Narawec emphasizes on the importance of media independence

Chairman of the Permanent Parliamentary Committee on Communications and Wau Waria MP, Marsh Narawec has echoed the importance of media independence, as a reminder to executives running media outlets.

He said media outlets are an important part of any democracy.

“As the Chairman responsible to provide oversight over the media industry, I would like to remind all executives running the media outlets that the media is not just an ordinary business they are running.

"It is recognized as the Fourth Estate, an essential pillar of any democracy and a development partner, so you are responsible for ensuring its independence,” Narawec said.

This follows the Parliamentary Committee’s ongoing assessment of the recent suspension and subsequent termination of FM100 Talk Back show host, Cullinghan Tanda as well as others who were pointed out by the Media Council President, Neville Choi when summoned by the Committee last week.

Mr Narawec told NBC News that the upcoming regional inquiries, especially in the Southern Region, aims to shed light on the circumstances surrounding the talkback show host’s suspension and termination, and to ensure due process was followed.

He further stressed, that the role of all Parliamentary Committees is to keep the Executive Government accountable, and make policy and legislative recommendations to correct underlying issues.

“In this case, Kalang Advertising is a State Owned Enterprise therefore, we will inquire if the CEO has followed due process to suspend and eventually terminate Mr Tanda. This will happen when we do our regional inquiry into the Southern Region.”

“I as the Chairman will conduct a Committee meeting to update MPs who are members of the Committee, after parliament resumes on Tuesday the 27th of May, to have them prepare to complete our regional inquiries,” he said.

The Committee Chairman said these regional inquiry hearings will be allowed to be broadcast live to allow public interactions, to which journalists are encouraged to come forward to provide evidence and make submissions on ways to improve their welfare and media independence.

“We already have the TOR set for our Committee Inquiries last year, which includes ‘Journalists Welfare’ as one of the areas to look into.

Mr Tanda's suspension and subsequent termination falls under ‘Journalists’ Welfare’, so we will look into that when we do our regional inquiries,” he said.