10 Nov 2016

Expat Fiji activist tones down posts after NZ police intervention

5:51 am on 10 November 2016

An advisor to two former Fiji Prime Ministers says the New Zealand police have asked him to tone down his Facebook page which posts messages criticising the current Fiji government.

Shailendra Raju used to work for the deposed prime minister Laisenia Qarase and is involved with the Fiji Labour Party. He now lives in New Zealand.

He said the police approached him in August about his postings.

Mr Raju said he had not broken any laws but now had a mutual understanding with the New Zealand authorities.

"My postings obviously are controversial, may be sensitive but they're all factual, particularly some of the subjects I talk about - good governance and financial corruption, human rights abuse etc, are not easy subjects to deal with and I understand that," he said.

"Police have talked to me, they have also written to me asking for moderation and I'm working on it."

Mr Raju said he believed the Fiji government was putting pressure on New Zealand to restrict his Facebook activities.