Asia-Pacific Regional Press Freedom Seminar

Country Report - Solomon Islands

Solomon Islands, a country of about half a million people, is currently served by two private newspapers - one a daily (published on weekdays), another a weekly.

Both papers were produced in English. While the daily Solomon Star has been running for 19 years, the weekly Solomon Express is less than a year old.

The Star circulation range between 4,000 to 6,000. The Express on the other hand produced between 1,000 and 2,000 copies and comes out every Friday.

There is still not much competition between the two papers as the Star still dominates the market, with outlets at all the provincial centres in the country. The Express, at the moment, is sold mainly in capital Honiara.

And because of the scatteredness of the islands, the coverage of the two papers still mainly centres around Honiara. Between 1997 and 1998, three private weekly newspapers emerged and was in circulation for a while, but died down after only several months. Their disappearance was due mainly to lack of finance. There used to be a government newspaper which comes out monthly, but that has not been seen for the last four years.

Press Freedom in SI

Generally, the press in Solomon Islands is much freer compared to other countries in the region. There is little or no government interference in how the press carries out its job. In fact the government regimes which emerged after independence in 1978 have come to acknowledge the importance of free press and its role in a democratic society.

However, there were exceptional cases where the government tries to gag the press either through government orders or legislation. One such recent example was in 1999 where the government legislated against publishing or broadcasting any information which may incite racial disharmony. This legislation came in place when the country was experiencing racial disharmony between two ethnic groups in Solomon Islands.

It must also be mentioned here that freedom of the press was severely curtailed after the coup on June 5 last year. This was primarily due to the absence of law and order, and the fact that there was no protective agency in place. Journalists could not write freely and fairly simply because there was no one to turn to for protection if your life was threatened. People and the papers could not say anything critical against the militants who have taken control of the country after the coup. To do so would be to dig your own grave. This was the most difficult time for local journalists and a sad period for press freedom in Solomon Islands.

Dealing with complaints

At the moment, there was no mechanism in place in Solomon Islands to deal with complaints about newspapers. Complaints are normally dealt with between the newspaper management and the complainant. If the complainant was not satisfied with how the newspaper management deal with his case, the next avenue would be in the courts.

Ofani Eremae
chief sub-editor, Solomon Star

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