Pressure Nauru on new laws, Aust urged

Australia has an obligation to punish Nauru over the changes to its criminal code, lawyers say.

Under the amended code, introduced into Nauru's parliament on Tuesday, asylum seekers can be jailed for comments judged to cause emotional distress or promote disorder.

The Australian Lawyers Alliance (ALA) says the amendment goes against the principles of democracy and is aimed at stifling asylum seekers and their advocates.

"It's a very disturbing provision and there is no doubt it is driven in some part by seeking to stop advocacy on behalf of asylum seekers on Nauru and to stop asylum seekers themselves from advocating on behalf of themselves and others," ALA spokesman Greg Barns told AAP.

He said Australia was obliged to ensure Nauru did not implement the law.

"Australia should be using its leverage as it sought to do in Indonesia over dissent over the death penalty," Mr Barns said.

"Nauru has not been a hot bed of radicalism. It's not a country that has had enormous ructions within it in terms of dissent."

Under the amended criminal code, anyone who publishes statements or material that intimidates, harasses or causes emotional stress to a person can be jailed for up to seven years, media reports say.

The move is the latest in a series of laws and bans threatening free speech on the island, home to about 10,000 locals as well as asylum seekers housed in Australia's detention centre.

Nauru president Baron Waqa on Wednesday defended his government's recent ban on Facebook, saying it was temporary and done to protect children from pornography.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs said Nauru was a sovereign nation able to establish its own legal framework.