Abstract
Two transnational media conglomerates own or control all the major circulation newspapers in the South Pacific. Through their subsidiaries Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation Ltd and French media magnate Robert Hersant's group in the French territories own five of the eight dailies in the region. The most recent daily, the National, began publishing in Papua New Guinea (PNG) in mid-November 1993. It is owned by a company associated with Malaysian senator Datuk Tiong Hiew King's family timber group, Rimbunan Hijau (RHG). Although the Tiong family is not in the big news media league of the Murdochs and Hersants, it has significant media interests, including the publishing of Malaysia's largest Chinese-language daily newspaper, Sin Chew Jit Poh.
