Last week the Australian government launched its new Indo-Pacific Broadcasting Strategy. The release of the strategy comes at a time when competition for influence in the Indo-Pacific has intensified, new platforms for the distribution of content have disrupted the traditional media market, and trust in traditional media outlets has diminished. Australia’s objective is to project itself as a credible and compelling voice within the Indo-Pacific, with a particular focus on being a central and supportive media actor throughout the Pacific Islands.
The new strategy is built upon three core pillars: First, to support the creation and distribution of Australian content throughout the Indo-Pacific. Second, to enhance access within the region to trusted sources of media. And third, to strengthen media capacity and capability within the region by boosting connections between Australia-based and Indo-Pacific media.
It is this third pillar that is most pressing within the Pacific Islands region. The region is facing the challenges of rapid technological change and shifts in audience tastes, compounded by minimal government funding and investment, aging infrastructure, small populations, and economic stress.
While digital uptake is significant, traditional media platforms still have high reach and value. But with shrinking advertising budgets, competition between traditional and digital platforms is fierce. As digital advertising revenues are lower than for traditional print media, making the transition from traditional distribution to digital does not deliver the same revenue base needed to run substantial newsrooms. As a result, many media outlets throughout the Pacific are struggling financially.
Media in the Pacific has always been fragile. Existing issues of underfunding, lack of resources, and low pay for journalists have been further exacerbated by the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on these countries’ already limited resources. This financial fragility threatens media freedoms and could compromise the independence of the media if it becomes more susceptible to outside influence in the quest for funding.
Of course, outside influences are not necessarily a bad thing. Healthy competition for influence can produce positive outcomes; however, it is the values that underpin this influence which are critical. Australia’s new broadcasting strategy hopes to promote the principles essential to trustworthy media – a focus on standards and ethics, and a commitment to accuracy, objectivity, fairness, and accountability. Another major aim is to help strengthen the region’s resilience to misinformation and disinformation.
Trustworthy media is an essential pillar of democracy, and vital for good governance. Maintaining a well-functioning media ecosystem is in the interests of domestic and regional stability alike. Australian-led programs like the Pacific Media Development Scheme, and the Papua New Guinea-focused Media Development Initiative seek to enhance media skills and resources throughout the region to enhance the essential role media must play in each respective society.
The development of these skills, and sharing of resources, is also critical for Australia’s own media landscape. Recently the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) made a noticeable move to use more Pacific Islander journalists to cover local issues for the ABC’s domestic broadcasts. These journalists have local knowledge and reach into their countries that Australian journalists may not have. Their presence on Australian screens and radio is also a practical example of Australia embracing the concept of the “Pacific family.”
The use of Pacific journalists also gives Australia greater credibility in how the ABC and its international arm, Radio Australia, operate in the region. Prior to the release of the new strategy, new Radio Australia 24-hour FM radio services had already been rolled out in six key locations across Palau, Nauru, Tuvalu, Pohnpei (Federated States of Micronesia), Kokopo (Papua New Guinea), and Gizo in (Solomon Islands). A further six locations are to be launched in the second half of 2024.
Traditional radio still plays an important role in the Pacific, especially in being able to communicate vital weather information in areas where digital connectivity is weak. Australia’s investment in radio is a recognition that Radio Australia previously dropped the ball by shutting down several shortwave frequencies it was broadcasting on in the Pacific, frequencies that were quickly snapped up by Chinese broadcasters.
Alongside the central role the ABC will play in Australia’s regional broadcasting strategy, further funding will be provided to the PacificAus TV initiative. First launched in 2020, the initiative has made available broadcast rights to Australian commercial television programs – across news, current affairs, children’s programs, drama, lifestyle programs, reality TV, and sport – to television stations in Papua New Guinea, Fiji, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Samoa, Kiribati, Tuvalu, and Nauru.
The objective of this is clearly to build a positive picture of Australia throughout the region through greater access to its television content and knowledge of Australian society. (Although one could argue that greater international exposure to Australian reality TV isn’t going to do the country’s soft power any favors.)
Media across the globe, not just in the Pacific, faces increasing threats to neutrality and independence, as well as threats from rival information streams that seek to undermine public trust in traditional media outlets. This makes Australia’s new Indo-Pacific Broadcasting Strategy an initiative far more important than just the building of regional influence for Canberra. It is a strategy that has a far broader responsibility for regional stability at its core.
This article draws upon a recent paper published by Asia-Pacific Development, Diplomacy and Defence Dialogue (AP4D) on Youth, Civil Society and Media in the Pacific