Pacific Freedom Forum

Post-Courier business editor Rosalyn Albaniel Evara reportedly passed away on Sunday October 15 after complaining of head pains.

But information and a testimony given by an outraged relative during her funeral service in Port Moresby on Monday, October 23, revealed a pattern of marital abuse inflicted on the 41-year-old mother.

“We welcome a move by police to halt the burial of our colleague and an order seeking a post-mortem be carried out,” says Pacific Freedom Forum Chair, Monica Miller.

The Pacific Freedom Forum said police failed to uphold the law over an incident in which a journalist was reportedly assaulted right in front of police, outside Fiji's main courts.

Filming a man sentenced on a corruption case, Fiji Broadcasting Corporation journalist Praneeta Prakash was struck in the stomach with a stone thrown by a remand prisoner.

The prisoner was under police escort at the time.

Police refused to take action even as the prisoner swore and verbally abused Prakash.

Indonesia opened access to West Papua for foreign journalists in 2015, more than 50 years after annexing the territory from the Netherlands.

The Forum's co-chair, the Papua New Guinean journalist, Alex Rheeney, said a visit by journalists to West Papua in January encountered violence, sexual harassment and interference from Indonesian minders.

The Pacific Freedom Forum (PFF) has renewed its push for such an advocate first mooted by the watchdog more than three years ago.

The group has registered with the crowdfunding organisation Global Giving for donations to fund the ombudsman and a secretariat for the Forum which is currently run by volunteers.

The PFF's Jason Brown said it's hoped the ombudsman would improve media ethics and access to information.

"We see the position as being more about public pressure which we saw earlier (last) year with the case in Samoa over a suicide at a church hall," he said.

The Pacific Freedom Forum's comments come after seven journalists attending the Pacific Islands Forum in Papua New Guinea last week were reportedly detained for failing to pay a US$350 journalists' visa fee.

The journalists say they weren't informed that there was a visa fee during the accreditation process, and PNG's immigration minister, Rimbink Pato, has promised to investigate.