vigilant TV

King Taufa’ahau Tupou IV of Tonga has banned possession of the Taimi ‘o Tonga newspaper, which regularly features articles critical of the government. The move follows last month’s customs ban on import copies of the paper, which is published and printed in New Zealand.

[Times of Tonga editor Kalifi Moala] today said they were about to win a Supreme Court injunction against the customs ban when they were served with the new decree yesterday following Friday’s behind-closed-doors Privy Council session.

“They are determined to get us no matter what,” Moala said.

Tongans arriving from overseas are now being greeted by Customs
officers who use a loudspeaker to warn people with the newspaper in
their luggage to “take it out and throw it in the rubbish”.

[...]

The Chief Commissioner of Revenue in the Ministry of Finance, Siosiua
‘Utoikamanu, said it was “a foreign paper owned and published by a
foreigner”, it was “a foreign concern with a political agenda” and
“the continuous standard of journalism is unacceptable”.

– AFP, Tonga’s king ‘bans newspaper’.