Pacific journalists on the front line of media freedom
Donation protected
Accountability is essential to democracy.
In the Pacific, respected journalists are being targeted personally for doing their job, bringing us the information we need on a host of issues.
They urgently need our help to fight legal action and survive sackings. Please dig deep.
Attacks on journalists are being experienced across Melanesia, Polynesia and Micronesia and are intensifying.
If attacks are successful, they have the potential to have a chilling effect on access to information.
The region’s dedicated and professional journalists are underpaid and do not have the resources to fight court action.
As the Pacific Freedom Forum’s timely Media Freedom Index 2024 reveals financial pressures (including legal pressures) are seen by locally-owned media houses as a real and imminent threat to their future.
The region’s journalists not only serve their own people but provide reports and resources to the global media covering the region.
Examples of journalists who will receive help from this GoFundMe include:
- veteran Samoan journalist Lagi Keresoma who has been charged with criminal defamation (May 2025) after a report alleging a former police officer appealed to the Head of State to have charges against him withdrawn. The police officer is facing two charges of forgery relating to a loan application. Ms Keresoma is President of the Journalists Association of Samoa (JAWS). JAWS says, ‘the provision is a troubling development for press freedom in Samoa and should not be used to silence journalists and discourage investigative reporting’. The Pacific Freedom Forum(PFF), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its Samoan Gender representative Lagipoiva Cherelle Jackson have called for the repeal of the controversial legislation under which Ms Keresoma was charged.
- former PNG broadcaster now gender-based violence (GBV) specialist Hennah Joku who chronicled her six-year journey through the PNG legal system, after a complicated personal experience saw her then partner convicted for assaulting her and then exonerated on appeal. She was charged (Nov 2024) with two counts of breaching defamation provisions of the National Cybercrimes Act. She was detained in briefly Boroko Prison before paying substantial bail and now faces defamation action by her former partner. The electronic defamation clause in the Cybercrimes Act includes penalties of up to one million PGK in fines and up to 25 years in jail. The PFF has expressed grave concerns ‘over free expression and the rights of GBV survivors’.
- publisher of Palau’s Island Times newspaper Leilani Reklai who is being sued by the President of Palau’s family company after she published leaked documents revealing the company’s tax payments in the lead up to the November 2024 election. Surangel and Sons Co. is the largest private business in Palau. It has banned the sale of the Island Times across all its retail outlets. The Palau Media Council says the lawsuit ‘raises critical concerns about citizens’ access to information and the freedom of the press—both of which are cornerstones of a democratic society’.
- popular PNG FM100 radio host Cullighan Tanda who was sacked after an interview with East Sepik Governor and national opposition politician Allan Bird. The government of PNG has a significant ownership stake in FM100 via Telikom PNG. Statements expressing concern about the state of media freedom in PNG have been issued by the PNG Media Council and the Pacific Islands News Association
The Pacific Freedom Forum is a regional media body that monitoring threats to press freedom and journalism ethics across Oceania for more than 15 years.
This GoFundMe will run for 4 months. Money raised will be allocated to journalists facing legal action and hardship in the line of duty by the PFF Executive.
The GoFundMe appeal is supported by the Australia Asia Pacific Media Initiative, an Australian-based lobby group supporting public interest journalism.
Organizer
Pacific Freedom Forum
Organizer
Annandale, NSW