Irish reporter car-jacked by gunpoint in Papua New Guinea

A FORMER Newstalk reporter from Cork who was the victim of a car-jacking in the southwest Pacific country of Papua New Guinea says she was introduced to the “vicious side of the country”.

Samantha Barry, from Ballincollig, was working in the country’s capital of Port Moresby on behalf of ABC, Australia’s national broadcaster, and Australian Aid when the attack occurred.

Although the men were simply after her car, Ms Barry said the first thing that entered her head was that she might be kidnapped.

“Obviously what was going through my head was kidnapping, there has been cases of that here and rape,” she told Joe Duffy on Liveline yesterday.

Ms Barry however kept a cool head, and said training given to her by ABC to deal with hostile situations stood to her.

“When someone has a gun you instantly obey what they say so I got out of the car. The first thing you need to do in that situation is to distance yourself from the car and not make eye contact and I did that. I had my phone with me and one of the gunmen came over and put the gun to my head and said he wanted the phone.”

Ms Barry, who has also worked for 2FM, was working in Papua New Guinea helping launch a youth radio station and training local journalists.

She will now head back to Australia for counselling and to take a break from the environment.

“I will definitely return, the violence is one of the down points, but it is a very interesting place. There are people who have lived here for 20 years and nothing has happened to them.

“At least I wasn’t hurt, nothing really bad happened.”