PORT MORESBY (Pacific Media Watch / PNG Loop / EMTV / Pacific Scoop): Papua New Guinea's national TV station, EMTV, plans to lodge an official complaint after two of their journalists were assaulted by police.
PNG Loop reported that journalist Quinton Alomp was "manhandled" while camera operator Gesoko Adrian was "punched on the side of his head" while they were reporting on allegations that police had stabbed five civilians during a land dispute.
After manhandling the journalists, the police locked them up, tore out their notes and demanded that they delete all photos.
The journalists were only released after their driver phoned TV station management who then demanded that the police release them.
News manager Sincha Dimara said: “They were both shaken by the experience and this is just unacceptable".
Journalists are frequently assaulted in Papua New Guinea.
Last year, another EMTV journalist, Edwin Fidelis, was assaulted by the owner of Bismarck Maritime while out on a story investigating migrant workers in the company.
And in 2012, Post-Courier reporter Michael Koma was beaten unconscious by unknown assailants after disgruntled supporters of newly appointed Administrator Francis Aiwa and his deputy Marcus Warip were not happy with the contents of a story run by his newspaper.
In the same year, Mark Kayok, of the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC), "suffered a broken nose in a brutal attack by uniformed police officers disgruntled with 'negative' reporting about them", Pacific Media Centre journalist Harry Pearl reported at that time.
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Pacific Media Watch
