The South Pacific media: Politics, ownership and control

Two transnational media conglomerates own or control all the major circulation newspapers in the South Pacific. Through their subsidiaries Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation Ltd and French media magnate Robert Hersant's group in the French territories own five of the eight dailies in the region. The most recent daily, the National, began publishing in Papua New Guinea (PNG) in mid-November 1993. It is owned by a company associated with Malaysian senator Datuk Tiong Hiew King's family timber group, Rimbunan Hijau (RHG). Although the Tiong family is not in the big news media league of the Murdochs and Hersants, it has significant media interests, including the publishing of Malaysia's largest Chinese-language daily newspaper, Sin Chew Jit Poh.

When Prime Minister Paias Wingti launched the K 8 million paper (K=kina, the PNG currency; at the time of writing K1 was the equivalent of U.S. $1.00) as another step in his "look
North" policy, it immediately stirred controversy over the paper's foreign ownership and association with the major commercial player in PNG's booming timber industry. Rimbunan Hijau launched a high-profile campaign in mid-1993 against the Wingti government's policy of tighter reins on timber exports and was criticised for interfering in the country's politics. In spite of the controversy, the company persisted with a remarkable promotional slogan: THE NATIONAL SPEAKS FOR PAPUA NEW GUINEA. "The launching," said Datuk Tiong, who is also chairman of Pacific Star Pty Ltd, "marks a new milestone in the development of newspaper publishing in Papua New Guinea."

He could easily have added "in the Pacific." A high-speed German-built Cromoset web offset press is the most sophisticated in use by any paper in the region.