Papua New Guinea Prime Minister Michael Somare has told journalists they are lucky he hasn't followed Fiji's lead and deported them for writing "contrary" articles.

He made the comment after returning from a meeting of regional leaders in Vanuatu, where Fiji's coup leader Frank Bainimarama explained why he had deported two Australian publishers of major Fiji newspapers.

Somare said he accepted Bainimarama's explanations about the expulsion last month of Evan Hannah, publisher of News Ltd's Fiji Times, and Russell Hunter, publisher of the Fiji Sun, in February.

Both newspapers had carried articles critical of Bainimarama's military government, installed after a 2006 coup.

The two Australians were branded threats to Fiji's national security and thrown out of the country, in defiance of court orders aimed at stopping their deportations.

The expulsions sparked a chorus of international condemnation, led by Australia and the United States.

Somare today said he understood that Bainimarama was trying to protect his country's image.

"We raised the questions with Bainimarama (about the expulsions). We have our rules, and they have their rules," Somare told reporters.

"We all know that they (Fiji) are trying to preserve the image of their country while newspapers are trying to give the wrong impression."

Somare told reporters assembled in the PNG capital Port Moresby that they were lucky by comparison.

"You are very lucky, I have not deported any one of you yet, for writing something contrary," he said.

"When you start twisting, that's the essence of what you get."

Somare last week referred PNG's Post-Courier newspaper, owned by News Ltd, to the parliamentary privileges committee over what he said was an irresponsible front page story linking PNG officials to a scandal over millions in missing aid money from Taiwan.

A Port-Courier journalist also received death threats while reporting on the scandal.

And Somare last year banned reporters from asking whether he sanctioned a clandestine PNG military flight that whisked wanted Australian lawyer Julian Moti from Port Moresby to the Solomon Islands.

AAP