TONGA: Crown Prince blasts former Minister over media law

Tupouto'a says Police Minister has personal vendetta against paper and that proposed media law was unconstitutional

Pacific Media Watch
Tuesday, January 25, 2005

NUKU'ALOFA (PIR/Matangi Tonga/Pacific Media Watch): Tonga's Crown Prince Tupouto'a has blamed former Police Minister Clive Edwards over the Pacific kingdom's failed constitutional media curb, saying he was waging a personal vendetta against the Taimi 'o Tonga newspaper.

The prince responded in a letter to Matangi Tonga following publication of a lengthy interview with Edwards who claims he was sacked in August last year.

Edwards says he was forced to resign after being accused by the crown prince of plotting a coup and leading rebel ministers in a campaign against their policies.

Edwards is now campaigning for Tonga's March 17 general election and he hopes to gain one of the commoner seats in Parliament.

In his letter to Matangi Tonga, Crown Prince Tupouto'a said he had read that Edwards had accused him of proposing the controversial Media Operators Act.

The prince said this was "wholly untrue" but as Edwards was running for Parliament, "his wild accusations are, I suppose, understandable".

Prince Tupouto'a said he was opposed to the anti media laws because "they were not our style of doing things in this country".

"The truth is that Clive Edwards believed himself clever enough to harness the Constitution in his personal vendetta against the Taimi 'o Tonga newspaper and its editor Kalafi Moala," the crown prince wrote.

"He failed in this endeavour because of his ignorance of the law. Proof of this unfamiliarity with court procedure is that he was unable to understand that changes to the Constitution should be attended by changes in the judge's rules if they are at all to succeed. This is why his measure failed - something I probably forgot to mention to him at the time."

The crown prince also accused Edwards of misinformation over the nine commoner representatives election procedures.

He said it had been the policy of the Tongan government to "appoint ministers from the ranks of gentlemen and it is in this regard that Clive Edwards's appointment to the cabinet was a mistake."

Of the three dismissed ministers, Edwards was the only one to have broken a convention of keeping Privy Council discussions private, the letter said.

"Floundering about like a beached whale looking for someone to blame for his public disgrace instead of glancing in the mirror is, after all, and provided [Edwards] can tell the difference any more, degrading," added the prince.

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Read the Crown Prince's letter to Matangi Tonga.

PACIFIC MEDIA WATCH is an independent, non-profit, non-government organisation dedicated to examining issues of ethics, accountability, censorship, media freedom and media ownership in the Pacific region. Items are provided solely for review purposes as a non-profit educational service. Copyright remains the property of the original producers as indicated.

Date Posted: 1/25/2005