Taina Kami Enoka
APIA: When the son of Vanuatu publisher Marc Neil-Jones was surfing the internet one day, he asked if his father was only famous for getting assaulted.
When he googled “Neil-Jones assault", there were at least 197,000 pages.
This is the story of veteran journalist Marc Neil-Jones who has been continuously assaulted for controversial stories printed in his newspaper Vanuatu Daily Post since its launch in 1993.
During a presentation at a regional media meeting last week at the National University of Samoa, he spoke of the challenges faced in operating as a publisher in Vanuatu.
Neil-Jones, originally from England, has lived in Vanuatu for 22 years. He is married to a ni-Vanuatu. For seven years, he has been a citizen.
The most recent assault involved a government minister in Vanuatu who was allegedly implicated in an assault on Neil-Jones by eight thugs over news that he didn’t like.
The case has been well publicised in Pacific newspapers.
Pressure mounted
Publicity in the overseas media drew reaction from the Pacific Islands News Association (PINA) and media associations of Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. Letters poured in from as far afield as Transparency International, Reporters Without Borders and International Federation of Journalists.
Again pressure was mounting.
All this was spurred by five emails sent by Neil-Jones.
“I want the Minister to go on trial and believe firmly that if he is convicted he cannot stand in politics in the next elections and no longer be an MP because of a criminal conviction,” Neil-Jones says.
“That will send a message to everyone in power that this is what happens if you take the law into your own hands and assault the messenger. Only then will these assaults stop.”
“It is embarrassing for me that my only fame is getting assaulted, jailed or deported over news.”
However, it shows how effective the Pacific journalists email forum and the Pacific Freedom Forum, Pacific Media Watch and regional bodies are when it comes to applying pressure for help.
Neil-Jones spent 29 years in the Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu media.
Pioneering efforts
Efforts to pioneer freedom of the press in Vanuatu have been difficult for Neil-Jones.
Vanuatu has only had an independent media since the mid 1990s. Before that, it was monopolised by the government.
Since launching the Daily Post newspaper, Neil-Jones has been deported, jailed, assaulted, threatened and defamed by government through their media outlets. Through it all, they have stuck to the code of ethics, worked independently of political parties and continued to inform the public on issues of national interest.
Over the years, although attitudes have changed towards media, inherent problems remain between government and media throughout the Pacific. Such situations are unlikely to change.
“It is a love-hate relationship. They love us when they are in opposition and hate us when they are in government,” he said.
In Vanuatu, they now accept that it is the media’s job to be a pain and ask difficult questions and expose news they do not like, he said.
Government reaction to an issue that turns into a big news expose is very telling.
“If they overreact that means you have hit home accurately with your news and they are running for cover,” Neil-Jones said.
Best defence attack
A politician knows the best form of defence is attack.
Generally, Neil-Jones says, they pick on something not directly related to the news item and rarely offer direct answers to the concerns raised.
As a palagi and a newspaper publisher in Melanesia, Neil-Jones has been more of a target for violence than his Melanesian editor.
And if anyone was going to assault him for his work, he is committed to not fighting back. Retaliation would only result in a clear case of assault where self-defence comes into play.
“I also rather foolishly thought that they would get bored quickly belting me up if I didn’t react.”
When he launched the Daily Post, Neil-Jones had already encountered different challenges in PNG and Vanuatu that led to him learning everything about customs and culture there that he needed to know.
The newspaper was in competition to one that was Government-owned. Previous private newspapers had been closed down for their content. They were also run by foreigners.
Nightclub attack
In the mid-1990s, Neil-Jones resorted to PINA after being assaulted in a nightclub over a news story while talking with a government minister. It would not have made the news until the minister threatened that if it was, he would burn down the office.
Neil-Jones ran the article to show ministers that they could not threaten the media. PINA was contacted and the publicity that followed sent a clear message to government.
In January 2001, Neil-Jones was accused by then Prime Minister Barak Sope of "revealing and publishing classified state secrets’.
This was on a story where Neil-Jones alleged there were secret corrupt and fraudulent activities implicating the PM and an Indian conman who had had set up with bank guarantees.
The PM was later jailed for three years.
Without warning, Neil-Jones was picked up and bundled onto a flight to Australia without the 14 days notice required by law.
"Suddenly I was on a plane losing everything I owned plus leaving my future wife behind.”
Even worse, despite paying an immigration bond to his home country England, he was deported to Australia.
News hit wires
Contacted by his staff, media coverage by Radio Australia, Radio NZ and PINA followed and the news hit the wires.
Pressure mounted. The Acting Chief Justice signed a court order preventing the government from stopping Neil-Jones from returning to Vanuatu.
His return to Vanuatu was filmed by local TV stations. But coverage was replaced instead with a statement by the PM saying Neil-Jones would be deported again and the law would be changed to make it legal.
Government changed within weeks and the deportation was found by the Ombudsman to be highly illegal. Costs were settled out of court by the new government.
From this experience, Neil-Jones saw the importance in getting news out on attacks on media.
“It embarrasses government and pressure from outside is beyond their control.”
In April 2006, demands made by Neil-Jones regarding the suspension of a police officer who had assaulted the sports editor at a rugby match were printed.
Diabetes sufferer
Two days later, Neil-Jones was thrown in the maximum security jail on a driving charge that had been dropped. Having written about hard-core criminals in cases and as the only white guy needing daily insulin, he was nervous.
“I needn’t have been as all the prisoners were great and happy to see me. Some were shuffling about wearing leg irons tied ot each other and others showed me nasty whip marks where they had been beaten by the police.”
On his release, Neil-Jones did a big expose on human rights abuses in jail. The system was changed and a new Correctional Services policy backed by New Zealand was introduced.
In January 2009, the newspaper published articles critical of Correctional Services and heavy-handed police action in the jail. A prisoner's account of human rights and abuses was leaked and printed. There were numerous prison escapes and the jail was burned down.
Neil-Jones called on the Correctional Services Joshua Bong’s suspension, pending an enquiry. Neil-Jones was beaten by police and Vanuatu Mobile Force members working for Bong who was suspended after the articles.
They threatened to kill him. Neil-Jones was left alone only after some inspired acting of a person in desperate need of insulin.
Neil-Jones suggests the set up of a Pacific Media Complaints Council with people who have a lifetime experience in media ethics as members.
Global murders
In marking World Press Freedom Day, Neil-Jones said his assaults are nothing compared to journalists in the rest of the world. At least 134 journalists were killed in 2009 and 94 in 2010.
“Yes I accept it can get uncomfortable sometimes practising journalism and exposing corruption in the Pacific islands. But we live in a journalism paradise compared to the poor journalists who have lost their lives fighting to do the same,” he said.
“We should salute them for their bravery and thank our lucky stars that the Pacific way is still the best way, despite the occasional hiccups.
He quoted French existential author Albert Camus, suggesting that a plaque be engraved and sent to Bainimarama as a gift.
“A free press can of course be good or bad, but, most certainly without freedom, the press will never be anything but bad.” - Samoa Observer/Pacific Media Watch
Taina Kami Enoka is a reporter on the Vanuatu Daily Post.
Marc Neil-Jones' full speech on World Press Freedom Day at Apia, Samoa, on May 3.
Pacific Media Watch
