Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Papua New Guinea ranked 56th in the latest press freedom rankings
By Reporters Sans Frontières in Sri Lanka Guardian
(October 20, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian): Political power grabs dealt press freedom a great disservice again this year.
A military coup caused Fiji (152nd) to fall 73 places. Soldiers moved into Fijian news rooms for several weeks and censored articles before they were published, while foreign journalists were deported.
In Thailand, the endless clashes between “yellow shirts” and “red shirts” had a very negative impact on the press’s ability to work. As a result, the kingdom is now 130th. Two Asian countries were included in the index for the first time: Papua New Guinea (56th), which obtained a very respectable ranking for a developing country, and the Sultanate of Brunei (155th), which came in the bottom third because of the absence of an independent press.
The authoritarianism of existing governments, for example in Sri Lanka (162nd) and Malaysia (131st), prevented journalists from properly covering sensitive subjects such as corruption or human rights abuses.
The Sri Lankan government had a journalist sentenced to 20 years in prison and forced dozens of others to flee the country.
In Malaysia, the interior ministry imposed censorship or self-censorship by threatening media with the withdrawal of their licence or threatening journalists with a spell in prison.
War and terrorism wrought havoc and exposed journalists to great danger.
Afghanistan (149th) is sapped not only by Taliban violence and death threats, but also by unjustified arrests by the security forces.
Despite having dynamic news media, Pakistan (159th) is crippled by murders of journalists and the aggressiveness of both the Taliban and sectors of the military.
It shared (with Somalia) the world record for journalists killed during the period under review.
The Asian countries that least respected press freedom were, predictably, North Korea, one of the “infernal trio” at the bottom of the rankings, Burma, which still suffers from prior censorship and imprisonment, and Laos, an unchanging dictatorship where no privately-owned media are permitted.
The media in China (168th) are evolving rapidly along with the rest of the country but it continues to have a very poor ranking because of the frequency of imprisonment, especially in Tibet, Internet censorship and the nepotism of the central and provincial authorities.
Similarly in Vietnam (166th), the ruling Communist Party targets journalists, bloggers and press freedom activists over what they write about its concessions to China.
In the good news section, Maldives (51st) climbed 53 places thanks to a successful democratic transition while Bhutan (70th) rose another four places thanks to further efforts in favour of media diversity.
Asia’s few democracies are well placed in the rankings. New Zealand (13th), Australia (16th) and Japan (17th) are all in the top 20.
Respect for press freedom and the lack of targeted violence against journalists enable these three countries to be regional leaders. South Korea (69th) and Taiwan (59th) fell far this year.
South Korea plummeted 22 places because of the arrests of several journalists and bloggers and the conservative government’s attempts to control critical media.
The new ruling party in Taiwan tried to interfere in state and privately-owned media while violence by certain activists further undermined press freedom.
Opposition withdraws motion of no-confidence
Opposition Leader Sir Mekere Morauta announced today that he and Bulolo MP Sam Basil had written to the Speaker withdrawing the motion of no-confidence in the Prime Minister dated July 28, 2009.
Sir Mekere said: “We have withdrawn the motion because we do not have confidence in the integrity of the process being used by the Government to ‘consider’ the motion.
“We have heard from reliable sources in government that the private business committee will reject the motion, allegedly on some technical ground.”
Sir Mekere said that to avoid this, the motion had been withdrawn and that the Opposition had requested the Speaker to provide urgent advice on the alleged ‘defects’ of the motion.
“We want the Speaker to tell us what we should do to satisfy the private business committee, so that we can submit a new motion that will conform to the committee’s ‘requirements’,” he said.
“At the same time we shall seek legal advice on the issue of the process of tabling a motion of no-confidence in the Prime Minister.
Sir Mekere said that since last week he had been seeking an appointment with the Speaker and the Clerk to verify the information about the Government’s intention to prevent the motion from being tabled, but had not been successful in getting an appointment.
“We do not want to fall into the game of dirty tricks being played by the Government to block the motion, so we decided to withdraw it and put the Government on the spot by asking the Speaker to advise us,” he said.
“The Speaker and the Clerk must remember they are not the servants of the Government.
“They serve the Parliament, which means they are obliged, legally and morally, to advise the Opposition.”
I see a rainbow in the sky
I caught this wonderful rainbow in Port Moresby last Sunday when returning to work after watching the rugby league grand final.
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
From the islands of love
The dancers in this troupe were selected from villages around Kiriwina (mainland Trobriand Islands) to raise funds for the Trobriand Islands Cultural Show to be staged next month.
The initiative was from the Kiriwina local level government president Jennifer Rudd and her 33 ward councilors, who decided to do something which would boost their tourism industry.
The plan is to raise at least K100, 000 in both Alotau and Port Moresby. -Pictures by ELIJAH D ELIJAH
Highlights from Sunday's bemobile Cup grand final
Highlights from Sunday's bemobile Cup grand final between Rabaul Gurias and Enga Mioks.
The Gurias took out the Auld Mug of Papua New Guinea rugby league 24-14. Pictures by AURI EVA of The National, Papua New Guinea's No. 1 daily newspaper
Prime Minister co-signed carbon credit certificates
Leader of the Opposition Sir Mekere Morauta has renewed his challenge to Prime Minister Sir Michael Somare to inform Papua New Guineans for which forest areas he co-signed carbon credit certificates in favour of an Australian-based company Climate Assist last year.
Sir Mekere said it was a very serious issue that demanded a full explanation by the Prime Minister.
“
“People need to know what he has sold, to whom, for how much, and where the money is.”
Official documents bearing the PNG National Government crest show that Prime Minister Somare signed certificates for Climate Assist together with the suspended Executive Director of the Office of Climate Change Dr Theo Yasause and Director of Climate Assist Mr Gregory Thomas Corby.
A certificate was signed on 12th June 2008 with Series Number A33, 000,001 to A39, 666,666 with the beneficiaries named as Climate Assist (PNG) Ltd and the Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability Office (PNG).
It commits 6,666,665 metric tonnes of carbon credits with a maturity date of 01 January 2012 when the current Kyoto Protocol will end.
Sir Mekere said that the Prime Minister must tell the nation whether he signed this document or not.
“Is it a forgery?
“If it is not, he must tell the public why he has done this and which resources belonging to which landowners he has committed.
“Those landowners and the general public need to know.”
Another document obtained by the Opposition shows that the Ruthven Street Business Banking Centre of the Westpac Bank in Toowoomba
According to a letter written on 24th September 2008 to Mr Edwin Price, Executive Manager of Climate Assist by a senior manager at that Westpac branch, the certificates were issued on 22nd September 2008, each for 39 million metric tonnes of carbon credits, with Series Numbers C1 to C39 and B1 to B39.
The letter bears the common seal of Climate Assist PNG, an official stamp of the Westpac branch and is witnessed by a Justice of the Peace.
“Prime Minister did you issue these additional certificates to Climate Assist?
“If you did not, who did?
“With authority from whom?
“And whose resources do they pertain to?”
Sir Mekere said that it was incumbent on the Prime Minister to tell the truth to the nation.
“He is yet to answer the 20 questions I asked him some months ago on climate change and related issues.
“He cannot continue to ignore or evade questions on important national issues, hoping that in time people will simply forget.”
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