This month's controversial clampdown on political broadcasting imposed by the board and management of the Tonga Broadcasting Commission has been extended to include press conferences.

A candidate for this week's general election who invited TBC newsroom staff to a press conference has been stopped from broadcasting his programme.

'Inoke Hu'akau said today that a member of the TBC Board told him the reason the broadcast of his press conference was cancelled was because TBC staff were present at the press conference.

'Inoke was one of several candidates whose earlier programmes were stopped by the TBC board and management on April 8, under a hastily imposed pre-election policy that stated that, "No TBC employee is to host any election programmes."

Candidates who had used TBC presenters were told to re-record their campaign programmes, which could be done at the Board's expense.

'Inoke said instead of a campaign programme he then decided to call a press conference. All the media in Tonga were invited to his press conference to ask questions on Tuesday April 15, and it was booked for broadcasting on Television Tonga the same day. But the programme was not shown.

"I disagree with the board's decision to cancel the broadcast," 'Inoke said today. "It is very important now because the election is only a few days away."

News reporters

He said that all the news media in Tonga, with the exception of the Kele'a, had attended his press conference.

The TBC news editor had sent along news reporters Viola Ulakai and Heti Fifita, in the belief that the TBC's restriction on political campaigns applied to only to TBC presenting and not to news reporting.

"My press conference was not broadcast last week, I was told by a board member Papiloa Foliaki that my programme was cancelled because the TBC staff participated in the press conference."

'Inoke's campaign is based on his point of view that the reforms proposed by government are undemocratic and the first step towards a dictatorship.

He said that one TBC reporter had asked him a question about the reforms and the Tu'ipelehake committee, which he had answered.

'Inoke has called another press conference for this afternoon to record it without TBC staff being present.

Confirmed

Today TBC news staff confirmed that they were surprised the new political restriction was being extended to news conferences that were attended by all the other media in Tonga.

"There is a big difference between hosting a political campaign programme and attending a press conference along with all the other media," said one staff member, who did not want to be named because of the heat in the newsroom.

Damaging to Tonga

The chairman of Tonga's Media Council Inc., Pesi Fonua commented today that the decision by the TBC to cancel candidates' pre-election programmes was very damaging to Tonga.

"The way the world is looking at it is that the government is trying to interfere with public opinion, as was already claimed by the overseas media," he said.