Press Ban Hurts Tongans

From the outset, get one thing straight. Tonga's amendment of its Constitution regarding freedom of speech and press freedom was unconstitutional.

It was done to enable legislation outlawing newspapers the kingdom's government deemed critical, insensitive, seditious, and not up to quality-whatever that means. Even though these new laws targeted the Taimi 'o Tonga newspaper, it ended up affecting other newspapers or print media sometimes critical of government policies and practice.

In my view, the whole exercise has been caused by an absurd childishness. History will confirm this.

On February 26, 2003, the Minister of Finance, Siosiua 'Utoikamanu, who is also in charge of Customs, informed us that Taimi 'o Tonga was "a prohibited import."

This was the first ban. Further clarification came by fax the same day saying: "The decision conveyed to you by notice prohibiting the importation of the 'Taimi 'o Tonga'…stands...The reasons for the decision made are according to Government policy and specifically that: it is a foreign paper owned and published by a foreigner; it is a foreign concern with a political agenda; the continuous standard of journalism is unacceptable."

Then 'Utoikamanu as Chief Commissioner of Revenue, issued the following declaration the next day: "In exercise of the powers vested by section 35… the Chief Commissioner of Revenue hereby declares that all editions, volumes or part thereof of the newspaper 'Taimi 'o Tonga' to be (sic) seditious or advocating violence, lawlessness or disorder."

In a letter on March 7, 2003, Minister of Justice and Attorney General, 'Aisea Taumoepeau issued another clarification to an order by the Privy Council prohibiting "the importation of any issue of the publication of Taimi 'o Tonga or part thereof."

His reasons to the order-in-council (the Privy Council is Cabinet meeting with the King presiding) included:

1) The newspaper is involved in anti-attitude (sic) and propaganda against the Monarchy and the Tongan Government. It is committed to the removal of the present Institution of Government.

2) It has caused disaffection amongst the people.

3) The newspaper published seditious materials.

4) The newspaper is advocating and inciting violence, lawlessness and disorder.

5) Complaints from individuals and groups, and a report from the Special Branch of the Ministry of Police, were received.

6) The standard of journalism is unacceptable.

While the newspaper is now published twice weekly in Auckland, New Zealand, for technical reasons (we distribute in New Zealand, Australia, and the United States), it was produced in Tonga for the first five years of its life.

The Taimi is published in the Tongan language; all its journalists are Tongans; it was founded in Tonga-by me, a Tongan. The only reason the Tongan government has labelled it "foreign" is because I, the newspaper's owner and publisher, am Tongan born with full-blooded Tongan ancestry. I also happen to be a naturalized American citizen.

It is the content of some of our newspaper's coverage that Tonga's ruling elite regard as odious, not the nationality of my passport.

We took the Tongan government to court over its ban. After a Supreme Court hearing of several days where Chief Justice Gordon Ward presided, his judgment on April 4, 2003 ruled the ban was "unlawful and invalid." He ordered the quashing of each ban issued by the Government.

That very same day, the Privy Council passed "an Ordinance for the protection of the King, Royal Family, Government and People of this Kingdom from abuse of Press Freedom."

The King and his council ignored the Supreme Court's judgment, instead issuing an ordinance making it "unlawful for any person to publish, sell or offer for sale, distribute, copy or reproduce, possess, or import either the Taimi 'o Tonga newspaper or Lali Media Limited publications."

The King and his council's order reimposed the earlier bans ruled unlawful and invalid by the court.

At the hearing, the government had produced eight articles from various issues of the Taimi that it deemed seditious, inciting violence or causing disaffection for the King.

Court records show how ridiculous it was to use such articles to argue the government's case. None could be interpreted in any way seditious or inciting violence.

Two cited articles comprised interviews with a widely respected Free Wesleyan minister. Another was an interview with Tonga's leading academic.

Tonga's leaders apparently took umbrage with one of my columns in which I criticized the inconsistency in the King's decision to open a cigarette factory in Tonga despite his 12-year campaign against smoking.

Other articles included two letters to the editor, an editorial by our editor, and news coverage of a group, opposed to democracy, who urged people to vote for either Pohiva or the King during the 2002 Parliamentary election.

After losing the Supreme Court case, the Government appealed to the Appeals Court-and lost again. The kingdom's highest court upheld the Chief Justice's judgment.

Meanwhile an attack was launched in the Tongan media against the Chief Justice by the Kotoa Movement whose patron is the King's only daughter, Princess Pilolevu Tuita. That movement's newspaper, Tonga Star, makes no bones of its support for the royal family.

The government chose not to come to the Chief Justice's defense. Their silence spoke volumes about their displeasure at his ruling. They may even have been guilty of wanting to discredit the Chief Justice.

As claims were filed against the Government for the unlawful banning and the financial losses suffered by the Taimi, the Government hatched a plan to change the ground rules, to amend the Constitution's freedom of speech clause, which has enshrined freedom of the press in Tonga for more than 120 years.

The Constitution was then amended and restrictions on freedom of speech and on press freedom imposed.

The government erected "biased boundaries" with a "cultural tradition" tag on them. The result is that every Tongan is supposed to stay within the narrow confines of those boundaries while the ruling elite is not confined by these same boundaries.

The government has used the cover of cultural traditions, the establishment of "responsible" media, and whatever else they need to conceal their wish not to be questioned or criticized.

They are also reacting in fear knowing full well that because of their years of economic mismanagement, combined with a series of embarrassing local and international scandals, they no longer deserve the trust or loyalty of the people of Tonga.

Tonga's Prime Minister Prince Lavaka 'Ulukalala Ata told a Hawaii reporter last year that "they have gone too far". He was referring to us.

What does he mean by "going too far"? Is raising issues of good governance, accountability, and transparency going too far? Is exposing corruption, violation of human rights, and discrimination going too far? Can anyone ever go too far in doing what is right?

The Government has taken away the rights of more than 40,000 regular readers in Tonga to read a newspaper they obviously like. They insult the intelligence of ordinary Tongans by claiming they do not know what is good or bad for them and therefore need to regulate what they (the Government) need people to read or not read. They also say Tongans cannot speak freely and express their views or opinions.

So here we have a country where the people do not have the right to choose who should govern them nor how they should be governed and their rights to free speech and freedom of expression have been taken away.

The government's actions in amending the Constitution and legislating newspapers may well have been driven by a vengeful and malicious resolve to ban the Taimi 'o Tonga in Tonga for good.

These irresponsible actions have hurt the people of Tonga and highlighted Tonga's authoritarian form of government. If history is a guide, the time will come when the people will reject such authoritarianism.

The writer is the publisher and founder of the New Zealand-based Tongan-language newspaper, Taimi 'o Tonga, which was banned by the Tongan government.