Dear Editor,

The reported arrest and charging of an overseas-based blogger for making serious allegations and threats against public officials is further proof that misinformation and disinformation have become a national security issue for Samoa.

Not long ago, two other individuals were found guilty of similar offences, including threats of assassination.

It is alleged that this fellow has similar plans.

Apparently, he is quite upset about Faatuatua I le Atua Samoa ua Tasi Party Chairman La’auli Polataivao Schmidt's legal problems and believes that the Human Rights Protection Party are personally responsible.

Like La’auli, this blogger will now have his chance in court to explain himself.

But the problem is much more serious than a misguided social media warrior making serious allegations and threats.

Freedom of expression is a right that must be valued.

It cannot be used as an excuse to throw unfounded allegations and deadly threats around.

This freedom must never be used to defame or inflict physical harm.

In recent years, the words fueling this madness have come from the same mouths and keyboards that are determined to tear this nation apart.

Thus, it is not surprising that we have yet to hear La’auli denounce the behaviour of these individuals.

Instead, the language of hate used by overseas-based social media outlets continues to divide the diaspora against our local communities.

Nor, for that matter, has the Prime Minister Fiame Naomi Mata’afa ever come out to protect our people from the non-stop disinformation that has hurt and divided Samoa.

So much for both of them quoting bible verses and unifying the nation.

I have experienced the dangers of these threatening words and the actions of desperate people.

Apart from the two recent cases, I was also the target of the assassins who killed a prominent HRPP Cabinet Minister in 1999.

Those were the actions of desperate men, driven by greed and hate.

We are seeing that desperation emerge again.

The only protection we have is the rule of law.

Those who choose to falsely accuse others of serious crimes or threaten physical harm must be held accountable.

Our freedom to be heard was won by civil rights champions, chiefs and villages who defied colonisers, soldiers on battlefields, academics and students, and citizens who opposed tyranny.

Let us not lose that freedom to fools who think they're wise.

Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi

Leader of HRPP