Fiji: Telecoms spying admitted

Anti-regime websites in Fiji are confirming there is cause for concern over possible phone and internet tapping by the Fiji government leading up to the election.

Vodafone has admitted it has “secret wires that allow government agencies to listen to all conversations on its networks”, saying they are widely used in some of the 29 countries in which it operates “in Europe and beyond”.

Fiji is listed as one of those countries in a report by The Guardian newspaper, where Vodafone admits it allowed state surveillance 760 times in Fiji during 2013.

Vodafone Fiji has denied as recently as April it even has the technology to allow phone and internet tapping.

Section 63 of the electoral decree prohibits people from communicating political messages by telephone, internet, email, social media or other electronic means 48 hours before polling opens and there is wide concern the regime will tap phones and monitor internet to prevent breaches.

Vodafone has previously denied it has the facilities to monitor calls and text messages, insisting it can only access phone records via police or court warrant.

It has also said there is no legislation in place which would allow for telecommunication operators to intercept text messages, phone calls or internet messages.

The Guardian newspaper report, however, says Vodafone has revealed “wires had been connected directly to its network and those of other telecommunication groups, allowing agencies to listen to or record live conversations and, in certain cases, track the whereabouts of a customer”.

Concerns about phone and internet monitoring in Fiji is not new.

The subject has come up before on anti-regime websites, including revelations from former military commander, Roko Ului Mara, who said the regime started tapping phones in 2007.

Mara said both Connect and Vodafone do it, but Vodafone was the worst.

Others have attested also that the regime uses experts from both India and China to spy on Fiji citizens, especially its critics.

The Guardian reports says that in about six of the countries in which Vodafone operates, the law either obliges telecoms operators to install direct access pipes, or allows governments to do so.

The company, which owns mobile and fixed broadband networks, has not named the countries involved because certain regimes could retaliate by imprisoning its staff.