The battle for hearts and minds in the Indo-Pacific is being fought not on traditional battlefields, but in the digital realm where truth and falsehood collide at the speed of light. As authoritarian regimes weaponise information to destabilise democracies and artificial intelligence supercharges the spread of disinformation, Australia finds itself dangerously outgunned in a contest that will define the region’s future.
The stakes could not be higher. The US government’s foreign aid cuts—including the freeze of $268 million intended to support independent media—threw media outlets and non-government organisations into disarray, allowing autocratic states and partisan propagandists to occupy the surrendered ground. They push tailored messaging to sway elections, justify regional muscle-flexing or delegitimise rival powers.
While Australia debates policy nuances, China has quietly seized 80 new radio frequencies abandoned by the United States, filling the void left by the US retreat from international media engagement. In this new cold war of narratives, silence is surrender.
This is why Australia urgently needs a comprehensive green paper on Indo-Pacific media strategy—not as bureaucratic box-ticking, but as a blueprint for defending democratic values and supporting journalism in an information environment that grows more chaotic by the day.
The digital revolution has transformed how people consume information, creating unprecedented opportunities and existential threats. Social media platforms and AI-powered communication tools have turbo-charged the spread of both legitimate news and dangerous falsehoods. In this landscape, authoritarian regimes and bad actors deliberately target vulnerable communities with conspiracies and misrepresentations designed to erode trust in democratic institutions.
The problem extends far beyond traditional propaganda. Generative AI now offers sophisticated tools for grey-zone attacks—sophisticated disinformation campaigns that blur the lines between truth and fiction. These technologies are cultural artifacts shaped by the worldviews of their creators, many of whom operate far from Australia’s neighbourhood and may be actively hostile to its interests.
Meanwhile, many potential audiences—particularly younger demographics—have become disengaged from mainstream media channels, making them more susceptible to manipulation by hostile actors who understand how to exploit digital platforms and psychological vulnerabilities.
The Australian government’s current Indo-Pacific Broadcasting Strategy is a good start, but it’s insufficient for the scale of the challenge. The country needs to think bigger, moving beyond traditional broadcasting to embrace a multi-platform approach that meets diverse audiences where they are, in the languages and formats they prefer.
This means creating compelling Australian content that authentically represents the country’s character and competence, drawing on expertise from Australia’s Indo-Pacific diaspora and Indigenous communities. It means supporting journalists and media professionals throughout the region in their common cause of truth-telling and trust-building.
Most importantly, it means recognising that supporting independent journalism is not just about media; it’s about defending democratic norms. When local media collapses, authoritarianism fills the vacuum. When professional newsrooms vanish, social media influencers and unverified outlets rush to fill the void.
Fact-checking is virtually non-existent, allowing rumours—such as those that fuelled vaccine hesitancy in Samoa, contributing to the deaths of 83 children—to spread unchecked. False narratives about kidnappings or organ harvesting have already sparked moral panic, school closures and social unrest in places including Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands.
The decline of US media engagement has created both a crisis and an opportunity. Australia can step into this void, but only if it acts decisively and with sufficient resources. This isn’t about competing with China’s state-controlled media apparatus through propaganda; it’s about supporting the kind of independent, accountable journalism that allows democracies to function.
As well as reporting on the region, Australia should back independent journalism in the region. The resilience of free media is a foreign policy interest as much as a national asset.
The approach should be holistic: investing in content development funds; supporting media capacity building across the region; and providing long-term institutional support for professional journalism organisations. It should also consider how AI tools could be deployed in defence of democratic values, while remaining mindful of the technology’s potential for abuse.
Small island economies face unique challenges in maintaining viable media sectors. Their importance to Australia’s security makes targeted support both a moral imperative and strategically essential.
What experts call ‘information anarchy’ represents nothing less than a retreat from rationality and the triumph of the irrational. In such an environment, Australia’s reputational security—its ability to project influence and protect its interests through soft power—becomes a critical national asset.
The alternative to action is not neutrality; it’s defeat by default. Every day that Australia delays developing a comprehensive media strategy is another day authoritarian narratives go unchallenged and democratic values lose ground in the region that will determine Australia’s prosperity and security.
A green paper on Indo-Pacific media strategy would signal that Australia takes this challenge seriously. But the real test will come with implementation: whether the country is prepared to make the sustained investment necessary to defend democratic discourse in the digital age.
In an era where information is power and information platforms are battlefields, Australia needs a robust, imaginative media strategy that encompasses all the tools at its disposal. The spread, speed and pervasive impact of information anarchy and the psychology of misinformation are significant. If we don’t act now, Australia risks slipping into strategic irrelevancy.