Henry Yamo
AUCKLAND (Pacific Scoop / Pacific Media Watch): Journalists investigating corruption in the Pacific face threats and victimisation of their families, says a leading young Papua New Guinean journalist.
Speaking on anti-corruption reporting at a recent Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) conference in Pacific Harbour, Fiji, award-winning PNG journalist Haiveta Kivia said such investigations were difficult for reporters.
Kivia of the Post-Courier won the inaugural UNDP 2011 Excellence in Anti‐Corruption Reporting Media Award for his “relentless digging” into payments of more than K250,000 to an unqualified consultant by the Bugandi Secondary School in PNG.
Bugandi in Morobe province, one of the top 20 schools in PNG, reportedly lost more than $370,000 in a year unsuccessfully trying to get a title for its land.
The scandal prevented students from graduating in 2010 and 2011.
After initial reports about the corruption surfaced, Kivia exposed that money had been paid to an unregistered land consultant even before the school board had approved his hiring.
The outcome of his investigations saw the school board and principal Ben Yana being stripped off financial powers and suspended by the Morobe Provincial Education Board. However, the money could not be saved and the school is still without the land title.
Using his experience, Kivia stressed that anti-corruption reporting became even harder when media organisations in the country did not resource journalists adequately to carry out impartial investigations and do comprehensive reporting on issues of corruption.
Kivia said although it was a hard area to report on, with appropriate support from employers, superiors and law enforcement agencies, it could be done for the good of society.
*The first Pacific Investigative Journalism Award was inaugurated at the University of Papua New Guinea's South Pacific Centre for Communication and Information in Development (SPCenCIID) in 1996, won by Yashwant Gaunder, editor of The Review, for his investigation into the National Bank of Fiji scandal.
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Henry Yamo
