We stand by our record of fairness

 OPPOSITION leader Belden Namah’s accusation of unfair and biased news coverage by the mainstream media cannot go unchallenged.

While The National cannot speak for the other newspapers, radio and television organisations, we would like to state that our newspaper is not (Prime Minister) “Peter O’Neill’s proxy and operating to support (him)” as claimed by Namah last Thursday.

Neither are we “under threat and intimidation from Peter O’Neill to suppress the work of the Opposition”.

The National is proud of its record as an independent and privately-owned newspaper organisation. 

We have built our reputation and business through the hard work, dedication and loyalty of our staff, the majority of whom are Papua New Guineans.

We have offered the Opposition equal space in our newspaper so that Namah and his members can comment on issues of nation importance. 

We have not restricted our editorial pages to them for whatever reason the Opposition leader claims. We are mindful of the Opposition’s concern on major issues or “scandals” as Namah describes them, and have given what we believe has been adequate news coverage. 

To the contrary, we have not given these issues little or no interest.

The National has a duty to its readers to be fair and balanced in our news coverage. We strive to get the relevant information and will not pub­lish stories without comments from the concerned individuals or groups.

Our newspaper was put to test earlier this year when Namah revealed to the media that a warrant order had been issued for the arrest of the prime minister and two of his senior ministers.

During a press conference on Jan 6, Namah handed out copies of the warrant, which was purportedly signed by senior magistrate Cosmas Bi­dar on Nov 28, 2013, for the arrest of O’Neill, Finance Minister James Marape and then Treasury Minister Don Polye on charges relating to corruption, conspiracy to defraud and abuse of authority and office over the payment of K71.8 million to Paul Paraka Lawyers.

Namah gave a 72-hour no­tice to Police Commissioner Tom Kulunga and the top brass to exercise their constitutional duties, without fear or favour, to execute the order to arrest O’Neill, Marape and Polye. 

Namah said failure to execute the warrant order would mean he would be forced to pursue contempt charges against Kulunga and his officers.

The National covered Na­mah’s press conference and obtained copies of the arrest warrants for what was definitely our front page story on Jan 7. However, we needed a detailed response from the prime minister and related comments from the police commissioner about the issue raised by the opposition leader. We decided to hold the story until we got those responses. The Prime Minister’s Office advised us late that afternoon that O’Neill would make a proper response at a press conference the next day.

Our final decision was to hold the story because we wanted to give the concerned parties the opportunity to respond in the same vein. As far as we were concerned, it would have been unfair to publish only the Opposition’s story without a proper response from the Government. 

Following O’Neill’s press conference we published both sides of the story on Jan 8, which we deemed to be fair and balanced accounts of that contentious issue.

However, The National was still criticised for not doing what the other daily newspaper did – publish a one-sided story on Jan 7.

As with all matters before the courts, we will not publish comments and allegations about pending cases whe­ther the statements come from the Government or the Opposition. We are always mindful of contempt of court charges. We will not allow our newspaper to be used as a medium by politicians and others to publicly ridicule, slander and defame each other. 

Papua New Guinea’s laws are on defamation are quite profound and we simply cannot call the prime minister “corrupt” because that’s the opposition leader’s word and not ours. 

The National welcomes healthy and sensible debate on issues of national interest but will not enter the “gutter politics” being played out in social media.