George Little Griffiths established The Fiji Times in 1869 and it is Fiji’s oldest still-published newspaper.
A couple of the earliest editions were published on bark-cloth and are housed in the Auckland Museum.
Due to Fiji politics and a military coup in 1987, the paper stopped publishing a print edition until 2006. The online edition continued publication.
When they resumed print publication, the paper included articles critical of the government.
Censorship also began in 2006. The government stationed censors in the paper’s newsroom to watch for propaganda and “unacceptable” news reporting. In one edition, editors left blank spaces where news reporting would normally appear.
The military government allowed the Fiji Times to resume publishing print editions in 2009.
The paper puts out an online edition of local news, sports, and weather and has less censorship than the print version.
The Times is owned by the Motibhai Group. Previous owner Rupert Murdoch was forced to sell to conform to Fijian publishing laws.
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Sources
Fiji Times
cdw 2024.01.23