Grass Roots
p. 54 · Read in the full issue
The curfew on Port Moresby brought the International media flooding into PNG looking for graphic stories and television footage featuring murder, mayhem, rape and the odd spot of pillage. They drummed up a bit of business interviewing people who had suffered from the attentions of the rascals, and there was emotional coverage of the sad departure of the New Zealand family who suffered the vicious gang rape which set off the huge outcry leading to the new control measures. The coverage was, inevitably, somewhat out of focus by island regulars’ standards, since it concentrated on the frightened and the wounded. But, Prime Minister Michael Somare was given a hearing, saying that PNG was still a safe place to work and live. Violence was not unique to PNG, he said, and the ghastly series of international airline outrages in June gave point to that. Meantime, Grass Roots, in the PNG Post-Courier, showed that the curfew had other social effects.