History of Bougainville - Media Coverage of Civil War

Media Coverage of Civil War

Media coverage and attempts to control raise fundamental western liberal democratic values (inherited from Australia) which are reflected in Papua New Guinea as a democratic country. Australian press coverage of PNG even in peacetime tends towards being paternalistic and often emphasises the negative side of PNG society.

As reporting from the front line became more dependent upon physical security, coverage tended to follow increasingly Bougainville Revolutionary Army lines with growing military excesses against the population. The Times tended to have more sympathetic coverage frequently printing BRA letters and often disclaiming government charges, like the claim that Francis Ona was dead.

The Government did not seem to realise that its attempts at censorship and gently compelling of the nationalistic rhetoric on the media caused much of its own loss of credibility. Censorship forced the media to go physically to Bougainville to research their stories as well as antagonising them perhaps into antigovernment sentiment. Internally the Government seems to be gaining the upper hand even though 'Radio Free Bougainville' provides a rebel voice and the Catholic owned press initially held BRA sympathies. Additionally, due to institutional influences like the majority of the press being based in the capital, Port Moresby, the crisis was portrayed 'through Papua New Guinean, not Bougainvillean eyes'. In addition to that, it is now becoming technically more difficult to isolate totally any area from the press with the proliferation of modem communications systems like satellite telephones able to send digital data and therefore video images.

Perhaps the greatest risk associated with the press from an official and military point of view, is its influence upon morale. It is a military principal that one should as far as possible maintain high morale, so that both the public and the military are set on the same path of achieving a clear political and strategic direction without hindrance. Both parties increasingly realise that morale is highly dependent upon media portrayal and therefore the fiercely contested information battle. However the fundamental truth of the relationship between the media and the military remains unchanged. The essence of successful warfare is on the other hand the essence of successful journalism is publicity.

Cass (1992) argued that The Australian newspaper in its coverage of the Bougainville conflict lacked depth and focused on the crisis from Australia's own interests and a conviction that the former colony could not really look after itself. Other researchers pointed out that even though journalists got into Bougainville during the crisis, the coverage was uneven (Cronau, 1994; Denoon & Spriggs, 1992). Dorney argues that, with few exceptions, the Australian media pays scant attention to Australia's former colony unless there is high drama, such as during the Sandline crisis in March 1997, or a disaster relief effort, such as when the Australian Defence Force played a high-profile role during the drought induced famine of 1997-98 (1998, p15). He adds that the rest of the time it is the bizarre and tragic, especially violent crime involving expatriates, that fill the limited agenda. According to Patience (2005), PNG has a public relations problem in terms of its image abroad.

Bougainville - Our Island Our Fight - This film is notable for its unique subject matter, as most Western media has not reported upon the Bougainville conflict.