Tongan MP, journalists freed

By David Robie

Tongan pro-democracy MP and publisher 'Akilisi Pohiva and two newspaper editors walked free after the supreme court on October 14 ruled that they had been detained illegally. The three had served three weeks of a 30-day sentence.

Chief Justice Nigel Hampton ordered Pohiva, publisher of the controversial newsletter Kele'a, and Taimi 'o Tonga newspaper editor Kalafi Moala and deputy editor Filokalafi 'Akau'ola, to be set free.

New Zealand civil rights lawyer Barry Wilson, acting for the Commonwealth Press Union, told Pacific Media Watch from Nuku'alofa that their release was encouraging for emerging democratic freedoms in the kingdom. "The court found that the three had not been covered by the normal safeguards for a trial provided under the constitution", he said. "Therefore it came to the conclusion that they were being illegally detained."

Amnesty International had declared the three political prisoners and international media freedom groups and human rights movements had mounted several appeals for their release.

A petition organised by the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism and Pacific Media Watch and signed by more than 170 academics, journalists, media commentators and students was faxed to King Taufa'ahau Tupou seeking his intervention to free the men.

Pohiva had been jailed for 30 days on September 20 for contempt of parliament after leaking an impeachment notice against justice minister Tevita Tupou. Moala and 'Akau'ola were jailed for publishing the leaked document in a front-page story in the Taimi 'o Tonga on September 4.
[From Pacific Media Watch/Asia-Pacific Network.]

From GLW issue 251