Papua New Guinea Prime Minister pledges opposition to media laws
(PINA/IFEX) – Bill Skate, Papua New Guinea Prime Minister, marked World Press Freedom Day with a pledge of total opposition to any move to reintroduce proposed media laws which would allow for the licensing of journalists and news organisations. After making this announcement at a World Press Freedom Day news conference, he invited journalists to […]
Papua New Guinea Deputy Prime Minister warns “foreign” interests after editorial
(PINA/IFEX) – Papua New Guinea Deputy Prime Minister Michael Nali has issued a thinly-veiled warning to the country’s two daily newspapers, both of which have overseas companies as majority shareholders. “The National” newspaper reported on 15 April 1998 that Nali reacted angrily to a critical editorial it published about him. He said the right to […]
Prime Minister won’t speak English to foreign journalists
(PINA/IFEX) – Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister, Bill Skate, says he will no longer speak English to foreign journalists because he says he is being treated unfairly by the Australian news media. Instead, Skate says he will now speak in Papua New Guinea’s two other main languages, Tok Pisin (Pidgin) and Motu. **Updates IFEX alert […]
ABC Papua New Guinea reporter tells of intimidation, praises local media
(PINA/IFEX) – Sean Dorney, the Papua New Guinea bureau chief of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), says his network has recently received “verbal intimidation” from supporters of Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Bill Skate in Port Moresby. Dorney says Prime Minister Skate “continuously attacked” the ABC during a Christmas tour of the civil-war-torn Papua New […]
Editors want inquiry into bribery claims
(PINA/IFEX) – Senior Papua New Guinea editors have called for an urgent inquiry into allegations that bribes have been paid to local journalists. It follows the showing on Australian television of a series of secretly taped videos in which a Papua New Guinea government minister appears to be given money to “pay off” the media. […]