The newspaper said police in the northern town of Labasa had been after reporter, Serafina Silaitoga, since Friday night for a statement.
At 9 a.m. on Sunday, eight police officers armed with a search warrant arrived at her doorstep looking for notebooks and recordings of an her interview she conducted with Labasa businessman Charan Jeath Singh.
Silaitoga had reported on Singh challenging interim Finance Minister Mahendra Chaudhry to admit he received a letter of dismissal from the interim prime minister, and that he now had two weeks left in office.
Police are treating the article as seditious.
The police team took Silaitoga from her home in front of her four children to The Fiji Times office at the Labasa Civic Center building where she handed over a notebook and loose pages containing notes on the interview.
The pregnant Silaitoga was put into a police van and driven to the station at Namara where she was interviewed for two hours.
Speaking after her ordeal, Silaitoga said she was threatened by police on the instructions of the Divisional Crime Officer Northern Inspector Luke Rawalai to give her statement or be kept in custody until a company lawyer showed up.
“The investigating officer made a phone call to the DCO in my presence,” she said. “After that he told me that DCO had said he didn’t know any Netani Rika and I must give my statement by midday or be locked up. I felt coerced and so asked to make a phone call. I called my boss who called the lawyers who in turn called the investigating officer to set matters straight.”
Silaitoga was released at midday.
Fiji Times editor in chief Netani Rika said it was appalling that the police had to resort to threatening his editorial staff members.
“We are willing to cooperate but nothing gives them the right to threaten my staff. We do not appreciate such threats or police going outside the constitutional process to get their work done,” Rika said.
The company will lodge a formal complaint with the police commissioner.
“She had said she wouldn’t make any statement without her lawyers and yet they persisted,” Rika said. “I don’t see anything seditious in the article. “It was the case of one politician challenging another.”
Police spokesperson Ema Mua said the police were investigating the article to determine if it was seditious.
“We are still investigating and have tried to locate Singh who will also be interviewed,” she said.
