John Laman & Tavake Fusimalohi
Date: 28 May 2007
Auckland 6pm: One of Tonga's most experienced....and hard-hitting journalists.....has been awarded the 2007 Pacific Media Freedom Award.
Tavake Fusimalohi is the editor of the Kelea newspaper, the paper which has been leading the charge against Government and the establishment.....
Fusimalohi and his team were the first to expose the human rights abuse by police and military after the Black Thursday Riots...
But the editor has been exposing irregularities in the Kingdom for years now...
Tavake Fusimalohi, whose been charged for sedition in the latest run of charges the government's handing out after the Nukualofa riots, was invited to the PINA fono in Honiara but was not allowed to leave Tonga
Soldiers close Kele'a newspaper
Title -- 5125 TONGA: Soldiers close Kele'a newspaper
Date -- 13 February 2007
Byline -- None
Origin -- Pacific Media Watch
Source -- Pacnews/IFEX 12/2/07
Copyright - P/I
Status -- Unabridged
TONGAN SOLDIERS CLOSE DOWN KELE'A NEWSPAPER
pacnews@connect.com.fj
NUKU'ALOFA (Pacnews/IFEX/Pacific Media Watch) - Tongan soldiers forced the closure of the pro-democracy newspaper, Kele'a, last night, without any explanation, according to newspaper editor Tavake Fusimalohi.
In an email to PACNEWS this morning, Fusimalohi said the soldiers only told his employees that the decision came from the military commander, Brigadier General 'Uta'atu. He said the decision was arbitrary and amounted to censorship of the Kelea newspaper.
"This is a blatant breach of natural justice because there was no prior notice to close down the newspaper on Sunday. As such, Kangaroo Justice has arrived in Tonga," Fusimalohi said.
A check at the newspaper confirmed that the employees closed the office yesterday evening but completed production of the newspaper after midnight, PACNEWS was told.
For the past two years, Fusimalohi said the newspaper has been working every Sunday to meet its Monday morning deadline for printing in Auckland.
"The action by the military will go on for sometime as long as the Kele'a newspaper is critical of the government and exposes corrupt practices in the public sectors.
Kele'a has always been critical of the government for the last two decades. It was founded by leading reformist in Tonga, 'Akilisi Pohiva, in July 1986.
PACNEWS understands that the newspaper's latest edition was going to expose confidential documents that exposes a request for an urgent referendum by a Tongan cabinet minister to Prime Minister Dr Feleti Sevele.
1 comment:
I have come to the conclusion that
Tongans does not really want to know the truth. I once thought that TAIMI TONGA was the voice for the tongans, but it turns out that the editor himself is just another self-served individual. If I am correct, he's now sitting pretty and criticizes the Kelea's freedom expression of anything the country men and women of Tonga has the right to know. Please see that the editor of Taimi Tonga gets an xray of his head.
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