Savea Sano Malifa (also known as Fata Sano Malifa) is a Samoan poet, journalist, newspaper editor, and publisher. He is the founder and Editor in Chief of the Samoa Observer, the main newspaper in Samoa.[1] He is the author of the novel Alms for Oblivion. The Pacific Islands News Association awarded him the Pacific Freedom of Information award for defending the right of the Samoan people to freedom of information and expression. In 1998, he received the Commonwealth Press Union's Astor Award and INDEX on Censorship Press Freedom Award.
Savea, an outspoken critic of former Prime Minister Tofilau Eti Alesana and his government, lost a civil claim over a story alleging the use of public funds to upgrade a hotel owned by Tofilau's children for a visit by Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex. The Samoa Observer was ordered to pay $WS 75,000 in court costs to Tofilau and $50,000 damages for defamation.[2]
In 1994, the printing plant of the Samoa Observer burned down under suspicious circumstances. It was later revealed during the investigation of the assassination of Minister of Works Luagalau Levaula Kamu that Minister of Women's Affairs Leafa Vitale, a former Minister of Works, had arranged the burning of the printing plant. Before the burning of the printing plant, the paper had run a story linking Leafa to a scandal involving the sale of cattle, after which the then Minister of Works had threatened to kill Savea and his family. Also, he was assaulted by the minister's brothers.
During the 2004 World Press Freedom Day awards, along with veteran reporter Autagavaia Tipi Autagavaia, Malifa made appeals to the government to remove restrictions; they urged Prime Minister Tuilaepa Aiono Sailele Malielegaoi and Deputy Prime Minister Misa Telefoni to remove the Printing and Publishing Act, to try to force news media to reveal their sources of information and remove the criminal libel laws, which Autagavaia had described as a relic of the past.[3]