Fiji deports
second newspaper publisher
SUVA, Fiji (AP)
- Fiji's military government defied a High Court order and deported
the Australian publisher of the South Pacific country's leading
newspaper Friday, in the second such expulsion in three months.
The coup-installed
government said Fiji Times publisher Evan Hannah was a threat
to national security who had breached his work permit conditions,
and put him on a Korean Air flight Friday to the South Korean
capital, Seoul.
In late February,
Russell Hunter, an Australian citizen who is publisher of Fijian
daily The Sun, was deported for what Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama
called "destabilizing" reporting.
Hunter's newspaper
had carried reports about possible corruption involving Fiji's
Finance Ministry.
Hannah was taken
from his home in the capital, Suva, on Thursday night by immigration
and security officials to the international airport.
Fiji Times' editor
Netani Rika said the paper obtained a court order late Thursday
that ordered Hannah to appear in court Friday afternoon, effectively
postponing the planned deportation.
Officials from
local airline Air Pacific declined to allow Hannah to board one
of its planes after being shown the court order. Immigration
officials defied the court order and put Hannah onto a Korean
Air flight a short time later.
Fiji media outlets
have been harassed by Bainmarama's regime since the nation's
fourth military coup in December 2006.
Shortly after
the coup, troops occupied some offices of media companies and
demanded the right to scrutinize reports before they were aired
or published.
John Hartigan,
the chairman and chief executive of News Ltd., which owns the
Fiji Times, accused the government of media intimidation.
"This latest
threat to a free, independent press in Fiji is unacceptable,"
he said.
"This is
the third time in a little over a year that the safety of our
employees and the freedom of the press have been seriously threatened
by Fijian authorities," he said.
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