Mayor Storms Paper Office

Mayor Storms Paper Office

HONIARA (Post-Courier Online/Pacific Media Watch): The mayor of the Solomon Islands capital, Honiara, on Friday stormed the Solomon Star newsroom and demanded that the local daily stop publishing "negative stories" about the city council, the Post-Courier reports.

Honiara City Council mayor David Dausabea, the subject of much controversy in the local media over his use of council funds, management of tendering processes and allegedly questionable land deals, told newsroom staff he did not want to see negative comments about his council published in future.

"As of today, I will now ban any news items regarding the council from your paper. You have published so much negative comment about the council in your paper that is unfair. Don¹t you know I am the mayor," he said.

Dausabea demanded that staff give him names of contributors to the newspaper's opinion page ‹ making allegations against him ‹ so that he could search for them. Attempts by a local journalist to explain it was against journalist ethics to reveal their identities and that he had a right to reply to the allegations were futile.

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PACIFIC MEDIA WATCH is an independent, non-profit, non-government organisation comprising journalists, lawyers, editors and other media workers, dedicated to examining issues of ethics, accountability, censorship, media freedom and media ownership in the Pacific region. Launched in October 1996, it has links with the Journalism Program at the University of the South Pacific, Bushfire Media based in Sydney, Journalism Studies at the University of PNG (UPNG), the Australian Centre for Independent Journalism (ACIJ), Auckland University of Technology in New Zealand, and Community Communications Online (c2o).

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