Clive Edwards (Tonga)

William Clive Edwards OBE (born 11 January 1934) is a former Tongan Cabinet Minister and former Acting Deputy Prime Minister of Tonga. He is a member of the People's Democratic Party.

Edwards was born in Kolofo'ou, Nuku'alofa, Tonga. He was educated at Tonga High School and Auckland Grammar School in New Zealand in 1953 where he gained NZ University Entrance. He studied law at the University of Auckland and practiced in both New Zealand and Tonga before returning to Tonga permanently in 1994.

In 1996, Edwards was appointed to the Tongan Cabinet (and therefore the Tongan Parliament) by His Majesty, Taufa'ahau Tupou IV, and served as Minister of Police, Prisons & Fire Services, and acting Deputy Prime Minister. He earned the nicknames "the royal hitman" and "the hangman" for his role in enforcing capital punishment. Edwards was an opponent of democracy, banning the Times of Tonga newspaper, ordering surveillance of pro-democracy meetings, and taking civil action suits against 'Akilisi Pohiva and other democracy activists for defamation.

In 1996 Pohiva and two Times of Tonga journalists, Kalafi Moala and Filokalafi 'Akauola, were found guilty by the Tongan Parliament of Contempt of Parliament, in a matter relating to then Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Lord Tevita Tupou published publicly by the Times, causing them to be jailed for 30 days. Edwards was responsible, in his capacity as Minister of Police and Prisons, for their incarceration. The three were later awarded US$26,000 for wrongful imprisonment. He was the Government spokesperson on all matters in relation to protecting His Majesty, Taufa'ahau Tupou IV. He was Government spokesperson on the passing of media laws which saw the Times of Tonga banned from the country in 2003 as a seditious publication, but the ban was overturned by the Supreme Court. Later in 2003 he laid a defamation complaint against the Times of Tonga after it published an article questioning his use of police housing.

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