14 Jun 2003

Tonga Democracy Movement promises civil disobedience if newspaper ban is repeated

8:26 am on 14 June 2003

Tonga's Human Rights and Democracy Movement says it will stage a campaign of civil disobedience if the Government places more bans on the Taimi O Tonga newspaper.

The newspaper went back on sale on Thursday after being banned for nearly four months because of its allegedly seditious content.

A succession of court orders have overturned the bans but had been ignored by the Government until this week, when 11 members of Cabinet faced contempt of court charges if they refused to release the paper.

The paper's publisher fears planned new constitutional changes or other action in defiance of the court rulings, could see yet another ban on the Taimi.

The spokesman for the Democracy Movement, Lopeti Senituli, says if this happens they will take action.

"Should the government place another ban on the newspaper, we will immediately download 20 pages worth of news articles from each issue of the newspaper and make those copies available to the public free of charge."

Lopeti Senituli.

Meanwhile, the newspaper's publisher, Kalafi Moala, says they will seek compensation for the costs of the protracted legal battle to overturn the government bans.

Kalafi Moala, says the ban and the legal action has been costly, resulting in a number of staff being laid off.

We are going of course to make some claims for damages - or at least the losses that have been incurred by the paper not being sold in Tonga in all the weeks it has been banned. We have had of course, legal costs so we are going to try and recoup some of that loss.