Freedom of the Press

Letters

Freedom of the Press is alive and well

Sir,

I read with interest the article in Pacific Islands Monthly (August) about free dom of Press in Vanuatu. As publisher of the biggest-selling national newspaper in Vanuatu, The Vanuatu Trading Post, the article mentioned that I and the news paper received a record number of threats from the Vanuatu government since going bi-weekly last year. Some of the issues raised in the article need clarifying.

Whilst the government-controlled media (that is, everything other than our newspaper and Le Fenua Times) have reportedly been under pressure to carry the government line, our newspaper has never been asked to carry a story, nor have I been directly threatened with expulsion because of an article written in The Vanuatu Trading Post.

Yes, there have been reactions by gov ernment in the past over stories we have run but only two have been, in my view, excessive. I was concerned over the reac tion and open threats to localise the news paper following the first story we ran that the NUP/Vohor government did not like and I was concerned last year when I had problems with my residency permit and which Prime Minister Maxime Carlot Korman subsequently reinstated.

People are too quick to criticise Korman. Since he has been in power, freedom of Press has grown tremendous ly, as far as we are concerned, from what

it was like under the (Walter) Lini years where no independent newspaper existed and when the government kicked out a

journalist who published an independent

newspaper. The Trading Post is free to publish whatever we want without gov ernment interference. I have no problem with the way the government reacted over our story on the National Bank. They felt they had been defamed and threatened legal action. This is better than a threat to kick me out or close the paper down.

They reacted in accordance with the law. (They backed down in the end and no legal action is being taken.) Politicians in Vanuatu are learning the role and value of an independent newspa per, particularly as the government has changed a few times and all political par ties have depended on us at one time or another to get their message across.

Having true freedom of Press in Vanuatu whilst the government owns its own media is never going to be on the cards.

This goes for any Pacific Island coun try with media controlled by government.

It would be the same as asking a News Corp-owned paper to constantly attack Rupert Murdoch or .ask ourselves to regu larly criticise Vanuatu Trading Post’s interests. It is not going to happen.

Freedom of Press in Vanuatu should be measured by the freedom given to independently owned newspapers like ourselves. You cannot expect Vanuatu to change overnight from a country that had absolutely no freedom of Press only two years ago to be like the United States of America two years later.

It takes time. It is a learning curve.

The Trading Post is pioneering free dom of Press in Vanuatu despite the odd outburst and the odd threat, which are only to be expected and, for that reason, Korman should be congratulated. Without him, it would not have happened.

We have regularly carried stories about flaws in the government or sensi tive political issues and have never been told to stop, or else...

That, to me, is both encouraging and proof that freedom of Press is alive and well in Vanuatu, and I believe it will be allowed to continue to grow, whoever is in power.

Marc Neil-Jones

Publisher Vanuatu Trading Post