Who would have pegged Fiji as the latest black hole for press freedom? Evan Hannah, the Australian publisher of the Fiji Times (owned by Rupert Murdoch), was expelled from the country under military escort today (oops -- "escorted from home with courtesy," according to the Fiji government) despite a court order that he be allowed to appeal his deportation. It's part of a trend, too, coming two months after the expulsion of Fiji Sun publisher Russell Hunter.

Today, the Fiji Sun spoke out in an editorial:

"Yesterday was a sad day for Fiji. On the eve of World Press Freedom Day, the interim Prime Minister, Commodore Voreqe Bainimarama announced that his government supported media freedom with the usual qualification that it must be 'responsible' though he was silent on who the media should be responsible to. ...Again we see a regime that considers itself above the law. The best the solicitor-general could do in the High Court yesterday was offer to discover whether the High Court order preventing Mr Hannah’s removal had been served on the people responsible for it.

What nonsense. The whole of Fiji was aware of the existence of the order and, served or not, the solicitor-general and his boss the attorney-general as officers of the court, are morally if not legally obliged to ensure that its orders were carried out. They did nothing of the kind - in fact they did just the opposite.

There are photographs and film of Mr Hannah’s legal advisers serving the order on immigration officials. Air Pacific to its great credit acknowledged the existence of the order and declined to take Mr Hannah to Sydney. Not so the military. A middle ranking soldier, no doubt on orders from higher up, put Mr Hannah on a flight to Korea instead. The officer and his superior should be - but won’t be - brought to account. They are to all intents and purposes beyond the law.

This is today’s Fiji - a land in which a person can lie to parliament, conceal funds overseas, seek to avoid paying tax on them and yet occupy one of the highest of public offices. But woe betide the publishers whose editors and journalists truthfully and fearlessly report such wrongdoings.

For Cdre Bainimarama to pronounce media freedom as guaranteed in the constitution on a day such as yesterday is to say the least unfortunate.

These are dark days for Fiji and we greatly fear that they will soon grow darker still."

How much longer will that editorial writer remain on the island?

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith called the deportation "a reprehensible attack by the illegal Fiji interim government on human rights and freedom of speech." Reporters Without Borders added, "The government must stop its schizophrenic behaviour, consisting of recognising that press freedom is a constitutional right, on the one hand, while continuing to harass journalists, on the other."

And the headline at the Fiji Times today? "We won't shut up."