Coup Leader Continues Aggressive Attacks on Free Speech, Critics
Fiji’s
government should end attacks on critics
and lift censorship, Human Rights Watch
said today in a joint letter with the
International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC),
International Federation of
Journalists, and Front Line Defenders. The
letter was sent on the eve of the fifth
anniversary of the 2006 coup d’etat by
Commodore Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama, who
has since assumed the post of prime
minister.
Over the past five years, Fiji’s
military government has aggressively
curtailed Fiji Islanders’ rights to
freedom of speech, press, peaceful
assembly, and association, the groups
said. The military and police have
arbitrarily arrested and detained human
rights defenders, journalists, and labor
and religious leaders.
“This anniversary is a sad reminder of
the abuses Fiji Islanders have faced under
this military government,” said Brad
Adams, Asia director at Human Rights
Watch. “The government needs to stop
making empty promises and respect
basic rights.”
At the United Nations Human Rights Council
in June 2010, Fiji’s ambassador, Peceli
Vocea, pledged that the government would
improve its human rights situation.
Eighteen months later, the government
continues to curb basic freedoms. Rather
than embracing the important role that
civil society, human rights defenders, and
trade unions play in good governance, the
Fiji government has systematically
repressed such groups, the organizations
said.
The four organizations called on the
government to address the ongoing
crackdown on civil society and to stop
renewing the 2009 Public Emergency
Regulations. The regulations restrict free
speech, assembly and association, and
grant the military sweeping powers of
arrest and detention. Despite promises to
lift the regulations, the government
continues to renew them and used them as a
pretext to harass and detain those
perceived to be critical of the
government.
The government has also aggressively
sought to dismantle the labor movement.
For instance, the Essential Industries
Decree issued in July – the latest in a
series of regressive laws that sharply
curtail the rights of unions – voided
all existing collective bargaining
agreements and essentially eliminated the
right to strike in any industry the
government designates
“essential.”
“This year, the military regime has
engaged in an all-out assault on trade
unionism in Fiji, by brute force,
detention, threats, and outlandish
executive decrees,” said Sharan Burrow,
ITUC general secretary. “These steps
have undermined the ability of trade
unions to defend the fundamental rights of
workers on the job, and more, have sown a
climate of fear and impunity.”
The groups also called on the government
to cease media censorship. The government
continues to assert control over published
media content, stations government censors
in newsrooms, and punishes journalists for
material deemed anti-government. The Media
Industry Development Decree (Media
Decree), which took effect June 2010,
forbids publications that are “against
public interest or order” and restricts
foreign media ownership.
The human rights, trade union, justice,
and news organizations signing the letter
urged the Fiji government to make a public
commitment to take all necessary measures
to protect human rights in Fiji. Human
Rights Watch
