Reactions continue to pour in after Fiji Times Publisher Evan Hannah who is an Australian national, was deported today and put on a flight to Korea.

Hannah was picked up by police and immigration officers at his home last night. They told him that they had a deportation order for and took him to the Nadi International Airport. He was then put on a flight bound for Korea this morning.

And on the eve of Media freedom Day, the Fiji Media Council said they were shocked at the action taken against Hannah.

“The Council is shocked and dismayed that on the eve of world freedom day the Interim Government should make such a mockery of it’s claim that the media in Fiji is free,” said Fiji Media Council chairman Daryl Tarte.

He made reference to the similar deportation of Fiji Sun publisher Russell Hunter in February of this year.

“While the media is still coming to terms with the deportation of Russell Hunter, it is rocked by the deportation of the publisher of The Fiji Times, Mr Evan Hannah.

He said the Interim Government was hiding behind a cloak of secrecy and expressed the council’s concern that he had been sent to Korea and not Australia.

“Apparently, Mr Hannah is alleged to have breached his work permit by publishing matters that could be a threat to national security. However, rather than be transparent and publicly explain its action the government is hiding behind a cloak of secrecy.

“The Council is also concerned for the family of Mr. Hannah and is dismayed that he is being deported, not to his home country of Australia, but to Korea.”

Tarte also said that despite trying on numerous occasions, the Fiji Media Council has been unable to set up a meeting with Interim Prime Minister Commodore Frank Bainimarama.

The Executive Director of the Fiji Women’s Rights Movement, Virisila Buadromo, said the interim regime is going against what Interim PM Frank Bainimarama is reported to have said, that his government will uphold media freedom.

The Fiji Human Rights Commission has referred all queries to the Ministry of Information and the Attorney General’s Office.

And head of the Technical Secretariat of the National Council for Building a Better Fiji John Samy said he was asked by the committee members to arrange a meeting with co-chairs Archbishop Petero Mataca and Interim PM Frank Bainimarama to discuss the expulsion of Hannah this morning.

Fiji Times publisher Evan Hannah was deported this morning from the Nadi International Airport and put on a flight to Korea. A Court Order issued by High Court Judge Justice Filimoni Jitoko ordering that Hannah be presented before his at the Suva High Court this afternoon was not adhered to.

The Fiji Law Society has said it is ironic that the deportation of Fiji Times Publisher Evan Hannah has happened one day before Media Freedom Day.

Society president, Isireli Fa said the society understood that the Court Order was served to appropriate authorities in good time to allow compliance and this now raises the question of whether or not the rule of law is in operation in Fiji.

The Police Commissioner Commodore Esala Teleni has been quick to deny police involvement in the deportation saying that no police officers were involved in taking Fiji Times Publisher Evan Hannah from his home in Suva to Nadi.

He refuted reports that a police officer went with immigration officials to visit Hannah’s Tamavua home at around 7pm yesterday despite photographs of the arrest of Hannah showing a person clad in police uniform in the background. Teleni refused to comment further.