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Pacific News Minute: Tiny Pacific Nation Cracks Down on Free Speech, Dissent

U.S. Department of Energy's Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program
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Yesterday, the State Department released its annual report on human rights abuses that listed some of the usual suspects: Iran, China, Russia, North Korea, Syria, and Cuba. Some American allies like: Egypt, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia are also on the list. And for the first time, non-state actors including The Islamic State, Boko Haram and Al Qaeda. One country that will not get into the headlines is the tiny island nation of Nauru. More on the human rights situation there, from Neal Conan in the Pacific News Minute.

Five opposition members of parliament have been suspended from their duties for speaking with foreign media, including the country's former President, Sprent Dabwido.  He denounced a new law that prohibits language that is “threatening abusive or insulting in nature and has the intention to stir up racial, religious or political hatred." Violators can receive seven years in prison. Dabwido said, “The Government and the way they are handling the running of the nation, is more of a dictatorial manner."

In documents published by the Australian Broadcasting Commission, Nauru's justice minister, David Adeang, said the law is necessary for public safety.

“In defense of what?” Dabwido asked him, “Who's attacking Nauru?”

Dabwido and two other oppositions MPS  are now in jail after they were arrested at an anti-government protest last week, called in part over the government's decision to block Facebook and restrict other internet access.

Nauru, the third smallest country in the world after Vatican City and Monaco once enjoyed the world's highest per capita income, but the phosphate deposits that provided that wealth ran out, and about 80 percent of the country's income now comes from the Australian detention center that houses would-be migrants.

Over 36 years with National Public Radio, Neal Conan worked as a correspondent based in New York, Washington, and London; covered wars in the Middle East and Northern Ireland; Olympic Games in Lake Placid and Sarajevo; and a presidential impeachment. He served, at various times, as editor, producer, and executive producer of All Things Considered and may be best known as the long-time host of Talk of the Nation. Now a macadamia nut farmer on Hawaiʻi Island, his "Pacific News Minute" can be heard on HPR Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays.
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