Small
readerships and bossy rulers can make media freedom an elusive
goal
By
DANIEL WILLIAMS Tarawa
The bearded
man wearing shorts and a T shirt in his sweltering office
is a former leader of his country. But unlike others whose
red-carpet days are behind them, Ieremiah Tabai is too stirred
by a new mission to dwell on the past. Setbacks have not deterred
him from trying to give his homeland of Kiribati an independent
media. "I firmly believe," he says, "that you can't have democracy
without it."
Even among
those who wish he would dump his high-minded
ideas into the Pacific, Tabai is regarded fondly. He was Kiribati's
first President after independence from Britain in 1979, and
for 12 years led-by most accounts-with prudence and compassion.
Nor did a subsequent six-year stint in Fiji as Secretary General
of the Pacific Islands Forum spoil him. "People like his humble
style," says Timeon Ioane, general manager of the government's
Broadcasting and Publications Authority. "He's maintained
his Kiribati ways: he walks by himself, wears anything."
But popularity hasn't helped Tabai, 52, in his efforts to
shake up the nation's media, which until recently was wholly
government-run. After returning from Fiji and securing a seat
on the Opposition backbench, Tabai set up a radio station,
which was due to start broadcasting in time for the country's
last election, in 1998. Instead, Tabai and his partner in
Newair, Atiera Tetoa, wound up in court charged with importing
radio equipment without a license. They argued their treatment
was politically motivated; the government said Tabai and Tetoa
broke the law-there was no more to it. The pair were convicted
and fined, and Newair remains silent to this day.
Tabai has escaped lightly compared to like-minded men elsewhere
in the Pacific. In 1996, Kalafi Moala, editor of Tonga's independent
weekly newspaper Taimi 'o Tonga, was imprisoned for 26 days
for contempt of Tonga's Parliament when he published a story
about a minister's looming impeachment before the matter was
tabled. Not that imprisonment stopped the press: while in
his cell, Moala smuggled out stories written on pieces of
toilet paper and pages of the Bible. Now producing the weekly
out of Auckland, Moala has been allowed to return to his homeland
only once in the past two years, for his father's funeral.
"We have our own version of Nelson Mandela," deputy editor
Mateni Tapueluelu says with emotion.
Tapueluelu has his own worries. Next year, he faces two charges
of defamation brought by Police Minister Clive Edwards. "I've
been worried about my life," Tapueluelu says. "I feel that
I'm being followed around by police." He also believes his
home phone is being tapped.
Like his Tongan counterparts, Kiribati's Tabai did not cave
in to pressure. When the plug was pulled on Newair, his plan
B was to start a weekly newspaper-the Kiribati Newstar, which
would face off against the country's only paper to that point,
the government's Te Uekera. Today, the Newstar could never
be confused with the world's great broadsheets. In format
and layout, it's closer to a school newsletter. Its reporting
staff comprises two 21-year-olds. But when the first issue
rolled off the press on March 5 last year, Tabai says, "It
was an important step forward for our country."
At first, many I-Kiribati were confused by the new arrival.
"They would say, But Ieremiah, we already have a newspaper,"
Tabai recalls. "Slowly, however, they are seeing the differences."
He points to a recent Newstar story that accuses the Speaker
of the House, Tekire Tamuera, of bias, and to another article
accusing the Ministry of Labour, Employment and Cooperatives
of intransigence. Tabai says the government dislikes the Newstar
but won't admit
this publicly. (The Minister of Information, Communication
and Transport declined to
be interviewed.)
Newstar journalist Ester Tiwau says most of her early pieces
were fluff. "But now I am doing real investigative stories,"
she says. At the Broadcasting and Publications Authority,
the old reporter in Ioane sounds envious of the Newstar's
freedom to criticize the government. "Our hands are tied,"
he says. "The relevant Act of Parliament is very specific
in giving [the government] the authority to intervene any
time that it feels a story isn't right."
In pursuing freedom of the press, Tonga's Tapueluelu has
found a kind of freedom of his own-from self-doubt. "I truly
believe in the work. I believe
in the morality," he says. "And every time I feel I'm being
persecuted by cops or government, I feel I'm being blessed."
In his quieter way, Tabai is just as passionate. But will
he be less so if he's in government after the election due
next year? "It is possible," he says, "but the Newstar will
not change. I'm not the editor. I do not decide which stories
run and which do not." That, in a perfect world, is not the
role of a publisher. And Tabai hopes Kiribati will be a better
place if that is never again the exclusive role of the government.
-With reporting by Michael Fitzgerald/Tonga
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August 20-27, 2001 |
No. 33
COVER
STORY
The
New Pacific
Setting off to explore the islands, Time found an ocean of stories. Faced
with the challenges of the global village, some peoples are prospering,
easily melding old ways with new; others struggle to cling to tradition
in a cyclone of change
TO
OUR READERS...
TRAVELERS ADVISORY...
PACIFIC
BEAT: Bougainville talks; West Papua in coventry...
SPECIAL:
Pacific Journey
CLIMATE: Not Waving, Drowning... Kiribati
and Tuvalu fear being erased by rising seas
MIGRATION: Outgoing Tide... Small
nations are losing their best and brightest people
LAND RIGHTS: At Loggerheads... Landowners
and opportunists vie for Fiji's mahogany wealth
MEDIA: Telling It Like It Is... Nervous
governments make life tough for local newsmen
GOVERNMENT: The Falling-to-Pieces
Process... The Solomon Islands is riven by corruption and lawlessness
DRUGS: Brewing Trouble... As drinking
rules lose their grip, kava is becoming a social bane
RELIGION: Shopping for Jesus... In
Samoa, new brands of Christianity are giving old ones a jolt
BUSINESS: Blooming Economy... Fijian
housewives find growth potential in their backyards
WOMEN: No Room to Move... In Vanuatu,
women's freedom often sits uneasily with tradition
SCIENCE: Gene Blues... Tongans debate
whether to give researchers access to their dna
MEDICINE: Sweet and Deadly... Long-isolated
islanders are vulnerable to diet-related diseases
THE ARTS: Bringing Samoa to Book... Sia
Figiel writes about her homeland with novel candor
ENVIROMENT: Nowhere to Throw... Places
like the Cook Islands have little room for waste
FISHING: Conserving the Catch... Fearful
for the sea's health, Samoans apply their own First Aid
THE ARTS: Tapa Recording... Bark cloth
documents island peoples' lives and legends
THE ARTS: Islamic
art; Pee-wee's back...
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