MEDIA RELEASE
13 June 2003

HRDMT APPLAUDS LIFTING OF BAN ON TAIMI ‘O TONGA NEWSPAPER

The Executive Committee of the Human Rights and Democracy Movement today applauded the lifting of the ban on the Taimi ‘o Tonga newspaper. At the same time the Executive Committee approved “civil disobedience” measures that will instantly kick-in should for some reason the Government places another ban on Taimi ‘o Tonga newspaper in the future, in defiance of existing Supreme Court decisions.

Speaking on behalf of HRDMT, Director Lopeti Senituli said, “Our Executive Committee this morning agreed that should the Government place another ban on the Taimi ‘o Tonga then the HRDMT Office will download 20 pages worth of articles from each issue of the newspaper and make copies available to the public at no cost.”

Senituli explained that he had had preliminary discussions with the publisher of “Taimi ‘o Tonga” on Wednesday (11 June 2003) evening with the intention of implementing this action by today (Friday 13 June 2003) with the Executive Committee’s approval. “We heaved a collective sigh of relief when the ban was lifted yesterday evening,” Senituli said.

“But we are not out of the woods yet,” Lopeti continued. “The Government earlier this week tabled the Ordinance that the Privy Council approved on 16 May 2003 (on which the Supreme Court had placed a temporary injunction on 26 May 2003) in the Legislative Assembly and was defeated by the slimmest of margins 12 to 11.” The practice is that if a Bill is defeated this year then it cannot be re-introduced into the Assembly until the 2004 sessions.

The Government has already submitted a bill to amend the country’s Constitution by further delimiting the freedom of speech and _expression and freedom of the media (clause 7); abolish the powers of the Supreme Court to judicial review all legislations including Ordinance approved by the Privy Council (Clause 56) and to abolish the right to claim damages for breach of the Constitution (Clause 29).

“Our Executive Committee also approved a public information campaign against these Constitutional amendments which would focus on Church Leaders and Nobles Representatives to the Legislative Assembly. This will involve panel discussions on Television, radio programmes; public seminars; information leaflets and; a public petition to the Legislative Assembly,” Lopeti concluded.

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