Pacific

Fiji's FBC defies campaign ban

17:13 pm on 16 September 2014

The Fiji Broadcasting Corporation has ignored the regime's ban on political advertising in the lead-up to tomorrow's general election.

Its editors or owners risk a five-year jail sentence for running a link on the FBC homepage for the FijiFirst Party which it says is paid for by the party's General Secretary, Aiyaz Sayed Khaiyum.

He is also a candidate in tomorrow's poll and the minister in charge of the election.

Earlier, the head of the Media Industry Development Authority, Ashwin Raj, said the large images of the Prime Minister alongside road safety messages are allowed as they relate to state roles, not political ones.

He said it was incumbent on the media to be able to disambiguate state functionaries and their quotidian nature of their work from advocating for a particular political party.

FBC homepage Photo: supplied