THE Young Peoples Concerned Network (YPCN) is not happy with strong words dished out to the media by the military’s Land Force Commander Colonel Pita Driti.
YPCN vice-president of the network Peter Waqavonovono is calling on Col Driti to stop the intimidation against the media in Fiji.
“Any attack on the media both verbally or physical is an attack against freedom in Fiji,” he said.
Col Driti had said the Fiji Times newspaper and Fiji TV should be closed down because they were biased towards the interim government.
“The media plays an important role in Fiji’s recovery, and they are playing their role under the tense environment very well. They should not be closed or threatened because they are doing their job.”
And he has called out on soldiers to keep out of the nation’s politics.
He said such behaviour was unacceptable.
“There has to be a point, where the military will have to step back and let the country run on its own. If not, even when we have a democratic government, we will always have our leaders looking behind their backs.”
Col Driti also singled out some political parties and NGOs as not helping the political dialogue process currently underway.