VANUATU
By Marc Neil-Jones, Publisher, Vanuatu Trading Post
24 February 2003

Vanuatu, formerly known as The New Hebrides in the SW Pacific has a rapidly growing population of 200,000 with a high illiteracy rate and poor education system with many children dropping out of school at an early age due to the cost of school fees. This fact as well as a struggling economy has not made it easy for the media industry to survive.

The government rigidly controlled media from independence in 1980 with a weekly newspaper, AM and FM radio stations and in the early 90's a local TV station funded by the French government. The media was and still is under the portfolio of the Prime Minister. All media business licenses are controlled by the government. The government media arm has never made any money and has never been run on commercial grounds. They are purely a mouthpiece for the government with opposition viewpoints allowed but strictly controlled.

Two independent newspapers set up in competition to the government in the mid 80's closed down after the publisher of one called TamTam was deported following criticism of the government and the other collapsed after pressure from the government.

In 1994 The Vanuatu Trading Post was launched as an independent mouthpiece under Prime Minister Korman who said he supported a free and open media. It quickly grew into the main national weekly newspaper and started pioneering media freedom uncovering corruption and working closely with the newly formed Ombudsman office by publishing Public Reports on corruption and breaches of the Leadership Code. The Vanuatu Ombudsman Marie Noelle Patterson won the Pacific Island News Association Media Freedom Award in 1997.

Media gradually opened up and Ni Vanuatu started having the confidence to speak out on issues which had not happened before due to cultural sensitivities of being critical of leaders and chiefs. However the Vanuatu government was not used to having a free and open media and constant pressure was put on the Trading Post with a number of deportation attempts on the publisher and threats made to close the newspaper down.

Trading Post grew to 3500 copies and went biweekly and then expanded to publishing three times a week. A number of other newspapers were launched without success including a Bislama language paper and a sports newspaper. A second weekly newspaper was established called Port Vila Presse in 2000 that has survived with heavy financial backing to keep it afloat. Presse now has a circulation of 2000 copies weekly.

In January 2000 the publisher of Trading Post was deported by the Sope led government following investigations of corruption and fraud by the Prime Minister over bank guarantees. After intervention by the Chief Justice and a court order he returned against the governments wishes to Vanuatu from Australia. Three months later the Sope government fell and the following year the ex prime minister was jailed on fraud charges.

The current Vanuatu government is more media friendly and has closed down the government owned Vanuatu Weekly newspaper after publishing it consistently for over 20 years to allow the private sector to control the industry without political interference.

In 2002 a new weekly regional newspaper for the Pacific called Pacific Weekly Review was launched as a mouthpiece for the region with a circulation of 5000 copies weekly. It is the only regional newspaper for the Pacific. After six months it was forced to suspend publication due to rapidly escalating costs and is currently on hold pending institutional funding.