Pacific

Media Authority head chastises Fiji blog sites

13:17 pm on 25 April 2014

The chairman of the Media Industry Development Authority in Fiji says social media campaigners and political bloggers need to be more responsible.

The government recently said it was looking to pursue defamation and contempt of court proceedings against a self-exiled lawyer for comments on social media.

Rajendra Chaudhry, who is the son of the Fiji Labour Party leader, Mahendra Chaudhry, criticised the decision of the High Court in finding his father guilty of breaching the Exchange Controls Act.

The Media Authority's chairman, Ashwin Raj, says he's got no control over social network sites but says people who run them have a duty to be fair.

"They should be able to substantiate their claims, they should stop vilifying individuals, I'm doing my job and they should do theirs. You don't go and destroy human beings, you don't rob them of their dignity, you don't shame them publicly, you uphold certain values, I'm afraid to say these people aren't, you just need to go and read Coup 4.5."

Ashwin Raj says since his decision to censure Fiji TV for broadcasting so-called hate speech, he has come under attack from a number of blog sites.