27 Apr 2016

Radio Tonga manager rebuts PMs gripe

12:58 pm on 27 April 2016

A Tonga Broadcasting Commission manager says she hasn't been suspended despite the government recommending it.

Tonga Prime Minister 'Akilisi Pohiva.

Tonga Prime Minister 'Akilisi Pohiva. Photo: RNZ

Viola Ulakai said the Prime Minister 'Akilisi Pohiva recommended the suspension to his Minister of Public Enterprises who wrote to the TBC board.

Mr Pohiva previously said Mrs Ulakai misrepresented herself when making a request for a press conference on behalf of the Tongan Media Council.

Mr Pohiva said he suspected she was acting as a mouthpiece for his political opponents.

But Mrs Ulakai said she was only doing her job and as a member of the council, she was able to make such a request.

She said she remained a Radio Tonga and Television manager and there was no provision in the TBC regulations that warranted her suspension.

"There's nothing to make a decision to directly suspend an employee, without notification and follow the due process. I don't think it's going to be that way until my contract is finished," she said.

"I haven't done anything wrong. Everything that I did was in the law and also according to our policy."