King reasserts newspaper ban

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

Tonga's king has tightened the noose against press freedom in his realm by presiding over a new ban on the only independent newspaper.

The Pacific kingdom's Privy Council, comprising King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV and his cabinet, issued a third ban against the Auckland-based Taimi o Tonga (The Times of Tonga) just as its Supreme Court was considering challenges by the newspaper to earlier prohibitions.

But the paper's publisher, Kalafi Moala, said yesterday he was buoyed by a decision this week by Tongan Chief Justice Gordon Ward to assert the court's final jurisdiction over the legality of all three bans as constitutional.

Justice Ward will also on Monday consider an interim injunction application to suspend the bans until the court holds a full hearing on March 24.

It was the Supreme Court which rescued Moala in 1996, ordering him and a fellow journalist to be released with pro-democracy politician 'Akilisi Pohiva on constitutional grounds after they spent 26 days in jail for an alleged contempt of Parliament.

Moala said the Privy Council ban had deemed his newspaper a "prohibited publication", rather than merely a "prohibited import", as declared by Tonga's comptroller of customs two weeks ago. This was to stop it from getting around the initial ban by publishing limited editions in Tonga, rather than Auckland, to which he moved his 14-year-old newspaper's printing press in 1995.

He said a second ban was issued from the office of Tongan Prime Minister Prince 'Ulukalala Lavaka Ata, the king's youngest son, describing the paper as "being seditious, inciting violence and wanting to overthrow the Government, and all of that".

Moala, whose legal challenge is led by Auckland lawyer Dr Rodney Harrison QC, said it was unusual for the king to become so directly involved in a matter yet to proceed through the courts, but anything was possible in Tonga.

He suspected the kingdom's rulers may have acted in a mistaken belief the Supreme Court held no jurisdiction over actions of the Privy Council. But he said the Supreme Court held final jurisdiction over all constitutional matters, a power re-asserted by Justice Ward even after the court was notified this week of the Privy Council ban.

The only way Tonga's rulers could alter that would be to change the constitution, Moala said.

He said hundreds of onlookers applauded a peaceful march in the capital, Nuku'alofa, last Friday as a petition calling for the bans to be lifted was taken to King Tupou's palace office.