Tongan defamation ruling a 'wake up call', say editors

By Josephine Latu: Pacific Media Watch

As World Media Freedom Day marks a strengthened drive towards free speech and a free press in the Pacific, some media editors in Tonga are more concerned with the alleged abuse of these rights.

A recent defamation case involving the Kele’a newspaper has focused public attention on the balance between media freedom and media responsibility in Tonga.

In late March, Tonga’s Supreme Court imposed a crushing fine of TOP$500,000 in damages on the pro-democracy newspaper Kele’a for defaming the Prime Minister, Dr Feleti Sevele, and his economic adviser Rob Solomon.

The newspaper was also told to run a front-page apology to the prime minister for six weeks.

The case involved a letter to the editor published in October 2007, making allegations about Solomon’s appointment to the prime minister’s office, and a July 2007 editorial making allegations about the prime minister over government loans from China.

A regional media freedom group, Pacific Freedom Forum, recently condemned the ruling as “excessive” and “draconian”, making the comparison that “on a per capita basis, the fine would be equivalent to a NZ$8.3 million judgment in New Zealand - an unheard of amount even for a much bigger country and economy".

However, Taimi Media Network head Kalafi Moala, who oversees both the Taimi ‘o Tonga and the Tonga Chronicle, as well as Talaki deputy editor Tevita Motulalo, disagree.

“If you’re going to say something is ‘excessive’, you have to go back to the offence and examine how excessive the offence was,” said Moala.

“We’re talking about two years of constant accusations and defamation.”

Personal attacks
He believes Kele’a continues to violate other Tongans’ right to free expression by personally attacking those who do not hold the same political views in their newspaper.

Moala has also been accused by Kele’a of using government resources allocated for the Chronicle to benefit his independent newspaper, Taimi ‘o Tonga – an allegation Moala rejects.

Talaki’s Motulalo also applauded the judge’s decision, calling the ruling a “wake up call” for the press to be more cautious and accurate about what they print.

“Press freedom is related to the people’s right to know – not just to know any information, but the correct information,” he told Pacific Media Watch.

Pesi Fonua, president of the Tonga Media Council and editor of Matangi Tonga Online, said that there was always a possibility of abusing media freedom, although he pointed out that people should be allowed to make “fair comment” on public figures.

“With defamation you have to take it case by case. The Defamation Act needs to be looked at. It makes it difficult to differentiate who is a public figure,” he said.

However, acting director of the Friendly Islands Human Rights and Democracy Movement, and former publisher of Kele’a, Siosiua Po’oi Pohiva, said the lawsuit indicated the government was “desperate” and “out to crush” the newspaper.

He is one of three people named defendants in the lawsuit.

Pohiva defended the newspaper’s role to “provide an alternative perspective in the media and to look at things in a way that would benefit the people”, saying that most of the media in Tonga were “puppets” of the government.

“We’re afraid the quality of journalism in Tonga may be held back or threatened by money and power,” he said.

Pohiva believes the defamation case should have been struck out because the editor at the time, Tavake Fusimalohi, died in December 2007, thus preventing a fair investigation.

The court has placed the Kele’a under receivership, managed by accountant ‘Aisake Tu’iono. He has until May 15 to collect money from the defendants and come up with a report.

Josephine Latu is contributing editor of Pacific Media Watch at AUT's Pacific Media Centre.

Kele'a damages ruling excessive, says PFF
Supreme Court awards damages against Kele'a

Publisher’s book 'speaks directly' to global Tongans

By Steve Chae: Pacific Media Centre

An outspoken Tongan journalist and publisher has released a new book that speaks directly to Tongan communities in New Zealand about the dilemmas of culture and the global diaspora.

Kalafi Moala’s book, In Search of the Friendly Islands, deals with core issues of violence and a vision towards peaceful change in the Tongan communities both inside and outside of Tonga.

“The title of the book is appropriate because the Tongan communities in New Zealand are still in search of peace and there are no answers yet,” said Rev Epeli Taungapeau, of Manurewa Methodist Church, who was at the book launch at the Onehunga Community Centre last weekend.

He cited the roadside shooting of 17-year-old Halatau Naitoko by police in Auckland earlier this year as an example of violence impacting on the community.

He was concerned about the violence people see in mainstream media, saying: “Tongan communities here have to search for ways to make New Zealand a peaceful island.”

In Tonga, violence has increased related to the struggle for democracy in the only kingdom among Pacific Island countries.

Since 1989, Moala has published a bi-weekly newspaper, Taimi ‘o Tonga (Times of Tonga), criticising the monarchy and advocating democracy.

Banned paper
This was banned for a period in Tonga but Moala continued to publish the paper in Auckland since 1995. It is now based again in the Tonga capital of Nuku’alofa.

Moala has lived abroad extensively in US and New Zealand, but now lives in Tonga. He has observed the diaspora of Tongan communities and the issues they are facing, including violence.

Moala said it was important to ask why this was happening and to think about the alternatives.
He believed it came down to the “character of the man”.

He said that Tongan people’s faith in religion in the time of a “culture of transition” will see Tongan communities move towards peace.

Tongan Advisory Council chair Melino Maka said the people wanted their community media to discuss more proactively all of the issues happening inside and outside of Tonga.

He believed expanding Tongan talkback radio was important as it was the most effective way to channel people’s voices on these issues.

Moala’s book will be launched in Tonga this weekend.

Picture: Tongan broadcaster and community advocate Will 'Ilolahia (right) shares a joke at the book launch. Photo: Del Abcede.

Steve Chae is a student journalist on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course at AUT University.

Review: Master storyteller's challenging vision

In Search of the Friendly Islands, by Kalafi Moala. Hawai'i: Pasifika Foundation Press, and Auckland, NZ: Pacific Media Centre (AUT University).
ISBN 978-1-877314-75-9. 148 pp.

Reviewed by Josephine Latu: Pacific Media Watch

Kalafi Moala is no stranger to confrontation. He spent 26 days in prison for contempt of Parliament in 1996, along with MP ‘Akilisi Pohiva and fellow journalist Filo ‘Akau’ola. The ruling was later overturned as “unconstitutional”, but this didn’t stop the government from systematically banning his newspaper, Taimi ‘o Tonga, from the kingdom - twice.

Before that, the Taimi team had suffered numerous raids, arrests and threats at the hands of the authorities.

Things have changed since these landmark crackdowns on media freedom - Moala has now taken over the government-owned Chronicle as one of his projects – but as his new book proves, the man still has an uncompromising propensity to "tell it like it is".

In Search of the Friendly Islands, his sophomore publication, is sure to make waves - and not only with the governing authorities. It is a jolting dose of realism for any Tongan.

The title addresses Moala's scepticism with the myth of a perpetually serene and culturally idolised “Friendly Islands”. Instead, the Tonga he portrays is a problematic site of contested power, tangled by the influences of modernisation and globalisation.

In less than 150 pages, the book probes the gross contradictions found in Tongan culture - chronic violence, elitism, and religious hypocrisy, among others, interweaving historical accounts, philosophical reflections, and political analysis with lucid real-life stories. It’s what Moala calls the “Pacific mode of story-telling”.

He argues that the traditional Tongan culture is rooted deep in a system of domination and oppression. But importantly, more than just politics, it involves the power of “men over women, parents over children, aristocrats over peasants, nobles over commoners, teachers over students, priests and ministers over laity, and rulers over people” (p. 31). It’s how Tongans relate to the world.

Cultural brutality
This ideology of domination-oppression has inspired the violence common in both Tongan history (the "Dark Ages" of bloody civil war) and today’s communities. The very first pages vividly recount actual stories of such cultural brutality.

“Social conditioning” drives it home, and from a very young age, a Tongan child will learn that there is a pecking order, and everyone knows their place.

Yet, in a grim twist, Moala spends a chapter discussing how the “oppressed became the oppressor” during the notorious 16/11 riot of 2006 that destroyed 80 percent of the capital’s business district and left eight people dead. A long-time champion of reform, he explicitly denounces members of the current democratic party, as well as the foreign press who persist in portraying them as “the” voice of the people.

"Parachute journalists" ignore all the knotty facets in Tonga’s political movements - break-away parties, factions and turncoats – let alone understand the role of culture.

However, any Tongan is vulnerable to moral corruption and self-interest, and Moala follows with many an amusing anecdote that show the ambiguity of Tongans towards certain "Christian" or "traditional" fundamentals. For instance, forms of “trickery” or deceit are often condoned – if you can get away with it.

Meanwhile, Chinese immigrants are heavily discriminated against precisely because they are stereotyped as “cunning”. Ironically still, at the macro-level, Tongans rely on huge injections of aid from the Chinese government, in a relationship that will likely be permanent.

Moala continues to probe Tongan politics and society and the last three chapters of the book deal with the hefty issues of culture, social structure and spirituality. His challenge is to approach reform at a deeper level of ideology and psyche.

The key problem is not the lack of seats for People’s Representatives in Parliament, but the mentality that had normalised this system for years - one steeped in a culture of domination and oppression, and still very much around.

Soul-searching
For Kalafi, political reform can only fully come about with cultural reform, and it can only be successful through soul-searching at a spiritual level.

In Search of the Friendly Islands is a courageous book with an essentially positive message – one that heralds change. It will likely garner some disapproval because it is so candid (as professor Ian Campbell speculates in his foreword – “many Tongans will be embarrassed by what Kalafi has to tell them”).

Who would be proud of “the incompetence of Tongan clergy and community leaders” to deal with domestic violence (p. 25), or child-rearing habits that yield “Tongan kids [who] do not argue; they just attack each other” (p. 28)?

However, Moala’s clever style is not to simply state his opinions as truth. A master storyteller, he provides personal stories and incidents well-known in the community, and asks, "well don’t you see it too?"

It takes a degree of guts to bring one’s own views to the public forum, and invite debate and much-needed dialogue.

After all, what Moala sees as “deceit” among Tongans, others may see as resourcefulness - a resistance to the moral regime; what he sees as political self-ambition, others may see as vital radicalism; and while much of his descriptions appear to be about Tongans "in general", others may wish to avoid generalisations about any culture. There are always pockets of resistance to any status quo – Moala himself represents one of them.

He rightly points out that “culture is not God Almighty” (p. 111). One will always find contradictions as old becomes new, young becomes old, ideas are borrowed while others are lost.

The challenge for modern Tongan culture is how our people can adapt to these changes in a way that is safe, productive and constructive for everyone. There are questions to ponder together - what traditions should be kept and what can be done away with? Should Tonga immediately "cut and paste" a foreign model of democracy? How can leaders effectively convey changes to the masses?

As a Tongan, reading this book was wholly engrossing - but not because I agree with everything Moala writes. The most important contribution of this book is that it encourages the reader to look beneath the surface, inviting different interpretations and reactions that will hopefully result in dialogue.

The issues - moral, cultural, political - are apparent in any society faced with globalisation and development. However, people need to be encouraged to question why things are the way they are and whether there are different solutions.

Josephine Latu is contributing editor of Pacific Media Watch at AUT University.

In Search of the Friendly Islands is available from:
Pasifika Foundation Press, Hawai'i, or
Pacific Media Centre, RRP NZ$34.95

New book by former Tongan dissident
Media crusader's blighted dream

Hard-hitting publisher optimistic for Tonga's future

By Kacey Maher: Pacific Media Centre

Journalist and publisher Kalafi Moala has declared an optimistic vision for Tonga, saying: “My dream is that we will have a nation with freedom without domination, order without tyranny.”

“We're searching, we are seeking together as a people, for those solutions.”

It was a startling message contrasting sharply with a widespread image of white beaches, delicious food, and melodic singing that many people hold of the “friendly islands”.

Moala himself is softly-spoken, jovial and perpetually smiling.

Yet Moala is a hard-hitting journalist who has spent more than his fair share of time imprisoned or banned from his home country due to his paper Taimi ‘o Tonga’s past efforts to promote democratic reform.

Kalafi Moala was launching his new book, In Search of the Friendly Islands, at the Onehunga Community Centre and Library at the weekend.

His book is an attempt to educate both Tongans and non-Tongans about hidden truths behind the country’s peaceful demeanor - truths that, according to many who attended the launching, are mostly forgotten.

“There's a certain denial in Tonga that anything bad ever happens,” said American Hilary Scothorn, who, as an art historian has visited the country with her Tongan husband, artist Philip Tohi, on many occasions.

The book is “re-reporting” incidents that Tongans may have felt more comfortable forgetting, she said.

'Courageous book'
“I think it’s a very courageous book,” said New Zealand journalist Dr David Robie, who is director of AUT University’s Pacific Media Centre, in his speech at the book release.

“It is something of a reality check.”

Moala wastes no time getting to the point in his book.

“For me, the innocence for which my country of birth has been known was truly broken with the killing of ‘Ova and Ngauamo’s suicide,” writes Moala.

The first chapter, entitled “This is not the friendly way,” describes this and other brutal murders committed by Tongans, both on the islands and abroad in an attempt to highlight the growing trend of violence within Tongan communities.

The next chapter is no more forgiving, explaining how even the term “Friendly Islands”, given to Tonga by Captain James Cook, was an ironic misnomer.

Cook came up with the nickname after being welcomed and feasted by the chiefs of the island but, Moala corrects, the feast was organised in order to murder Cook and steal his ships.

Cook was saved only by the disorganisation of the chiefs and the subsequent failure of the plan, Moala writes.

Eye for the truth
And it is this unapologetic eye for the truth that has landed Moala in conflict with the Tongan authorities at times.

In 2004, his then Auckland-based Taimi was denied a licence by the Tongan government because of its criticism and “outsider’s” view.

Moala’s first book, Island Kingdom Strikes Back (2002), gives an account of both the newspaper’s struggle and that of his family for an open forum of information.

Broadcaster Sefita Hao’uli, and longtime friend of Moala, said: “I have never seen the floor of Tonga’s prison and I never would want to - even if you paid me.”

He praised Moala’s courageous attempts to tell the truth in the face of government censorship—attempts that saw him both imprisoned and banned from Tonga.

“But for someone to stick to a principle…that takes some courage.”

Moala’s paper suffered most during the constitutional monarchy of King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV. For nearly 40 years until he died, the king ruled with near absolute power.

However, King George Tupou V has brushed aside the authoritarian-type rule of his father and has begun to introduce a dialogue of democratic reform for the island nation that has been a constitutional monarchy for 160 years.

Mood for change
Now, in 2009, with a more relaxed government under King Tupou V and a growing feeling among Tongans that they want things to change, Moala is back living in Tonga and has absorbed the government-run paper the Chronicle into his publishing business.

“Twenty years ago we were told by the Chronicle that we wouldn’t last two months,” said Moala in his speech. Now, 20 years later Taimi ‘o Tonga owns the Chronicle.

However, despite the changes and the pathways towards reform, Moala’s optimism is cautious.

“No one has come up with any reliable assurances either of whether the system we are changing into is going to be better than what we now have,” Moala writes in his book.

The real change of reform, he says, is coming from the Tongans living abroad - those who, with a greater world view, can see Tonga’s place in the global society.

Once solutions are found, they will help not just Tonga but the entire Pacific region, according to Ana Currie, who heads the Pasifika Foundation Press.

“The whole region right now is in a fight for self-determination,” said Currie, “Tonga has the potential to be a shining beacon for all of the Pacific Islands.”

Photo of Kalafi Moala at the book launch by Alan Koon.

Katherine Maher is an American student journalist on the Asia-Pacific Journalism course as part of her Study Abroad programme at AUT University.