Sorcery and witchcraft have overtime separated itself from being a rarely talked-about issue isolated in a community to fully blown toxic agendas that has grabbed the nationwide attention.

Without the introduction of mass media communication- especially our daily and weekly newspapers- these toxic agendas have been exposed for all to see and know just how far they have gone.

Through the media reports, we are able to see and hear of how this phenomenon has affected the core of many PNG societies proving that it is now not only restricted to rural communities or societies.

The beliefs and practices of both sorcery and witchcraft and the related problems such as accusations, murder and destruction of human lives and properties is appalling to many societies in PNG.

What is interesting is that our country has claimed to be a Christian nation believing in the one true God and belonging to a denomination of our choice yet our cultural beliefs of sorcery and witchcraft maintain their strong influences.

It is evident that in most of the editions of our daily papers the National and Post Courier and our weekly issues of Wantok Niuspepa, dating back to a decade that the papers are not silent about these issues.

It is alarming also to see the frequently reported sorcery and witchcraft related horror stories reported in various part of the country.

Even though we are peoples of a multi lingual nation and come from entirely different cultural backgrounds with a diversity of beliefs, sorcery and witchcraft are still widely reported nationwide.

A couple of reasons why sorcery and witchcraft were not highly reported in the previous yearscould be that there were no such cases in the area, the cases were concealed, the higher authorities were never alerted of such cases or maybe there was a lack in the presence of media personnel.

We cannot deny however, the surge in reports which were seldom in other regions but a buzzer especially in the highlands region.

A five year research on sorcery, witchcraft and Christianity in PNG and Melanesiashowed that from 2000 onward, the frequency of media report showed a 50% increase from 2003-2006 in the Highlands region while the same rate of increase happened in the Momase region between 2004 to 2006.

What the research identified was that there were continued reports of sorcery and witchcraft related cases even up to today.

This can help us to conclude a number of conclusions like both sorcery and witchcraft issues does not seem to be diminishing, cases of both have seemed to increase, public response to sorcery and witchcraft related issues has increased over the years but most importantly, the media is sensitive about sorcery and witchcraft related issues in the country.

In the last decade the Highlands region has led in the most cases of reported sorcery and witchcraft related issues with the Momase region coming in second and the Southern region is third followed by the Islands region.

Since both issues and their related effects have affected both humans and our societies, it is hard to ignore it and turn a blind eye.

The media reports only thread in fragments a social issue that touches the core of societies and its people and is no doubt detrimental to integral human development and other developments.

In traditional Melanesian societies, sorcery and witchcraft beliefs and practices actually served a purpose- which were most of the time meaningful- and varied across communities.

With the increased negative outcomes of sorcery and witchcraft related issues, it now demands positive and practical responsesfor a collective effort to address these issue.

Amanda Kundil