Prime Minister derides PNG's fine journalists
11 June 2010
SO NOW Sir Michael
Somare has attacked PNG's journalists, saying they’re not good enough to get a job
anywhere overseas.
He claims PNG journalists only report bad news about their country and pay too much attention to what NGOs say.
What Sir Michael can't or won't understand is that PNG journalists are simply reporting the facts.
The detrimental effects his own government is having on the people of PNG and their way of life are his responsibility, not that of reporters.
What he doesn't like when he reads the morning news is the big mirror the press is holding up in front of him and his cartel.
The means to change what Sir Michael doesn't like are entirely up to him.
Trying to shift the blame to journalists only highlights and compounds the injustice.
The PNG PM hits our journos below the belt and I do not support what he claims.
PNG journalists need to be supported, better remunerated and protected by special laws under new whistleblower legislation.
That is why national journalists do not really get deep beneath sensitive issues implicating political leaders for fear of local retribution.
Newspaper editors are mostly foreign nationals and will not really protect individual reporters from the wrath of certain politicians and their henchmen to kill any secret news hitting the street.
So it all comes back to overseas news reporters in country to report on the bad stuff about the errant actions of some PNG pollies and expose any wrong-doings within the bureaucracy.
Posted by: Reginald Renagi | 11 June 2010 at 09:00 AM