Media Watch: Hush now [1]
Tuesday, December 30, 2003 - 15:10. Updated on Friday, March 18, 2016 - 17:52.
From Matangi Tonga Magazine Vol. 18, no. 3, December 2003.
These days if Tongans are befuddled by their independent news services, then their government’s information machine is no better.
Take the story about a new baby born to Hon. Lupepau‘u Fusitu‘a, which set the Coconut Wireless buzzing in November. The Taimi ‘o Tonga newspaper jumped on it and published a story on November 11 announcing that Lupepau‘u had given birth to a baby girl only five months after her high profile white wedding to Matai‘ulua Fusitu‘a in June this year. Hon. Lupepau‘u, is seventh in line to the Tongan throne, and her baby will be the King of
Tonga’s first great-grandchild. She left Tonga recently to return to her home in Beijing, China, where she is Tonga’s Honorary Consul.
However, when asked to confirm or deny the report of the birth, a person close to the Royal family who did not want to be named, told Matangi Tonga on November 14, “the baby was not born at the weekend, and whether it was due this week or next I am not going to say, because the media will twist this whatever we say.” The spokesperson said that a baby was expected, but there would be no announcement from the family, asking, “Who’s business is this anyway?”
Then there was the government newspaper Kalonikali Tonga’s “official” version of the story, and considering that the new baby’s grandmother, ‘Eseta Fusitu‘a, as Chief Secretary, heads the government’s information machine it should carry some weight.
But on November 27, the Kalonikali came out with a finger-pointing front page story accusing the Taimi ‘o Tonga of poor journalism and for publishing a lie. The Kalonikali claimed that Lupepau‘u had not given birth. It stressed that if Lupepau‘u had given birth, there would have been an official announcement, to be followed with the naming of the child, which would, of course, be made by the King at an appropriate time. According to the Kalonikali nothing of this sort had taken place and therefore the government paper asserted that the Taimi ‘o Tonga was telling a lie and it should be sued for defamation.
Meanwhile the Tongan Coconut Wireless has gone high tech and e-mails buzzing between three continents are telling Matangi Tonga to “put things right”, because they claim that the Hon. Lupepau‘u gave birth to a baby girl in Beijing on Monday November 17.
Of course, anyone who wants to confirm this beyond any doubt, will have to check the birth records in Beijing.
Lavulavu’s story
Hitting the headlines in October was the Vava‘u No. 2 People’s Representative, ‘Etuate Lavulavu, who was arrested in Utah, USA and allegedly charged with fraudulent use of US, citizenship documents.
‘Etuate was eventually released from jail and returned to Tonga on October 24. When he went back to his seat in the Tongan Legislative Assembly, where he was challenged by Noble Vaha‘i in the House and asked to explain his behaviour. ‘Etuate gave the House his version of what happened.
But it didn’t match what the US government is saying.
The information Matangi Tonga received from the USA Embassy, Suva, was that the Utah press reported that Lavulavu was released last month on $10,000 bail, pending the next hearing in the charges against him for fraud in connection with helping Tongans gain US citizenship.
But Lavulavu told the House that following his arrest, three charges were laid against him. The first two were for the fraud of US citizenship documents, but he said that the prosecutor failed to produce evidence to support their claim and therefore he was set free. The third charge was related to his visa to the US, which he said was later found to be all in order and was also dismissed.
‘Etuate told the House that the Tongan Consul General in San Francisco, Tevita Kolo ki Hakau Fisi, attended one of the hearings and an official report of what happened would be presented to government and to the House later. This report has not been made public.
Violation 121 years ago
In October 1882 the Tongan Parliament passed a Sedition Act, an Act to Regulate the Printing of Newspapers and a Libel Act. The passing of this legislation, though unconstitutional, was aimed at silencing the press.
At the time a paper called the Niu Vakai, which was published by an European Trader, Robert Hanslip, had been very critical of the Prime Minister at the time Rev. Shirley Baker and his policies. The relationship between the Prime Minister and the public continued to deteriorate and led to an attempt to assassinate Baker in 1887, and eventually to his deportation from Tonga in 1890.
The downfall of Rev. Shirley Baker, according to the Tongan Historian Sione Latu Kefu, was that he violated the very Constitution, which he had helped to draft.