I was struck recently by the candid and frank views of Netani Rika, news director of Fiji Television, who told Radio Australia’s Pacific Beat program about his detention by the military.^[23] What impressed me the most was his sheer honesty in relating what would have been a traumatic and scary experience for anyone. Rika’s story made me wonder as to how I would have reacted had I been in his place. One thing is for sure, fear would almost kill me. Like Rika and most other journalists in Fiji, I did not become a journalist because I wanted to be superman. I couldn’t even make it into our first 15 in rugby at the all-boys boarding school I attended in Tailevu.

But then, who am I if I no longer live up to and defend the ideals and principles of free speech, and the free and healthy flow of information, the prerequisites to a free press? How can I call myself a journalist if, when such ideals are threatened, I simply turn my eyes the other way and wish that all was well?

I think the time for the media in Fiji to take a good look at itself, on how it responds to the constant cycle of coups, is long overdue. It can no longer be ‘business as usual’, for the simple reason that it is NOT business as usual in Fiji right now. Perhaps that mirror we hold up to society ought to be turned our way, so that the news media in Fiji can take a good, hard look at itself. We have to follow another path to break the coup culture in Fiji. Staging a coup to stop future coups simply won’t work. The solution I believe lies in the pooling of resources and in unity of purpose. Peacefully using the powers of influence it has been entrusted with, the news media can be a force for the good of all in Fiji.