PNG Opposition pledges to protect media personnel

“When we are in government, we will fund insurance cover for media personnel and pass laws to protect them from abuses and assaults from public,” PNG Opposition leader Don Polye said this in a media statement.

The attack and verbal abuses on media workers in line of their duty by the public is an embarrassment for the country’s democracy, said Polye. 

Joining the chorus on condemning the attack, Mr Polye has called on the people to understand the roles and responsibilities of media workers.

Polye was commenting on a handful of media workers, who narrowly escaped attack and suffered verbal abuses while covering an imprisonment of a politician at the Waigani courthouse, in Port Moresby this week.

“Despite challenges, our press upholds its primary role as an unofficial fourth arm of the government under our West Minister system. Through press lights have been shed on allegations of corruption in the country,” he said.

Mr Polye said in the recent past a female journalist from the National Broadcasting Corporation also encountered her share of similar mischievousness from the hands of a few policemen while covering UPNG saga.

Polye also has called on the Media Council of PNG to exert more efforts to provide insurance cover for each of its members.

Meanwhile, Don Polye today assured the Prime Minister Peter O’Neill that the Opposition is constructive.

“The Opposition and informed citizens do not want leaders who manipulate the Police Force and the Ombudsman Commission in order to delay investigations.

“It does not want leaders who promptly disband Taskforce Sweep when it finds evidence possibly incriminating a national leader.

“It does not want meaningless Commissions of Inquiry asked to report on government payments to lawyers (including payments to Paul Paraka) which never report.  The Opposition wants honest and accountable leaders for Papua New Guinea,” he said when responding to O’Neill who called on the Opposition to be constructive in a media release.

Further, in press release, Don Polye described the launching of a multi-million-Kina agro-business venture in Yangoru-Saussia this week as ‘another political gimmick.’

Mr Polye said he was not talking down the country’s investment and the economy but was shedding a light on realities.

When commenting on the project, Mr Polye said he would not be surprised to see this project as another scam to bleed taxpayers’ money.

He said when he was the Treasury Minister he budgeted K50 million for Sepik Plain under a commercialization plan.

“When we are in government, we will be rolling out similar plans for Markham valley, Waghi valley, Karamui, Baiyer valley, Papua basin and New Guinea Islands to create wealth and employment for our people,” he said.

Photo: Opposition Leader Don Polye. Image Credit: PNG Opposition.