10 Nov 2013

Media advisor for PNG's Ok Tedi fund deported after media reports

11:31 am on 10 November 2013

The media advisor for Papua New Guinea's Sustainable Development Program has been deported.

Mark Davis, who is Australian, was given his deportation notice on Thursday, which said he was living in the country unlawfully.

The Post Courier newspaper reports the orders were signed by the foreign minister, Rimbink Pato.

Mr Davis, who is married to a Papua New Guinean, says he has a valid work permit but his position was becoming uncomfortable as his press releases for the Fund were critical of the government.

He was put on a plane to Brisbane late on Thursday, after having his credit cards and personal possessions taken.

"Surrounded by four or five policemen and told that I was under arrest and put into a twin-cab ute with tinted windows and accompanied by three or four heavily-armed policemen and I was driven around Port Moresby for four or five hours and I was then put on a plane and delivered to Brisbane with my sole possessions being my passport and the clothes I stood up in, everything else having being confiscated."

Mark Davis.