The lawyers are Richard Naidu, managing partner of law firm Munro Leys; John Apted, a partner at the firm; and solicitor Tevita Fa, legal adviser to ousted prime minister Laisenia Qarase.
The action was taken after Mr Naidu and Mr Apted were denounced in pro-government blog Real Fiji News as suspected contributors to anti-government blog Raw Fiji News.
Real Fiji News, which claims not be linked to the government or military, named Mr Naidu as “blogger No1″ on May 15, and denounced him later as a traitor.
Two days later, Mr Apted was named by Real Fiji News after it had urged its readers to “do the right thing and name a blogger”.
The three lawyers were released on Tuesday evening after having their computers confiscated and examined to determine if they were responsible for any of the online criticism of Commodore Frank Bainimarama and his military regime.
Although all three were released after questioning, Mr Naidu was required to return on Wednesday for more questioning.
Under decrees enacted by the military regime, the Fiji media has been subjected to strict censorship, triggering the explosive growth of anti-government blogs.
While authorities searched the computers of the three lawyers for evidence of online criticism of the regime, lawyers from Munro Leys were present in an attempt to preserve the confidentiality of advice to clients and client documents.
Mr Apted, a Harvard-educated lawyer, was directly involved in drawing up the Fiji Constitution abrogated last month after the Australian judges on Fiji’s Court of Appeal ruled the Bainimarama regime illegal.
Mr Apted and Mr Naidu have long represented the Fiji Times, which is owned by News Limited (publisher of The Australian).
Mr Naidu was a journalist on the Fiji Times at the time of Fiji’s first coup in 1987, after which he became media spokesman for deposed prime minister Timoci Bavadra. Later that year he went to New Zealand, where he studied law.
Mr Apted helped organise the 1992 elections that returned democracy to Fiji.
The move against the lawyers coincides with growing criticism of the regime.
Fiji’s Citizens Constitutional Forum expressed concern this week about what it said was a curtailment of the powers of the Fiji Human Rights Commission.
The forum said a decree by President Josefa Iloilo prevents the Human Rights Commission from receiving complaints against any decree, and it is unable to investigate, question or challenge the legality of any presidential decrees.
International press freedom group Reporters Without Borders urged Commodore Bainimarama on Monday to remove the emergency regulations that had led to the arrest of about 10 journalists and bloggers.
Secretary-General Jean-Francois Julliard wrote that a presidential decree aimed to prevent publication of anything would “give rise to disorder” or “promote disaffection or public alarm”.
