23 Sep 2016

Fiji sugar meeting off over onerous permit conditions

12:47 pm on 23 September 2016

The non government organisation, Dialogue Fiji, has now called off a planned meeting to discuss the state of the country's sugar industry.

It announced plans yesterday for a meeting next Wednesday after a first attempt to hold one two weeks ago was shut down by police.

That meeting was stopped because Dialogue Fiji didn't have a permit for it.

It subsequently got a permit for a meeting but executive director Nilesh Lal said it was decided that the conditions posed too much of a threat to the participants.

He said the permit required discussion that was not inciteful, provocative or defamatory.

"We sought clarifications from police and based on feedback that we got from him there is no real clear definition of what these terms actually constitute," he said.

"So that is very problematic from our perspective because a whole lot of things can be construed coming from these perspectives."

Sugar cane trucks in Fiji's western division.

Sugar cane trucks in Fiji's western division. Photo: RNZ / Alex Perrottet