Wellington - Fiji's military government was holding Australian newspaper publisher Evan Hannah on Friday after he was detained at his home the previous evening as a "threat to national security and stability."

But reports from the capital Suva said the regime held back from deporting him as planned on Friday morning's first plane to Australia, following a judge's order that officials must produce Hannah in court and justify his detention.

Hannah, publisher of the Fiji Times, a daily owned by media magnate Rupert Murdoch, was arrested by police and immigration officials at his home Thursday night in the capital Suva, his paper reported.

He was taken from his house in front of his wife, Katarina Tuinamuana, who is a Fijian citizen, and their 1-year-old son. The Fiji Times said that its lawyers had obtained a High Court order preventing Hannah's immediate deportation soon after his arrest.

The Fiji government, headed by military strongman Voreqe Bainimarama, who seized power in a bloodless coup in December 2006, in February deported another Australian newspaper publisher, Russell Hunter, who headed the daily Fiji Sun, in defiance of a similar court order.

After Hannah's arrest, Fiji Television quoted the regime's Defence Minister Ratu Epeli Ganilau as saying that the deportation order was linked to national security involving articles published by the Fiji Times.

An editorial in Friday's Fiji Times said the publisher's detention "shows what callous disregard the interim regime has for the rights of the people of this country."

It said the military government had intimidated and threatened the newspaper for more than two months.

"We have refused to bow to the oppression to which the newspaper, its management and staff have been submitted," the editorial said.

"Our right to press freedom is inextricably linked to the right of the people to freedom of expression. We will continue to publish the views of the people - critical or complimentary of state policies. That is our role. If the regime thinks it can shut us up by threats and intimidation, it is sadly mistaken." (dpa)