Australian Evan Hannah was confronted by police and immigration officers at his home in military-ruled Fiji and told he was in breach of his work permit, a statement from the paper's parent company News Ltd said.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith described the action as "reprehensible", and called on Fiji's government to hold promised elections within a year.
An application challenging the deportation has been lodged with the Fiji High Court and a result is expected later on Thursday night.
Pending that result, Hannah was expected to fly out of Fiji for Australia early on Friday, Fiji television reported.
"I can confirm I signed the deportation order," Fiji's Foreign Affairs Minister Ratu Epeli Nailatikau told Fiji television.
"He was a threat to national security."
Fiji's military government has been accused of waging a campaign of intimidation against media outlets since it came to power in a coup in December 2006.
In February this year, another Australian Russell Hunter, publisher of the rival Fiji Sun newspaper, was deported after the military regime branded him a threat to the nation's stability.
Hunter's newspaper had carried reports about possible corruption involving Fiji's finance ministry.
In a statement, Smith said the Australian High Commission in Suva has sought urgent consular access to Hannah and would assist his wife and two children, also in Fiji.
"This is yet another reprehensible act in a disturbing pattern of behaviour since the coup of December 2006, which has resulted in the severe erosion of fundamental human rights and the rule of law in Fiji," Smith said.
Other governments in the region would not consider the Fiji interim government's action acceptable, he said.
"I call on the Fiji interim government to respect the civil liberties of all citizens and residents and hold elections by the first quarter of 2009 consistent with the constitution and laws of Fiji, and as per its commitment to Pacific Islands Forum Leaders on October 2, 2007," he said.
Earlier on Thursday, coup leader and self-appointed Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama warned the media that free speech had limits in his country.
He also hinted that the media may face regulation, saying Fiji's mainstream media outlets fell well short of their responsibilities.
Bainimarama hinted that reporters could face regulation unless they were more supportive of some of his government's initiatives.
"We are also puzzled as to why these low standards of reporting are allowed to continue unchecked. Perhaps we are close to the point where the current system of self-regulation needs to be seen as a failure," he said.
Hannah is a long-standing employee of News Limited who has worked in Fiji for some years, including as deputy managing director prior to his appointment to his current role in January 2007, the News Ltd statement said.
Fiji Times editor-in-chief Netani Rika said Hannah's detention was disturbing.
"We are deeply disturbed that an incident such as this would take place two days before Media Freedom day and less than 12 hours after the interim prime minister made a public statement calling for better relations with the media industry and promising to uphold media freedom," he said in a statement on the Fiji Times website.
ninemsn 1 May 2008
Looks like we have a bit of a Nazi Party going on. The purveyors of goodness and law and order must invade and force democracy. Forgot No Oil !!
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