FBC Chief Executive Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum

The Fijian Broadcasting Corporation says a Fijian Elections Office survey report that people rely on television for election information is incentive for improvement.

The FEO 2018 General Election Voter Survey report states that television is the most popular platform for accessing election information with almost one third of the audience preference.

FBC Chief Executive Riyaz Sayed-Khaiyum says this solidifies the reliability of traditional news media.

“It doesn’t come as much of a surprise to us but we are pleased that another independent body has confirmed what we’ve suspected all along.”

Sayed-Khaiyum says an earlier independent survey showed 73-percent of Fijians prefer to watch FBC TV News however, the FEO report also highlights that among Fijians who did not vote, twenty nine percent turned to social media as their preferred medium.

“Again we are not surprised that a lot of people that did not vote rely on social media because social media does peddle a lot of misinformation about what’s happening not only in our country but around the world as well.”

Supervisor of Election Mohammed Saneem says social media use will be studied further to make best use of it for the next election.

“Going into 2022 we will be able to build capacity for all Fijians social media users to be able to point out information that is correct that is factual and information that is fake news or information that is being designed to create disinformation.”

Sayed-Khaiyum adds FBC is committed to campaigning against fake news on social media which it has been doing in the past.