23 Apr 2018

Charges against Fiji magazine were 'intimidation' - director

From Morning Report, 8:50 am on 23 April 2018

In a win for freedom of the press in Fiji, the public prosecutor has decided a news magazine has no case to answer following its story on a magistrate losing his job. The managing director of the magazine Islands Business Samisoni Pareti was taken in by police in February along with two of his journalists. It was in response to their reporting of the workers' dispute at Nadi Airport, which contained a tip-off that Magistrate Andrew See had his contract terminated, three weeks after he ruled in favour of the employees. The journalists say the police case was designed purely to intimidate, and police were assisted by a rival newspaper, the Fiji Sun. Now the public prosecutor has ruled the police file lacked any evidence. Samisoni Pareti told RNZ Pacific's Jamie Tahana he stands by the story and the judge's contract will expire on June 25, this year.