News Ltd slams new Fiji media law as ‘assault on free speech’

Tim Burrowes

June 28, 2010 7:17

News Ltd has slammed as “an appalling assault on free speech” a new Fijian law which may force the company to give up its ownership of The Fiji Times.

After the law – which intends all Fiji-based media organisations to be 90% locally owned – was passed today, News Ltd issued this statement:

News Limited expressed outrage today at the Fiji government’s decision to force media organisations in Fiji to be 90 per cent locally-owned in three months.

The move is devastating for the 180 staff of The Fiji Times, which has been owned and run by News Limited for the last 23 years.

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Tim Burrowes

Tim Burrowes is the publisher of Mumbrella and Unmade. He co-founded Mumbrella in 2008 and sister title Unmade in 2021. He's worked in the UK, Middle East, Asia & Australia and has specialised in writing about the communications world for the last 25 years. He wrote the book Media Unmade, published in 2021, and became the presenter of MediaLand on ABC Radio National in 2025.

Topics

Fiji Fiji Times John Hartigan News Ltd

1 COMMENTS

michelle 29 Jun 10

I’ve got fijian-indian heritage, and this is, in the long list of recent injustice, another disappointment.

democracy needs to be restored to the island – and the media needs to have the freedom to report issues with freedom. That is more of a pressing issue that should be actioned within 3 months instead of the foreign ownership stuff.

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