Media freedom in the Pacific region: Exploring media freedom in six small island states

This research examines media freedom in parts of the Pacific region. My belief is that it is still a daily uphill challenge because of on-going news reports of journalists, editors and publishers who are still under threat if they report on stories that reveal publicly a lack of transparency, accountability, or corruption in the public and private sectors. These stories tell of media practitioners enduring stonewalling and opposition to their gathering of information for reporting purposes. This reasoning is based on how isolated but tight knit island communities operate. Such cultural communities boast strong cultural ties traditions and numerous political influences. As a result, the western concept of media freedom is likely to appear a distant reality for someone working within a rural community village on a small isolated island state where everybody knows everyone else, as opposed to a journalist employed to report on stories in a developed city. As this report later shows, it is a far cry from the friendly tropical and peaceful Pacific islands most tourists think of, when a journalist or editor sustains unprovoked injuries after being beaten up for simply doing their job.