Who let the blogs out? Media and free speech in post-coup Fiji

Abstract

Fiji’s fourth armed seizure of government on 5 December 2006 delivered more than a new administration—it heralded the onslaught of a new media environment. With a heavy military crackdown on dissenting opinion and subsequent self-censorship of mainstream media, anonymous weblogs became a safe option for expressing anti-coup views. But because some anonymous blogs allowed racist, defamatory and provocative views to flour­ish, the role of the press and journalistic ethics was also seen as important. This article examines how a new—and uneasy—media combination kept freedom of expression alive in the months following the coup d’état.