It was supposed to be an ordinary working day for us journalists as we set out for our news runs with PNG Power on site visits to Edevu Hydro and Moitaka Power Station at 8 mile, minutes outside of the Nation’s Capital, but the day took an ugly turn when one of our fellow journalists was hit by a stray bullet.
This is the firsthand account of PNG HAUSBUNG senior journalist Kerebi David from location today. It was around 1pm when we were having our lunch under the trees after the Moitaka Power Plant visit.
I was sitting almost a meter away from my colleague, the reporter who was hit, I stood up to get a bottle of water and when I came back to sit down, I heard 3-gun shots. I remember saying to my colleague, these must be gun shots and the next minute something just hit the very front of where we were.
I could remember seeing something fast from the corner of my eye and then a bang and the next sec we had a reporter down. In my mind I thought some electrical fault had sent out shock waves or something, but then I felt my mouth and tongue was numb with some foul taste and I realized that my colleague was hit.
Suddenly realising she was hit by a stray bullet, I screamed “stray bullet”, and ran. Every one of us ran but where to, we were shocked and confused, and could hear another 2 or 3 shots again.
Then someone shouted, “take cover, lay down”, so I dived behind a rain tree. My body was shaking. In my mind I thought we, the journalists, were under attack or had been targeted. We stayed down on the ground for some minutes until there were no more sounds of gun shots, and the male reporters and the PNG Power employees ran to the reporter’s side to help her.
The PNG Power bus was moved to where she was seated, while all of us made our way slowly to where the bus was. Someone took out his belt and tied it around left her arm; another tied a piece of cloth around her left arm where she was hit.
Even now we are not sure what really happened or if it was shootout or whose stray bullet that was that hit the NBC journalist. A PNG power employee called the ambulance, but it took longer to arrive, so we convoyed out of Moitaka Power Station, and she was rushed to a private hospital in one of PPL’s vehicle.
The incident itself was traumatizing and I can see it replaying in my mind over and over. What is now of concern is what is supposed to happen when such an ordinary job turns as scary as this one did. Companies hosting such events need to consider what security measures must also be taken when reporters are called out of the city.
What replays especially is my mind and will most probably haunt me for a long time yet is the thought in those moments of my children and if I would go back home safely to them.
Journalists are just like you, we are mothers, sisters, daughters, wives, friends, husbands, brothers, sons, and what happened today has reminded us of the fragility of life and just how precious it is. The thoughts and prayers of the PNG HAUSBUNG news team of NAU FM NEWS, YUMI FM NEWS and LEGEND FM NEWS are with our colleagues of NBC and our sister colleague, and we wish her a speedy and uneventful recovery.