Representatives of Organisations of Persons with Disabilities;
Representatives of the National Council of Persons with Disabilities;
Acting Deputy Supervisor of Elections, Ms Ana Senimoli;
Manager Divisional Central, Mr Aseri Baivi;
Media Executives; Journalists; Ladies and Gentlemen —
Ni Sa Bula Vinaka, and a very good morning to you all.
It is a pleasure to join you this morning for this important Disability-Inclusive Media Reporting and Accessible Election Information Training.
Importantly, this training is not a standalone initiative. It forms part of the Elections Disability Access Working Group — EDAWG — Four-Year Work Plan for Inclusive Elections. Through that Work Plan, EDAWG is taking a longer-term and coordinated approach to strengthening accessibility and inclusion throughout Fiji’s electoral process. Today’s training is one of the practical steps under that commitment — working with the media to ensure that election information is communicated in ways that are inclusive, respectful, and accessible to all.
I also want to acknowledge the Fiji Disabled Persons Federation and the National Council for Persons with Disabilities. You are not guests in this room. You are co-educators. This training is not about you — it is with you, and I thank you for your partnership.
I’d like to be direct about why we are here.
Disability-inclusive election reporting is not an act of charity. It is a legal and moral obligation.
Fiji ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2017. Article 12 of that Convention affirms that persons with disabilities enjoy legal capacity on an equal basis with everyone else. Article 29 protects their right to vote and to be elected — without discrimination, without barriers, without conditions.
This year, as part of Fiji’s constitutional reform process, the Electoral Commission and the Fijian Elections Office made a joint submission to the Constitution Review Commission. In that submission, we took a strong position: the Constitution’s reference to persons of “unsound mind” as a basis for disqualifying voters must go. That language is outdated. It is stigmatising. And it is inconsistent with who we say we are as a nation.
We recommended that the Constitution be redrawn in rights-based terms — that no person be denied the right to register, to vote by secret ballot, to stand for election, or to participate in public life on the basis of disability, psychosocial disability, intellectual disability, perceived capacity, or any status related to supported decision-making.
That constitutional commitment — if realised — changes what Fiji promises its citizens with disabilities. But a promise in a constitution is only as powerful as the society that upholds it. And that is where you come in.
Persons with disabilities are not simply recipients of information or assistance. They are voters, candidates, advocates, community leaders, and decision-makers — and they have an equal right to participate meaningfully in Fiji’s electoral process.
And yet elections remain a moment of maximum inclusion risk for persons with disabilities. Polling stations that cannot be physically accessed. Candidate information not available in accessible formats. Broadcasts with no sign language interpretation. These are not minor inconveniences. They are barriers to the exercise of a fundamental right.
This is where you, the media, play a very important role.
The way election information is reported, presented, and communicated can either remove barriers — or unintentionally create them. Something as straightforward as captions on television and digital content, sign language interpretation, alternative text for images, plain language, or clearly describing visual information on radio can make election information accessible to a far wider audience.
But inclusion goes beyond accessibility. It is also about how we portray people.
The words we use matter. The images we choose matter. The questions we ask matter. And the stories we decide to tell matter.
The media does not merely report on elections. The media shapes who feels invited to participate in them. When a journalist describes a wheelchair user who voted as “inspiring” or “brave,” they are — however well-intentioned — signalling that this person’s participation is exceptional. It is not exceptional. It is a right. Persons with disabilities should be represented accurately and respectfully — not through stereotypes or pity-based narratives, but as active participants in Fiji’s democratic life.
You, as journalists, have the power to change that — not just through good intentions, but through craft. Through the deliberate choices you make about language, about sourcing, about whose voice is sought and whose is heard.
Today you will have the opportunity to learn directly from Organisations of Persons with Disabilities — people with lived experience. This provides an opportunity not only to understand the barriers that exist, but to identify practical ways those barriers can be reduced through responsible, accessible media practice.
The Electoral Commission and the Fijian Elections Office have put our position on record. We called for the removal of the “unsound mind” disqualification — language that stigmatises and excludes — and for the franchise to be redrawn so that no Fijian is denied the right to vote or stand for office on the basis of disability. We called for supported voting with proper safeguards. And we acknowledged honestly that accessibility across Fiji’s 2,200-plus polling venues is a journey of progressive realisation — not an overnight guarantee, but a firm commitment.
Your reporting can lead that shift. The choice is made in every story you file.
Today’s programme is practical. You will hear from the Fiji Disabled Persons Federation and the National Council for Persons with Disabilities across four sessions — visual impairment, hearing impairment, physical impairment, and psychosocial impairment. Not as abstract categories, but as lived realities experienced by your neighbours, your readers, your fellow Fijians.
I encourage you to make the most of today’s discussions. Ask questions. Listen to the experiences being shared. And most importantly, consider how the lessons from this training can be applied in your own newsrooms — in your editorial guidelines, your language choices, your decisions about who you call for comment.
I ask three things of you as you go through this day.
First: listen to the persons with disabilities in this room as experts, not as subjects.
Second: carry what you learn into your newsroom — and into the stories you tell tomorrow, and after tomorrow.
Third: hold us accountable. If we fall short, let us know. That accountability is not a burden on us. It is how democracy is supposed to work.
Journalists, remember: tell stories that are inclusive. Share election information in a way that leaves no one behind.
On behalf of the Electoral Commission, I thank the Organisations of Persons with Disabilities, the National Council of Persons with Disabilities, the Fijian Elections Office, and our media partners for supporting this important initiative.
Fiji’s democratic journey is not complete. The rights of persons with disabilities to full participation in our political life are still being realised. But today — in this room — we take one more step forward.
With those words, it is my pleasure to officially open the Disability-Inclusive Media Reporting and Accessible Election Information Training.
Vinaka Vakalevu, and I wish you all a productive day.