31 May 2013

Nauru's President denies banning media from speaking to politicians

4:43 am on 31 May 2013

Nauru's President has denied that he has banned local media from speaking to politicians ahead of next week's election.

Sprent Dabwido declared a state of emergency earlier this week, claiming the country was in economic crisis, and bringing the election forward by two weeks.

Mr Dabwido says he's had enough of government MPs using the media to bicker at each other or discredit new candidates.

He says what he has done is issue a directive to media that if any politician wants to be interviewed, it must go through him first.

"If other members want to have a say and that, then I probably should see their text and context of what they're trying to say in the media because otherwise it'll be going back to the good old days where they promote themselves and put down up and coming members. So it's really a ban on politicians using the media for any political reason."

Sprent Dabwido.