The events at the Papua New Guinea Media Council’s awards night in Port Moresby last month were, to say the least, unfortunate—not just for that country’s media but for the media of the entire Pacific Islands region as well.

On that night, after listening to speeches on the lofty ideals of the importance of media freedom and accurate reporting, “the awards ceremony erupted into a fight requiring a Port Moresby Hotel security to step in and pull apart scrapping guests,” reported The Australian.

 

“The media awards night was the culmination of a week-long Media Council programme to raise industry standards.”The online version of the paper quoted guests at the awards function as saying, “This stuff always happens at this end of year. Everything starts fine, but it all comes out with too much to drink.” And, “It really is the silly season. Staff get drunk and then there will be a fight at the office Christmas party. All the simmering tensions erupt.”

Ordinarily, it would seem counter-intuitive that a media organisation should voice criticism of its own practitioners through the media and we would loathe doing so were it to be a matter simply relating to reporting, editorial judgment or any other processes that a media organisation follows as part of its usual operations.

 

But in this instance, we think the issue is much larger than the usual day to day affairs of running the media and has implications on the very basis on which the media owes its existence as the Fourth Estate of democracy, the other three being the legislature, the executive and the judiciary.

 

Soul searching and self criticism are in order here and it is for this reason that we have chosen to share our introspection through these pages. Among many other metaphors, the media has been described as a mirror on society. We believe it is sound practice to turn that mirror on ourselves once in a while—in the very interests of those who we serve, which indeed, is the general public. The very nature of the media’s place in a democracy confers upon it almost an automatic responsibility of being the guardian of the general public’s interest. It is from this important status that it draws the moral strength to hold both elected representatives and a nation’s administrative machinery to account, besides bringing to the attention of the public any goings-on that run counter to its common interests.

 

Being unelected and un-appointed to any office of political, administrative or monetary power, the media draws its strength and authority from the public based mostly on just one quality—and that is trust.

It is that implicit knowledge of the public’s trust in it that gives the media the moral authority to criticise people wielding power–be it political or administrative, giving the public its voice as it were. And it is for exactly this reason that those in power with something to hide disparage the media every so often, accusing it of grabbing the so-called “moral high ground.”

 

The media, therefore, more than any other branch of democracy needs to live up to the saying, “Caesar’s wife must be above suspicion”. In the past few years, we have seen several governments around the region that have tried their best to rein in the media by measures ranging from veiled threats to raising the bogey of media legislation. And each time, these governments have accused the media of poor standards of news gathering and reporting—albeit sometimes justifiably so, as we have been made amply aware in certain cases.

 

It does not matter to them that the conditions the media practitioners work in especially in the islands are—to put it mildly—challenging, with poor infrastructure, meager resources and an almost non-existent culture that engenders the freedom of information, unlike in more developed democracies. And of course, they would never acknowledge a genuine case of human error, the possibility of which increases manifold in difficult circumstances.

Unfortunately, events like what happened in Port Moresby on the Media Council Awards night only serve as ammunition to fill the arsenal of media unfriendly governments including the ones in Papua New Guinea and Fiji, which have had more than a few unpleasant exchanges with the media over the past two years.

 

Not for a moment do we seek to suggest here that media practitioners need to behave as lilywhite paragons of virtue. Of course, they are humans and entitled to have their moments. But what should be avoided at all costs is uncivil behaviour and that too among compatriots at an official function hosted by the media to honour the best and brightest among them. That sentiment ought to have prevailed in Port Moresby that night. Regrettably, it didn’t—and robbed the event of its true importance, which indeed was to honour journalists after hearing speeches from experts about how to make journalism and the media better in that country. The irony could not have been starker. 

 

That one incident will undoubtedly seek to make the media’s high moral ground a wee bit shaky—ever more so in the eyes of entrenched political and administrative vested interests that are baying for the media’s blood. It will also serve to shake the collective conscience of the region’s media as is evident in the widespread reaction of indignation by the region’s media practitioners in blogs and forums on the internet.  But by far the worst effect will be one that will undermine the public’s trust which indeed sees the media as not just its custodian but its very voice.

 

That is something the media will have to win back from the people by following up on issues that really matter and holding their collective interests the highest. Our islands democracies are young and many have a long way to go before their institutions can be compared to more mature democracies. And the media has an important role to play in that progress. It is imperative for our practitioners, therefore, to behave more responsibly both on and off the field and not allow things to come to a point that would embarrass both themselves and the people they represent. People, it is said, get the media they deserve. The people of the Pacific Islands deserve better. We need to make that happen.