Media council wants Dimara reinstated

THE Media Council of Papua New Guinea (MCPNG) has condemned the suspension of EMTV’s head of news and current affairs, Sincha Dimara, and called for her immediate reinstatement.
MCPNG, in a statement, said it saw Dimara’s suspension as an act of intimidation by the management of Media Niugini Ltd, and one that amounted to the suppression of a free media in the country.
MCPNG said it had reviewed the aspects of the case and had found that the reasons for Dimara’s suspension without pay were based on the airing of news stories surrounding the re-arrest of Sanctuary Hotel manager Jamie Pang.
The council said it recognised Dimara as head of news and her assessment of each of the news stories, and her decision to have them aired and published online.
“The reasons provided by Media Niugini Ltd’s (MNL) interim chief executive officer Lesieli Vete, to suspend Dimara for 21 days without pay, are shallow, and bordering on intimidation of EMTV news staff, at the behest of an executive directive from the Minister responsible for EMTV as a company, to ‘fix the problem’,” MCPNG said in the statement.
“EMTV, like every other media house in the country, should be allowed to do their job without interference of media owners or boards of management on all matters editorial, except for disciplinary cases or that based on their lack of performance.”
The council said the management of MNL needed to recognise that a strong news service was only as strong as its head of news, with the support of the company’s management and board.
The council called for Vete and the MNL management to reinstate Dimara immediately to her position of head of news, to protect the interest of the media industry.