Micah says government will not control EMTV & NBC TV

Public Enterprise and Sate Investments Minister, Ben Micah, has assured the country, that the government will NOT control the newly purchased Television Station EMTV.

The PNG Government now owns two television stations - the NBC TV which comes under the Ministry of Information and Communication and now EMTV which comes directly under Telikom PNG.

Micah in an interview on NBC's PNG Tonight program said, the two stations will operate as usual, and will utilize Telikom PNG's infrastructure to reach far and wide in telecasting their contents.

Although the two stations are directly under PNG government, Micah said it will not interfere with their operations, instead allow them to operate independently in providing news and information services to the mass.

"This acquisition is really meant to consolidate the telecommunication network of Telikom by feeding, you know, more content in through our transmission infrastructure.But at the same time we intend to look at how we can rationalized or amalgamate all these broadcasting assets.Infrastructure of the government so that we can be able to have far greater reach".

Micah has also clarified, EMTV will operate as commercial station, whilst, NBC TV will concentrate on providing its community obligation service.

Meantime, Ben Micah said, the 20 million kina purchase is a good deal.

NBC News / PNG Today