Fiji imposes holiday ban on newsman

A New Zealand journalist has been banned from holidaying in Fiji.

Jeff Hampton of 3 News was turned back when he arrived at Nadi Airport with his family.

Mr Hampton said Fijian officials told him he should return to New Zealand on the next plane.

Prime Minister Helen Clark yesterday expressed concern over the ban.

Mr Hampton said the Fijians told him he was a "prohibited immigrant" and would be arrested if he insisted on entering Fiji.

He had had no notification from the Suva Government that he was not allowed to enter the country. "It was completely out of the blue."

Mr Hampton left his wife and three boys to continue their holiday and returned to New Zealand on the same plane he had arrived on on Sunday afternoon.

The award-winning journalist was news director at Fiji TV in 1996 and 1997.

He said the Fiji High Commissioner yesterday told him the ban related to two stories about armed gunmen in Fiji that had upset the Fijian Government when they appeared on 3 News in late 2000.

The items showed footage of Fijian men firing automatic rifles outside an Indian school complex on the island of Vanua Levu.

Hampton was sent the footage by an Indian cameraman in Fiji.

The stories were the subject of a complaint by the then Fiji High Commissioner, Isimeli Bainimara, to the Broadcasting Standards Authority.

Mr Bainimara claimed the stories were inaccurate and misleading.

The authority upheld only one of eight aspects of the complaint, finding that TV3 had inappropriately described the footage as "the latest incident" when it was in fact two weeks old.

Helen Clark said it was bad enough for the Fijian Government to have a blacklist, but the least it could have done was to tell Mr Hampton he was on it.

"I think it is a concern that people don't know that they are subject to such prohibitions and one would question the need for a prohibition in any case," she said. "It is not a great advertisement for Fiji's tourism industry for this to happen."

Helen Clark said it was wrong that a journalist was punished for doing his job.

"I understand he had footage four years ago about what was happening in Fiji and wrote his story around that.

"In our country we defend that as free speech and fair opinion and I would hope Fiji would be able to see it that way."

TV3 head of news and current affairs Mark Jennings said the ban showed a lack of respect for press freedom and he supported the Prime Minister's call for any blacklist to be made public.

- NZPA, additional reporting: Juliet Rowan