Fiji is on the verge of passing a new media law that could allow the government to imprison journalists for up to five years, ban the ownership of a news organization by anyone other than a Fiji journalist, and allow fines of up to half a million Fiji dollars to be levied against media organizations.

The Fiji Media Decree is a draft law designed to replace emergency regulations placed on media organizations after the constitution was suspended last year. Last week the government called for a round of discussions on the highly restrictive law, but according to Amnesty International the discussion was ‘widely considered a sham.’ Participants were reportedly given only two-and-a-half hours to read the 50-page document (which can be downloaded at this link) before being asked for comments and submissions. They were also reportedly not able to take copies away for circulation.

The preamble of the decree includes the vaguely worded clause: “The content of any media service must not include material which is against public interest or order, against national interest, offends good taste or decency, or creates communal discord.”

The decree mandates that every article in the print media must have a byline, and wherever possible, those in any other media must carry a byline as well.

Any journalists in breach of this law will be liable “on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $500,000 [Fiji] (about 190,000 Euros) or in the case of a publisher or editor or journalist, a fine not exceeding $100,000 [Fiji] (about 38,000 Euros) or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years, or to both.”

The decree further limits foreign ownership of the media to not more than 10%. This clause appears designed to force closure or divestiture by the foreign owners of two of the country’s largest newspapers, the Fiji Times and the Fiji Daily Post, both of which have repeatedly been critical of Interim Prime Minister and Military Commander Frank Bainimarama and his administration.

The Fiji Times is majority-owned by Australian media tycoon Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, and 51% of the Fiji Daily Post’s ownership rests in the hands of Australian Alan Hickling.

A journalist working in Fiji who asked not to be named given the troublesome situation for the media in the country, told IPI: “Journalists who are committed to global free speech values and who oppose censorship and control of the kind outlined in the draft will have a very hard time honouring those values.”

He added: “Protest (against the draft decree) is private rather than public. It is muted rather than explicit.  But it is still there, unabated, and despite the draconian dumbing-down of public debate that has occurred here since the 2006 coup.”

After calling the first round of discussions ‘productive’ and ‘successful’, the government has announced that the draft decree will enter a second round of discussions before it can be passed into law.

Fijian media have struggled with censorship and draconian media regulations. In April 2009, when the constitution of the country was suspended, the government posted censors in various publication offices, and deported several foreign journalists. The suspension was a reaction to a court’s decision that the December 2006 coup by Bainimarama was unconstitutional.