Poverty is proving to be an intractable problem in Fiji.
Various reports put poverty between 33% and 47% of the population, while according to the Fiji Council for Social Services it is more than 60%.
What is not in dispute is that over the decades, poverty has worsened to such an extent that over 15% of the population (125,000) live in 200 informal and squatter settlements. Many families suffer from generational poverty and with no hope in sight.
Young people are being lured into prostitution and drug trafficking.
Putting themselves at the mercy of pimps or dealers is often a futile and dangerous way of trying to seek relief, but often there is no alternative.
Media Responsibility
The media is duty-bound to report this major public interest issue and Fiji’s journalists are often at the forefront in highlighting the concerns.
A University of Queensland colleague who was researching poverty among Indo-Fijians in the 1990s told me recently that he was stunned by what he had learnt.
“Poverty in Fiji is pervasive and makes no racial distinction. According to the 2011 Fiji Economic Update, there are slightly more poor indigenous Fijians than Indo-Fijians, although landless Indo-Fijians are the poorest of the poor,” he said.
Governments, as we all know, want to help, but have other ‘pressing priorities’, such as a new fleet of vehicles, long-overdue pay rise for parliamentarians, and renovations and new furniture for ministerial offices.
Poverty does not have strong lobby groups, like the business sector.
The nature of governments is such that on their own accord, they will only do so much. The media, through sustained and consistent coverage and weight of public opinion, can prompt governments into more substantive action.
But the media’s role is not widely understood and is often overlooked. For example, the 1997 Fiji Poverty Report identified NGOs as government’s development partners. But there was no mention of a media strategy.
The scale and insidious nature of poverty in Fiji warrants new reporting approaches and strategies to prick the national conscience and prod governments into firmer action.
Asset or Liability?
To be fair, Fiji’s media covers quite a bit of ground, with the squatter and land issues and low wages but ignores structural causes such as job loss, a lack of economic opportunity, disability and the impact of government policy.
Media coverage can be an asset and a liability, with bad coverage blamed for perpetuating negative stereotypes that associate the poor with crime, laziness and ignorance. Crusading or advocacy roles, a long journalistic tradition, is absent from poverty reporting, and should be adopted by the Fiji media.
For example, the minimum-wage debate in Fiji has been dragging on for years.
Because fairer wages have the potential to reduce poverty on a large scale, Fijian journalists could be its advocate through sustained and consistent coverage until a satisfactory outcome is reached.
Philanthropists wanted
The promotion of philanthropy is another area that could be covered to broaden the themes. According to reports, the rich in the US donate 15% of their income, while their Australian counterparts donate less than 1%. Although unknown, the percentage is likely to be even lesser in in Fiji.
Former Fijian Prime Minister Mahendra Chaudhry once said that more than 70% of the national wealth was concentrated in the hands of just 10% of the population. This is an angle the Fiji media could pursue to broaden the themes and topics of coverage by reporting not only about the poor, but also about the rich. The reports must show how much they earn and how much they give back to the community.
In America, if you are wealthy and not known as a philanthropist, you are a social pariah. The US media is partly responsible for constructing a stigma that could be emulated in Fiji.
Strategic Alliances
The Fiji media suffers from resource constraints common to developing countries. But this can be overcome to some extent with assistance from academia and NGOs, which are well placed to provide content, training and workshops on poverty as a specialist topic for journalists.
A well-informed media, ably supported by stakeholders, can be an effective tool for generating public support for anti-poverty initiatives.
Shailendra Singh is a senior lecturer and former Head of Journalism Programme at the University of the South Pacific in Suva. He is currently on study leave, pursuing his PhD in Journalism and Communications at the University of Queensland. The above is a modified version of a Conference Paper that he delivered recently at the Fiji Economic Update in Suva and Nadi.
