Fiji's military regime has stepped up its crackdown on the media, forcing the shutdown of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's relay transmitters in the troubled South Pacific country.
The ABC yesterday confirmed that Radio Australia's FM transmitters at Nadi and Suva had been switched off on the orders of the Fijian military.
Director of the ABC's international division Murray Green said Radio Australia had had a long relationship with Fiji and it was ''a sad day in the history of the ABC''.
The shutdown comes a day after ABC correspondent Sean Dorney and a New Zealand correspondent and cameraman were deported from Fiji and military censorship imposed on local media organisations.
Media freedom group Reporters Without Borders said Fiji's military regime was ''heading dangerously towards a Burmese-style system in which the media are permanently subject to prior censorship and other forms of obstruction''.
Fiji's interim Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama defended the crackdown, telling Radio New Zealand that freedom of speech had brought Fiji nothing but trouble.
''We [the Government] now decide what needs to be done for our country, for the reforms ... for us to have a better Fiji,'' he said.
''We want to come up with these reforms and the last thing we want to do is have opposition to these reforms throughout. So that was the reason we've come up with emergency regulations.''
President Josefa Iloilo scrapped Fiji's constitution last Friday to set aside an appeal court ruling that Commodore Bainimarama had been in power illegally since leading a 2006 coup. He also sacked all judges and judicial officials before reappointing Commodore Bainimarama and his cabinet for five more years.
Pacific Islands Forum chairman and Niue Premier Toke Talagi yesterday condemned the latest developments in Fiji.
''It is a very difficult time for the Pacific Islands Forum as the military regime in Fiji have now confirmed that they are unable to abide by the core commitments to democracy, human rights and justice which lie at the very heart of our Forum family in the Pacific,'' Premier Talagi said.
In Canberra a Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesman yesterday expressed concern that President Iloilo had said it would be five years before new elections.
''This is a sham. There is no evidence to suggest that Fiji is on a genuine pathway to democracy,'' the spokesman said.
He noted that the President was ''a distinguished individual who in his younger years served Fiji faithfully, but [we] do not believe that he is making his decisions independently''.
Yesterday the military-controlled Fiji Reserve Bank devalued Fiji's dollar by 20 per cent in a bid to boost the economy and avoid a collapse in tourist arrivals.
With AAP and agencies
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