Facebook blocked on Nauru due to 'paranoia' about media scrutiny, says former president
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Version 0 of 1. A former Nauruan president says the country’s government is paranoid about media scrutiny after access to Facebook on the island was blocked. Last week opposition MPs reported that Nauru’s internet provider, Digicel, blocked access to the social media site. Residents on Nauru confirmed they were unable to use it. The government said blocking internet sites was necessary to crack down on pornography. The justice minister, David Adeang, said in a release Nauru was a small country with limited resources “and we do not have the capability to monitor the internet like larger nations, so this move and our new laws are both significant measures”. Adeang said Digicel had been asked to block a number of websites, but did not specifically mention Facebook. Former president, Sprent Dabwido, who was in office from 2011 to 2013, said Adeang and the president, Baron Waqa, had ordered Digicel to ban Facebook on the island “so that the Nauruan people couldn’t criticise them”. The ban showed Waqa and Adeang’s “paranoia was openly on display”, he said. Dabwido accused Adeang of trying to extend control over local media to outside bodies. “We’ve seen what he’s done to our local media by taking away its independence and turning it into his personal mouthpiece,” he said. “When he finds he can’t do that with outside media, he refuses them entry, or simply won’t respond to their telephone inquiries.” The block has made it difficult for asylum seekers and refugees on Nauru to contact people in Australia. The Nauruan government recently introduced an $8,000 application fee for journalists seeking to gain a press visa on Nauru. “You can’t blame any media organisation for not wanting to risk that sort of money knowing they’ll probably get knocked back anyway,” Dabwido said. “So they have to rely on third party accounts which are sometimes not as reliable as they should be.” The Nauruan government did not respond to a request for comment. |