O’Neill announced this during Papua New Guinea Media Awards 2011 at Gateway Hotel in Port Moresby last week - before the current crisis.
He said our government respects the independence and freedom of media and freedom of expression as a basic human right.
“As a nation we are referred to as a democracy and our government will not restrict the freedom of expression and the freedom of media therefore the media must be held accountable to the public and the journalist are committed to their role,” O’Neill said.
He said the mass media were often referred to as the fourth branch of the government because of the power they wield and the exercise of their oversight functions.
“I am not the first and not the last to say that the media does have a key role to play and advance democratic governance in PNG,” he said.
O’Neill said that the media played an important role in PNG national life.
“We must all work together to develop our nation peacefully, progressively and prosperously,” he said.
'Inadequate understanding'
O’Neill said that the media’s coverage of issues of democracy, good governance and national development was often made difficult on one hand by the inadequate understanding of the complex and multi-dimensional nature of current and emerging issues.
He said the media had always been difficult for journalists to access public officials for government information or to confirm news stories which exist in the country because of a great deal of suspicion and mistrust of the media.
He urged the media to avoid being used as proxies of rival political groups, government or opposition or of differing land owner groups in the process of creating disunity instead of consensus, giving prominence to negative publicity instead of constructive debate or peddling mistruths rather than the truth.
O’Neill said that the national interest was prominently set out in the National Goals and Directive Principals that formed the Preamble to the national constitution.
“My appeal to media is to be conscious and supportive of the national interest at all times and be agent of positive change in our people’s attitudes and mindsets,” O’Neill said.
He said that the demise of corrupt government elsewhere in the recent past was testimony to the power of the media and to investigative journalism.
“I believe that through investigative reporting and by being vigilant an inquisitive, the media can create an environment of openness and disclosure to make future democratically elected governments of PNG more accountable,” O’Neill said.
The Prime Minister also congratulated the Post-Courier and its political journalist Simon Eroro for becoming the first Papua New Guinean journalist to lift the highest News Limited award for “Scoop of the Year” in Sydney, Australia, last month.
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Pacific Media Watch
