Commonwealth should tackle Tongan media gag, say Greens

5.30pm

The Green Party says the Commonwealth should consider suspending Tonga if that country's king succeeds in ramming through a law curtailing freedom of the press.

"The draconian bill before the Tongan Parliament would enable the monarchy to suppress any criticism of its rule, or anything it deems to be against the public interest, national security, public order and morality," says Green Party foreign affairs spokesman Keith Locke.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Phill Goff has suggested the kingdom could be in violation of the Commonwealth Harare Declaration on Human Rights.

King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, whose rule in the Pacific island kingdom is near absolute, is reported to be planning a change to Tonga's constitution that would prevent the courts from reviewing any decisions made by the Legislative Assembly or the King.

The King's move follows the banning by the Tongan government in February of the twice weekly Taimi o'Tonga newspaper, which is published in Auckland.

The paper's publishers won an order from Tonga's Chief Justice, a Briton, who ruled the ban was unconstitutional.

The king, sitting as the chair of the Privy Council, then banned the newspaper again, but the Chief Justice declared that action illegal too.

"Three years ago, the Commonwealth suspended Fiji for violating the Commonwealth's Harare Declaration on Human Rights. The situation in Tonga is no less serious," said Mr Locke.

"For New Zealand it is also a matter of being consistent. We've pushed strongly for Commonwealth action against Mugabe. We should be just as firm against repressive measures in our Pacific backyard.

"Meanwhile, the regime is still defying a Court ruling that the Taimi o' Tonga newspaper, produced in Auckland, be allowed into Tonga. It is still being held up in Tongan Customs. This is not acceptable," said Mr Locke.

Commonwealth Press Union New Zealand chairman Gavin Ellis told NZPA that the CPU viewed the situation with extreme gravity, calling it an "extraordinary turn of events".

"The legal position was made perfectly clear; the court believed that the freedom of the press was of such importance that it should not be impeded by the government," he said.

"The government has rather cynically now turned around and suggested it will now block off the avenue of judicial review, because it doesn't like the finding.

"It is an extraordinarily retrograde step for a country like Tonga ... this pushes it backwards rather than forward into the 21st century."

Mr Ellis, who is the New Zealand Herald editor-in-chief, said a press freedom committee meeting on Friday would discuss the issue.

The union could consider a number of protest actions over Tonga, which would be an urgent item of business, Mr Ellis said.

He was pleased Mr Goff had already voiced concern.

The union could protest to the Tongan government, or to international organisations. One of those was the Paris-based World Association of Newspapers, which has its conference in Dublin this month.

- NZPA, HERALD STAFF