Tonga Government Attacks Pro-Democracy Newspaper

The Tongan Government has verbally chastised the pro-democracy newspaper Kele'a and has threatened legal action over what it insists are low standards of journalism.  The government's primary complaint is that the paper ran an item that equated the Tongan Prime Minister Dr. Feleti Sevele with the Anti-Christ by saying that the number of letters in all of Sevele's names equals 666.  The government further claims that this is yet another instance of the pro-democracy movement, or "temo", expressing feelings of jealousy towards the ruling government. 

The editor of Kele'a, Tavake Fusimalohi, insisted that his paper still upheld the its journalistic integrity and had not done anything improper, because the piece that made the equation between Sevele and the Beast of the Book of Revelation was a letter to the editor and not an official story written by any of Kele'a's staff writers.  He went on to say that, “I see nothing there controversial or harmful to the Prime Minister. This man [the letter writer] seemed to work out quite well by counting - it is not an article, it is a letter to the editor and I admire his thoughts and if I say, creativity, I thought it worth publishing.”

This is not the first time that Kele'a and other pro-democracy media outlets have come under fire in Tonga.  Recently,  Kalafi Moala, who is the media consultant to the Tongan prime minister, expressed personal animosity for a number of regional reporters who had spoken out with public criticisms for countries of which they were not citizens.  His argument seemed to be that if the journalist did not live there, then they had no right to comment on local practice and that to do so would be to spread misinformation to those living outside the region.  Kalafi's own paper, Taimi 'o Tonga, has made several attacks against other regional news outlets, notably  TV OBN and Kele'a, for their pro-democracy stances.  Detractors claim that the lead reporters for those organizations are highly skilled journalists who have upheld the very standard of journalistic ethics and that the true source of Tonga misinformation is coming from the Tongan government itself, particularly Prime Minister Sevele. 

For more please see:
"Tonga government claims hate campaign being run by Kele'a newspaper" Radio New Zealand International (26 July 2007)
"Tonga newspaper dismisses government criticism over 'hate campaign'"  Radio New Zealand International  (26 July 2007)
"From the critical eyes of Kele'a" Tonga Star (26 July 2007)