Judge to hear fresh pleas

Afresh plea will be heard tomorrow from accused persons charged in the alleged sedition case involving Fiji Times Limited executives.

The accused namely Nai Lalakai column writer Josaia Waqabaca, Nai Lalakai Editor Anare Ravula, Fiji Times Editor-In-Chief Fred Wesley, its publisher Hank Arts and the newspaper company appeared in the Suva High Court yesterday.

The State had filed a notice of motion seeking leave of the court to amend the information. The proposed amendment to the information is:

■ On the first count of sedition, between April 20 and 27 of 2016, Waqabaca is alleged to have committed a seditious act, namely submitted an article written by him for publication in the Nai Lalakai newspaper, with a seditious intention to promote feelings of illwill and hostility between different classes of the population of Fiji.

■ On the second count Ravula is charged with aiding and abetting sedition.

On or about April 27, 2016 Ravula is alleged to have aided and abetted Arts to publish an article in the Nai Lalakai newspaper published on April 27, 2016 which was a seditious publication in that it had a tendency to promote ill-will and hostility between different classes of the population of Fiji.

The charge read that as the editor of the

Nai Lalakai newspaper Ravula was allegedly under a contractual duty to assist Arts to publish the April 27, 2016 edition of the

Nai Lalakai newspaper by ensuring editorial standards were maintained, including a duty to prevent the publication of any seditious publication therein, and his failure to prevent the publication of the said seditious publication aided and abetted Arts to publish the said seditious publication.

■ On the third count of aiding and abetting sedition it is alleged that on or about April 27, 2016 Wesley aided and abetted Arts to publish an article in the Nai Lalakai newspaper published on April 27, 2016 which was a seditious publication in that it had a tendency to promote ill-will and hostility between different classes of the population of Fiji.

As the editor-in-chief of the Nai Lalakai newspaper Wesley was allegedly under a contractual duty to assist Arts to publish the April 27, 2016 edition of the Nai Lalakai newspaper by ensuring editorial standards were maintained, including a duty to prevent the publication of any seditious publication therein, and his failure to prevent the publication of the said seditious publication aided and abetted Arts to publish the said seditious publication.

On the fourth count Arts is charged with sedition. Lalakai ■

On April 27, 2016 as the publisher of the Nai

newspaper he allegedly published an article in the April 27, 2016 edition of the Nai

Lalakai newspaper which was a seditious publication in that it had a tendency to promote ill-will and hostility between different classes of the population of Fiji.

For the fifth count of sedition, Fiji Times Limited ■

being a company having its registered office at 177 Victoria Parade, Suva, and as the printer of Nai Lalakai newspaper allegedly printed the April 27, 2016 edition of the Nai Lalakai newspaper which contained an article which was a seditious publication in that it had a tendency to promote ill-will and hostility between different classes of the population of Fiji.

All four defence counsels objected to the proposed amendment on the ground that it would embarrass them in their defence. They argued that the proposed amendment had no clarity about the specific seditious words or passages in the article which caused embarrassment to them.

They submitted that the information in its present form was founded on the allegation that a certain passage in the article had a seditious tendency in promoting the feeling of ill-will and hostility between different classes of the population of Fiji.

In contrast to the present information, the prosecution proposed that through the amendment the entire article was a seditious publication.

In his ruling, Justice Thushara Rajasinghe did not find that the proposed amendment to the information caused any embarrassment to the accused’s in their defence.

He ordered the prosecution to remove the annexure to the information and also to specifically provide the details of the classes of population for which the article promoted feelings of ill-will and hostility in the particulars of offence.

The case continues tomorrow.