Solomon Islands newspaper promised to give China 'positive coverage' in exchange for funding: Reports

The Island Nation became a major point of contention between China and the USA after Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare shifted the island nation's diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to Beijing in 2019.

In 2022, the country signed a  security pact with China which alarmed the United States and allies such as Australia as they feared it could pave the way for a Chinese military presence in the region.

The July 2022 funding proposal from the owners of the Solomon Star newspaper and its Paoa FM radio station to the Chinese embassy says a partnership will benefit Beijing by 'promoting China as the most generous and trusted development partner in Solomon Islands', reports Radio Free Asia.

The pay-for-play arrangement was first reported Sunday by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, which is funded by nonprofit foundations and government agencies. It says its Pacific reporting is funded by a no-strings attached U.S. government grant. 

The documents reviewed by BenarNews provide specific details of what was an open secret in some circles in the Solomon Islands about largesse from China’s embassy directed at the country’s media. The Solomon Star is one of two main newspapers in the Solomon Islands, reports RFA.

A July 17 email to several Solomon Star reporters from the paper’s senior journalist, Alfred Sasako, reprimanded the reporters for critical coverage of Sogavare’s official visit that month to Beijing.

“I write to place on record my profound disappointment about our front page article, titled China Trip Exposed,” Sasako said in the email reviewed by BenarNews.

“My further disappointment is the fact that such publicity makes it very difficult for me to deal with the Chinese Embassy on matters pertaining to Chinese Government support for [the] Solomon Star,” he said in the email that also extolled the benefits of China’s assistance to the Solomon Islands.

An editorial in the Solomon Star’s Tuesday edition defended its Chinese government funding and denied the Chinese embassy had reproached the newspaper for negative coverage or attempted to censor any reports.

“Yes, Solomon Star has nothing to hide,” said the article as quoted by RFA. “We have received funding support from China.” It claimed that other media organizations and journalists in the Solomon Islands were also receiving or seeking Chinese government funding.

The funding document claimed that the Lamani family-owned Solomon Star had even approached the Chinese embassy in 2021 about financial assistance and the embassy agreed to provide about U.S.$41,000.

The agreed funding was increased in June 2022 to about U.S.$133,000 based on a “new Project format” provided by the embassy, it said.