Ruling Party saddened by Post Courier's attack on Papua New Guineans

Following Tuesday’s inaccurate and inflammatory front page article titled “PNG tops world in ‘porn’ search” written by Dianne Waketsi, and due to the ensuing public outrage, the People’s National Congress feels it is necessary to clear up several inaccuracies.
The front page story in the Post Courier concerning the pornography habits of Papua New Guineans was disappointing to see. It was riddled with inaccuracies and an attack on our people at a time where we should be looking to unite and work together to build a better nation for all of us.
The story was poorly researched and not fact checked. The claim that 100% of Western Highlanders are searching for and watching pornography is simply false, even according to the newspaper’s own source of Google Trends.
The claim that PNG is the world’s leader in pornography searches is also false and was based on similar claims made by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in an article titled, “PNG tops porn searches on Google, experts divided over link between pornography and violence” written by Liam Cochrane. This ABC article clearly states that there has been no academic research on PNG’s pornography habits and bases its claims on unnamed sources.
It is unfortunate to see the Post Courier disregard its journalistic integrity, whether this mistake was due to a simple lack of effort or for more nefarious reasons. The internet has the power to change lives for the better. It can help us educate our children, do business more effectively and keep in touch with loved ones. Our goal as a government has been to connect more people to this powerful tool in an effort to modernize our country.

“PNG citizens have a choice, like everyone else in the world to access any information online. But, the distribution of undesired information online, using ICT devises in PNG is now a criminal offence under the Cybercrime Code Act passed by Parliament on August 11 2016 and Certified by the Clerk of Parliament on 13 December 2016.”
“There is of course an unfortunate and immoral side of the internet, one worth discussing and working against, but to attack Papua New Guineans and Western Highlanders is not the way to combat this. Our children need to be educated to use the internet for good and to rely on the morals promoted by our country’s Christian heritage.”
“The story sparked concerns that this government has plans to censor the internet, that is not the case. We have introduced the Cyber Crime Act to bring our laws in line with internet using countries around the world and to protect vulnerable people. No efforts are being made to curtail free speech or shutdown law abiding sections of the internet.” Press Release