Following condemnation by the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project for the seizure by the Fiji Police Force of a phone belonging to one of its affiliated journalists after she made a social media post about alleged corruption in the force, Police say it was a necessary step to obtain information in relation to claims of corrupt practices by police officers.
Meri Radinibaravi, an investigative reporting fellow with OCCRP, was called into the Criminal Investigation Department shortly after posting, and quickly deleting the Facebook comment.
According to OCCRP, Radinibaravi says police contacted her on Wednesday afternoon, informing her that they needed to question her regarding her Facebook post, which referenced allegations of corruption during the tenure of Sitiveni Qiliho, a former police commissioner who was later convicted and imprisoned for interfering in a criminal investigation.
Radinibaravi says police told her they would send a squad car to her home to pick her up — a suggestion she found intimidating.
She instead offered to go to the CID office on her own.
She says at the headquarters, a detective from the cybercrime unit questioned her and asked her to type up a formal statement where she wrote that she had made the post without malicious intent and had subsequently deleted it.
OCCRP says after she signed the statement, the detective informed Radinibaravi that the police needed to confiscate her phone for a digital forensic analysis.
They say Radinibaravi initially refused but said she eventually felt forced to surrender the device.
She says she believed the pressure from police may have been connected to her ongoing reporting on sensitive corruption allegations within the department.
While responding, Police say an investigation was directed to verify claims made by the individual in a now deleted post on her personal Facebook page, where she stated in the i-taukei language that she was told by a police officer that members of a task force had shared $150,000 found during a drug raid.
They say the accusations were serious enough to warrant an investigation that is now being conducted by the CID.
Police say investigators had reached out to her, to get more information, whereby she voluntarily came in and during the interview process willingly handed over her phone to assist with investigations.
They say while the individual has apologised and removed her post, the Fiji Police Force is treating these allegations seriously and will continue to verify the claims through the conduct of the investigation.
Police stress that the claims being made that the move was intended to suppress media freedom are not true, as the interview was conducted to gather more information regarding the accusations made.
They add the Fiji Police Force is committed to regaining public trust and confidence, and such claims if left unverified, harm current efforts.
Police are reminding members of the public to exercise their freedom of speech and expression responsibly.
