Fiji moves to deport News Corp newspaper publisher
By Malakai Veisamasama
SUVA, May 1 (Reuters) - Fiji's military government ordered the Australian publisher of Rupert Murdoch's Fiji Times newspaper, Evan Hannah, to be deported on Thursday, saying he was a threat to national security.
The move is the latest crackdown on the media in Fiji since military commander Frank Bainimarama seized power in a bloodless coup in late 2006, and comes amid growing international criticism of the slow progress in returning the island chain to democracy.
Fiji television said Hannah was detained late on Thursday, taken towards the country's main airport and then returned to the capital, Suva, where his deportation was due to be challenged in the country's High Court. He was expected to fly out of Fiji for Australia early on Friday.
"I can confirm I signed the deportation order," Foreign Affairs Minister Ratu Epeli Nailatikau told Fiji television. "He was a threat to national security."
The move comes after another Australian, Russell Hunter, publisher of the rival Fiji Sun newspaper, was deported in February for criticising Bainimarama's government.
Fiji Times Editor-in-Chief Netani Rika said in a statement on the Fiji Times website, www.fijitimes.com, that Hannah's detention was disturbing.
"We are deeply disturbed that an incident such as this would take place two days before Media Freedom day and less than 12 hours after the interim prime minister made a public statement calling for better relations with the media industry and promising to uphold media freedom," he said.
"WEAK EXCUSE"
In Australia, John Hartigan, chairman and chief executive of News Corp's NWSa.N Australian publishing arm, News Ltd, said the move was an attempt to intimidate the media in Fiji.
"This latest threat to a free, independent press in Fiji is unacceptable," he said in a statement, adding the deportation order was a "weak excuse" to intimidate News Ltd's most senior representative in Fiji.
"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 that in late 2006, armed members of the Fiji military stormed the Fiji Times building, halting publication and taking control of the newsroom.
Bainimarama has promised to hold free and fair elections by early 2009, but South Pacific foreign minister said in March that more work was needed to meet the election timetable.
Earlier on Thursday, Bainimarama gave a speech where he said media freedom was guaranteed in Fiji, but the media also had a serious responsibility in the way it reported news.
"Over the past year some media reporting have left much to be desired and some reports have been careless, irresponsible and some in fact have been inciteful and destabilising, posing a threat to national security and stability," he said. (Writing by James Grubel; Editing by John Chalmers)
