Marc Neil-Jones

A British national, He worked in advertising and as a marketing manager in Papua New Guinea from 1982, then moved to Vanuatu in 1989. He became a naturalised Vanuatuan citizen around 2003. ==Publishing career==

In 1993 Neil-Jones purchased the fledgling newspaper Trading Post, which "was read by a few hundred expatriates and consisted a few general interest news items and classified ads but no local news". Neil-Jones received permission from Prime Minister Maxime Carlot Korman's government to develop it into a newspaper carrying local Vanuatuan news, including political news. With Kalvao Moli (a future MP) as its main journalist, the Trading Post became a weekly then (in 1994) bi-weekly newspaper, the only private newspaper in the country at the time. From the late 1990s, the newspaper printed detailed reports on government corruption, written by ombudsman Marie Noelle Patterson. From 2001 the paper was published three times a week. ==Arrests==

In 2001, the Trading Post revealed Prime Minister Barak Sope's involvement in a case of forged bank guarantees. Sope issued a deportation order against Neil-Jones, on the grounds that the latter had published a state secret. Neil-Jones was arrested and put on a plane to Australia, without being allowed to pack even his insulin medication. The deportation order was overturned by Chief Justice Vincent Lunabek; Sope was later convicted of forgery and sentenced to three years in gaol. ==Later life and death==

In 2009, the Daily Post again reported on human rights abuses in prison, which led to the dismissing of a prison director. Subsequently, four men assaulted Neil-Jones at the newspaper offices. He was left with a broken nose and a black eye, as well as multiple bruises from kicks to the body. He reported that his attackers had threatened to shoot him and to slit his throat. In February 2015, Neil-Jones announced he was going into semi-retirement from running the Daily Post, to focus on the development of a resort. ==References==