An invitation to establish a Censorship Desk, has come from the Department of Justice and Legal Services in the Autonomous Region of Bougainville (AROB).
To kick start the discussion on the process and arrangement, the team from the Department of Justice and Legal Services, comprising of Robert Aneisia and Luke Clancy held a meeting with Chief Censor, Jim Abani in Port Moresby, to establish an understanding on the opportunity to bring down censorship responsibilities to Bougainville, under the current political arrangement as provided for under the Bougainville Peace Agreement.
The Chief Censor said it will be an opportunity for the Office to make known its roles and functions in AROB and will play a big role in addressing issues of illicit information and materials.
Mr Aneisia said, the issue of illicit information and the abuse of technology today is a grave concern as the population that is largely affected are youths and school aged children. Mr Aneisia said, “For us in Bougainville, this is an area of work that needs immediate attention in the execution of the law on Cybercrime, the Protection of children and other associated laws.”
He added that this exercise on establishing the Bougainville Censorship Desk is similar to that of which was undertaken with the National Narcotics Bureau (NNB).
The Censorship Office reported that it was a very productive discussion as the meeting agreed for a way forward to create a workplan for 2022.
Acting Deputy Chief Censor, Ilikomau Ali said that the presence of the Office on the ground is very important before a Desk is set up. The team agreed for a joint visit to Bougainville for awareness and information sharing including the roll out of the National Censorship Policy II.
Photo credit: Censorship Office