Solomons'
p. 11 · Read in the full issue
Muzzling
Newsmen
From a Honiara correspondent The deletion in early May of a contentious paragraph in a radio news item on the Solomons’ Public Service Advisory Board (PSAB) annual report for 1973, and the order that any radio stories at present about political parties must be referred to the Chief Secretary and the five Chairmen of Governing Council for “approval”, leaves open to speculation the future of freedom of comment in this country.
The order governing radio stories appears to have arisen out of the sensitivity of some Govco members to the reporting of moves among politicians to form or break the infant political parties now that the first Chief Minister and his government are close to being named.
The PSAB report hits out at an alleged desire by “some Governing Council members for political parti cipation in the board’s work”. It also expressed concern over the presence of three Govco members on the com mittee established last year to review progress in localisation, and said that the PSAB, which was doing its utmost towards localisation, should be independent of politics.
The censoring of parts of the report raises the question of whether any statutory authority established by government should be free to defend itself as it sees fit, and to state its opinions. The PSAB was defending its status and independence.
Among the highly respected members of the Board is Canon Norman Palmer, Dean of St Barnabas’ Cathedral in Honiara. Other members are Alphonso Daga, a retired civil servant who is now the Honiara Town Clerk; Jack Pincombe whose commissioned report on the Public Service in 1969 gave rise to the PSAB’s formation (Pin combe himself becoming its first chairman), and “Tiny” Creighton, a retired civil servant and Tourist Authority secretary who is not very well known to the local populace. A new member appointed this year is former politician, Mariano Kelesi, now a businessman.
It is said that the administration was not happy that delicate relations between the PSAB and Govco mem bers might be worsened by the airing of the PSAB’s come-back to criticisms from Govco.