Mr Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, Attorney General and Minister for Justice, Anti-corruption, Public enterprises, Industry, Tourism, Trade and Communications, Fiji (left); and Dr Hamadoun Touré, ITU (International Telecommunications Union) Secretary-General (right). Image Credit: ITU / V. Martin Media Watch: Hugo Chavez, Barack Obama, Mark Lloyd, and Fiji's Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum
What do Hugo Chavez, Barack Obama, Mark Lloyd, and Fiji's Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum have in common?
Almost everything as it relates to their desires to CONTROL what is broadcast and who broadcasts it.
The big difference here is that Venezuela's dictator President, and Fiji's Military Coup Government appointee have actually asserted Government control over their media outlets where as the Obama Administration and its FCC Diversity Czar, Mark Lloyd are still in the planning stages of its strategy to dictate the terms of broadcasting to media outlets (especially those outlets that offer a balanced, counter-point or conservative political view of current events on the ground) here in the United States.
This excerpted and edited from The Australian -
Fiji strips licences from broadcasters
By Rowan Callick, Asia-Pacific editor From: The Australian - November 21, 2009 12:00AM
THE military-installed Fiji government has removed all broadcasting licences and given Attorney-General Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum the absolute power to renew or redistribute them without any compensation to those whose licences are stripped.
Television and radio stations are broadcasting this weekend on a temporary basis, as the owner, managers, staff and audiences await the determinations of Mr Sayed-Khaiyum.
He is the second-most powerful figure in the government after military commander and prime minister Frank Bainimarama.
Mr Sayed-Khaiyum is also Minister for Justice, Anti-Corruption, Public Enterprises, Industry, Investment and Tourism, and Communications.
The action was carried out this week by decree - the chief tool of government since the parliament was scrapped and the constitution abrogated.
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Anyone broadcasting in contravention to the minister's directions can be jailed for five years.
The dominant television broadcaster, Fiji TV, is owned by Yasana Holdings, which represents the 14 ethnic Fijian provinces, and which also owns the monopoly Papua New Guinea TV broadcaster EMTV.
Fiji TV established a reputation for impartial news coverage, although the military installed two officers on its board following the coup three years ago.
It, like the country's other media, is now subject to stringent military censorship.
All the country's VHF TV frequencies are in the hands of Fiji TV.
It is now expected that at least one of these frequencies will be reallocated to the government-owned Fiji Broadcasting Corporation, which operates a radio service and has expressed an intention to establish a TV network, towards which it has allocated several million dollars.
The corporation's chief executive, appointed earlier this year, is Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, younger brother of the Attorney-General and formerly a TV journalist.
The government broadcasts directly from 7-9pm nightly, except on Sundays, on a frequency it pays to rent from Fiji TV.
Reference Here>>
So, hold on to your freedom of the press because it is about to be challenged, just as every other civic right this country has to offer is under assault and being challenged ... we are all just a short stone's throw from becoming ... Fiji!
You know, all of the Government oppression, however, with little of that island paradise.
