Media and Politics in PNG 19 July 2002 An overview by Peter John Aitsi, President Media Council of PNG. In my presentation I will give you background on the media in PNG and share with you my observations on how the PNG political system operates. Let me qualify this by adding what I share with you is my opinion as to how it should work in theory and unfortunately how it really does not work in reality. Background on the PNG Parliamentary System: PNG operates under a Westminster system much the same as many Commonwealth countries. The government since independence has always been made up of a coalition of parties and independents. The opposition benches are normally made up of the largest remaining party not in government and perhaps forming a coalition in opposition with the remaining parties and or independents. The parties in government elect a speaker who then presides over the parliamentary debate for the term of parliament. Papua New Guinea gained independence on September 16th 1975. I am sure all of you are aware of the history of PNG so I will not go over the decades leading in to independence. In 1975 Michael Somare became our first Prime Minister and saw PNG move out from under the Administration of Australia. To give you a personal insight, in 1975 I was living in Australia as a 9 year old attending primary school at a town called Wonthaggi in South Gippsland, Victoria. I remember before 1975 travelling between PNG and Australia using a piece of paper, very similar to what the East Timorese have been doing. PNG prior to 1975 was operating as a territory of Australia. Since independence we have had 6 prime ministers, some of whom have served multiple terms. We only have one level or house within parliament we do not have a “senate” or “lower house” however within government you have the various ministers holding various portfolios and out of these ministers you have the senior ministers making up the National Executive Council or NEC. The National Executive Council is the authority tha t supposedly sets the agenda for the government of the day. Parliament is used to debate and ratify legislation while the NEC is used to endorse non- legislative matters, being operational matters. The National government is further supported by the respective provincial governments and flowing from the provincial governments on to the Local Level Governments. This structuring of government works on the assumption that the closer the government is to the people the more informed they will be as to the types of services and infrastructure the local communities will need. This is how it should operate in theory.

Unfortunately for our rural people the reality is far worse. In fact today we see the inefficiencies of the system being a matter of life and death for our People. Now this may seem melodramatic, but believe me it is real we have seen exactly how hard life is becoming for our rural people. Let me give you some figures from 2 UNICEF reports. • “The infant mortality rate for children under 1 has risen from 67 in every 1000 in 1995 to

79 in every 1000 in 1999, we as a Country have gone from a ranking remembering 1 being the worst, from 50 back in 1995 to 39 in 1999”.

Most of our major social indicators have declined. In 1995 the government of the day implemented what has now become known as the “provincial and local level government reforms” these reforms tied the activities of the provincial level of government to national government or more to the point to the regional member from that province. It was thought that because the provincial governments weren’t functioning that they should be accountable back to their national representative, once again in theory this would seem workable. In reality it created a further eroding of the system of checks and balances and placed sole reliance on the integrity of the individual MP instead of strengthening the integrity of the systems and mechanisms of government. As we have seen in the last 7 years, most of our provincial governments have ceased to function effectively, some not even functioning at all. This is evidenced by the continued suspension of provincial governments and lack of local level planning and infrastructure work. There is an important statement here so let me reinforce the message, the reforms placed a great deal of trust in the integrity of the individual, however in my opinion overlooked to reinforce the integrity of the systems of check. The deterioration of the rural infrastructure such as feeder roads, national highways, main roads, the up keep of facilities including staff quarters in the areas of health services, education and other government support services has seen a significant decline in the living standards of our rural communities who make up the majority of our population. * (UNICEF PNG country report 1995 and 2001) I believe there is still a greater tragedy and that is the rampant destruction of the government machinery resulting in its inability to carry out its obligation to our People. It is my belief that over the years since independence there has been a continued decline in the ability of our communities to help themselves because the flow of resources to facilitate community self help, has been controlled and handed out by their member of parliament. So in some areas we have created virtual “cargo cult” communities where development is tied to their national parliament representative.

Nothing effective is done any more at the local government level or at the provincial level. All the decision making process, the budgetary allocations are made at the national level through the Governor of the province who in most cases is the regional member. Now I say some areas, there are some provincial governments that have proven they can operate relatively well within this system, one of these is the Provincial Government of East New Britain. To be honest I would be hard pressed to say any other provincial government would even come close to functioning as well. As some of you may have experienced most people in PNG have one key quality. They can WAIT. If something is not there today, they can wait. You’ve all heard about PNG TIME, when it happens it happens. Our People have been very patient. The provincial government and LLG systems under the reforms have forced delegations upon delegations to make their pilgrimage to Port Moresby and then on to Parliament House or more to the point to one of our Capitals more luxurious hotels in search of an audience with their Governor or member of parliament in the hope of securing funds for their community projects. Now most members of parliament classify these funds as THEIR electoral development funds, or THEIR infrastructure maintenance funds. Now forgive me for being naïve but where have these funds come from, are these not the same funds what we term PUBLIC FUNDS. Returning to the THEORY should not these funds form the basis of the provincial government budget that has been arrived at with input through the Local Level Governments who supposedly should know what each of the Communities priority needs are. So what can the members of the media do with this information? The media council through its members has committed itself to try and get this information in to the hands of our Communities so they can be informed and hopefully empowered to scrutinise the performance of their elected representative. We need to have our Communities find out if they have a Local Level Government or Ward Council and then find out if they are operating and if they indeed communicate with the Provincial Level Government. We must also encourage our communities to find out about these matters, and then to identify the priority needs in their area and ask their members if these needs have been registered with these arms of government. If we are to leave any lasting legacy with our Communities then in my opinion the area we need to work most is to build the capacity of your communities. We must empower our communities to think for themselves and to build their capacities both intellectually as well as through the establishment of infrastructure.

The biggest task for the incoming government is to rebuild the self-esteem of the public service and encourage it to think for itself, and to actively encourage the Public Service to play its role as a servant to the public, protecting and restoring the integrity of the system so it acts as a balance to the Executive arm of government ensuring they are acting in the best interest of the Country and its People. Where are we now with our Political System? Over the last two years our government has drafted and passed several pieces of legislation, which it believes, will reintroduce and reinforce the control measures in the government machinery. The whole main of the legislation is to ensure the arms of government function more efficiently with the end result being improved delivery of services to the people. Two critical pieces of legislation passed have been:

1. The organic law on the integrity of political parties and candidates. 2. The preferential voting system.

I will not try and tell you that I am an expert on these laws, however I will try to outline some of the areas I believe these laws will help strengthen and hopefully restore the systems of integrity I spoke of earlier. As I mentioned earlier since independence we have had 6 prime ministers, that is 6 in 26 years, some of whom have been PM more then once. For those mathematical geniuses among us this means each four and half years we have had a new government, we wish this was the case, the sad truth however is that since Independence we have not had any government serve its full term. We gave gone through our life as an independent nation with a continual change of government brought about by the movement and the shifting allegiances of members on the floor of parliament resulting in votes of no confidence in the government of the day. This continued change as you will appreciate has fuelled the deterioration of the Public Service, the focus of our public servants moved away from delivering services and infrastructure to our People to that of a merry go round game of appeasing the parliamentary members to remain in power. And so on the 07th of December 2000, the National Parliament passed The Organic Law on the Integrity of Political Parties and Candidates or in short “The Integrity Law”. I have a detailed paper prepared by a very good friend of mine Professor John Nonggorr who is a constitutional lawyer and one of the architects of The Integrity Law, rather then go through the intricacies of the law such as its political parties registration, financing funding from the public purse, penalties, etc. If you would like an electronic copy let me know and I can have sent to you. Put simply the law will force the MP’s that have been elected through endorsement of a political party or independents who join political parties after the elections will have to remain with that grouping for the remainder of the life of that Parliament.

As our history has shown most elected MP’s like to join the government. The opportunity of a vote of no confidence is lessened if a political party or two political parties have sufficient numbers of MP’s to form government and agree to stay in government for the full 5-year term. The positive message for our communities is a government that potentially can serve its full term, this hopefully will assist stabilise the arms of government and allow implementation of policies which we all hope will lead to delivery of services and in turn an improvement in the lives of our Community. The negative message, and there is a negative message, the integrity law in its ability to keep a good government in office will also work to keep a bad government in office. The message to our communities is clear in each election they must seriously think about whom they vote for, as this person potentially may end up in government and remain in power for 5 long years. So if he or she is crook then they have 5 year’s to utilise their power while in government to misappropriate or in language we all understand to steal public money. The integrity law will also influence the formation of government under the law after the general elections the Governor General will first invite the Political Party who has won the most seats the first opportunity to form government. This political party can then invite other smaller parties and independents to pledge their support to form a coalition. And so it is my belief the integrity law is an effort to bring back a level of stability and to some extent some accountability on the part of the MP’s for their actions while in government and to allow the parties forming government to govern without the fear of a vote of no confidence. The preferential voting system: The second piece of legislation passed is the introduction of preferential voting. This will have an major impact on how your Communities will vote; it will also force them to think beyond their immediate candidate to some one else who they feel could also be a good leader. In the elections that are running now and the elections of the past we in PNG have used a “first past the post system” while this system may have had it’s initial successes it also demonstrated some inherent flaws, this becomes more obvious when you understand the tribal and clan linkages that exist within our communities. We can say in the past some MP’s have gotten elected because they have the biggest numbers of family lines or the strongest tribal affiliations. The limitations of this method have become clearly obvious as these “elected” leaders have only served their clans and have not extended the same level of support to areas that may be considered as enemies. The preferential system tries to address this by allowing the election of a leader who is more representative of a larger group of people within his or her electorate. I believe it is hoped the system will encourage the MP to look after all of the People of his electorate as it will be their

combined vote which will decide whether he comes back and not just his clan, as has been the case in the past. The other important information for our communities is this; the preferential voting system will come in to effect and be used straight after the 2002 general elections. So that means any bi-election after the 2002 general elections will be run using the preferential voting system. The preferential voting system will require the winning candidate to receive at least 50 % plus one vote, from the electorate. On the ballot there will be spaces provided for the voter to indicate the next 3 candidates that he would vote for, if at the first count the leading candidate does not get over 50% of the votes cast then they will take the preferences from the candidate who has received the least votes and allocate them to the remaining candidates. This process will continue each time removing the last candidate and allocating their preferences to the remaining candidates until one of the remaining candidates receives 50% of the votes cast. This person will be declared the winner. So on that platform I now would like to move in to an area that I am actively involved. The Media in PNG. The PNG Media community is made up of the following organizations:

1. The National Newspaper; a daily national newspaper. 2. The Post Courier; a daily national newspaper. 3. Word Publishing; a weekly nationwide newspaper. 4. EMTV; a nationwide free to air television broadcaster. 5. The NBC; a nationwide AM and in some areas FM radio broadcaster. 6. PNGFM; a nationwide FM broadcaster. 7. A number of smaller regional radio stations, newspapers and magazines.

The history of the media in PNG started as early as the 1890’s with the Lutheran church in Lae published a monthly German language newspaper. The media council of PNG has been operating for 12 years initially the media houses came together as a loosely formed group to discuss problem accounts and other issues that were of mutual concern including a move by the communications minister to introduce legislation to regulate the media. This move by the government in 1992/93 to regulate the media I believe was the turning point for the Media Council in PNG in bring them together. This agreement to work together was reinforced during the staging of the 1995 PINA conference in Port Moresby, this event had the various PNG media working together to plan, prepare and then host the other media organizations from the region. Mrs. Anna Solomon, now General Manager of the Word Publishing Group became the President of the Media Council in 1995 she is a great person and still an inspiration to the young people in our industry. I believe the changing focus of the Council can be greatly attributed to Mrs. Solomon’s leadership.

In 1997 the then editor of the Post Courier Mr. Luke Sela was elected President and he continued on the tradition strengthening the training work of the Media Council. I was elected as President of the Media Council of PNG in 2000 and moved to complete some of the outstanding “housekeeping” issues. In late 2000 we formally registered the Council and passed our Constitut ion. The Council then commenced work on drafting a Code of Ethics for the industry we looked at various codes and then commissioned a consultant to review the codes and put together a draft code to be presented to members of the industry. This drafting process included regular meetings with various community groups seeking their contribution. As a final review we engaged another consultant and held meetings with all newsrooms going through the “draft” code and seeking their input. The final document was then printed with their endorsement. We used this method so the code would have credibility in the eyes of the users and the community. The Code of Ethics has now been printed and circulated to all newsrooms as well as being incorporated in to the journalism and media studies course at the University of PNG and the Divine Word University. I mentioned earlier about the attempt made by government to regulate the media this is still a real threat and something that we as an industry are actively working against. To strengthen our position we have worked toward the establishment of an Independent Media Standards Committee. Once again a long process of research and meetings with various stakeholders has been undertaken to ensure the system put in place will work to promote the independence of the media while enabling the public to openly scrutinise its work and provide an avenue to seek re-dress to any media coverage or advertisements if so required. I am pleased to announce following nearly 2 years of work the Independent Media Standards Committee will be launched after our elections and will be made up of 5 members representing different sectors of our Community. On top of the Code of Ethics and the soon to be launched Independent Media Standards Committee, the media council has continued to plan and implement a domestic and international training calendar for our people who work within the media industry. It is our intention to build the capacity of our media People and have that in turn flow on to the benefit of members of the Council. By initiating the COE and the IMSC it is our intention to demonstrate to the Public and particularly to the Government that we are not a “power unto our own” and that we are open to public scrutiny and comment. This openness we hope will work against the threat of any possible future move by governments to regulate or control the Media of PNG. The Council will continue to work hard to reflect the issues that are important to the public, focusing on issues that are affecting the lives of our listeners, readers and viewers. I want to share with you how we have tried to achieve this.

Some of you may be aware at the beginning of this year the PNG Media came out and declared “War On Corruption” what did we hope to achieve by making this declaration? (Use overhead 1, followed by 2) The members of the media council reviewed how we could help our Communities and we agreed corrupt individuals and their actions was the single major cause in the breakdown of the ability of government to deliver services to the Community. Corrupt activities loose millions of kina that could go toward renovating or building classrooms, aid posts or even fixing our roads, it also drives away good businesses that could invest in PNG and in turn create more jobs. We saw corruption and corrupt people as public enemy number 1. Each media organization pledged its support in the WOC through provision of resource such as networking, people or funds if required. We commenced a campaign using our combined ability to affect mass communication, and ran a uniformed message through all our services, and the message was a call to interested community groups to come and join the WOC. The key groups that spearheaded the campaign have been Transparency International and The Ombudsman Commission through the Chief Ombudsman and his Director of Investigations. From this beginning the numbers of groups grew to now total 28 community, business, professional and church groups. The WOC works on two levels firstly with an all-encompassing approach through the media; this enables the message of anti-corruption to be carried throughout radio, newspapers and TV. The message is uniform and is coordinated so it is simple in presentation. On another level the groups that make up the Community Coalition Against Corruption bring to the War a community network that can carry the anti-corruption message directly to the People through face-to-face, word of mouth and village presentations. These presentations are made at their community meetings and as the case with some of our church members even including the anti-corruption message in to their Sunday sermons. Let me share the method that we used to drive the War On Corruption campaign: The Method. (Involving a Coalition from the Civil Society)

• We designed a logo reinforcing the statement “WAR ON CORRUPTION”,

something similar to our “Year of the Child” logo, simple but effective. The logo can be carried through our newspaper members, on TV, and affixed on our letterhead and the letterheads of our Anti-Corruption Coalition partners.

• The logo could also be used on T-shirts, flags, caps, stickers, posters etc carrying

the message further.

• We wrote letters to interested organisations to have them commit their support of the WAR ON CORRUPTION informing them of our plan, and asking them to

formalise their commitment by signing a DOCUMENT along with the Council signifying our combined declaration of WAR ON CORRUPTION.

(Use overhead 3)

• This document is then to be made public through publication, broadcasting and

televising, declaring the unity of these community, business and professional groups in the WAR ON CORRUPTION.

• We confirmed with organizations such as The Ombudsman Commission,

Transparency International (PNG), The Various Chambers of Commerce, and the members of the media council to run a campaign promoting a “Corruption Hot Line” this was a mailing address, phone number and email for people to access to report a corrupt activity or situation. This was then directed either to the Ombudsman or Police or investigated by the media depending on who would be best placed to handle the investigation and where the jurisdiction lays.

(Use overhead 4)

The Method. (Media’s Role)

• We as the media supported the campaign by using our combined resources most

appropriate to our areas of expertise. (TV, Newsprint, Radio) • Newspaper could set aside special pages, carrying the “WAR ON

CORRUPTION” logo and focus on issue’s relating to corruption. The NPF Inquiry. Regular updates from the Public Prosecutor on the progress being made on outstanding issues.

• Radio ran a special feature within the newsbreaks to highlight and reinforce the

“WAR ON CORRUPTION”. Reporters would support the work of the newspapers following through on stories relating to corruption, and keeping these stories on the “boil”. (Use overhead 5 & 6)

• Radio produced special community service radio commercials calling on all

members of the public to join the “WAR ON CORRUPTION”, and promoting the groups aligned with the WAR and also when confirmed promoting the “Hot Line” numbers for the public to use if required.

• TV supported the WOC with special features within the various programs,

focusing on the effects of corruption, lack of roads, schools, Health and unemployment, lack of investor interest. As well as covering stories exposing corruption.

• TV also ran similar community service messages as those run by radio, but

obviously with vision. (Play video tape)

• The Members of the Media Council agreed to share information in relation to corrupt individuals or activities and pool their resources (funds, information,

networks, people) to carry out investigations, and there after mount a sustained media campaign to expose these individuals and their activities to the Public.

• All members agreed to carry out sustained scrutiny of the arms of government

responsible for implementation of action against corrupt individuals, and place the “spotlight” of the public on them, and maintain it on them until we have action or explanation.

Where to from here? The media along with the other members of the CCAC have been involved in the War On Corruption campaign. Leading into the elections we have been asking the voters to scrutinise their candidates, as they will be the individuals who may represent them and in turn dictate if any meaningful developments comes to their area. In the past this type of community scrutiny perhaps didn’t take place as vigorously as it is now. We hear stories about people in various communities that are now speaking out about these issues and we have seen at the various public forums we have run when the opportunity presents itself our communities are not backward in asking the hard questions to their elected leaders. We need to get this level of scrutiny to take place at the LLG and Provincial Government level. If there was one message that I hoped we would get to our communities it is that they are not alone that we People who stand against corruption were the not the minority, but indeed the majority. The WOC campaign saw us run a number of public forums around the country at these forums we heard the same issues being brought up time and time again. The common issues are jobs, aid posts, classrooms, roads, and the rising cost of food. One particular question that is always asked at the forums is this: “Are there two laws one for the leaders and one for the grassroots”. If a grassroots person steals a biscuit the police bash him and he goes to jail, however if our elected leaders or prominent citizens steal public money why don’t they go to jail. Our communities have a right to ask this question, why is it that a elected leaders can hire a lawyer and if a decision goes against him remain out of jail and continue to appeal in the hope of getting a judgment he likes. It is my hope to continue the War On Corruption to show that this is an injustice. The CCAC members now number 28 groups from all around the Country we have agreed to continue the War On Corruption after the elections, our role will be to scrutinise the arms of government and place the spotlight on to their deficiencies, let me also say that we will applaud their successes if they are deserving. We will go to our communities and share this information with our people and let them know there are growing number of Papua New Guineans who believe that we must continue to fight against acts of corruption and corrupt individuals.

It is our hope to stimulate an environment that does not accept the act of corruption as a normal part of our lives, but as a criminal act by individuals that takes away the means to a better life for our Communities. Some people ask why do we need to take on the fight against corruption, what do we hope to achieve. Well lets remember the UNICEF figures I quoted earlier about the infant mortality rate. In 1999, 79 out of 1000 children have a probability of dying before the reach the age of 1. If we match this with the figures for annual births would show in PNG that close to 12,000 of our children each year do not live to the age of one. Corruption takes away the funds to improve and sustain health services that could help prevent the loss of 12,000 innocent young Papua New Guinean lives. In closing let me leave you with an observation, I said earlier it was the dependence on the integrity of the individual that has lead to the breakdown of the system of checks and balances within the public service now let me say it will take a strengthening of these systems driven by the integrity of individuals that will also act to restore it.

Overhead 1

Overhead 2

Overhead 3

Overhead 4

The article reads: “War on corruption hotline If you see or hear of corrupt people or activities, don’t turn a blind eye, report them. You can call: Transparency International (PNG) Inc. <contact details> The Ombudsman Commission of PNG <contact details> The Media Council of PNG <contact details> Join the Community Coalition again Crruption”

Overhead 5

Overhead 6