PORT MORESBY (PNG Post-Courier/ Pacific Media Watch): A United Kingdom-based human rights organisation has condemned the media in Papua New Guinea for "representing the interests" of the government and the corporate world.
Dr Kristian Lasslett of the International State Crime Initiative (ISCI) has claimed that the PNG media is acting as an unfiltered communications mouthpiece for government and corporate interests.
In his research article titled, 'The Spin Cycle: How Papua New Guinea's Media Washes Dirty Stories', he said:
"Entrusted to fearlessly keep the powerful to account, Papua New Guinea’s daily newspapers increasingly feel more like a Laundromat, where the rich and powerful can go to have their dirty ‘news’ – public relations pronouncements – put through the spin cycle, so it can be churned out to the people of Papua New Guinea cleaned of its partisan origins."
As an example, he used the coverage by the Post-Courier on the controversial Paga Hill redevelopment project, which has led to confrontation between the developer, illegal settlers and human rights activists since 2013.
He did a comparative analysis of the coverage by the Post-Courier with Australian media organisations Radio Australia (ABC), SBS World News and The Australian newspaper.
He claimed most of the stories published by the Post-Courier were "promotional pieces", thereby denying balance in the paper's stories to its audience.
Editor rejects comments
But the newspaper over the weekend rejected the claims, saying the newspaper had followed developments on Paga Hill since 1996, reporting on the various attempts to question the development’s validity, as well as its wins in the courts and the resettlement of the settlers.
The Post-Courier editor-in-chief Alexander Rheeney said the allegations by Dr Lasslett, relating to the business conduct of the developers of Paga Hill and how they obtained the controversial land, should also be put in perspective.
"We don’t just publish any allegations of impropriety or corruption when they are referred to us," he said.
"The protocol in the newsroom is for those allegations to be subject to our own checklist which includes the probability of attracting defamation proceedings and whether the risks are high or low, depending on the evidence we have at hand."
Rheeney also said the Post-Courier did not "shy away" from running stories on corruption or human rights abuses.
"Our track record over the years in publishing stories on corruption, human rights abuses and failure by both the government and members of the private sector to conduct their business in accordance to the law is second to none."
Dr Kristian Lasslett is a lecturer in criminology at the University of Ulster, and sits on the executive board of the International State Crime Initiative. He is also joint editor-in-chief of State Crime, an international peer-reviewed journal.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 New Zealand Licence.
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