Savali

Savali Newspaper is the official newspaper of the Government of Samoa, established in 1906 under the German Administration of Samoa and now widely presented as the country’s oldest periodical publication. The Library of Congress maintains a web archive of the Government of Samoa’s Savali publication as part of its Pacific Islands collection. Savali operates as one of two components of the Press & Communications Division of the Ministry of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (MPMC), alongside the government’s Press Secretariat, producing a weekly bilingual newspaper covering government developments and community news, and a monthly Samoan-language issue carrying Land and Titles Court information. The newspaper is distributed free of charge at supermarkets and other public outlets, and is also accessible through the Government of Samoa portal and dedicated social-media channels. Savali sits within MPMC alongside the Cabinet Office and the secretariat support to the Head of State, placing it within the most directly executive-attached ministry of the Samoan government.

Media assets

Print: Weekly bilingual newspaper (Samoan and English) covering government developments, free distribution

Ownership and governance

Savali is wholly owned by the Government of Samoa and operates as a division of the Press & Communications Division of MPMC, with no separate legal personality, no independent governing board, no editorial charter and no arm’s-length governance arrangement from the Office of the Prime Minister. The newspaper’s senior administrative oversight sits with the Chief Executive Officer of MPMC, Agafili Tomaimanō Shem Leo, who also serves as Secretary to Cabinet. Agafili has held the MPMC CEO role since 2016, and the Government Press Secretariat confirmed his reappointment to a fourth three-year term on 3 April 2025. Day-to-day editorial leadership of Savali is provided by an editor reporting through the Press & Communications Division to the MPMC CEO and ultimately to the Prime Minister; the SMM review did not identify a publicly available designation for the current editor.

The 2025/26 cycle saw substantial political upheaval in Samoa, including the parliamentary rejection of the 2025/26 government budget on 27 May 2025, the dissolution of Parliament on 3 June 2025, the snap general election of 29 August 2025 returning FAST with 30 of 51 seats, and the swearing-in of Laʻauli Leuatea Schmidt as Prime Minister on 16 September 2025. This change of government changed the Prime Minister to whom MPMC reports but did not alter MPMC’s institutional position or Savali’s structural relationship to the Office of the Prime Minister; Agafili Tomaimanō Shem Leo continued as MPMC CEO under the new government.

Source of funding and budget

Savali appears to be financed primarily through MPMC appropriations within the Samoan national budget, with some advertising and government-notice revenue; no standalone Savali financial statement or independent funding stream was identified in this review. The newspaper is distributed free of charge, indicating that advertising revenue does not approach a level capable of materially funding the operation independently of the Crown appropriation.

Editorial independence

Savali operates without any statutory editorial-independence framework. There is no legislation establishing arm’s-length governance for the newspaper, no charter prescribing editorial standards, and no institutional mechanism separating editorial content from the Office of the Prime Minister. Reporters Without Borders’ Samoa country file characterises Savali as “a state-owned, bilingual (Samoan/English) weekly, that focuses on providing positive coverage of the government’s activities”, a characterisation consistent with the newspaper’s self-presentation as covering “Government development and community news” and its institutional position within the Press & Communications Division of MPMC. The Press & Communications Division operates within the wider Samoan media-ethics environment, including the JAWS Media Code of Ethics adopted by the Journalists Association of (Western) Samoa, but no Savali-specific editorial charter or independent complaints mechanism was identified.

In its 2026 World Press Freedom Index, Reporters Without Borders ranked Samoa 59th of 180 countries with a score of 64.53, a 15-place fall from 44th and 69.28 in 2025, representing one of the country’s weakest recent placements on the index and one of the sharpest falls in the 2026 cycle. Asia Pacific Report’s analysis of the 2026 Index attributed part of the decline to what it described as an acrimonious relationship between Prime Minister Laʻauli and local journalists. A specific marker of that environment was Prime Minister Schmidt’s temporary suspension of the Samoa Observer, the country’s principal independent daily, from his weekly press conferences in November 2025, reportedly in connection with the newspaper’s coverage of the Prime Minister’s medical stay in New Zealand; Savali, as the Government’s own newspaper sitting within MPMC, did not face equivalent access restrictions during this period and continued to receive direct briefing access through the Press Secretariat function with which it shares a Division.

AI and digital policy

Savali maintains a digital presence through savalinews.ws, the Government of Samoa portal’s Savali subsection, and social-media accounts on Facebook, X and YouTube. No published Savali policy on AI-generated content, synthetic-media disclosure or content-provenance frameworks such as C2PA was identified in this review. At national level, no Samoa-specific AI law or public-sector generative-AI framework comparable to those in Australia or New Zealand was identified. The Government’s digital-policy work focuses more on cybersecurity (through MCIT’s SamCERT, a separate ministry from MPMC under which Savali sits), government digital services and telecommunications regulation than on AI governance, and Savali’s own digital output does not feature evident use of generative AI in editorial content.

Savali is classified as State-Controlled (SC) for 2026, on first addition to the SMM dataset. The newspaper operates as a unit of the Press & Communications Division of the Ministry of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, alongside the Government Press Secretariat. It has no separate legal personality, no independent board, no statutory charter, no arm’s-length appointment process and no Savali-specific editorial complaints mechanism. Its funding appears to come primarily through MPMC appropriations, with limited advertising and notice revenue, and it is distributed free of charge. Its institutional role is to disseminate government information and publish government and community news, including Land and Titles Court information. The 2025 change of government altered the Prime Minister to whom MPMC reports but did not change Savali’s structural position inside the executive. The SC classification therefore applies.

June 2026