Five years after the alarm was raised on the drug resistant tuberculosis emergency in PNG, the worst fears of experts about its spread are being realised. I go back to Daru, the outbreak front line, for my debut as a radio journalist reporting for the ABC. Find the podcast here. Continue reading
Category Archives: Papua New Guinea
Campaign to clear PNG couple jailed for abortion: The Age & Sydney Morning Herald
A confronting story from Bougainville, PNG, where I have often reported on the crisis of maternal deaths (second highest in the Asia Pacific after Afghanistan). The news angle here the landmark case around the jailing of a couple for the termination of a pregnancy. But the background context is about the tragedy deaths in childbirth, … Continue reading
In the footsteps of Wallace: Cosmos
NOW UNLOCKED! Vojtech Novotny is a Czech entomologist who first travelled to Papua New Guinea 20 years ago. He came for the insects. He stayed for the people. Having heard much about him over the years, it was a thrill to visit his laboratory and field sites in Madang. The profile I’ve written is published in … Continue reading
El Nino bites hard in PNG: The Guardian
I’ve been trying for several months to get back to PNG to do some on-the-ground reporting about the climate impacts playing out there – most urgently the whopping El Nino. Sadly I couldn’t get the budget or editorial interest – so this piece for The Guardian is the next best option, reporting long distance, relying … Continue reading
Notice: The Global Mail archive & PNG stories
Sadly The Global Mail’s archive has been shut down, but visitors to this blog note that I have today restored links to all my blogged PNG/Global Mail stories. Note these snapshots are a bit clunky and some images have vanished so keep scrolling past the blanks or you may miss lots of text! TGM was … Continue reading
The Monthly: Manus in the balance
This is my essay of a journey to another Manus Island. The one that fascinated legendary anthropologist Margaret Mead for 50 years. The one lost in the furore of Australia’s controversial ‘PNG Solution’, but forever changed by it. Now unlocked by The Monthly, so you can view it here. Continue reading
The Guardian: Welcome to Manus, the island changed forever by Australian asylum policy
After 10 days on the island and months of research, my longform report on life on Manus, and how Australia’s detention centre has changed it – for good and for ill. Reporting of this series made possible by an independently awarded grant from GetUps Shipping News project. By Jo Chandler/ Pics Vlad Sokhin. Link here. … Continue reading
The Guardian: Manus families blame detention for PNG deaths
The first of several reports from Manus Island, PNG, examining the effects of Australia’s asylum seeker policy on the people and island of Manus. Reporting of this series made possible by an independently awarded grant from GetUps Shipping News project. By Jo Chandler/ Pics Vlad Sokhin. Link here. Continue reading
Living Dangerously – Violence against women in PNG
This is a modified extract of my longer Lowy analysis (see below) published by The Age and the Sydney Morning Herald and featuring the photographs of my colleague Vlad Sokhin. It focuses on a single, shocking event in a village outside Wewak late last year – the rape by police of a teenage girl – … Continue reading
The Lowy Institute: How men are getting away with murder in PNG
In this long analysis published by the Lowy Institute, I draw on recent interviews, my older notebooks, and the expert insights of PNG commentators, specialists and anthropologists to explore a range of questions around the endemic violence against women in Papua New Guinea. My principle concern is to explain to a wider readership how, and … Continue reading