Dika Toua wins an award

 Dika Toua, Papua New Guinea's weight lifting sensation from Hanuabada in Port Moresby won yet again the Female Athlete of the Year award during the SP Sports Award last night.

The country's Golden Girl won the first 3 Gold Medals for Team PNG at the Pacific Games in Solomon Islands last year and she lifted a Games record in the 76 kg Snatch category.

She is ranked first in Oceania, 4th in the Commonwealth and 26th in the World.

 

Ms Toua won a sliver medal at the 2023 Eleiko International Email Tournament in the 55kg category and placing 26th at the 2023 IWF World Weightlifting Championships in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 

Her husband Willie Mavara Tamasi and son Paul Arua Gavera received the award on behalf of Dika.

PNG has a new Court of Appeal

 Following a successful amendment to law in Parliament, Papua New Guinea will now have a third higher court system.

This Court of Appeals will exist between the National and Supreme Courts and the Court Restructure Law 2023 allows this.

Both the government and the opposition supported this law and passed the bill through voting during the final reading last Wednesday. 

Justice Minister and Attorney General Pila Niningi successfully brought the bill to Parliament.

He said judges of the higher courts will sit in one higher court only.

This means judges will be appointed to sit in the national, court of appeals or supreme court's. 

A judge cannot sit in two or more courts as was the practice.

Mr Niningi said with the new court restructure law in place, judges appointment for each court will be done  separately.

Team NBC sports wins another award from SP Brewery

 Papua New Guinea's popular Sports Awards sponsored by SP Brewery was hailed another  success last night.

This is the 32 edition of the SP Sports Awards

The NBC Sports desk received the news team of the year award dedicated to the late senior sports journalist and producer Paul Taumik Jr and late Lisa Pagelio, the executive director news.

In the other categories, sprinter Daniel Baul and veteran weight lifter Dika Toua were crowned as male and female athletes of the year.

Both were recognized for their achievements over the past year.

Other notable recipients of the awards are for Kimbe Pirates -National Performance of the Year Award, PNG Barramundi's as team of the year and Suger Ray Hakena for junior athlete of the year.

The Kimbe Pirates also received the People's Choice Awards.

Vodafone or Telikom

 Each to his or her own choice.  Here I provide my feedback comparing Vodafone and Telikom PNG services in data and calls.

Firstly, both have some great plans for on net and off net calls. But I think Telikom's plans are better than Vodafone.

Telikom has unlimited on net calls while Vodafone has set time for on net calls.

For off net, they both have some good packages but I still like Telikom's. 

Now the next is data.

Both have some good data plans for three one day and more.

But I have found Telikom data to be more reliable to use. Vodafone data access is not as reliable as Telikom.

So I lost my Telikom SIM through robbery and got a Vodafone SIM.

But I have gone back to Telikom and I post this using Telikom data.

There is less downtime than Vodafone. 

Drop your comments below about your experiences and let's influence data pricing and call plans from our the telecommunication companies.

Know your rights and limitations under PNG laws

 Many of us know little about our rights and how to form cases to present to police or assist our lawyers put together a strong court case.

From the outset, you must know that courts rely on facts, evidence and law to make decisions that are impartial.

AI generated image of a PNG police officer 

File photo: Lawyers walking out from Waigani National and Supreme Court

But there  are procedural approaches that you and I must know and appreciate. We need to comply or else we face charges.

In this write up, I focus on perverting the course of justice.

It is a very serious offence under the criminal code act (CCA).

If you lay a police complaint against someone and the process of arrest and prosecution before court have begun, do not negotiate to withdraw the case. I repeat do not withdraw the case, it would be deemed perverting the course of justice and the court and police can charge you for that.

Magistrate Paul Nii at the Waigani Committal Court has warned a complainant who has decided to withdraw a case after some payments were received from the accused that it was wrong and police and courts can charge the complainant for perverting the course of justice. 

The police arresting officer who was also in court told the court the complainant was not helpful to bring evidence and a file can be prepared for prosecution.

Magistrate Nii said police should carefully analyse the intent of complaints before effecting arrests.

Some complainants want to use the system to threaten the accused and receive what ever award they are after.

He said this should not be entertained.

The next scenario, if you have a registered police complaint against you, do not go and file a complaint against the complainant again.

That would be deemed an attempt to pervert the course of justice and you can be arrested and charged. 

Just allow the process to fully complete and then you can file your case.

This is very important.

If you find this information helpful, you can comment below or email pngmediaproduct@gmail.com

I have more paralegal tips for you so subscribe and you will be alerted when I post.

Thank you for reading this tip.

Magazine content development (photography, articles, design and printing)

 If you're after a cost saving approach but high quality output in content design, look no further than a team of experienced media personnel at Frontier Media Productions Limited.

We can assist develop a magazine or newspaper product for you.

We have a team comprising photographers, journalists, layout and design personnel (graphic artists) and printing partners.

Our company is registered with the Investment Promotion Authority (IPA) and we have an operating bank account.

Email pngmediaproduct@gmail.com

Missionary Aviation Fellowship adds a fleet to land on water in PNG

 Thank you MAF.

They have added a fleet to their aeroplanes, this plane that can land on water.

The Sepik region certainly needs this service.

The Samaritan Aviation has been the one to go in emergencies, disaster and helping river communities reach your destinations comfortably.

But this one is for Western Province.

MAF says after almost six hours of total flight time from Mareeba, Australia, to PNG via Horn Island and Daru, MAF’s new floatplane P2-WET touched down on Lake Murray at 2pm yesterday.

It was welcomed with great cheers by the onlooking community. After some manoeuvres on the lake, the plane rested overnight at Kiunga.

MAF’s amphibious project has been supported by PNG SDP and we are looking forward to utilise this aircraft together to bring help, hope and healing to many various lake and riverside communities in the near future.