PINA Opposed Samoa Newsroom Ban; President Says Tonga PM May Decide Who Attends Nukuʻalofa, Tonga Questions are being raised about the position of the Pacific Islands News Association after its president appeared to take a different view of media exclusion in Tonga than the association took in Samoa last year.
In November 2025, when the Government of Samoa banned the Samoa Observer — the country’s only daily newspaper — from official press conferences, PINA and the Pacific Freedom Forum sent a joint letter to Samoa’s Prime Minister urging him to reverse the ban immediately. They said it restricted media freedom protected under Samoa’s Constitution and undermined the public’s right to information, and that excluding an entire newsroom weakened transparency and accountability. They pointed to Samoa’s Media Council Act 2015 as the proper avenue for complaints about media conduct. PINA separately described the ban as a serious threat to media freedom, public access to information and democratic accountability in the wider Pacific, and its President, Kalafi Moala, said the Samoan Government needed to improve its approach.
On the current Tonga dispute, Tonga Independent News has reported PINA President Kalafi Moala as saying the Prime Minister is entitled to decide who attends his press conferences.
That reported position stands in contrast to the stance PINA took in Samoa, where it argued a government could not simply exclude a news organisation and should instead use established complaint mechanisms. The Tonga dispute centres on the exclusion of ʻEtuate Lavulavu and journalists of the Tonga Chronicle and 88.1 FM from Prime Minister’s press conferences at the St George Building in August 2026, and their removal from the Government building itself. On 4 September the Supreme Court granted interim orders requiring their admission, pending a hearing on 11 September.
For balance: in Samoa, the Prime Minister rejected PINA’s position, saying his Government had documented evidence of unprofessional reporting and breaches of media ethics. In Tonga, the Government has rejected what it called false and misleading allegations by 88.1 FM and the Tonga Chronicle and has said the matter is before regulatory and legal authorities.
Where exactly does PINA stand? It’s a fascinating inversion of the ancient text yet alive even today: this time, the prophet isn’t lacking honor at home – the prophet is simply denying home any honor.
