Seven regional journalists visiting PNG for the Pacific Islands Forum have finally received their passports after they were confiscated by immigration staff at the Port Moresby international airport last week.
The journalists are here under the Pacific Island News Association to cover the 46th Pacific Island Forum Leaders Summit currently underway in Port Moresby.
The journalists, from Fiji, Palau, Tonga, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Tuvalu, were detained for three hours and asked to pay a K1000 journalist visa fee before entry.
Helen Aitsi of Foreign Affairs delivered the passports this afternoon to the journalists at the Media Centre at the Sir John Guise Stadium.
Samisoni Pareti, editor-in-chief of Islands Business magazine, says he is relieved to have his passport returned.
The passports were returned after seven days even after instructions from Prime Minister Peter O’Neill and Foreign Affairs Minister Rimbink Pato for them to be returned last week.