Rape report false: PPC

WESTERN Highlands Provincial Police Commander Kaiglo Ambane has warned reporters in the province not to use the name of  police “to add weight to their story”.
Superintendent Ambane    yesterday said reporters should get their facts right before going to print.
Mr Ambane said dissemination of information to the wider audience is very important but all these information or stories must be facts.
He said this after the Post Courier reported in its Monday edition that a Grade 11 student attending one of the schools in the city broke into a safe house and raped a woman infected with the AIDS virus.
The newspaper said the boy was arrested and charged with rape, and break and enter, but was released by police after his parents settled the matter out of court.
Mr Ambane said there was no formal complaint lodged at the police station and there was no report of such incident entered into the police’s  crime report.
“This is a false report put out by the media concerned. He said the report tarnished the image of the police in Mt Hagen.
Mr Ambane said he is only aware of a student allegedly raping his girlfriend but the matter was resolved out-of-court by the parents of the boy and girl.
He said  he respected the freedom of media and is willing to work closely with the media to disseminate information to the people but, he urged reporters to uphold their code of ethics when reporting.
He said  majority of the people in the country and overseas depend on media to know what is happening in their provinces and country and reporters must be accurate in their reports.