priorities

PNG reviews T.V. priorities

Mystery has begun to cloak what had seemed to be firm plans to introduce locally-broadcast television to both Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

In Port Moresby, new prime minister Paias Wingti, said, very early in his ministry that he intended to review the whole idea of introducing television to Papua New Guinea. Television was not a high priority with his government, he said.

The new communications minister, Gabriel Ramoi, set about reviewing the agreement between the previous Somare government and the Newcastle, Australia, television station, NBN-3, which is part of the big Parry communications group.

NBN-3 plans to introduce domestic broadcast television early in 1987.

Meanwhile, despite what appears to be a firm agreement between Australia’s Channel Nine (owned by Kerry Packer’s Publishing and Broadcasting Ltd, of Sydney), rumors have been growing that Fiji, too, is in process of rethinking its televi sion ideas. Here, however, the review seems to be more along the lines of who should do the job, rather than whether the job should be done at all.

NBN-3 says it will put up a proposal if it is asked to do so (see item this issue).

So far as is publicly under stood, the Channel Nine plan for Fiji was to derive a fairly large proportion of program ming from US and Australian sources, using the Intelsat satel lite. The Parry organisation has said that the mainstream of its programming would be local, and that use of satellites would be fairly limited.

But nothing, so far, has been said publicly in Fiji, or any where else, about an imminent

change of agreement, or plan ning for the introduction of television in that country.

So far as anyone knows at present nothing has happened to impede the Parry group’s plans, although the very pre sence of a review has unsettled the scene and Prime Minister Wingti appears to have given notice that he is far from con vinced about the need to intro duce it at this tender point in PNG’s fortunes.