More laud late senior colleague’s reporting

By SALLY POKITON
UPNG journalism student
CONDOLENCES flowed into The National newsroom as colleagues, friends and relatives reacted to the death of its Business Editor Yehiura Hriehwazi.
Hriehwazi, 49, died from a heart attack at Port Moresby General Hospital in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Many who knew and worked with Hriehwazi described his death as a great loss to the local media industry.
Hriehwazi held many senior positions in newspapers and public relations agencies in a career spanning 30 years.
He was a former editor-in-chief of The National and editor of the Post Courier before rejoining The National.
Pacific View Media advertising general manager Justin Kili said in an e-mail: “It is with the heaviest heart that I write to you to express my condolences and sympathies and to the family of your late Business Editor and our brother and colleague, Yehiura Hriehwazi on his sudden and shocking passing this past weekend.
“I had known and admired Yehi both professionally and personally over many years.”
“Yehi had been a professional journalist, a mentor to the young who aspired to become members of the journalism profession and was a strong patriot at heart.
“He carried out his work without fear or favour and he was a journalist who called a spade a spade and reported issues the way they happened and in a format they ought to have been reported. He was a shining example of a great family man.”
A former business editor, Brian Gomez, said Hriehwazi was on the constant lookout for controversial issues and stories and was a seeker of the  truth in the best traditions of journalism.
“Among the highlights of his journalistic career was his role in covering the Bougainville crisis and being selected as one of only three journalists allowed to cover early reconciliation negotiations on board the New Zealand navy vessel, Endeavour, which resulted in the Endeavour Accord.
“He will be remembered as an individual always keen to report and pursue any evidence of corruption and as an individual eager to raise journalism standards in PNG, particularly through empowerment of the PNG Media Council,” Gomez said.
Sheila Lasibori, a former business reporter with The National, said: “A senior colleague with so much experience and knowledge of the industry will be dearly missed. I have had the opportunity to work with him and I am grateful for what he had shared and the advice necessary to assist in grooming a young journo into the industry.
“There are very few of such people and with so much happening in the industry with changing time, often times we do not take note of their contribution until they leave us.” 
Zachary Per from The National’s Goroka bureau said: “It is indeed a sad moment as one of our very senior men in our operation passing on. Yehi was instrumental in establishing the Goroka office when he was the Editor-In-Chief in 2004.”
Hriehwazi leaves behind wife Eka and children Michelle, Fredda, Yingua and Prudence.