Pacific nations improve on media freedom

Transcript

Two Pacific nations are bucking the trend when it comes to media freedom.

That's according to the latest Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index.

Koro Vaka'uta has the details.

Despite global trends showing media freedom was on the decline, Tonga made strong gains in the latest Index, jumping 19 places to 44th out of 180 nations and is now ranked above the United States. Pesi Fonua is the editor of the Matangi Tonga news service and an industry veteran. He says the improvement illustrates how far the kingdom has come.  

PESI FONUA: Going back to 2003, the government tried to introduce some kind of legislation where all media is supposed to be registered and that was thrown out because under our constitution we are supposed to have freedom of media within our constitution and since then the government has had a clearer understanding of the role of the media.

However Mr Fonua says the government is still slow in disseminating information and greater communication is needed. He says the country cannot rest on its laurels.

PESI FONUA: The standard of reporting still needs improvement and we're still having a bit of a problem of getting information flowing from government and various organisations to come through. It still becomes a struggle to get that information.

Fiji also rose up the index 14 places to 93.  The President of the Media Association there, Ricardo Morris says the index is a fair reflection of the state of the industry.

RICARDO MORRIS: Knowing what the Reporters Without Borders Index is, any small movement naturally moves other countries out of place so that's a big improvement for Fiji.  We still have some issues that we need to work through but I think it is generally an accurate reflection of changes that have happened in the media.

Mr Morris says a Media Decree, which has strong penalties for infringements, has been controversial and coupled with the lack of government response to some reporters it can lead to problems.

RICARDO MORRIS: If ministers and government officials don't respond to questions sent then you cannot run a story or you run the risk of being accused of running an unfair or unbalanced story if you don't run their response and with the media decree in place there are potential penalties that journalists and their companies could attract.

Pacific Freedom Forum member Jason Brown says the index movement from both countries is enviable. Mr Brown says Fiji's ranking has improved in the short term with the obvious development of democratic elections.  

JASON BROWN: In the case of Tonga it has been more of a slow build. Concerning about Tonga have been one about criticism over the decade but you have had 'Akilisi Pohiva who has long campaigned on greater democratic freedoms and freedom of speech and as we see he has now been elected.

Mr Brown says the two nations now need to use the 2015 environment as an opportunity to make more improvements. New Zealand and Australia were highest on the index among Pacific Forum countries at 6th and 25th respectively. Samoa is the best placed Pacific state at 40th.