JOURNALISTS play an important role in every democracy, whether in the Pacific or abroad. They report on government decisions, elections, public spending, development projects and issues affecting ordinary people. They also give communities a voice and help people understand what is happening around them.
For small Pacific countries such as Solomon Islands, this work is especially important. Our communities are spread across many islands, distance makes information hard to gather and share, and journalists often work with limited resources.
In July 2025, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted Resolution 59/15 on the Safety of Journalists. The resolution calls on governments to protect journalists from violence, threats, intimidation, arbitrary detention and other forms of interference. It also raises concerns about the misuse of legal action, including defamation laws, to pressure or silence journalists.
The risks journalists face are changing. Safety is no longer only a matter of physical attacks. Journalists can face online harassment, surveillance, legal pressure and attempts to identify confidential sources, as happened recently to a journalist with In-depth Solomons. Women journalists can face additional online and gender-based abuse.
Guidance from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on National Frameworks for the Safety of Journalists offers a useful approach for countries such as Solomon Islands. It encourages governments to build systems that prevent attacks, protect journalists who are threatened and ensure accountability when violations occur.
That approach is consistent with the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists, an international framework for improving journalist safety and addressing impunity.
The Pacific is not a region of war or of high levels of violence and deaths among journalists. But that does not mean Pacific journalists work without pressure.
In Pacific Island countries, journalists usually know the people they report on. A reporter may question a politician, senior official or business leader and later meet that same person at church, at a community event or through family connections. Journalism in small societies is personal.
There are also financial pressures. Pacific newsrooms operate in small advertising markets. Individual journalists and small media companies often cannot afford to defend lengthy legal cases, and a single case can force an outlet to close.
In 2025, the Pacific Freedom Forum warned that Pacific media were facing increasing legal and financial pressures. Reporting by The Guardian on Pacific press freedom also highlighted legal action against journalists and media organisations in countries including Palau, Samoa and Papua New Guinea.
Further pressure comes from the digital environment. Social media moves information quickly, but it has also created new avenues for misinformation, harassment and threats.
The Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) has therefore called for stronger protection of journalists as artificial intelligence (AI) and digital technology are used more widely. Its call raised online harassment, surveillance and censorship, and the need for stronger media and AI literacy in the region.
Solomon Islands has a long history of independent media. But we should not wait for a serious incident before deciding how journalists are to be protected.
Recent events have already raised questions. In September 2026, the Media Association of Solomon Islands (MASI) raised concerns about a police search of a journalist’s office that sought to identify sources. MASI pointed to due process, press freedom and the protection of confidential journalistic material.
One practical step would be a Solomon Islands National Framework for the Safety of Journalists. Formal journalist-safety mechanisms are not yet common among Pacific Island countries, but there are international examples, collected by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in its Global Repository of National Safety Mechanisms.
Several are useful here. The Philippines Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists brings together media, civil society, universities and government institutions, and gives journalists ways to report threats and seek assistance. Kenya’s National Mechanism for the Safety and Protection of Journalists involves journalists, police, prosecutors, human rights institutions and civil society in monitoring and responding to threats. Denmark’s National Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists promotes cooperation between government, law enforcement and the media. Solomon Islands could draw on all three while building something simpler and suited to our own circumstances.
Such a framework could set out clear procedures for how police and other authorities deal with journalists and journalistic material. It could cover the protection of confidential sources, online threats, digital security, safety during elections and civil unrest, protection for women journalists, and emergency assistance for journalists who receive serious threats.
It should not be developed by government alone. It should involve MASI, journalists, media organisations, the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force, government agencies, the judiciary, civil society, women’s organisations and other relevant groups.
We can also learn from our own experience. On World Press Freedom Day 2024, MASI reflected on journalists’ experiences covering the 2021 riots, COVID-19, elections and the 2023 Pacific Games. That record can help Solomon Islands design a system that fits local conditions rather than copying a model built elsewhere.
Journalists do much more than report political news. They report on schools without teachers, clinics without medicines, roads and bridges, climate change, fisheries, forestry, mining, corruption, gender issues and development projects across every Pacific Island country.
In rural and remote communities, journalists bring to the attention of national decision-makers issues that would otherwise go unseen. That is why journalist safety should also matter to development partners working in the Pacific.
UNESCO’s work on the Safety of Journalists links journalist safety to Sustainable Development Goal 16, in particular public access to information and the protection of fundamental freedoms.
A young journalist should be able to investigate public spending, question a minister, report on state-owned enterprises and large companies, protect a confidential source and expose wrongdoing without fearing violence, intimidation, surveillance or legal pressure for doing the job.
The Pacific has an opportunity to deal with these matters before they become larger problems. In Solomon Islands, opening a national discussion on a journalists’ safety framework would be a practical first step, drawing on Resolution 59/15 and the OHCHR guidance while being designed around the realities of Solomon Islands and other small Pacific countries.
For Solomon Islands and the wider Pacific, protecting journalists means protecting democracy and supporting better national and community development.
Original article can be seen at: https://devpolicy.org/journalist-safety-in-the-pacific-a-solomon-islands-perspective-20261022/