5 September 2000

Alert

AFP journalist declared "undesirable"


Incident details

Michael Field

journalist(s)


(RSF/IFEX) - In a letter to the president of Kiribati (an island in Micronesia), Teburoro Tito, RSF protested against the refusal to grant accreditation to Michael Field, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) journalist based in New Zealand. The organisation asked the president to go back on his decision and to grant accreditation to the journalist so that he could cover the Forum of Pacific Countries Summit. Robert Ménard, RSF's secretary-general, asked the president to ratify the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which among other things protects freedom of expression.


According to information collected by RSF, at the beginning of September 2000, the government of Kiribati refused to grant accreditation to Field, an AFP journalist, for the Forum of sixteen Pacific countries Summit, to be held on Tarawa Island (the main island of the archipelago) in October. In December 1999, the journalist was banned and forced to leave the island, after an article on the problem of unhealthy conditions in Tarawa.




Source:

Reporters Without Borders
47, rue Vivienne
75002 Paris
France
rsf (@) rsf.org
Phone: +33 1 44 83 84 84
Fax: +33 1 45 23 11 51
 

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More on this case

AFP correspondent barred from entering country 8 August 2001 Government says AFP welcome, but not banned journalist 10 October 2000 New Zealand minister appeals to Kiribati over banned journalist 11 September 2000 New Zealand journalist barred 29 November 1999

Kiribati

Public radio journalist fired for refusing to disclose sources for report on corruption 13 January 2006 Government pushes through tough newspaper laws 10 October 2002 Kiribati legislation will enable government to close newspapers 6 June 2002 Government says AFP welcome, but not banned journalist 10 October 2000 New Zealand minister appeals to Kiribati over banned journalist 11 September 2000 See all alerts: Kiribati


 
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