TongaThe Tongan media won a great victory in 2004, when the Supreme Court in the capital, Nuku’alofa, reversed legislation aimed at stifling the nation’s independent press. The decision brought the New Zealand–based, Tongan-language newspaper Taimi ‘o Tonga (Times of Tonga), known for its independent coverage, back to the newsstands after an absence of several months.
Tonga’s small media sector suffered a major assault in 2003 from the monarchy of King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV. One of the country’s few independent news outlets, Taimi ‘o Tonga (Times of Tonga), was banned for much of the year, and in October the government passed an amendment that weakens constitutional guarantees of free speech.
Your Majesty: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is very concerned by your government’s importation ban on the Times of Tonga (Taimi ‘o Tonga), an independent, biweekly newspaper published in New Zealand. On February 27, the Times of Tonga offices in Nuku’alofa, Tonga, and Auckland, New Zealand, received a letter signed by the Tongan minister…