FORMAL OPENING OF PNGEC’S NATIONAL MEDIA CENTRE

FORMAL OPENING OF PNGEC’S NATIONAL MEDIA CENTRE Tuesday 03rd July, 2012 REMARKS BY MR. ANDREW S. TRAWEN, CMG, MBE ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER Excellencies, staff of diplomatic missions here in PNG, members of the media, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the Electoral Commission’s National Media Centre for the 2012 General Election.  First and foremost I want to sincerely thank the British High Commissioner for her support in funding this Media Centre and in fact the entire set up you see here today. Without that support I am positive we would have a significantly scaled down operation, possibly not even one at all.  The funding given to the Electoral Commission provides for: A Media Information Kit to be compiled and to be made available for accredited media organizations and personnel A Manager to provide management supervision and ensure the efficient running of the Media Centre The facilitation of processes to enable the delivery of my regular Press Briefings The dissemination of relevant information to local and international media on progressive and final results Thank you once again to the British High Commission.  The provision of this Media Centre is an acknowledgement by the PNGEC that the media carries out a critical role in our society, ensuring wide access to information about elections.  We recognise that the more information we can provide you the better informed you will be, and hopefully the better informed the public will be when they enrol or go to a polling place to vote. Although the primary purpose of the Media Centre is to provide a central venue for results collection and reporting. It is also the location where many of you in the media can obtain information about the 2012 and previous Elections.  Do not hesitate to ask if there is anything we can provide for you by way of background information on the 2012 or earlier elections.  We do not have an endless supply of resources but we will certainly do what we can to assist. I would like to encourage you all to make full use of it and to provide your feedback if you think we could do something better.  Thank you all for coming and for your ongoing support to elections in Papua New Guinea.