3 Jan 2012

Fiji editor says censorship eased in recent times

4:58 pm on 3 January 2012

A senior Fiji broadcast journalist says censorship which had been in force since 2009 had eased in recent times, with bulletins only being checked once a day.

Vijay Narayan, who is the editor of Fiji Communications Limited, says this Saturday's lifting of the public emergency regulations had been signalled for a while and the move has been confirmed by the interim prime minister, Commodore Frank Bainimarama.

Mr Narayan says the gradual change has also meant that he could persuade the censors to let information pass, deemed by vital by him.

"Issue did come up - then I as an editor would raise the question that this story has to go and when they saw the reasoning, sometimes we got lucky and the story did go ahead."

The editor of Fiji Communications Limited, Vijay Narayan