By DAVID ROBIE in Suva

THE FIJI ISLANDS Government has bought a controlling interest in one of the country's two daily newspapers on the eve of a general election campaign, stirring protests over press freedom and privatisation policies.

Opposition political parties and media groups have protested over the risk to press freedom after the Government's sudden move in mid-February to buy a major stake in the Daily Post, a newspaper with a sharply critical editorial line.

National unions and other critics have also challenged the buy out on economic grounds, citing what they see as the hypocrisy of Government policies seeking privatisation of key sectors such as water, electricity, health and other state services while buying an ailing newspaper business.

The timing of the takeover comes just three months before a general election - the first under a new multiracial 1997 Constitution which paved the way for the republic regaining a place in the Commonwealth and which guarantees a free press and freedom of expression.

Political observers see this poll as the most crucial political development in Fiji since two military coups in 1987 deposed an elected multiracial government and repealed the racially balanced democratic constitution.

Fiji has a complex racial and religious mix in its population of almost 780,000 with mainly Christian indigenous Fijians (48 per cent) slightly outnumbering Indo-Fijians (46 per cent), both Hindu and Muslim, with the rest being mainly European and of mixed-race descent.

One opposition party, the mainly indigenous Fijian Association Party (FAP), believed by some commentators to be close to the Daily Post, pledged to launch a High Court challenge against the Government's purchase for F$525,000 of 44 per cent of the newspaper's shares. The shares were previously owned by the state-owned Fiji Development Bank.

The party claims the buy out was a deliberate move to control the Daily Post's editorial policy in the run up to the May election. The paper, particularly its controversial political columnist Mesake Koroi, had stirred the wrath of the Government in recent months.

"It shows how paranoid this Government is in silencing its critics and what lengths it will go to to win this election," said FAP leader Adi Kuini Speed.

The party believes the sale breaches "the spirit and letter of section 30 of the 1997 Constitution which guarantees freedom of the media and freedom of expression".

However, the Government has strongly defended its takeover. Finance Minister Jim Ah Koy, architect of the country's privatisation plans, vowed to improve the poor facilities and working conditions of the newspaper company and raise the standard of the Daily Post.

He gave assurances that there would be no interference in editorial policy and that staff would not become civil servants.

"We have a foreign-owned newspaper and now we're going to have a locally-owned one," Ah Koy said, referring to the rival main circulation newspaper Fiji Times, owned by the global Rupert Murdoch News Corporation group.

He said the Government had made a deal with minor shareholders, the Colonial insurance company and the Unit Trust financial organisation (both hold about 23 per cent of stock each), that after all the changes were in place they would float shares on the stock exchange so that every citizen of Fiji could own the newspaper.

The Government has also brushed aside speculation that it had bought the paper to prevent it falling into the hands of a local company close to the opposition Indo-Fijian dominated National Federation Party (NFP). The firm, C J Patel and Company Ltd, is still believed to be interested in starting a new daily newspaper.

The NFP reached a pre-election deal to form a coalition with the ruling Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei (Fiji Political Party) of Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka and the mainly European and mixed-race United General Party.

The Fiji Government owns Islands Networks Corporation, the state broadcaster formerly known as the Fiji Broadcasting Commission. It also has statutory powers to direct the country's only television station, Fiji TV, to broadcast certain programs.

The Daily Post was founded as a weekly after the coups by colourful local publisher Taniela Bolea, who now publishes an up-market community newspaper for the wealthy suburbs in the capital Suva.

The Post was turned into a daily, and filled a gap left by the lively New Zealand and Hongkong-owned Fiji Sun which closed rather than open under post-coup self-censorship. It has a circulation of about 17,000.

While the Daily Post responded to the buy out cautiously - barely reporting the news and not commenting editorially - the Fiji Times and the self-regulating Fiji Media Council strongly condemned the Government move.

The Fiji Times called the buy out a "costly blunder" while the the Media Council described the move as a "serious threat to media independence".

"On the eve of the elections, the Government's move will be viewed with cynicism. The timing is suspicious, the intention dubious," the Fiji Times said.

"It seems suicidal for a government to make such a move at a sensitive stage in the nation's political development."

Fiji Media Council chairman Daryl Tarte appealed for the Government to divest itself of its Post shares as soon as possible on the Stock Exchange.

"We do not consider that a newspaper with government as its single largest shareholder can be independent. Government also owns the radio station Island Networks, and has the power to give directions to Fiji Television. This move to buy the Post gives Government an unacceptable level of influence over the Fiji media," Tarte said.

Appealing to the Government to reverse its decision, the Suva-based Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) said the "normal commercial process of sale to private sector interests" should be allowed to take place.

"We are very concerned about this move. It is our belief that governments should not be in the business of controlling independent media organisations," said PINA president William Parkinson.

An international media freedom body based in Paris, Reporters Sans Frontieres, called for the Government to negotiate an editorial charter with the newspapers' journalists, guaranteeing a free press.

The national umbrella labour organisation, Fiji Trades Union Congress, claimed the buy out exposed the lack of clear privatisation policies.

It said that while the Government on one hand advocated making public service leaner by disposing of public utilities, it was buying up an ailing newspaper to impose an unnecessary burden on the nation's taxpayers.

"It is public knowledge that the trades union congress has been urging the Government not to sell essential services such as water, electricity, education and hospital services," lamented national secretary Pratap Chand, "but the Government has gone ahead with its privatisation programme."