Officers admit assaulting journalist

FOUR men working for the office of Morobe Governor Ginson Saonu have admitted in court that they assaulted a Lae-based journalist last Friday.
Appearing before Magistrate Terra Dawai in a Lae court yesterday were Steven Boting, 32, Tingke Dopemuc, 30, Alex John, 37, all from Kabwum district, and Benny Raymond, 38, from Huon Gulf district.
They admitted assaulting Post Courier Lae-based journalist Frankiy Kapin last Friday at Erap before the ground-breaking ceremony for a SP Brewery cassava project.
Kapin and other journalists were there to cover the event.
Boting told Magistrate Dawai that “everything the court said is true, and we know that it is wrong to assault”.
Magistrate Dawai adjourned the matter to tomorrow to await the medical report of the complainant.
Meanwhile, the United Nations resident coordinator in Papua New Guinea Gianluca Rampolla said a free, uncensored and unhindered media “is the
cornerstone of a democratic society”.
“The media should be able to operate without fear or favour, and enjoy media freedom as a basic human right as enshrined in the Constitution of Papua New Guinea and the International Human Rights Conventions which Papua New Guinea has ratified,” Rampolla said.