Supreme Court reserves judgement in Taimi ban case
Title -- 3998 TONGA: Supreme Court reserves judgement in Taimi ban case
Date -- 27 March 2003
Byline -- None
Origin -- Pacific Media Watch
Source -- Radio NZ International 27/3/03
Copyright -- RNZI
Status -- Unabridged
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SUPREME COURT RESERVES JUDGEMENT IN TAIMI 'O TONGA BAN CASE
NUKU'ALOFA: (Radio NZI/Pacific Media Watch): The judicial review of a Tongan government ban of the Taimi 'o Tonga newspaper has finished with the Supreme Court reserving judgement until next Thursday, Radio New Zealand International reports.
Last month, the Tongan government declared the New Zealand-printed newspaper a prohibited import after alleging that the paper wanted to overthrow the government.
Later, Tonga’s Privy Council declared the newspaper a prohibited document.
During this week’s proceedings, the paper presented seven witnesses while the government had four witnesses take the stand.
The government has argued that the Privy Council cannot be subjected to a judicial review.
The New Zealand government has criticised the Tongan move, with the foreign minister, Phil Goff, saying the Tongan government could have tested its case by taking the paper to court in either New Zealand or Tonga.
PACIFIC MEDIA WATCH is an independent, non-profit, non-government organisation comprising journalists, lawyers, editors and other media workers, dedicated to examining issues of ethics, accountability, censorship, media freedom and media ownership in the Pacific region. Launched in October 1996, it has links with the Journalism Program at the University of the South Pacific, Bushfire Media based in Sydney, Journalism Studies at the University of PNG (UPNG), the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ), Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, and Community Communications Online (c2o).
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