Foreign correspondent
Sean Dorney, reporting on PNG for more than 40 years
Sean Dorney spent 17 years as the ABC’s Papua New Guinea correspondent, marked by being both deported and awarded an MBE by the PNG Government. His relationship with PNG began in 1974, when he was seconded to work for the newly established National Broadcasting Commission, just before the creation of the independent state of PNG.
“Dorney was present at the creation, and by reporting it, fostered its creation,” former ABC diplomatic correspondent, Graeme Dobell, said at Dorney’s recent tribute in Brisbane.
“Quite an achievement for one man with a microphone.”
Dorney met his wife, Pauline, a Manus islander and NBC broadcaster, in Port Moresby.
They married in 1976 and moved to Australia. In 1979, he was appointed the ABC’s correspondent in Port Moresby. They are devoted to each other, more than 40 years on, and he attributes much of his success to Pauline, who “is a broadcaster and knows what the business is about”.
Dorney’s links to PNG were established well before his arrival.
Dorney’s captaincy of the Kumuls rugby league team in 1976 made him a local hero.
His father, Dr Kiernan ‘Skipper’ Dorney, was a highly respected surgeon, and one of the most decorated Australian doctors during World War 2, earning a DSO in PNG for continuing to treat wounded soldiers although his post was under direct shelling from an enemy gun firing at point-blank range.
Sport rules in PNG, and Dorney’s captaincy of the Kumuls rugby league team in 1976 made him a local hero. Anyone who has met Dorney knows that he is not your typical big, musclebound player.
“It (playing for the Kumuls) certainly helped me as a journalist,” Dorney says. “It proved a huge source of recognition in PNG.”
To say Dorney is well known throughout the Pacific is an understatement.
On one occasion, the then Australian foreign minister, Andrew Peacock, reported getting off a plane in the Highlands to a polite welcome from several thousand people. Then Dorney emerged from the plane and the crowd went beserk. On his return to Canberra, according to Dobell, Peacock said one thing he’d discovered in PNG was never to travel with Dorney – it was bad for the ego.
His fame, though, couldn’t stop his deportation in 1984, by the then foreign minister Rabbie Namaliu, after the PNG Government objected to the screening of an interview with Irian Jayan rebel leader, James Nyaro, by the ABC.
Two years later, Prime Minister Michael Somare told Dobell not to worry about Dorney.
The chief flashed that broad grin, reports Dobell, and said: “Don’t worry, we’ll get Sean back. He’s one of ours”.
Dorney is saddened and perplexed by the poor media coverage of PNG in Australia. Even the ABC has now neglected PNG, closing down its shortwave radio service, critical in remote areas for weather warnings, as well as daily news and analysis.
It was the shortwave service to remote PNG that made Dorney a household name, as he brought news about what was happening in the rest of the country to those remote areas.
“Sean Dorney is a ‘ journalist’s journalist’ whose reporting was unvarnished and no-frills, says Max Uechtritz, former ABC correspondent, and news editor at Al Jazeera. Uechtritz was himself born in PNG. His family presence on plantations goes back several generations, and he holds PNG dearly.
“He was fastidious with facts, his analysis was informed by grass-roots knowledge and an impeccable range of contacts who trusted him because of his integrity and professionalism. Sean is a role model for all young (and old) journalists,” Uechtritz says.
He agrees about the poor coverage of PNG in Australia, pointing out that when he was running documentaries and current affairs at Al Jazeera English “we’d do more television programs on PNG in a year than the five Australian networks combined”.
Asked what was a highlight of his reporting of PNG, Dorney says: “In terms of spectacle, nothing can compare with flying over two exploding volcanic vents in the (1994) Rabaul volcanic eruption”.
But the trauma of the 1998 Aitape tsunami, which claimed 2500 lives, was the most emotional reporting experience of his career. He won an award for his reporting on that event. In 2000, Dorney completed a two-part television documentary marking the 25th anniversary of PNG independence and spanning his own quarter of a century involvement with the country. As well, he has written two books about PNG. His legacy extends to providing mentoring to Pacific journalists.
EMTV presenter and former ABC producer/presenter, Tania Nugent, told the Brisbane audience: “Sean thank you. Thank you for everything you’ve done. Thank you for planting the seed for a generation of all of us.”
Dorney is tackling his disease with his trademark humour and optimism.
He says: “Having captained the Kumuls, having won a Walkley award … those things pale into insignificance when you can get your socks and shoes on in less than 10 minutes.”