6946 SUVA: Online news is the future, says University of the South Pacific head of journalism Shailendra Singh.
Singh made the comment in light of the digital era of reporting news in the country.
"Blogs came to Fiji after the 2000 coup. A lot of people started describing blogs as the answer to mainstream media," Singh said.
"But we really have to be responsible when reporting news," he said.
"A lot of blogs say a lot of nasty things and incite calls for uprising. If you look around now, almost all newspapers have a website," he added.
Meanwhile, Singh said continuous debates on current media practices had raised questions on whether these practices were suited for the Pacific context.
"Fiji is still currently under a form of (media) censorship. Not too long ago, our media was free," he said.
"We were on par with Australia and New Zealand.
"We had nothing to fear and we could say what we wanted to," Singh said.
He said despite the changing era of news reporting, the media still needed to exercise responsibility. - The Fiji Times/Pacific Media Watch
Pacific Media Watch
