22 May 2007

NZ bloggers offer help to counter Fiji military crackdown

6:24 am on 22 May 2007

New Zealand bloggers have offered to host their Fiji counterparts on their sites to help them exercise free speech as the Fiji groups come under pressure from the military.

A spokesman for the New Zealand bloggers, David Haywood, says bloggers from across the political arena would offer material support to Fiji webloggers.

In a statement, Mr Haywood has also called on the New Zealand government to condemn the Fiji interim regime's acts of violence and censorship against the non-violent blogging movement.

He says the Fijian military regime has declared anonymous pro-democracy bloggers to be a threat to national security and has attempted to block access to common hosting sites.

My Haywood says New Zealand bloggers have agreed to publish guest articles by Fijian boggers and, where possible, they would provide hosting on their servers for Fijian blogs.

Earlier, the director of the Fiji Human Rights Commission, Dr Shaista Shameem, said hate speech published on blog sites was not protected under the freedom of speech and expression provisions of the Constitution.