Duty in the face of danger

SECURITY

By DYLAN MURRAY
SECURITY continues to be a concern throughout the country.
Many a parliament debate has been had around what needs to be done to address the rising law and order issues that plague the different areas. But who provides this information to the members of parliament? Who provides the information that can be used to inform policy decisions around the changes that have the potential to address the issue at hand?
It has long been said that the media plays that part. Of course, the police, defence force and intelligence organisations do play a part in this, but the masses are informed through mass media.
Which is why the people who go out and get these stories are important and must be protected to an extent.

‘Protect the media’
Commissioner of Police David Manning had issued an advisory notice to the public following an incident in which a journalist was hit by a stray bullet.
The statement was more to do with the public’s responsibility to assist or safeguard media personnel wherever they are, than with the incident in question. And so, I am given to believe that it is still under investigation.
It went on to reiterate one of the most used phrases a journalist would have heard in his or her everyday life: “The media plays a very important role.”
But committing to such a notice becomes difficult when you factor in the daily needs of the average street thug. Not to mention the Papua New Guinean mentality behind the “not my problem” stance.
Journalists get robbed a lot, just like a lot of other people. But this keeps us from doing our job, to keep people updated on what is going on in the country.
I am not here to argue whose job is more important. This is supposed to shed some light on the events that took place, and maybe convince you of the dangers that you only hear about through the media.

Moitaka job
Full disclosure: We had thought the gunshots were sounds that were coming from the generator at the Moitaka sub-station. We did not drop to the ground until one of us was bleeding.
Hearing gunshots should automatically make you duck or find cover. That is not the case for most Papua New Guineans. When we hear of danger, we want to be there to see what is happening. And that is sort of the job description for a journalist, especially one doing police stories and security rounds.
We had all met at the PNG Power car park; reporters from some of the major news houses within the city and the country. We were to be taken out on a news run to cover progress for the Edevu Hydro Power project.
After being taken via bus from Hohola all the way to Sabusa to see the progress of the transmission lines, we were brought back into the city limits and taken to Moitaka to see where the transmission lines were being pulled to.
PPL and AG Investments are stringing lines from Edevu to Moitaka where power will be connected to the Port Moresby grid. That was the story. The unknown variable was the amount of progress that had been made and how much more progress needed to be made.
After a tour of the worksite where they were almost about ready to install a transformer, we proceeded to the lawn under a bunch of trees for lunch provided by PPL. It was a quiet day so far.
A number of us had only gotten word of a fight at 9-Mile but we felt we were a little farther down from there so it should be safe.
Some of us were sitting in chairs while the others sat on the grass in the shade. PPL staff joined us for lunch a few minutes after their chief executive officer and the Edevu project developer left.
No sooner had I started eating when we heard the first volley of gunfire. Another reporter from the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and I thought the noise had come from the generator, which was the loudest thing there. When the second volley went up, it sounded like it was coming from the road behind us.
I quickly glanced to the rear; the main road was about three to four hundred metres away and we were at a slightly elevated position. So, I thought we were safe.
When the third volley sounded, I heard a bullet whiz past my ear. And then I noticed one of the reporters who had been sitting on the lawn clutching her arm. There was blood. It took her a split-second to realise she had been shot before she yelled: “My arm!”
Tim, the other reporter from NBC, got to her first. He yelled for everyone to lie down on the ground just in case but my hand was already in my bag searching for a cloth.
The reporter (name withheld) who was hit by the stray bullet in her left arm was bleeding profusely. It ran like water, and I could see it from across the way. The bullet had lodged in her arm.
Tim yelled for a cloth and within half a minute I was there beside the three of them: Tim, the female reporter, and the cameraman who had accompanied her for the job. The cameraman had also been grazed by the same bullet that hit the reporter, but it was just a scratch.
I placed my handkerchief over her arm and tried to wrap it around her arm, applying pressure so she would not lose more blood. I did not have an eye on everyone else but Tim had yelled for them to stay down.
About 100 to 150 metres ahead of us, in the direction where the stray bullet came from, one of the journalists with us saw people run across. Those were probably who the gunshots were being aimed at.
I called for someone to find and bring me a stick or a pen long enough for me to use as a tourniquet, but nobody was listening. So, I proceeded to take off my belt and wrap it around her left bicep to stop the bleeding.
Just then another volley sounded, so I lay down and made sure her head was resting on the ground and not tilted upward, lest she get hit by another stray bullet.
I quickly tightened the belt around her arm and yelled for the PPL driver who had taken us there to bring the bus (a Toyota Coaster bus) around to the front of us so that if more shots were fired, the bus would take it. It took the driver a little longer to do that, but when he did, we helped her sit and lean against one of the tyres.
The gunfire stopped, which gave us the time to collect ourselves.
An ambulance was called. But since Moitaka was too close to the fighting at 9-Mile, we decided to meet the ambulance halfway. After taking the inside road to meet them at 8-Mile service station and then going farther to 7-Mile where we did meet St John, we tailed them until the hospital.
I left after I saw that she was able to walk into the emergency herself.
As per the statement, PPL fronted the bill for her care at the hospital. And as for who fired the stray bullet, I can only speculate.
I left feeling wide awake and very agitated, with a small sense of satisfaction that I was able to help make sure someone did not bleed out.
This all happened on a Wednesday, between 12 and 1pm.

The 9-Mile incident
(Night before)
I am of the strong belief that the fighting at 9-Mile the day I was dodging bullets was in some way related to an incident that took place the night before, at 9-Mile.
We were told that the fighting had started because of an eviction exercise that was being carried out on some of the people there. Which raised the question: Why now?
A simple connect-the-dot exercise would paint you a picture with the facts we knew:
The area was notorious for crime, especially grand theft auto in broad daylight;
There were a lot of Engans in the area, during a period in time where there were regular fights back in Enga; and or
The eviction was long overdue.
The night before the Moitaka incident, our office bus was held up on the way out of the service station at 9-Mile, after we had just dropped a colleague.
The perpetrators were youth, looking to be within the ages of 18 and 26. Their faces were unconcealed but their weapons were.
On the drive in from 8-Mile that night, I had noticed the same group of young men standing on the other side of the road before the roundabout. After we had left our colleague, we came up the slope out of the service station and slowed down to get back onto the road. I looked up from my phone and saw that the group of young men had already crossed the road and were on the sidewalk right in front of us.
This set off warning bells in my head, so I turned to the driver and yelled, “Bro, go!”
He was not fast enough.
They rushed the bus from all sides, so I turned to the female colleague of mine who was still in the bus with me, and told her to head for the door. She grabbed her bag and quickly made for the door as I had told her, but someone had already managed to get into the passenger side door in the front.
The thug quickly realised that we were trying to get out of the bus, so he climbed halfway into the back and grabbed a hold of her.
Outside our door, two others were trying to pry open the door. I noticed our driver had been pulled out of the bus when it came off the brakes the first time and jolted backwards.
I grabbed the still locked door by the handle and pulled it open. All the while my mind was on my sister reporter. In my head, I knew if they took the bus with her still in it, it would be an even bigger situation.
So, I jumped out, turned towards my colleague who was struggling with her attacker, punched him once in the face, grabbed her and pulled her out of the bus.
We then struggled with another one of them outside who grabbed a hold of her bilum.
I grabbed it with her and tugged until we freed it from his grasp and I had brought her into the safety of the service station premises.
What annoyed me about the experience was that the thug who was supposedly their getaway driver did not know how to drive a manual.
He got out and ran when security guards on the premises came to our aid. Which left the bus to roll back down the slope and shatter the back windscreen when it hit the service station gate.
Thank God for the security guards and locals who came to our aid; as well as the two police vehicles that were driving by and sped in to help chase off the thugs.
And there we were, in the aftermath of a failed holdup – a bus with shattered glass, a traumatised female reporter, a driver who got confused for a thug because he ran from the scene, and me.

Security for media personnel
Our security is never really guaranteed. Not as civilians, employees of the private or public sectors, or members of the media fraternity. But I guess the difference is in how we actively put ourselves in harms way to keep the people properly informed.
And then there are the times when we are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Either way, safety is the priority, not just for journalists but for people in other occupations as well.
And the reasons why that is may sometimes seem like legacy issues; problems that could have been fixed years before now – in ways like job creation, making sure prices remained steady and did not rise.
A lot of arguments can be made to outline the root cause of the rise in crime. But who will tell you the story if the ones tasked with finding out these things get hurt or die?
It is a very vicious cycle no matter whose perspective you look at it from.