Papua New Guinea (PNG) continues to grapple with the growing flood of illicit, violent and explicit material circulating on social media and online platforms, the Office of Censorship has told a parliamentary inquiry yesterday at Parliament in Port Moresby.
Chairman for the Permanent Parliamentary Committee on Communications Marsh Narewec enquired about why there is still flood of illicit, violent and explicit contents still being found online and what must be done to prevent or remove them from the digital sites.https://www.nbc.com.pg/post/20940/office-of-censorship-in-talks-with-mbp
Responding to the questions, Chief Censor Jim Abani said that more than 33,000 web addresses (URLs) containing offensive or harmful material have been identified but remain active.
“Facebook, for example, operates beyond PNG’s jurisdiction,” Mr Abani said. “We classify and report the content, but enforcement depends on external platforms and agencies.”
He said PNG lacks the technological capacity to monitor and remove harmful online content.
“We are a small office with a big mandate,” he said. “Our role is to safeguard moral values, but our resources are very limited.”
Mr Abani urged stronger collaboration among law enforcement agencies and greater public responsibility. “Technology is here to stay,” he said.
“Our people must learn to use it responsibly and begin exercising self-censorship at home.”
Meanwhile, he said the Classification of Publications (Censorship) Act 1989 is outdated and still awaiting legal clearance.