The new Chairman of the Media Industry Development Authority wants the media in the country to assess how they are addressing the question of race, gender, sexuality and children while carrying out their work.
Ashwin Raj who is also an academic from the University of the South Pacific said the authority wants these issues to be taken very seriously.
With the 2013 constitution now out, Raj said everyone working in the media should be well versed with it.
He said one of the issues is the shift to every citizen from this country to be called Fijian.
The new Media Authority Chairman said the authority cannot police the source of these hate speeches on the social media sites however he is encouraging people to report to facebook if certain pages are promoting hate speech.
Meanwhile in his first press conference with the media today, Ashwin Raj has also announced that all foreign agencies wanting to conduct training workshops on a number of issues should get the authority’s approval first.
Raj said no one can just walk into this country and have a workshop for journalists without speaking to the Media Development Authority.
He said this also applies to NGO’s based here in Fiji and organizing workshops for the media.
Raj stresses that the Media Development Authority is an independent body and wants the media to focus on their code of ethics. He wants all the media to be balanced, fair and accurate to ensure that the people of the country get factual information.
Story by: Vijay Narayan
