On the priorities of journalists

This news story appeared in a number of newspapers this week, and while the content of the article makes it clear that these allegations are mere "rumour" at this point in time, it does raise questions about why journalists publish such stories...too often stories about PNG (and Melanesia more generally) reinforce stereotypes of madness, irrationality etc...why not report on the HIV/AIDS epidemic sweeping through PNG, rather than the alleged hysteria of local people?

Papua New Guinea police to investigate claims AIDS patients buried alive

The Associated Press
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea: Police and health workers in Papua New Guinea were investigating unverified claims by an HIV-positive woman that people with AIDS were buried alive by their relatives who could no longer care for them, an official said Tuesday.

Margaret Marabe, who reportedly spent five months working to raise awareness about the disease in the South Pacific nation's remote Southern Highlands province, said she had seen weary AIDS patients buried alive.

"I saw three people with my own eyes," Marabe told the Post Courier newspaper for its Monday edition. "When they got very sick and people could not look after them, they buried them."

The acting director of Papua New Guinea's National AIDS Council, Romanus Pakure, said police and health workers were being sent to the Southern Highlands to investigate the claims.

However, he questioned why Marabe had not approached the police before taking her story to the media.

"The lady may be a loose cannon; we are not happy it's come out like this," he said.

Pakure conceded that the stigma against people with HIV was very strong in the countryside, where education about the disease is scarce.

Similar claims of AIDS killings have been made in the past but none were verified, he said.

"There were reports maybe five to 10 years ago of people being buried alive. There were also reports of people being thrown in the river or burnt alive," he said.

The council and other health agencies were moving ahead with programs to raise knowledge about HIV/AIDS and teach families how to care for people with the disease, Pakure said.

Marabe could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

Anne McPherson, a spokeswoman for the organization where Marabe works as a volunteer, said she had not heard of Marabe's claims before they appeared in the local newspaper.

Papua New Guinea, which shares an island north of Australia with Indonesia's easternmost Papua province, is among the hardest-hit countries in the Asia-Pacific region.

Officials have estimated that the adult per capita infection rate lies between 1.28 percent and 2 percent, and have warned that some isolated pockets of the country face HIV rates as high as 30 percent.

Big Brother Is Watching?

Wow...

Update 1/08/07 - see updated comments below!!

Papua legislative council deliberating microchip regulation for people with
HIV/AIDS

Posted at 00:42 on 25 July, 2007 UTC

The Legislative Council of Indonesia’s Papua province is deliberating a regulation that would see microchips implanted in people living with HIV/AIDS so authorities could monitor their actions.

The Jakarta Post reports that according to Article 35 of the regulation on healthcare in the province, to supervise and control people with HIV/AIDS a detection device is needed to monitor the movements and sexual activities of people with HIV/AIDS.

The article has been condemned by activists and government officials in the province as a gross violation of rights.

Dr John Manansang, a member of the working group deliberating the regulation, told reporters in Jayapura that if the regulation was approved by the council in its present form, the article on microchips would be implemented.

Dr Manansang said the microchips would be imposed on people with HIV/AIDS who practice high-risk behaviors.

However, the Papua chapter of the National AIDS Commission has slammed the proposal as a violation of human rights.

It says any form of identification of people with HIV/AIDS violates human rights

Update: 1 August 2007

Apparently this was a bit of sensationalist journalism. According to emails circulating various e-groups, the Deputy Governor of Papua and other Papuans have dismissed this as fanciful. Apparently the original Jakarta Post article was quoted selectively by Radio NZ (and others). The original articles indicated that the proposal had come from a doctor who was on a working group examining draft health legislation. It also included a statement that the head fo the Papua chapter of the National AIDS Commission - who also happens to be the Deputy Governor! - slammed the proposal as a violation of human rights. Questions were also raised as to who had drafted the regulation.

So why would the global media publish the proposal so selectively, leaving out vital information that is clearly essential to understanding the entire story? In the emails I've received, several people have pointed out that it serves to reinforce stereotypes of Melanesians and celebrate bizarre behaviour in exotic locations.

Here's the latest article from the Jakarta Post:
Protesters slam proposal to tag people with HIV/AIDS