A senior journalist was left traumatised after an ordeal involving a rogue cop at a political rally last Wednesday in the Moresby South Electorate.
Jacob Marcos, a journalist with the Department of Health, was forced to hand over his belongings at Pari Village in the National Capital District.
Marcos, a resident at the Doru area in Pari, was capturing the rally of incumbent MP for Moresby South, Justin Tkatchenko, when he was approached by a group.
“The group of men, including a policeman (full name withheld) demanded explanation of why I was recording the event,” Marcos said.
“I was at the occasion as I also live there. I was taking videos of the public, just like other interested individuals,” recalled Marcos.
“I was trembling with fear when all this was going on, as I realised that something dangerous was going to happen to me at that time of the night (11pm).”
Marcos said he was then ordered to delete the recordings.
“While in the processes of deleting what I captured, I also accidentally deleted some of my important footage,” he said.
He said the policeman then took the camera’s memory card and his driver’s licence.
Marcos has already laid a complaint with the NCD Metropolitan Superintendent Office and the police public complaint desk of the officer in question.
Meanwhile, the local MP and Sports Minister Tkatchenko clarified to Loop PNG that he does not have police personnel as part of his campaign entourage.
Tkatchenko said the incident does not have any links to his campaign rally.
“This is absolute lie; there are no police with me at all.”