Papua New Guinea’s draft media policy is an attempt to legitimise government control over journalists | Bethanie Harriman

Reporters need protection from violence and intimidation - not a law that makes it easier to sack them

During my first week as a journalist in a television station in Papua New Guinea, I got told by a bureaucrat in a large government department that I should be careful what I write about him as he knew the country's prime minister. That was 10 years ago.

Since then, I've received phone calls from government ministers asking me to omit certain details from stories. While covering an election, my cameraman was assaulted by supporters of a politician, I was threatened, and we were told to delete footage from our camera.