The foreign minister of New Zealand says he has spoken to Fiji about lifting bans on New Zealand journalists.
Fairfax journalist Michael Field as well as Barbara Dreaver from TVNZ were put on a Fiji blacklist by the regime in 2007 and 2008 respectively.
Murray McCully says Fiji is going through an evolution and he is looking at the country with a glass half full attitude, but recently, the chairman of the Fiji Media Industry Development Authority, Ashwin Raj, said he was also considering adding an ABC journalist, Campbell Cooney, to the list.
Mr McCully says he is prepared to raise the topic officially if needs be.
"We've made it clear that the New Zealand public will be deeply interested in these issues. It's not going to be particularly helpful to have an election campaign take place with New Zealand journalists banned from being present. The Attorney-General and I had quite a constructive dialogue on that topic and I made it clear that if I need to I'll make representations on behalf of New Zealand journalists."
Murray McCully.
