Vanuatu Daily Post

Dan McGarry was denied an extension to his work permit last month.

In the interim, he travelled with his wife to Brisbane but when he tried to return on a visitor's visa he was stopped from re-entering Vanuatu by immigration authorities.

The Canadian had lived in Vanuatu for 16 years and his wife and family, who are Vanuatu citizens, live there.

The Supreme Court yesterday voided the travel ban, saying it had no basis in law.

The Right to Information Act was passed two years ago and will be extended to cover all government departments from August.

Over the coming months all departments and agencies will have to give information they hold, if requested.

Dan McGarry of the Vanuatu Daily Post said government bodies have been more forthcoming with information since the law came in.

The Director of Business Development said two pages of Chinese language versions of Vanuatu news will be published every Monday and will soon be available online as well.

Peter Stadly said all the content comes from Daily Post journalists and he hopes the initiative will make local news more available to a wider audience.

"The reason we're doing it is because we do see a large segment of the Chinese population that are not comfortable reading English, or Bislama or French for that matter. And we believe that they do have an interest in the local news.

Mr Malas worked with the paper in its infancy in the 1990s operating a small A4 printing machine as the chief printer.

The entrepreneur from Mele Village on Efate was also involved in the tourism industry becoming board chair of the Vanuatu Tourism Office.

He is survived by his wife and children.