Colleagues, the www.pacificfreedomforum.org link has been updated with the text below. With thanks for your use and sharing with relevant networks. *** , PFF, Rarotonga, COOK ISLANDS–Another assault threat resulting in a TV film crew being forced to delete their footage has taken place in Papua New Guinea over the weekend. Regional media monitoring network […]
Colleagues, the www.pacificfreedomforum.org link has been updated with
the text below. With thanks for your use and sharing with relevant
networks.
***
,
PFF, Rarotonga, COOK ISLANDS–Another assault threat resulting in a TV
film crew being forced to delete their footage has taken place in
Papua New Guinea over the weekend. Regional media monitoring network
the Pacific Freedom Forum is urging media bosses to get involved and
support news workers in filing statements to Police.
EMTV journalist Mick Kavera and camera operator Gesoko Adrian were on
assignment on Sunday 10 June at the Jackson’s airport terminal to film
the arrival of illegal immigrants being accompanied by members of the
government-appointed investigative Task Force. According to Kavera,
Task force members spotted the media crew filming during the
mid-morning arrival and approached them, berating them in pidgin for
media “misreporting” of their activities and telling them to await a
formal statement. Adrian was also told to delete all the footage shot
or the camera would be broken and he would be bashed. Some time after
he had deleted the footage, the task force members did an about turn
and apologised. The EMTV crew was invited to resume filming and
complete their assignment.
“We commend the EMTV media crew for stepping forward and breaking the
silence and urge their management to support filing of a Police
complaint on this and future threats to crew safety on the field,”
says PFF co chair Titi Gabi of Papua New Guinea.
She says the apology should not prevent or undermine the rule of law.
“An apology is welcome and should help as a mitigating factor in a
Police investigation, but more than anyone the task force members will
understand that this alone should rule any investigation out.”
“What’s important is that the general community and many other media
workers get the point that it is criminal and illegal to walk up to
journalists and any other law abiding citizen and tell them you will
bash them up and break their cameras,” she says.
Intimidation and threats against media workers have been previously
identified as a key obstacle to better journalism by the new PNG Media
Workers Association and is highlighted in a country chapter on PNG in
the IFJ Asia Pacific Inaugural Pacific Press Freedom report. PNG’s
Police media advisor Dominic Kakas told journalists at the launch of
the Pacific Press Freedom report on World Press Freedom Day in Port
Moresby this year sharing information and experiences on social
networking may help media workers, but nothing could be resolved in
the legal system until journalists choose to take up their rights to
lodge complaints with Police.
“Too often the abuse and intimidation of media professionals going
about their jobs is accepted by journalists as part of a ‘toughen up’
culture of news-gathering.
That’s a stereotype which plays into the
hands of abusers when many journalists just don’t understand what is
happening may in fact be illegal,” says PFF co chair Monica Miller of
American Samoa.
“We
acknowledge the challenges involved in breaking the silence and
acceptance of abuse, but continue to urge PNG and other Pacific media
colleagues to take up their legal rights as citizens and journalists
so that the wider community is also educated on what news reporting
involves.” -ENDS
CONTACT: PFF Chair Titi Gabi
Freelance Journalist
Papua New Guinea
Mail: PO Box 7776, Boroko, NCD, Papua New Guinea
Mob: (675) 7314
3929
Email: titi.gabipng@gmail.com PFF co-Chair Monica Miller
KHJ
Radio
American Samoa Mob 684 258-4197
Office 684 633-7793
Email:
monica@khjradio.com The Pacific Freedom Forum are a regional and
global online network of Pacific media colleagues, with the specific
intent of raising awareness and advocacy of the right of Pacific
people to enjoy freedom of expression and be served by a free and
independent media. We believe in the critical and basic link between
these freedoms, and the vision of democratic and participatory
governance pledged by our leaders in their endorsement of the Pacific
Plan and other commitments to good governance. In support of the
above, our key focus is monitoring threats to media freedom and
bringing issues of concern to the attention of the wider regional and
international community.
—
Lisa Williams-Lahari
Media/Communications Freelancer.
Honiara, Solomon Islands
Mob: +677 7574230
Skype: lisa.lahari
