Some believe the fortnightly Uni Tavur, published since 1974, has been allowed to die because of its energetic, probing style. Columnist James Pinder, of PNG's The Independent, described the newspaper as written "without fear or favour ... It is not filled with official UPNG propaganda but with stories that affect the daily lives of UPNG students and explain government decisions that may affect their education."
Pinder also noted that Uni Tavur also deals with Bougainville and the Sandline controversy.
UPNG's journalism coordinator, David Robie, says the newspaper has been complimented for its courage. he recalls several instances where journalists have been physically betean up over stories.
"Threats have been common at times," says Robie. "There was the night in 1995 when several senior staff, including myself, were attacked at Waigani police barracks after seeing off our paper to press at the Post-Courier."
The attack, he says, was in apparent retaliation over land registration protests, an issue the paper had covered extensively.
Two years ago, when the newspaper was relaunched in a tabloid format, it picked up two journalism awards. One of the judges, senior Australian journalist Max Suich, said the newspaper "had a level of maturity in its writing and editing, and a concern with serious national issues that made it stand head and shoulders above the other."
But despite this, the university administration refuses to act, maintaining that newspapers are "not a priority area".
Despite protests from journalism students over the severe cutbacks and the newspaper's suspension, Vice-Chancellor Rodney Hills refuses to consider additional lecturers or provide funding for the journalism publishing or electronic media programs.
Dr Hills' reply to a protest petition was that there "... are two positions allocated to journalism, and that is unlikely to change in in the foreseeable future".
Robie says that since 1993, "the university has made no capital investment in the journalism program at all.
"This is a crisis for us," says Robie. "Uni Tavur has been publishing with no direct funding from the university. And we have been forced to run a program seriously understaffed.
"Four years ago, before the journalism training newspaper went tabloid and the program expanded, we had three full-time staff. Now we have just one. The paper has existed on a hope and a prayer."
Sonia Lear and Jim Hanna are postgraduate journalism students at the University of Technology Sydney.
