KEY POINTS:
Prime Minister Helen Clark has described the deporting of a Fiji newspaper editor as "disturbing" and urged the country's interim Government to put itself on a course back to democracy.
"I'm very concerned at this attempt to shut down freedom of speech and media," she said yesterday.
"To
deport a newspaper publisher is a very serious move."
Russell Hunter, 59, the managing director and publisher of the Fiji Sun, was put on a Sydney-bound plane from Nadi after his newspaper ran a series of controversial articles about a Government minister.
Hunter said he believed his newspaper's reports about alleged tax evasion involving Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry might have been the catalyst for his deportation.
"We were expecting it," a tired-looking Hunter said at Sydney airport. "He says he's going to sue but if he's going to sue, why deport me?"
Hunter said he was taken from his home in Suva on Monday night.
"Some people came ... about 8.30 to my home," he said. "They told me they were from immigration and that they wanted to check some discrepancy in my passport.
"Once they got it they obviously weren't going to give it back. They then gave me another document that said I was to be expelled from the country.
"I think this document is a forgery."
Two immigration officials and five civilians took Hunter from his home.
The Fiji Government is headed by military leader and self-declared Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama, who seized power in a bloodless coup in December 2006.
Helen Clark said the deportation followed on from a threat by the police commissioner in Fiji recently that people should not speak out against the Government or there would be consequences.
She said New Zealand's Government would communicate to the Fiji Government that democracy involved not only elections, but also free media and free speech.
Helen Clark said all of Fiji's "friends" internationally would be concerned by what had happened. They were holding back on development assistance until they could see a real path to democracy, she said.
Fiji's authorities said yesterday that Hunter was deported because he was a security threat and had been declared a prohibited immigrant.
The office of Defence and Immigration Minister Ratu Epeli Ganilau said Hunter needed to be vigilant of his status as a foreigner working in Fiji.
"This declaration follows a proper investigation by the relevant authorities, which clearly established that Mr Hunter was conducting himself in a manner prejudicial to the peace, defence, public safety, public order, security and stability of the sovereign state of the Fiji Islands.
"Hunter has clearly violated the terms and conditions of his status in Fiji under the immigration laws of Fiji and the Department of Immigration has accordingly exercised its statutory responsibility in getting him declared a prohibited immigrant."
Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it had been "extremely concerned" for the welfare of Hunter, who became editor-in-chief of the Fiji Sun in 2003 and was appointed publisher in 2005.
On Sunday Commodore Bainimarama accused journalists in Fiji of being unethical.
- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: AAP
