MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 25th August, 2022) The government of the Solomon Islands is planning to ban the entry of foreign journalists that show the country in an unfavorable way, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) reported on Thursday.
The government of the Solomon Islands issued a statement on Wednesday, saying that ABC was intentionally spreading misinformation and was racial-profiling following ABC's Four Corners program, published on August 1 and devoted to the islands and China's influence on the country.
The government said it was deeply concerned with such offensive content and believes that the objective of the program was to cause animosity between China, the Solomon Islands and Australia. ABC responded to the statement on the same day, denying all accusations and correcting several factual errors in the government's press release.
According to the media outlet, the government of the Solomon Islands will use the pretext of racial discrimination to ban the entry of foreign journalists, whose coverage of the island's policy is deemed unfavorable. ABC does not have any information on the details of the ban or how it will be implemented.
Local reporters have raised concerns that the ban will seriously affect press freedoms in the country against the backdrop of the government's announcements to establish a state-owned newspaper.
In April, China and the Solomon Islands signed a framework agreement on security cooperation. The then-Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that the construction of a Chinese military base in the Solomon Islands will be a "red line" for Canberra and Washington.
