Government gags national radio
Government gags national radio
PORT MORESBY (AFP): The Papua New Guinea government yesterday banned national radio from broadcasting news of a controversial provincial premiers' conference.
Communications minister Martin Thompson ordered the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) not to broadcast news from the conference this week.
The move was thought to be one of the first acts of media censorship here, and it came from the minister who only last month presented the country's first official communications policy which guaranteed press freedoms.
Premiers from the five island provinces of Manus, New Ireland, East and West New Britain and Bougainville were meeting to discuss Port Moresby's move to take away powers from provincial governments and give them to national parliamentarians and village level governments.
The provinces have threatened to secede if the government does not back down.
In a statement released from Prime Minister Paias Wingti's office, Thompson said the NBC had been told not to broadcast anything arising from the premier's meeting.
The statement said the order was issued to NBC chairman Alkan Tololo and all 19 provincial station managers.
It said the order was issued under sections of the NBC Act which allowed him to direct the commission not to broadcast certain issues.
Thompson said while it was NBC's duty to provide balanced, objective and impartial broadcasting service, it was paramount that such services should reflect the overall drive for national unity and that extreme care should be taken in broadcasting material that could inflame racial or sectional feelings.
NBC management was not immediately available for comment.
Other media organizations including three newspapers and a television station were bracing for confrontation if the news ban was extended to them.
Thompson's communication policy presented to parliament last month said in part that "the radio industry should grow as a free medium following the rights provided by the PNG constitution. The extent of this freedom is underscored by the laws which prohibit censorship of broadcast material."