Australian media is failing PNG

The Australian media has failed in its proclaimed watchdog role in PNG and the Pacific, says leading journalist, Sean Dorney, a long-term regional correspondent for the ABC. Speaking in Port Moresby, Mr Dorney said the Australian media does not take the Pacific seriously and, except for the ABC and AAP, no correspondents have been based in Port Moresby since the 1980s. He said this had resulted in the Australian media’s weak understanding of the region.

“There are one or two journalists who try to report on the region from Australia but they get little support and find there is virtually no funding for trips to the Pacific unless there is a coup or a burning down of Chinatown. I find this incredible considering the amount of money Australia now spends in PNG and Pacific – hundreds of millions a year.”

Dorney added that PNG does itself no favours in the way it treats Australian journalists. “Journalists wanting to come to PNG have to apply for a $220 journalist’s visa. This can take weeks to secure, if it is approved at all.

“Most Australian journalists, after being put through all these difficulties, are in no mood to write positive stories,” Mr Dorney said. He also remarked there are not many Australians who understand the diversity and differences within PNG.

Dorney lived and worked in PNG for almost 20 years and, in an unusual double, has been both deported and awarded honours by its Government.

Source: ‘Aust media failing as watchdog: Dorney’ by Harlyn Joku, The National [PNG], 17 March 2008