Overview:
Pacific media leaders are raising concerns about the growing impact of artificial intelligence, misinformation and declining media literacy on public trust across the Pacific. At the 8th Pacific Media Summit in Fiji, regional journalists and media leaders discussed how newsrooms and communities can strengthen democratic resilience in an increasingly complex digital environment.
By Elilai Rengiil
Pacific media leaders have warned that misinformation, artificial intelligence-driven content and weak media literacy are creating new risks for public trust and democratic engagement across the region.
The issues were discussed during a first-day panel at the 8th Pacific Media Summit in Savusavu, Fiji, titled Beyond News Coverage: The Role of Media for Democratic Resilience and Engagement.
The panel, moderated by Dorothy Wickham, brought together Matangi Tonga editor Mary Fonua, Fijian Media Association vice-president Fred Wesley, Pacific Freedom Forum co-chair Leilani Reklai, Papua New Guinea Media Council president Neville Choi, Journalists Association of Samoa president Lagi Keresoma, and Media Association of Solomon Islands president Ofani Eremae.
The summit, organized by the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) and hosted by the Fijian Media Association, has drawn regional journalists and media leaders to discuss issues including press freedom, newsroom sustainability, artificial intelligence, digital access and misinformation.
Fonua said online news organizations were increasingly dealing with automated activity that can place pressure on websites and exploit newsroom archives.
She said Matangi Tonga had blocked more than 700,000 suspected non-human accounts or subscribers from its platform, while automated systems had made more than 21 million requests to the site over two months.
“In the first two months, we have blocked over 21 million requests,” Fonua said, describing what she said were AI agents making online queries to extract information.
Fonua’s comments highlighted a growing challenge for small Pacific newsrooms: protecting published journalism and digital infrastructure while continuing to make reliable information accessible to readers.
Wesley said Fiji’s long period of media restrictions had affected more than newsroom content. It had also influenced how journalists assessed risk and exercised editorial judgment.
“The decree never jailed a journalist. It did something far more effective. It taught us to jail ourselves,” Wesley said.
Reklai said the ways communities now receive and share information had created serious challenges for journalists seeking to provide verified news. She said the speed and reach of social-media platforms can allow misinformation and disinformation to spread rapidly, often without effective safeguards.
She stressed the importance of media literacy in helping people assess what they see online, and urged participants to take that work back to their own communities.
An informed community, Reklai expressed, is an empowered community.
Choi said the Papua New Guinea Media Council had sought to respond by bringing social-media content creators within the reach of journalism standards and ethical expectations. The approach, he said, had helped efforts to curb misinformation and disinformation online.
Keresoma said the media also had an important role in creating safe spaces for public discussion, where people can debate issues, hear different views and participate in civic life without fear or manipulation.
Eremae said public uncertainty creates fertile ground for misinformation and disinformation, placing a premium on trusted news organizations that can provide verified information quickly.
“Misinformation and disinformation thrive in uncertainty,” Eremae said.
He said media organizations must work to protect and build public trust by ensuring audiences can distinguish fact from fiction, particularly as AI-generated material and deepfakes become more convincing and more widely available.
The discussion underscored that democratic resilience depends not only on independent journalism, but also on news-literate communities and newsrooms equipped to respond to rapidly changing digital threats.