Media of Vanuatu

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The Republic of Vanuatu is an officially trilingual state in the western Pacific, the three national languages being English, French and Bislama. There is a diversity of newspapers, but only one, state-owned television channel. Private radio stations are a recent development; there were reportedly none in 2007. [1]

Vanuatu Country in Oceania

Vanuatu, officially the Republic of Vanuatu, is a Pacific island country located in the South Pacific Ocean. The archipelago, which is of volcanic origin, is 1,750 kilometres (1,090 mi) east of northern Australia, 540 kilometres (340 mi) northeast of New Caledonia, east of New Guinea, southeast of the Solomon Islands, and west of Fiji.

English language West Germanic language

English is a West Germanic language that was first spoken in early medieval England and eventually became a global lingua franca. It is named after the Angles, one of the Germanic tribes that migrated to the area of Great Britain that later took their name, as England. Both names derive from Anglia, a peninsula in the Baltic Sea. The language is closely related to Frisian and Low Saxon, and its vocabulary has been significantly influenced by other Germanic languages, particularly Norse, and to a greater extent by Latin and French.

French language Romance language

French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French (Francien) has largely supplanted. French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the (Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to France's past overseas expansion, there are numerous French-based creole languages, most notably Haitian Creole. A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French.

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Freedom of the media

Freedom House in 2007 categorised Vanuatu's media as "free", noting however that "journalists have been censored or intimidated" by members of the police in isolated incidents, leading to apologies by the Police Commissioner. [1]

Freedom House is a U.S.-based 501(c)(3) U.S. government-funded non-governmental organization (NGO) that conducts research and advocacy on democracy, political freedom, and human rights. Freedom House was founded in October 1941, and Wendell Willkie and Eleanor Roosevelt served as its first honorary chairpersons.

In 2001, Marc Neil-Jones, British-born publisher of the Vanuatu Daily Post , "was unlawfully deported from Vanuatu before being able to publish an article critical of the government". His deportation was subsequently overturned. [2] In June 2011, Harry Iauko was convicted of aiding and abetting damage to property and aiding and abetting intentional assault, for having led a group of men into the offices of the Daily Post, where they assaulted Neil-Jones for the newspaper's criticism of Iauko, who was at the time Minister for Infrastructure and Public Utilities. Iauko was fined Vt15,000. [3] Reporters Without Borders denounced the fine as "risible", saying it was "not commensurate with the gravity of the crime", and that such a small fine for an assault on a journalist risked pushing other journalists to censor themselves rather than criticise politicians. [4]

Marc Neil-Jones, born 14 October 1957, is a Ni-Vanuatu journalist. A campaigner for freedom of the press, he has been assaulted several times, as well as briefly deported and imprisoned. Radio New Zealand has described him as "one of the Pacific's most significant journalistic figures".

<i>Vanuatu Daily Post</i>

The Vanuatu Daily Post is a newspaper published in Port Vila in Vanuatu. It is the only daily newspaper in Vanuatu.

Harry Iauko was a ni-Vanuatu politician.

The Commonwealth of Nations reports in 2013 that "Vanuatu is widely-considered by independent observers as a country with an unfettered freedom of press". [5] [6]

Commonwealth of Nations Intergovernmental organisation

The Commonwealth of Nations, normally known as the Commonwealth, and historically the British Commonwealth, is a unique political association of 53 member states, nearly all of them former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the Commonwealth Secretariat, which focuses on intergovernmental aspects, and the Commonwealth Foundation, which focuses on non-governmental relations between member states.

Press

The Vanuatu Weekly is a state-owned paper published in all three national languages. [5] [6] The two main daily newspapers are both private: the Port Vila Presse (in French and in English), and the Vanuatu Daily Post (in English). [5] The Daily Post has a sister weekly newspaper in French, L'Hebdo du Vanuatu . [6] The Vanuatu Independent, Nasara and the Ni-Vanuatu are all private weekly papers. [5]

L'Hebdo du Vanuatu is a ni-Vanuatu weekly newspaper. Launched on 11 December 2008, it is the first newspaper in Vanuatu published exclusively in the French language. French is one of Vanuatu's three official languages, along with Bislama and English.

Radio

The state-owned Radio Vanuatu is operated by the Vanuatu Broadcasting and Television Corporation. [6] Its origins lie in the colonial era, prior to the country's independence from France and the United Kingdom in 1980. During the colonial period it began as Radio Vila, then Radio New Hebrides, initially broadcasting only ten minutes a day. As of 2013, it broadcasts "16 hours of news, information programs, music and entertainment". [7] The station "has achieved almost nationwide coverage", and, as of 2000, used Bislama "approximately 80 percent of the time". [8]

Private radio stations are Capital FM 107, 96Buzz FM, and the Christian station Laef FM. [6] [7]

Also available are foreign radio broadcasts tailored for an international audience: BBC World Service, Radio France Internationale, Radio Australia, and China Radio International. [6]

Television

Television Blong Vanuatu (Bislama for "Television of Vanuatu"), is operated by the state's Vanuatu Broadcasting and Television Corporation. "Established with the help of Radio France Overseas", it broadcasts both in French and in English. [5] As of 2010, it reached only about 20% of the population, and 80% of its content was borrowed from the New Caledonian channel Nouvelle-Calédonie 1re. France provided assistance to extend its coverage to a greater part of the country. [9]

KAM TV (Komuniti Akses Media) is the second TV channel locally produced in Vanuatu by Marke Lowen. It broadcasts 24x7 and the programming consists of approx 95% local content. KAM is operated as a free Open public channel promoting local cultural knowledge and education under a 'not for profit' structure. It is broadcast FTA as Channel 1 on Telsat Pacific's UHF DVB-T2 digital TV system. (www.telsat.vu)

See also

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