Pacific Freedom Forum leaders hold a copy of the Pacific Islands Media Freedom Index and Report 2023. Photo used with permission.

Pacific groups marked World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) on May 3 by releasing statements, organizing a forum, and inaugurating a media summit to highlight the challenges journalists face in the region.

Responding to this year’s WPFD theme, “Reporting in the brave new world – The impact of artificial intelligence on press freedom and the media,” Pacific Freedom Forum asked global stakeholders to support the region’s media outlets, which are grappling with the double-edged impact of AI.

Self-censorship is a real and pressing challenge, especially as intentional and deliberate disinformation and misinformation campaigns create fracture and divide our communities.

In this brave new world, brave journalists, brave governments, and brave friends of the media are required. We ask that the legal support from our global and Pacific supporters continues to help fight the defamation and gagging laws designed to break the backs of underfunded news outlets.

Kalafi Moala, president of the Pacific Islands News Association, echoed the need to address how AI is affecting the media landscape.

AI brings serious risks. It can be used to spread misinformation, silence voices, and make powerful tech companies the gatekeepers of what people see and hear.

Our small newsrooms struggle to compete with global platforms that are reshaping the media landscape.

We must not allow AI to weaken media freedom, independence, or diversity in our region.

In the Solomon Islands, the Media Association of Solomon Islands gathered editors, journalists, and journalism students from the Solomon Islands National University and the University of the South Pacific to discuss the state of media freedom in the region.

In Papua New Guinea (PNG), the media council inaugurated a media summit that succeeded in convening over 200 journalists, content creators, government officials, and industry leaders to discuss the future of media in the country. In his remarks, the PNG Media Council president, Neville Choi, alluded to the case of a prominent radio host, Culligan Tanda, who was suspended from work for three weeks on May 3, for allegedly interviewing an opposition leader.

We are still seeing problems of radio presenters, faces of news organizations being penalized because they did a good show.

These are important challenges and we cannot hold ourselves accountable if these things are still happening. News organizations, managements need to step up and say yes we identify to a certain standard and we identify to the importance of self-regulation and we identify to the Media Council Code of Ethics.

In an editorial, the Samoa Observer, a key outlet in Samoa, reaffirmed their commitment to upholding press freedom.

Samoa Observer’s journalists, like other journalists around the world in their quest for truth, face legal threats, online threats, government threats, and even physical intimidation. Why do we continue to bring this information to you? Because we want the people of this country to be well-informed.

We do our best to keep the people of this country informed, whether we are appreciated for it or not. Free, independent media allow the public to make informed decisions, hold leaders accountable, and hear a diversity of opinions — all free of government influence.

The Fiji Times praised Fiji's meteoric press freedom improvement based on a report released by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), wherein Fiji rose 49 places from 89 in 2023 to 40 in 2025.

The challenge we have now is to ensure we stay focused on people being able to speak their minds, and express themselves, obviously with responsibility.

We can already see and feel it anyway.

People are raising issues that affect them. They are raising issues that they can relate to and feel strongly about.

That’s the way to go. They are holding power to account. They are assisting in the governance of our nation. They are forcing change. They are forcing our leaders to sit up and take notice!

It is now for the powers that be to continue to appreciate that people have opinions that may differ from theirs. At the end of all this sits the need for improvement, and a better life here in Fiji.

Despite the improved ranking of Fiji, no country in the Pacific has made it to the top 15 in the RSF press freedom index.

In an interview with Pacific Island Times, Marshall Islands Journal newspaper editor Giff Johnson summed up the main challenge facing the media in the Micronesian subregion:

The biggest challenge is the highly personalized nature of media disputes. Often, when a politician feels attacked on social media — fairly or not — they want to push back by proposing restrictive legislation. But many of these proposals misunderstand how media works. Ironically, they end up affecting traditional media, not social platforms.