Fiji’s oldest and largest newspaper changed hands last week as ownership of the Fiji Times moved from the Rupert Murdoch owned News Limited to leading local business house, the Motibhai Group.
Speaking to Indian Weekender from his office in Nadi, Motibhai Group chairman Mahendra Patel – also known as Mac Patel – said this was a big moment in the group’s long business history.
“This is indeed an exciting development for all of us. Although I have been involved in the media in my capacity as company director, this is the first time that our group is getting involved in owning an outlet,” he said.
Fiji’s military-backed regime imposed a Media Industry Development Decree in June this year. The decree gave media companies three months to divest foreign shareholdings higher than 10 percent and to sell to local interests.
News Limited was a majority shareholder and therefore became ineligible under the decree’s provisions to continue ownership. The formal sale proceedings were expected to be completed by the end of this week.
Meanwhile, Dallas Swinstead, the publisher of the Fiji Times from 1976 to 1980, has been appointed as new publisher of the Fiji Times.
Mr Patel, said Mr Swinstead – an Australian – would run the newspaper independently with his management team.
“Fiji Times will operate as an independent separate unit. Dallas Swinstead and his staff are the people that will fashion the editorial content of the paper. We will not interfere with that. The staff are empowered to operate and run independently – of course we will be there to guide, but we will not interfere,” he said.
Former board members of the paper have resigned and the new Fiji Times board is currently made up of Motibhai executives with Mr Patel as chairman.
While confirming incumbent Netani Rika as editor, Mr Patel said any changes would be made on the recommendation of the publisher Mr Swinstead. Mr patel assured staff that the Motibhai Group considers staff as the most important asset of the company.
On whether the Fiji Times would fully recognise the new government and now refer to Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama as Prime Minister – this is what Patel had to say: “You will find out in due course. Let any changes that happen, happen slowly. We will embrace and change in the fullness of time.”
Editors and journalists have welcomed news of the sale of the paper as good for environmental journalism reporting in the region. But they reserved judgment on the future independence of the newspaper under future owners Motibhai.
“The paper will continue to function as it presently does and we see no change in its operations,” Mr Patel told Indian Weekender.
Speaking at an event at the University of the South Pacific last week, Mai Life magazine editor Ricardo Morris said it was the one newspaper in Fiji that had the financial and reporting resources to respond to major natural disasters in the country and to report on them.
But Morris questioned whether the paper would be able to afford to continue that role under the new dispensation.
Head of journalism at the University of the South Pacific, Shailendra Singh, said there was general relief the newspaper was in good business hands but there was now another dilemma.
“In terms of local ownership people are saying it’s a mixed bag because of Motibhai’s considerable business interests in Fiji. People are asking how will this affect the Fiji Times editorially? Will the publishers be editorially neutral?” he said.
The former owners, News Ltd – represented by chairman John Hartigan – officially signed over ownership of the newspaper to the Motibhai Group on Wednesday.