THE Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) is encouraging the media to report with a sense of responsibility on matters that will cause fear among our people, police said in a statement Saturday.
The call follows an article published on Solomon Star newspaper with the title ‘Plot to assassinate Sogavare’ published yesterday. The article was written by Alfred Sasako.
“… the article is very dangerous and I appeal to the author to rethink before publishing such a story. The right place for this information to go to is RSIPF and not media,” Commissioner of Police Mostyn Mangau said in the statement
Commissioner Mangau said the RSIPF is a neutral organisation.
“We have the responsibility to look after each citizen of this country. Police see this kind of reporting is not good enough for public consumption,” he said.
Mr Mangau said the article totally undermined the national security of this country.
“To make it worse the author does not have good judgement to contact RSIPF or my media team to verify or give the police side of the story.
“By doing this, it would be helpful for the readers to have a balanced side of the story. Good to be responsible when reporting on matters of national interest and security. This is our country. We must try as much as possible to be responsible enough,” he said.
In response, Alfred said the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force (RSIPF) was once an effective and highly respected organisation.
“Today, only a handful of officers continue to uphold the integrity of policing and law enforcement in this country. As a result, members of the public have lost confidence in their police.”
Alfred said police should be grateful that a responsible news organisation that Solomon Star is, has uncovered the alleged plot to assassinate Prime Minister Sogavare. The gravity of the social and political undercurrents of this alleged plot is huge and police should waste no time to work extra hard to stop this from happening.
“Police should now go out there and find out what is happening. We have given them the lead. It is their responsibility to follow through with our lead, if protecting the citizens of this country is indeed their mandate.”
