Office of Censorship had the pleasure of having the new Minister for Community Development, Youth and Religion and member for Huon Gulf, Hon. Jason Peter officially visiting the office today along with the Department’s Secretary Mr. Jerry Ubase.
The Minister’s official visit includes greeting the staff, brief touring of the Office by inspecting work stations and meeting with the Executive Management Team.
While meeting with the Executive Management Team, a brief presentation on the Office was made to the Minister to help him as Minister responsible to fully understand Censorship roles and functions.
Minister Peter, in his speech acknowledged the Chief Censor, Mr. Jim Abani and his Executive Management Team and thanked them for their well-organized welcome reception and presentation.
He said, he was impressed to see how the Office organized for his visit and he appreciated the warm welcome by staff and Management and he is looking forward to working with everyone in his five-year tenure as Minister.
He emphasized that with the advancement in modern technology, more awareness into schools and communities is needed to educate our children on indecent information and materials that are circulating online without restrictions where our children are having easy access to them every day, stating that when children are with us Parents, it’s easy to monitor and supervise them but when they are on their own, they have all the freedom to view and access indecent information and materials and that is a call for concern.
On that note, Secretary for Community Development, Mr. Jerry Ubase said, as one of the agencies under the Ministry for Community Development, Youth and Religion, we call ourselves family because we are all addressing family issues, however, censorship is more focused on the root causes of social issues especially the information content that comes into the country through cyberspace and any other form of publication’’.
He also stated censorship programs can be aligned with Community Development through the District Community Development Centers to deliver the services to the districts where the bulk of the population is.