The IPI global network calls on Samoan Prime Minister Laaulialemalietoa Leuatea Schmidt to immediately reverse an order banning the Samoa Observer from attending his weekly press conferences, and calls on the prime minister to recommit to the value of a free press.
On November 17, Samoa Observer senior reporter Marieta Heidi Ilalio was removed from a press conference with the prime minister. Later that day, the office of the prime minister released a statement ordering the temporary ban of the Samoa Observer, claiming the outlet had produced inaccurate and disrespectful reporting.
The ban follows a confrontation days earlier near the prime minister’s residence. While seeking to confirm whether the prime minister had returned from New Zealand, where he had spent eight weeks receiving medical treatment shortly after assuming office in September 2025, Samoa Observer editor Shalveen Chand said the prime minister’s security officers assaulted him on the roadside. A BBC reporter who was with Chand at the time said he behaved “carefully and respectfully”.
In comments on November 17, the prime minister also criticized the Samoa Observer’s founder and editor-in-chief, Savea Sano Malifa, whom IPI named a World Press Freedom Hero in 2000.
Following the ban’s announcement, the Samoa Observer reached out to the prime minister’s office by email requesting clarification on the reasons he gave for the ban and asking for evidence of his claims. The office has not responded.
The Samoa Observer is Samoa’s only daily newspaper, and the leading source of independent news in the South Pacific state. The ban, which also applies to the Samoa Observer’s coverage of cabinet officials, will severely hamstring the Samoa Observer’s work.
In an editorial published after the ban was announced, the Samoa Observer defended its public-interest journalism, which has uncovered numerous instances of corruption and official wrongdoing, and the paper’s tradition of fierce independence in the face of political pressure.
The Samoa Observer has been subject to harassment and intimidation throughout its history for its coverage of corruption and other forms of wrongdoing, with a low point occurring in the late 1990s when the Malifa family received death threats and the paper’s printing press was burned down under suspicious circumstances.
Several local and regional press freedom outlets have released statements in defense of the Samoa Observer. The Samoa Alliance of Media Practitioners for Development (Sampod) called the ban “disproportionate” while the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) said it represents a serious threat to public access to information and democratic accountability in Samoa.
Freedom of speech and expression is a protected right under Samoa’s constitution. Samoa’s 2015 Media Council Act also offers a formal mechanism for assessing and adjudicating complaints such as the ones lodged by the prime minister against the Samoa Observer.
“Prime Minister Laaulialemalietoa’s ban on the Samoa Observer – barely two months into his term – sends a dangerous message about the future of the Samoan free press under his leadership,” said IPI Executive Director Scott Griffen.
“IPI reminds the prime minister that a free press is an unassailable element to any vibrant democracy. It is both the job of journalists to ask difficult questions, and the duty of elected officials to respect the media’s right to seek answers, even – especially – when their questions are uncomfortable. Prime Minister Laaulialemalietoa must immediately drop this harmful ban, take any complaints through the proper channels, and recommit to the value of a free press.”