"Policy and Legislation: The Communications Division within the Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Industries and Commerce is responsible for licensing and regulation of the communications industry, including licensing and handling complaints. Freedom of media is guaranteed in the constitution and is generally respected in practice. Media outlets use a range of international codes of ethics. Telecommunications is open to local investment; foreign investment is more regulated.
Media Systems: Local technical capacity is limited. Palau has an updated National Disaster Risk Management Framework. Several problems were noted in relation to the current procedures for the early warning system which lead to uneven and delayed distributions of emergency information.
Capacity Building: There are currently no local training institution offering media and communications courses. Most journalists in Palau work part-time in other professions. Few have qualifications in media and communications. Interviewees stated a preference for basic training in journalism, rather than issues-specific training. There is no local media association.
Content: Palau has not yet developed key climate change policies and plans. Interviewees suggest there is some information fatigue in relation to climate change issues. The identified challenges to climate change reporting are finding new ways to report on the issue, and its inaccessibility to the population due to difficulties with translating key terms. Palau has declared a State of Emergency in relation to the NCD epidemic. The key challenges to NCD reporting are weak links between media and health agencies, dry reporting formats, and irregular coverage which usually follows funding allocations." (Summary of findings)