I’m utterly sick of sensationalism journalism.  Yes, a 7 year old girl was hit on the freeway, yes, it’s tragic, yes – the driver did the right thing – got help! Does this deserve to be on the front page of the paper – no, what about the inside page on the 2nd day… no again.  What about focusing on domestic violence, what about focusing on car-jackings, what about focusing on crimes against Papua New Guineans.  It is very hard to be balanced, when balance has flown out the window.  At the moment, Jacinta is driving around Port Moresby even more shit scared in case she “bumps” someone, or has an accident.  It’s giving me the shits…

And now the report is hitting mainstream Australian papers, now people on facebook are forming a lynch mob  (and I quote)

Inhuman piece of crap!!! Negligence at its best…….That shows that this woman is insane……Lock her up at Laloki for medical treatment! She could have stopped and helped the poor girl………

But of course, there is always those in support of what has happened (also from facebook):

I was at the scene of accident and saw all these bystanders muttering and squambling and shouting, “kill that bastard, smash her car, go after her” all sorts!! She considered her life after all. Say if one of you run over someone, keep standing there and they will let you live!!! Wahaha, bloody stop attaching people given the truth we all know. I take extra care when I drive around not to run over someone. This forum is connected to all sorts of people all over the world but they keep away to comment. Some posts are real challenges to PNGeans but we ignore to get down to the real issues and comment with a sense of accepting what our country is really like. So from here, someone is run over, what will we do?

Yesterday, the Financial Institution released a statement, today the ABC’s Foreign Correspondent let the cat out of the bag and released the company name.  Now SBS is also covering the story.

So why is it that when something like this happens, all the media bash it up?  Did the ABC consider that releasing the name of the company has just put that company at risk?  Did they consider that the husband and wife may now consider not returning?  What impact does this now have on the community in general?  Is there a witch hunt going on?

And then there is the less obvious questions that have not been answered:

• Who chased the 7 year old girl into the path of a car travelling at 60 km/hr?
• If there were all these witnesses to the accident, why have they not produced the attacker?

As has been agreed, the first car clipped the girl – another car ran her over. Where is this other car?  Why is there not a witch hunt for this vehicle that actually ran the girl over? Did they stop?  Did they go to the police?  Did they get help?

Social media has also asked “why did they leave the country?”…  I would suggest that, given who the company is, it may not have been the choice of the individual.  It would have most likely been standard procedure.  And you really never know how someone is holding up after accidentally hitting someone on the freeway – shit, I couldn’t sleep for weeks after seeing those 2 kids getting thrown out of the back of the ute – and I didn’t even hit them…

You don’t know if the person has been the victim of attempted car jackings, or been exposed to some of the horrible things that can happen in Port Moresby.  You don’t know if they were injured in the accident.  You don’t know…

To the ABC, SBS and the Post-Courier….  You don’t know, and neither do I.