TV Tonga News

Produced by the government-owned Tonga Broadcasting Commission, TV Tonga News is the chief provider of news and information for television viewers in the tiny South Pacific island kingdom. Currently reaching almost three quarters of the nation's 100,000-strong population, this program -- broadcast five nights a week in both English and Tongan -- highlights the daily major events throughout Tonga and the South Pacific, blending a mix of local, regional, and international news. But beneath all the hype, TV Tonga News is just another sad example of how press freedom in Tonga has rapidly degenerated to all new levels of subjugation and autocracy. Laws allowing changes to the country's constitution have been passed by Cabinet, making it now illegal for Tongan media to publish or broadcast anything even remotely critical of their own government.