The Tongan people, for the last three weeks have been deprived of reading newspapers, including the Tongan government's own newspaper.

Warnings of severe penalties for unlicensed publishers and booksellers, along with police raids on shops, have kept Tongan newspapers off the news stands.

Last November the Tongan government banned the publication of any newspaper unless various Newspaper licences were issued, to publishers, sellers and importers. The deadline for applications for Newspaper Licences was December 31.

However, after the Registrar for Newspapers was queried on the fact that the Media Act was not made public until December 24, and therefore no time was given to study the Act and to prepare application forms, the newspaper registration unit postponed the Deadline to January 31.

The situation became complicated, when Police raided small shops and confiscated the Taimi 'o Tonga newspaper and cash on January 7, and it was then conveyed through the coconut wireless that no newspaper was allowed to be published without a licence.

Some publishers ignored the coconut wireless and distributed their papers, including the government's own paper the Kalonikali Tonga on January 16 and the Kele'a on January 21. Other news organisations being sensitive that their application for a licence might be denied, voluntarily ceased publication.

As the shutdown of newspaper publishing in Tonga continued, the last word from the Registrar of Newspaper was a letter on February 2, reminding news organisations that failure to abide by the Newspaper Act of 2003 carried a $10,000 fine or imprisonment not exceeding one year or both. Decisions on licensing applications have not been announced.

For the meantime, Tonga's new media laws have successfully shut down the print media in Tonga.