still emerging from the catastrophe of two military coups a decade ago that were racially-inspired against what was largely believed to be an Indian-backed Labour coalition government. The coups ushered in a period of intense fear and uncertainty, institutionalised racism and a suspension of most democratic rights.

"Rights and freedoms were restored slowly but under a system of partial democracy until political leaders negotiated a new multiracial constitution in 1997, effective from 1998, which gave full political and economic recognition to all ethnic groups living in the country."

Democracy, said the Chaudhry Government, was still "very fragile". It added that race relations were "quite tender" and a small group of racially-inspired and defeated politicians were responsible for "subversive political activity" against an Indian prime minister.

The group had resorted to arson and bomb attacks on Indian schools and buildings, threatened protest marches and tried to bring down the Government.

"These forces of destabilisation have been given full reign by the Rupert Murdoch-owned newspaper, the Fiji Times, and one of its senior journalists in particular (with close personal links to the previous government) who day after day runs nothing but anti-government stories to discredit the Prime Minister and his Government.

"In a climate where race relations are still very sensitive and restraint is necessary to allow the new democratically elected People's Coalition Government to carry on with its task of cleaning up the awful mess left by the previous administration, The Fiji Times is fanning the fires of sedition and racism through articles that are deliberately distorted."

Challenging Pacific Islands News Association president William Parkinson's attack on Chaudhry's statements as "draconian", the Government said it would:

* Give "teeth" to the [Fiji] Media Council to impose fines on media organisations for flagrant breaches of the media code of ethics.

* Set up a Media Tribunal which would adjudicate on cases of defamation and character assassination to ensure swift justice to the aggrieved.

"It does not in any way usurp the powers of the Media Council. It will save the aggrieved thousands of dollars in lawyers' fees since individuals can represent themselves before the tribunal."

In its attack on Islands Business publisher Robert Keith-Reid, the Government claimed: "[His] neutrality as a journalist is questionable, anyway ... At election time he [made] categorical statements that Mr Chaudhry would never become Prime Minister.

"When proved wrong, he started claiming Mr Chaudhry would not last in the post one month. This was later extended to three months, and then six months. Now he is a bit more cautious, claiming Mr Chaudhry would not last five years as prime minister... how can such a journalist present unbiased reports?"

The Fiji Sun quoted Keith-Reid as saying that the media had not been given "fair treatment" by the Prime Minister: "His speech was self-demeaning; it was far too long and bitter."

Fiji Times publisher Alan Robinson said he had been surprised by the "ferociousness" of the attack on the media. Defending the accuracy and balance of his newspaper's reporting, he opposed Chaudhry's plans for a media tribunal.

"People who believe they have been maligned by the media already have several avenues to seek redress, including the courts, the Media Council's independent complaints committee and letters to the editor," he said.

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