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Country Summary
Press freedom conditions in Papua New Guinea stood at a crossroad at year’s end. The country’s small but largely independent media face serious threats from two proposed media bills, introduced in parliament in December, which the government hopes to swiftly pass.
The Media Commission Bill requires all journalists and media organizations to register annually. Unregistered journalists face fines of K1,000 (US$760) for a first offense and K2,000 (US$1,520) for subsequent offenses; unregistered media organizations face fines of up to K10,000 (US$7,600) while their directors face fines of up to K5,000 (US$3,800) and four years’ imprisonment. A nine-member media commission, to be appointed by the head of state, has the power to refuse or renew an application for registration. A second draft law, the National Information and Communication Authority Bill, contains libel provisions that would force journalists to reveal their sources or face punishment, with no possibility of appeal.
According to the government of Prime Minister Sir Julius Chan, these measures are meant to “make the media more accountable to the government.” But local journalists suspect that the new measures are intended to muzzle the media before national elections in 1997. Tellingly, the bills’ framers looked to their neighbors in East Asia for models of repressive legislation. Ben Micah, the chair of the Constitutional Review Committee (CRC), which drew up the draft media laws, preceded the bills’ introduction with a study tour of China, Malaysia, Singapore, and Indonesiacountries which possess particularly restrictive press laws.
Both the continued armed secessionist struggle on the island of Bougainville and serious crime problems on the mainland curtailed press freedom. Journalists were denied access to Bougainville, where a mid-year military operation by the Papua New Guinea Defense Forces failed to bring an end to the seven-year conflict on the island. And law-and-order issues so dominated the government’s agenda that officials imposed a curfew in Papua New Guinea’s three main citiesPort Moresby, Lae, and Mount Hagen.
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