Thursday, May 14, 2015

Nauru is turning into a full-on dictatorship

Driven by the pressure of hosting Australia's unwanted refugees, Nauru is turning into a full-on dictatorship. So far the Nauran government has evicted the opposition from Parliament (for "treason" for speaking to foreign media, to boot), exiled the judiciary, and shut down Facebook. Now they're ending freedom of speech, with draconian laws to punish those who speak out against them:
The Nauru government is further tightening controls to curb dissent.

It is amending the criminal code to make any comment deemed to cause emotional stress and likely to threaten public order an offence punishable with up to seven years in jail.

In introducing the amendment, the justice minister David Adeang says the freedom of speech has of late been tainted with somewhat vile and tasteless words.


New Zealand currently provides $2 million a year to Nauru, a significant portion of the government's budget. But we're now funding a dictatorship. Isn't it time we stopped?