MATA’UTU (Oceania Flash) — Wallis island’s only weekly newspaper, Te Fenua Fo’ou, says it was subjected to further attacks from a so-called “custom police” that had earlier applied pressure and attempted to close the media outlet.
The latest move is believed to be caused by further discontent from the royal authorities of ‘Uvea, or Wallis, about a controversial story published recently.
Keys to the newspaper’s office last month were seized by the “custom police” chief who also raided the office and took some modems and computer hard disks belonging to the weekly.
They were given back to the police earlier this week.
However, the paper had managed to go to press last week in spite of the royal ban and through alternative printers in New Caledonia, where it enjoys a strong readership among the strong Wallisian community.
However, editor Laurent Gourlez claimed Tuesday there had been another raid from the “custom police” which this time damaged furniture and tore off a telephone.
The “custom” official was apparently angered at the publication of the latest issue of Te Fenua Fo’ou.
Publisher Michel Bodineau later called on the French police to attend the scene and take note of the damage caused.
He also filed a case claiming “obstruction to the exercise of freedom” and questioned why no one had yet been arrested in relation to what he termed “repeated acts of vandalism.”
In the light of last month’s events, international press rights defense association Reporters Sans Frontieres had officially protested to local authorities, urging them to ensure rights guaranteed under the French Constitution were also upheld in France’s most remote overseas territory.
Bodineau, however, said he now had to lay off all of his staff due to “a force against which I cannot resist.”
Last month, the weekly claimed it was subjected to pressure and threats from the king of Wallis for publishing a story related to a recent court decision made by a Mata’Utu court.
The court ruled a woman candidate, Make Pilioko, who had earlier been written off the electoral roll for alleged corruption and was later allowed to contest last month’s territorial assembly elections.
The king ofWallis, the “Lavelua,” had also thrown his support behind the woman candidate to the territorial assembly elections, but she was eventually not elected.
