A man charged with cyber stalking in Vanuatu will appear in court today following a series of arrests over Facebook posts that alleged government MPs breached Covid-19 protocols.
Ruben Bong, will appear before the Magistrates Court today, to face charges of cyber stalking.
It will be the first time Vanuatu's new cybercrime laws, which were passed last year, are tested in court.
Witnol Tor, a Facebook group moderator was also taken in by police in April with cyber stalking, cyber libel and cyber slander.
"They accused me of, that it was me who posted those things, I have no idea what they're talking about, about those fake accounts," he said.
The charges, which carry penalties of up to three years in prison and a fine of $36,000, relate to online posts that were made in a political group he ran on Facebook.
The posts alleged that two government MP's breached quarantine.
One of them was first confirmed case of community transmission and the opposition has called for him to be prosecuted for spreading the virus.
Vanuatu's Deputy Prime Minister Ishmael Kalsaku told Pacific Beat the arrests were a police matter and he has confidence in the justice system.
But Witnol Tor believes the charges were politically motivated and will hurt freedom of speech in Vanuatu.
“It's just a bullying tactic towards the media and one of the things that I was concerned about is, the new laws, cyber act. It will have an impact on freedom of expression here if they use this kind of tactic to manipulate the media, it will have an impact on freedom of expression,” he said.
Mr Tor told police that there were thousands of comments being made on the Facebook group and he couldn't monitor them all.
The chief executive of the Vanuatu Human Rights Coalition, Anne Pakoa, said local journalists are worried by the new cybercrime laws.
"They're not free to talk about anything, they're not free to discuss anything, what I heard is that they're not free to meet and talk so for me this is very unfair and as journalists they need to be able to meet and discover and find ways forward so they can better report on the situation."
The Opposition Leader, Ralph Regenvanu, made similar allegations of Covid-19 breaches by government MPs in a Facebook post on March 8th that has been shared more than 500 times.
Mr Regenvanu said he hasn't been charged and that the cases brought against the Facebook moderators were flimsy and unlikely to be held up in court.