Editor,

Anthony Tuipeatau wrote an excellent article recently (Government Censorship...Oct. 13, 2015) on Matangi Tonga Online. It's one of the best articles I've read detailing the technical functions of what "Mandatory Filtering" can and cannot do. But Minister of Communications Hon. Siaosi Sovaleni plans to bring this flawed technology and introduce "Internet Censorship" to Tonga.

It's the same conclusion, which I suspected in my earlier article that the Bill passed by Parliament to regulate the Internet (1) is unconstitutionally usurping our free speech rights; (2) it will lead to full-fledge censorship; (3) but the solution is more education in "parental control" on computers and smart-phones. Mr. Tuipeatau explains succinctly how flawed a mandatory filtering system can be if employed as the problem solver in this case. 

Although my undergraduate degree is in Electronics Communications Technology, with extensive experience in journalism, I could not have written a better tech article than what Mr. Anthony Tuipeatau has done. And please allow me to celebrate with you what Mr. Tuipeatau is teaching us.

False Sense of Security; a Bureaucratic Tactic

Ultimately, Hon. Sovaleni wants Government authority to crown him as the "Tonga Moral Czar." He wants to sniff around the neighborhoods with his "Internet watch-dogs," spying on people's bedroom windows to compile a "blacklist" of inappropriate Internet programs from their computers and smart-phones. He wants to regulate what is appropriate and isn't appropriate for us to receive on the Internet. 

Their "do good" mission is to protect our children from evil immoral websites, but Mr. Tuipeatau's reminds us of the distinction between broadcasting (radio/TV) a linear technology, and the Internet (world wide web). The Internet is a crawling network, which will find different ways to reach its destination. Example: A child may be restricted by his/her parents to view a certain program on his/her mobile smart-phone, but the child can receive it from friends, and unscrupulous third parties.

Thus, Moral Czar Sovaleni can give a false sense of "children" security to parents, and religious leaders with his mandatory filtering system. In reality, however, children's safety and security cannot at all be regulated for that purpose. Similar to traditional efforts to outlaw and stop prostitution. Once certain brothels are shut down; others found new ways to reach new customers.

Education & Parental Control, Not a Moral Czar

Mr. Tuipeatau is 110% spot on with his analysis: "Education and empowerment to ensure parents and children are safe online rather than a government legislated filter." Let me include school teachers, salespeople, and journalists on the list of responsible parties to educate the populace against the corrupt effects of pornography. Prohibition laws often encourage a thriving black market in the past. 

As he recounts from the 2007 Australian Communications and Media Authority investigation findings, the danger lies in the secondary black market. Children are often successfully targeted, and attracted by unscrupulous parties living off of children's inexperience and naiveté (lack of wisdom or judgment).

For Moral Czar Sovaleni to create a bureaucratic agency to police Children's Cyber-Safety (Internet purity contents in Tonga), we dread losing our "free speech" rights guaranteed by the Constitution. As Mr. Tuipeatu puts it: "By allowing a government body to decide what a society is able to view online borders on a society being closely monitored and eventually censored."

I could not agree more...are we living in modern democratic Tonga, or are we living in 20th century Soviet Union and China, Cuba and South American Banana Republics?

Sione A. Mokofisi - mba

Havelu, Tongatapu.