Censoring the press…the nice way

“Where there are disputes, reconciliation. Where there is error, truth. Where there is despair, hope,”

Sounds good doesn’t it. Sounds reasonable and conciliatory. Unfortunately from the mouthpiece of a military regime it’s the sweet smell of stagnation and corruption. Fiji’s interim indigenous affairs minister and former military forces commander, Ratu Epeli Nailatikau may say pretty words, but it doesn’t change the fact that his country is in the grip of an unelected government that has thrown out the island country’s constitution.

A country’s constitution is the only thing that allows a government to legally govern. Without a constitution there can be culture, there can national identity but there can be no recognisable nation.

A country’s free media is it’s voice.  A media that has restrictions about how it speaks about leadership is ineffectual in keeping to population informed.  George Orwell called it Newspeak in his prophetic book 1984.

Even dictatorships can use pretty words, but it doesn’t make them any less wrong.

~ by miztres on Saturday 18 April 2009.