Dear Territorians,

This month the NT Independent turns three. I’d like to thank the people and businesses who have supported us and highlight how important independent media is. I have also included a funny, true story as well.

After three years, commercial viability is still a challenge but from an editorial standpoint we have achieved so much and done this with very little resources. I had hoped by this stage we would have been able to grow our editorial team, but we are still challenged with covering costs.

The NT Government has continued its undemocratic ban on our multi award-winning journalists and sent a clear message to any business that works with the NT Government to NOT support the NT Independent. A government in a democracy taking these steps to kill a start-up business is nothing short of astounding, but given what we have exposed so far, I can see why they want us closed. But that is the very reason you should support us.

In early February, editor Chris Walsh wrote an editorial following an exclusive story we published on redacted sections of the Pollock/Proctor report associated with the police’s decision to charge Zach Rolfe with murder. Chris did not hold back in this editorial and it outlines a number of issues that still need to be addressed, including that the evidence appears to show Jamie Chalker and the police brass attempted to pervert the course of justice. And those claims were made while the coronial inquest into the death of Kumanjayi Walker was afoot.

When I first read the editorial, I would be lying to you if I said I was completely calm, and I was expecting a few aggressive letters from taxpayer-funded lawyers pursuing defamation and contempt of court. But the letters never came.

Here we had one of the Territory’s most renowned, award-winning and accomplished journalists claiming a commissioner appeared to attempt to pervert the course of justice. The NT Police and the NT Government have shown they are more than keen to shut us down and not just by suppression, but this time there was nothing.

In the first few months of publishing in 2020, the NT Government hired a national law firm to threaten and gag us because we had a picture of the brolga in front of the sun that we were not aware was copyrighted.

Later we found out the NT Police even went so far as to attempt to press charges against us that would have seen us raided after we exposed a critical story of public safety. So, with motivation like this you have to wonder why there has not been a legal pursuit on Chris Walsh’s editorial. Maybe because it is the truth? Who else is going to do this if we don’t?

With an appetite like the government has to shut us down, I definitely take pride in the fact they have never taken action on us for publishing anything false or misleading. Given everything we have exposed, they get upset when we use a picture of a bird, surely they would take action if we published something inaccurate. Maybe because it is the truth they don’t?

Late last year, Kent Rowe, the former Labor Party secretary and senior advisor to ex-chief minister Michael Gunner, was sentenced for repeatedly raping a child over many years. At sentencing, Chief Justice Michael Grant referenced Labor’s cocaine sex scandal, saying to Rowe that he had been identified as the political staffer involved and that “it was those reports, which ultimately led the victim to make a formal complaint to police.”

It was the NT Independent that named Kent Rowe as the political staffer. Everyone in the media at the time knew who it was but no one was willing to name the chief minister’s senior advisor, especially in this jurisdiction where the fallout with government comes with extensive consequences.

While I am in no way suggesting the NT Independent was the reason or even a main reason that this case evolved, we know the courage of the victim to come forward cannot be measured here, however to play our part in that courage makes me wonder again what would have happened if we were not there to name him and do the reporting we did on the cocaine sex scandal? Would we still have a paedophile as a senior advisor in the Chief Minister’s office?

Now, since our existence is not worth acknowledging by the NT Government and the NT Police, I have to tell you a funny story in how far the Police executive have gone to read our stories while making sure they don’t get identified doing so.

Late last year, we received information that the executive of the NT Police had directed a NT Police in-house lawyer to set up a personal subscription to the NT Independent and then distribute our articles to the executive once published. The source was even so kind as to provide the name and the date it occurred. I logged onto our subscription platform and there it was, the lawyer had used their own gmail account to set up a monthly subscription. Not being one to miss an opportunity to have a little fun, I emailed the lawyer with the following.

Hey (name omitted)

Congratulations. You are the winner of our monthly merchandise pack as a new subscriber. We would like to send you out the pack via mail to your home or work. Let me know what the best mailing address is.

We would like to promote you as the winner on our social media, can you please get back to me by the end of the week and let me know if that is ok?

Thanks for subscribing and supporting the NT Independent.

Following the email, I was watching the platform and got further amusement when I saw the lawyer log on and change the password of the subscription. Now, we cannot access passwords and while this did give me a further giggle there is also a very serious aspect of this behaviour.

Here we have the NT Police executive dictating to their media team to not respond to our questions, even in cases of public safety, breaching policy and democratic rights. It is so critical for the NT Police executive to restrict the information we get but they also have to go to lengths to hide the fact they read it? I’ll be reaching out this week and providing all the executive with their own free subscription so they don’t have to hide in the dark reading the NT Independent.

Thanks to those who have supported us over the three years. If you don’t subscribe, then please consider doing so, as every little bit helps. If you can support us more with a donation, then please do that too. We need to keep going, there’s so much more to expose.

— Owen Pike

Owen Pike is a local businessman and owner of the NT Independent.