Fiji: Professor Narsey 'Gagged' Over Media Freedom Speech

Fiji: Ex-USP Professor Narsey 'Gagged' Over Media Freedom Speech

SUVA (Radio NZ International / Pacific Media Watch): A former University of the South Pacific professor says he was stopped from addressing journalism students on World Press Freedom Day earlier this month.

A former economics professor, Dr Wadan Narsey says he was invited to speak to students and had accepted.

He says the invitation was then rescinded, and he was told that USP management instructed the school of journalism to remove him from the programme.

There were no reasons given, there was nothing even in writing. One day there was a programme on the students’ website, and the next day the programme was off. The real programme is that the occasion was very important, in the sense that it’s to celebrate world press freedom day and you’ll notice that none of the media in Fiji have reported this incident where the university interfered with a programme.

Dr Narsey says he was planning to talk about censorship and media ownership in Fiji.

The USP Vice Chancellor has been unavailable for comment.

Pacific Media Watch reports: The journalism programme Wansolwara website did not report this gagging, but a media freedom day speech by former judge Nazhat Shameem and other free media stories were reported.

ENDS

© Scoop Media