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Newspaper Registration Act

LAWS OF FIJI

CHAPTER 106

NEWSPAPER REGISTRATION

Ordinances Nos. 8 of 1895, 2 of 1931, 2 of 1945,
37 of 1966, 49 of 1971.

AN ACT TO REGULATE THE PRINTING AND PUBLISHING OF NEWSPAPERS

[1st June, 1895]

Short title

1. This Act may be cited as the Newspaper Registration Act.

Interpretation

2. In this Act the word "newspaper" means every paper containing public news, intelligence or occurrences or any remarks or observations therein printed for sale and published in Fiji, but does not include any document published in the course of his duty by the Government Printer or containing only matter wholly of a commercial nature.

All newspapers to be subject to Act

3. No person shall print or publish any newspaper unless and until the affidavit has been registered as hereinafter directed.

Affidavits of publication to be registered

4. When any person desires to publish any newspaper or when in any newspaper already registered any change is at any time made in any of the particulars hereby required to be stated respecting the same or upon a written requisition from the Permanent Secretary to the Ministry, the proprietor, printer and publisher for the time being of such newspaper shall deposit with the Administrator-General an affidavit duly sworn and signed by the proprietors thereof and by the persons intended to be the printer and the publisher thereof respectively, and such affidavit shall be in the form or as near thereto as may be and shall contain the statement specified in the Schedule.

Affidavit conclusive evidence of its statements

5. In all proceedings civil or criminal touching any such newspaper or anything therein contained such affidavit shall be conclusive evidence against every person signing the same of the truth of all such matters in accordance with this Act as are therein set forth.

Disclaiming affidavit to be registered

6. When any person has made any such affidavit as aforesaid, if he deposits with the Administrator-General an affidavit staling that he is no longer connected with the newspaper in the capacity set forth in such first-mentioned affidavit he shall not, from the date on which he has deposited the same, be taken by reason of such first-mentioned affidavit only to be connected with such newspaper.

Register of affidavits to be open to the public

7. The Administrator-General shall cause to be registered all affidavits and recognizances deposited with him under this Act and such register shall at all reasonable times be open without charge to public inspection.

Names of proprietor and publisher of paper to be printed therein

8. Every newspaper shall contain printed in some convenient part thereof the true name, addition and place of abode of its proprietor, printer and publisher and a true description of the place where the newspaper is printed, and the omission of the same or of any part thereof shall be prima facie evidence of wilful default against any such proprietor, printer or publisher.

Proof of purchase of paper at defendant's office dispensed with

9. In any proceedings civil or criminal touching any newspaper or anything therein contained against any person who has made any such affidavit as aforesaid, if any such affidavit or a certified copy thereof be produced in evidence and if a newspaper be so produced instituted in the same manner as the newspaper mentioned in such affidavit or copy and in which the names of the printers and publishers and the place of printing are the same as the names of the printers and publishers and the place of printing mentioned in such affidavit or copy, it shall not be necessary to prove that the newspaper to which such proceedings relate was purchased at any house, shop or office belonging to or occupied by the defendant or his servants or where he or they severally carry on the business of printing and publishing or where the same is severally sold.

Penalty

10. Any publisher, printer or other person wilfully selling or delivering out or wilfully printing or publishing any newspaper in respect to which the affidavit required by this Act has not been registered, either originally or as often as this Act requires, or wilfully printing or publishing any newspaper without causing to be printed in such newspaper the names required by this Act to be printed, or otherwise failing to comply with the provisions of this Act, shall be guilty of an offence and shall be liable to a fine not exceeding two hundred dollars.
(Incorporating 2 of 1931, s. 2 and amended by 2 of 1945, s. 29.)

Limitation of proceedings

11. Proceedings for offences against this Act may be commenced at any time within three years from the date of the alleged offence.
(Inserted by 2 of 1931, s. 2.)

Proceedings in name of Director of Public Prosecutions

12. No proceedings shall be taken for any offence against this Act except in the name of the Director of Public Prosecutions.

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SCHEDULE
(Section 4)

In the matter of the newspaper we A. B., C. D., E. F. and G. H., do make oath and say as follows:-

(1) A. B. and C. D. propose to carry on the business of vending a newspaper named the and are the proprietors thereof.

(2) The intended printer of the said newspaper is E. F., of

(3) The intended publisher of the same is G. H., of

(4) The intended place of printing the same is

(5) The above-mentioned names, additions, and places of abode, and descriptions of premises, are the true and real names, additions, and places of abode, and descriptions of the several persons to whom, and of the premises to which, they respectively

A. B.
C. D.
E. F.
G. H.

Sworn before me, a Commissioner for oaths, this day of
, 19 .

Controlled by Ministry of the Attorney-General

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