Role of media should be coordinated not centralized: Department of ICT

The Permanent Parliamentary Committee hearing on Communication, today (Tuesday), prompted the Chairman and MP for Wau-Waria, Marsh Narawec, his Deputy and Bulolo MP Sam Basil Jr, and other members of the committee to seek views on centralizing the role of media.

Chairman Narawec has called on the Department of Information and Communication Technolgy [DICT] as the regulator to elaborate on the mechanisms in place to monitor communication, especially news articles, and further seek clarification if there is a need to centralize the government-owned media organizations.

DICT Secretary, Steven Matainaho, said the role of media should not be centralized but it must be monitored with proper mechanisms.

He said they are working on how to support this profession without interfering with their role but instill the values in this profession.

"The question is what do we do about it? The draft policy also highlights that we should consolidate our state-owned media arms for better coordination of information dissemination.

"One of the reasons is that when we say media development, we are saying that the media should be a tool for development because we are a developing nation.

"In a more advanced and industrialized economy, it would be used as a fourth estate of check and balance but in a developing economy, every stakeholder should work together to develop the country.

"It's not just to keep the government in check but also to inform on the development agenda. We believe that the policy position we've taken, we should set out some mechanism, not centralized but coordination," Matainaho said

Media urged to drive more information on development agenda

What the government is encouraging, is for mainstream and social media platforms to provide more information about its development agenda while also fulfilling its role as the Fourth Estate of Democracy by maintaining a check and balance on it.

Steven Matainaho while emphasizing the importance of the role the media plays in the country as gatekeepers, he stressed the need for strong coordination among all public relations practitioners in compiling and communicating information to a wider audience in Papua New Guinea.

He pointed out the importance of promoting the government's development aspirations, stating that it is crucial for the country's development.

Deputy Chair of the Committee, Sam Basil Jr inquired about mechanisms to hold accountable those using fake accounts to spread misinformation and disinformation, damaging the reputation of organizations, individuals, and the government.

Mr Matainaho said they are looking at the Indian Model to detect individuals behind fake accounts.

“Because India was able to track down. The idea is to find out who is behind disseminating the information. For that to happen, we have to have some kind of social media legislation.

“Our Digital Government Act (2022) is currently focused on fake government accounts only, for when we see it's fake, we direct Communication with Meta to build a backhand platform fast to login directly and report on any account that is fake they take it down within the hour.

“But for regular citizens, it requires a mutual assistance arrangement between PNG and the US government.

“The Department of Justice and Attorney General will write to the counterpart in the US and require Facebook to compel them to provide data. Our track record right now is that it's not working.

“The request goes to the justice in the US, and they just do nothing about it, so we contacted Meta, and they refer us to that process,” he added.