Solomon Islands should open a national discussion on a framework to protect journalists rather than wait for a serious incident, Island Sun publisher Lloyd Loji wrote on the Devpolicy Blog.
Loji is the publisher and managing director of The Island Sun News in Honiara. He argued that journalist safety in the Pacific is no longer only a question of physical attacks, and that the pressures reporters face are changing.
In July 2025 the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted Resolution 59/15 on the safety of journalists, which calls on governments to protect journalists from violence, threats, intimidation, arbitrary detention and other interference, Loji wrote. The resolution also raises concern about the misuse of legal action, including defamation laws, to pressure or silence journalists.
Journalists can face online harassment, surveillance, legal pressure and attempts to identify confidential sources, as happened to a journalist with In-depth Solomons, he wrote. Women journalists can face further online and gender-based abuse.
The Pacific is not a region of war or of high levels of violence against journalists, but that does not mean Pacific journalists work without pressure, Loji wrote. In small island societies a reporter may question a politician, official or business leader and later meet the same person at church, at a community event or through family.
Pacific newsrooms also operate in small advertising markets, he wrote, and individual journalists and small media companies often cannot afford lengthy legal cases, with a single case able to force an outlet to close. In 2025 the Pacific Freedom Forum warned that Pacific media faced growing legal and financial pressure, and reporting by The Guardian pointed to legal action against journalists and media organisations in Palau, Samoa and Papua New Guinea.
The Pacific Islands News Association has called for stronger protection of journalists as artificial intelligence and digital technology spread, raising online harassment, surveillance and censorship, Loji wrote.
In September 2026 the Media Association of Solomon Islands raised concerns about a police search of a journalist's office that sought to identify sources, pointing to due process, press freedom and the protection of confidential journalistic material, he wrote.
Loji proposed a Solomon Islands national framework for the safety of journalists, drawing on examples collected by UNESCO, including the Philippines plan of action, Kenya's national mechanism and Denmark's national plan. Such a framework could set out how police and other authorities deal with journalists and journalistic material, and cover confidential sources, online threats, digital security, safety during elections and civil unrest, protection for women journalists and emergency help for those who are threatened.
It should not be built by government alone, he wrote, but with MASI, journalists, media organisations, the Royal Solomon Islands Police Force, government agencies, the judiciary, civil society and women's organisations.