''The Independent'' was a national weekly

newspaper A newspaper is a Periodical literature, periodical publication containing written News, information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as p ...

published in

Papua New Guinea Papua New Guinea (abbreviated PNG; , ; tpi, Papua Niugini; ho, Papua Niu Gini), officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea ( tpi, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niugini; ho, Independen Stet bilong Papua Niu Gini), is a country i ...

from September 1980 to 5 June 2003. It was an English-language publication. It was published in the

Port Moresby (; Tok Pisin: ''Pot Mosbi''), also referred to as Pom City or simply Moresby, is the capital and largest city of Papua New Guinea. It is one of the largest cities in the southwestern Pacific (along with Jayapura) outside of Australia and New ...

suburb of

Boroko Boroko is a suburb of Port Moresby, the capital city of Papua New Guinea. It includes a residential area and a sports and recreation precinct, and was once a significant commercial centre but the business area is now in decline. History The town ...

by Word Publishing, owners of the

Tok Pisin Tok Pisin (,Laurie Bauer, 2007, ''The Linguistics Student’s Handbook'', Edinburgh ; Tok Pisin ), often referred to by English speakers as "New Guinea Pidgin" or simply Pidgin, is a creole language spoken throughout Papua New Guinea. It is an ...

-language

Wantok Niuspepa ''Wantok Niuspepa'' (''Wantok Newspaper'') is a weekly newspaper in Papua New Guinea. It is the only Tok Pisin-language newspaper in Papua New Guinea, and is distributed throughout the country. It was first published on 5 August 1970 from an offi ...

. It was known as The Times of Papua New Guinea from its launch in September 1980 with Franz Albert Joku as the inaugural editor until May 1995, when it was rebranded as The Saturday Independent amidst financial issues. It later changed its publication date to Thursday and adopted the name of The Independent. In 2001, it absorbed another Word Publishing title, PNG Trade Monthly, which became a business liftout in the newspaper. By the time of its closure, it had bureaus in

Mount Hagen Mount Hagen ( tpi, Maun Hagen) is the third largest city in Papua New Guinea, with a population of 46,250. It is the capital of the Western Highlands Province and is located in the large fertile Wahgi Valley in central mainland Papua New Guinea, ...

Lae Lae () is the capital of Morobe Province and is the second-largest city in Papua New Guinea. It is located near the delta of the Markham River and at the start of the Highlands Highway, which is the main land transport corridor between the Highl ...

, Rabaul,

Madang Madang (old German name: ''Friedrich-Wilhelmshafen'') is the capital of Madang Province and is a town with a population of 27,420 (in 2005) on the north coast of Papua New Guinea. It was first settled by the Germans in the 19th century. Histo ...

and Bougainville. Joe R. Kanekane has described the newspaper as both "one of the pillars of investigative journalism" in PNG and "an advocate of good governance and transparency". He highlighted their role in covering many of PNG's "worst corruption scandals". Its former editor, Anna Solomon, noted the paper's independent coverage of scandals concerning the activities of the

Papua New Guinea Defence Force The Papua New Guinea Defence Force (PNGDF) is the military organisation responsible for the defence of Papua New Guinea. It originated from the Australian Army land forces of the territory of Papua New Guinea before independence, coming into be ...

in the

Bougainville Civil War The Bougainville conflict, also known as the Bougainville Civil War, was a multi-layered armed conflict fought from 1988 to 1998 in the North Solomons Province of Papua New Guinea (PNG) between PNG and the secessionist forces of the Bougainvill ...

, while Colin Barron cited its coverage of environmental issues, including critical coverage of activities of logging companies, and willingness to run advertisements informing landowners of their rights. The Independent closed in June 2003, citing a challenging economic climate and the demands of competing against two national daily newspapers, the

Papua New Guinea Post-Courier The ''Papua New Guinea Post-Courier'' is a newspaper based in Konedobu, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. It was established on 30 June 1969. Its parent company, The Herald and Weekly Times (later purchased by News Corp Australia), had acquired w ...

and The National. Together, The Times of PNG and The Independent had operated for 23 years.

References

Newspapers published in Papua New Guinea English-language newspapers published in Oceania Defunct weekly newspapers Newspapers established in 1995 Publications disestablished in 2003 {{oceania-newspaper-stub

See also

References