A bomb threat at Fiji's Daily Post newspaper forced the evacuation of its offices and all nearby buildings in Grieg Street in central Suva today.
A male voice made the telephone call through the newspaper's switchboard shortly after 9.00am this morning and said a bomb was planted inside the buildings as well as at its printing press at Valelevu which was also evacuated.
The bomb threat came in the wake widespread anger among Fiji's Muslim religious organisations over the Daily Post's decision to reproduce controversial cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed
The cartoons have already sparked rioting, demonstrations and deaths in the Middle East and Europe.
The general manager of the Daily Post, Mesake Koroi, says police cordoned off the whole street while the bomb disposal squad combed through their offices for any sign of a bomb but found nothing.
Mr Koroi says staff took the threat in good spirits and sat in a nearby mall and sang songs for nearly three hours before police gave the all clear shortly after midday.
Mr Koroi says such threats will not stop the newspaper from doing its journalistic work of informing its readers.
Meanwhile, one of the several Muslim religious organisations in Fiji, the Ahmediya Muslim Jama'at, says it will take legal action against the Daily Post for reproducing the cartoons.
Its vice president, Dr Samshud-Dean Sahu Khan, says he does "not know how this nonsense about freedom of speech fits in."
