MATA-UTU (Pacnews) — The only newspaper in the French territory of Wallis and Futuna has folded after customary police repeatedly trashed its office.
The publisher of Te Fenua Fo-ou, Michel Bodineau, says he has dismissed all his staff and his company will be wound up next week.
The French authorities and the island’s chiefs have remained silent since the customary police began threatening and attacking the paper a month ago.
Bodineau lodged a complaint with the judiciary in the Wallisian capital Mata-Utu, which is now obliged to launch a formal investigation into the violence.
The attacks began after the paper reported that a candidate backed by the king of Wallis was ineligible to contest the elections because she had been convicted of misusing public funds.
