Forbes Magazine

And he has stood by his Finance Minister, Dr ‘Aisake Eke for recommending to Cabinet to pay Forbes TOP$230,000 (US$108,000)

He denied allegations that Dr Eke was involved in the initial arrangement for the well-respected global magazine to interview the Prime Minister. Instead, he revealed to Radio and Television Tonga News that the interview was organised by the former Chief Secretary of Cabinet, 'Aholotu Palu. 

The emails show that the dispute over who was responsible for organising and contracting the Magana-O’Callaghan interview with Prime Minister Hon. ‘Akilisi Pohiva for a Forbes advertorial, will drag on for a while.

Kalafi stated, “…how easy to squeeze a quarter of a million pa’anga out of a poor country for a useless piece of cut and paste journalism.” He called it, “a case of envelope journalism in which the interview subject pays the journalists who did the interview.”

This was organised along with the Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva and the Prime Minister’s Office, it was claimed yesterday by Tonga’s Finance Minister.

‘Aisake Eke in a statement, also denied allegations that he had prior knowledge that the interview was contracted to be paid for.

‘Aisake stated that he found out that the government would have to pay up, when he was himself contacted for an interview by the two people who had already interviewed the Prime Minister in Tonga.