An injunction issued against community advocacy group ACT NOW! to prevent publication of reports on illegal logging has been stayed by the National Court.
In July 2024, two Malaysian owned logging companies obtained an order from the District court in Vanimo preventing ACT NOW! from issuing publications about their activities and from contacting their clients and service providers.
That order has now been effectively lifted after the National Court agreed to stay the whole District court proceedings while it considers an application from ACT NOW! to have the case permanently stayed and transferred up to the National Court.
ACT NOW! says the action by Global Elite Limited and Wewak Agriculture Development Limited, which are part of the Giant Kingdom group, is an example of Strategic Ligation Against Public Participation. SLAPPs are illegitimate and abusive lawsuits designed to intimidate, harass and silence legitimate criticism and close down public scrutiny of the logging industry.
As an attack on freedom of speech, SLAPP lawsuits have been outlawed in many countries and lawyers involved in supporting them can be sanctioned but those protections do not yet exist in PNG.
Illegal and unsustainable logging and other forest related crime are a widely reported problem in Papua New Guinea. This has been recognised by international bodies such as the United Nations and INTERPOL and by local institutions such as the Bank of PNG, PNG’s Internal Revenue Commission and the commercial banking sector. A recent report from the Asia Pacific Group on Money Laundering has highlighted the threat that illegal logging poses to PNG’s international financial standing.
The District court action is not the first time the Malaysian owned Giant Kingdom group has tried to use the legal system in an attempt to silence ACT NOW!.
In March 2024, Justice Wood in the National Court rejected a similar SLAPP style application by the Global Elite for an injunction against Act Now. As a result the company discontinued its legal action and the court ordered it pay ACT NOW!’s legal costs.
ACT NOW!’s Campaign Manager Eddie Tanago is also facing a criminal defamation charge under the Cybercrime Code Act after a complaint about a social media post from the Managing Director of the PNG Forest Authority. Mr Tanago was arrested and charged by police on 11 December 2024, less than 7 days after the National Court stayed the injunction against ACT NOW! issued in the Vanimo District Court.
ACT NOW! believes that the arrest and charging of Mr Tanago is a massive over reach by the PNGFA and is another blatant and unwarranted attempt to intimidate and silence public debate on a critical issue of national and international importance.
