Anna Solomon, a Papua New Guinean journalist and editor with 40 years experience, is now providing training for journalists at the Wantok Niuspepa.

Wantok is a weekly newspaper and the only Tok Pisin language newspaper in PNG.

Solomon, who spoke during last month’s public inquiry on Media in Papua New Guinea, asked if the Parliamentary Committee could work with the media industry to set up a Complaints Tribunal that could address issues affecting media in PNG.

Anna Solomon talks about the media role to “educate people” at the public media inquiry.  Video: Inside PNG

She also called for better Tok Pisin writers as it was one of two main languages that leaders, especially Parliamentarians, used in PNG to communicate with their voters.

At the start of the 3-day public inquiry (21-24 May 2024), media houses also called for parliamentarians and the public to understand how the industry functions.

The public inquiry focused on the “Role and Impact of Media in Papua New Guinea” and was led by the Permanent Parliamentary Committee on Communication with an aim to improve the standard of journalism within the country.

Republished from Inside PNG with permission.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Indonesia is pressuring Papua New Guinea over an illegal group East Sepik claiming to form an army unit to help West Papuan pro-independence rebels fighting against Indonesian forces across the border.

Calling such armed groups as “terrorists”, Indonesia’s Ambassador to PNG, Andriana Supandy, said his country respected the sovereignty of its neighbour, PNG, and called on the PNG authorities to act over the threat.

A video of a group dressed in military fatigues and brandishing automatic rifles has gone viral on social media, prompting the Indonesian response.

The men in the video, speaking in PNG “tok pisin”, claim to be from East Sepik. They say they stand with the West Papuan rebels and are ready to cross the border to support the West Papuan cause for independence.

Supandy said the Indonesian Embassy had been informed that PNG government officials were in Wewak to investigate the viral video on the social media post.

“The Indonesian government honour[s] the PNG government as a sovereign nation and leave the response to the alleged militants to the relevant authorities in PNG,” Supandy said.

“Both governments have the same understanding about the challenge and opportunity in managing the formal relations through the spirit of friendship and mutual respect.”

Gratitude over safety
Supandy said that despite the video causing uneasiness, the Indonesian Embassy would like to convey its gratitude to the government and the people of PNG for “ensuring the safety and wellbeing of Indonesians” working and living in PNG.

The embassy said the Indonesian government and people were reciprocating the gesture for PNG citizens living in Indonesia.

Supandy said the video of a vigilante group would not affect the strong relations between Indonesia and PNG.

“These armed groups in Papua and West Papua have resorted to acts, methods and practices of terrorism aiming at destruction of human rights, fundamental freedoms and democracy while also threatening the territorial integrity and security of the Republic of Indonesia,” he claimed.

Right to ‘reliable information’
Supandy said Papua New Guineans had the right to “reliable information” relating to this issue.

He said Indonesia was committed to taking measures aimed at “addressing the root causes” of the situation in Papua and West Papua provinces.

He said in this context, Indonesia advocated humane, prosperous and inclusive development approach, including:

• Respecting the basic rights of the people in Papua and West Papua provinces;
• Establishment of good governance in Papua; and
• Opportunities for Papuans to shape and direct local development strategies and regional policies.

SBS News reporting on the West Papua conflict.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

PROFILE: By Scott Waide in Lae

For a Tolai girl growing up in Papua New Guinea between 1960 and 1970, career options were very limited. Forty years ago, that was part of the story for now veteran broadcaster Caroline Tiriman for the Australian public network ABC.

“My mother wanted me to get married,” Caroline says. “It was an arranged marriage. I didn’t know the guy. He was from the next village and I went to school with his sisters.”

Caroline Tiriman had just completed high school at the Our Lady of the Sacred Heart and her mother insisted that she ditch any plans for a job outside of the East New Britain Province.

LISTEN TO THE ABC: Caroline Tiriman talks to Tahlea Aualiitia on Pacific Mornings

While Tiriman was under a lot of pressure from her mother, her dad, George, was quietly supportive. George Tiriman was a cook who worked for the small community of foreign Catholic priests.

He encouraged his daughter to follow her heart.

-Partners-

“I was so unhappy and I ran away back to the school. I told the principal that my mother wanted me to get married and I didn’t want to do that.”

Through the school’s help, Caroline was assisted by a careers officer who found her a job with the old government Post and Telecommunications company as a clerk.

Found a job
George Tiriman was very happy when Caroline told him that she had found a job in Port Moresby.

“He helped me run away to Port Moresby. He took me to town and then to the airport and saw me off.”

It wasn’t long before another opportunity presented itself. Caroline Tiriman applied for another clerical job with the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC), later corporation, which was set up by the ABC in 1973, two years before independence.

Her path towards broadcasting was largely due to a childhood fascination for radio broadcasting.

“I used to wonder: ‘Who were those people talking in the radio? When I was in grade eight or nine, the NBC had a programme called Ring for Record and it was wonderful. We also listened to news and current affairs in class.”

If there is one important lesson from Caroline’s life, it’s the willingness to seize opportunities even if the possibilities are seemingly impossible. While at the NBC in Port Moresby, her colleague and fellow veteran broadcaster, Kenya Kala, encouraged her to apply for a job with the ABC Tok Pisin service in Melbourne.

The job was advertised in The Age newspaper. She applied and within four months, her new boss, George Sivijs, called her up to welcome her to the ABC.

Tok Pisin translation
“During the interview, he gave me a 10 minute bulletin to translate into Tok Pisin. And in Rabaul, we didn’t speak Tok Pisin. I learned a bit of Tok Pisin in school but I didn’t speak much of it.

“Here, I was expected to translate English into Tok Pisin. It took me about an hour to translate the bulletin.”

Within the next few months, Tiriman prepared for the biggest transition in her life – her move to Australia permanently. As she was about to leave for Melbourne, she called her dad who was in Lae, ill with cancer.

“I said I got a job with the ABC and I am going to Australia. He said: ‘That’s alright. You can go.’”

But within weeks, her brother called and asked her to delay her travel to Australia because her dad, her greatest supporter, had passed away. Instead of traveling to Australia, Caroline Tiriman spent the next month being with her mother and her family.

Over the next 40 years, Caroline Tiriman became one of the most recognised Melanesian voices in PNG, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands.

Along with the small family of Australian-based PNG broadcasters, Caroline Tiriman, was among several others who set the standards for PNG’s Tok Pisin broadcasters.

Now, when she is asked what she was going to do after 40 years, she says: “I just want to take it easy… listen to the birds, go to the bush and look for galip nuts and just talk with family late into the night.”

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz