Png Objects
p. 53 · Read in the full issue
To Bad Publicity
From a Port Moresby correspondent With self-government, Papua New Guinea has become more conscious of its overseas image, and there have been angry noises particularly over the poor “press” the country has been getting in the last couple of months.
The Port Moresby riot of Decem ber, involving police and ?.rmy, got more than its share of publicity—and troubles in the Highlands, particularly in the Chimbu area, have all received front page news in Australia.
On his way to the Christchurch Games in January, Chief Minister Michael Somare took the opportunity of telling the press in Sydney that the Australian media had “discrimin ated” against PNG in overplaying tribal fighting. He said that it was time that people realised that New Guineans were “not madmen nor primitive”.
At the same time in Port Moresby, Dr John Guise, enjoying the personal publicity as Acting Chief Minister in Mr Somare’s absence, told a news conference that it was the responsi bility of every PNG minister and every public servant when they visited Australia “to make every endeavour to appear on television, and speak with the Australian people (not at or to them, but with them) in order to present a better image of this country”.
Dr Guise reminisced that tribal fighting and murders were “an almost daily occurrence” when he was a police sergeant in 1953. He said when the so-called civilised countries found a way to stop fighting in Vietnam, and rioting in Northern Ireland, then “perhaps I can give you an answer to tribal fighting in PNG”.
Dr Guise added that he strongly rejected use of censorship of the press to stop reports which harmed the country’s image. “God forbid that the government should tell you what to do—we would be interfering with the basic rights of the press,” he told newsmen.
Which was a statement happily in contradiction to one made by a Tolai newspaper reporter, Bill Kuamin, of the PNG Post Courier, at a seminar the previous month when he said the PNG mass media was “too free” and that freedom should be mini mised. His newspaper only served ex patriate interests, he said, and in common with the whole network of the communications system, should adapt itself to the new values and aspirations of New Guineans.