The newspaper, which brands medical research into coronavirus ‘corrupt’ and claims Covid-19 is a ‘training programme’ for mandatory vaccinations, was delivered to households this week.
Jersey Post, which is owned by the government, says it immediately stopped delivering the newspaper once it learnt of its content and is conducting an investigation into its distribution.
Today Hedi Green – who appeared in The Real Housewives of Jersey – said she was among dozens of people who were involved in The Rock’s publication.
In text messages to the JEP, Ms Green, who also spoke at the recent Jersey Freedom Rally, said: ‘There are over 100 people in the Island who are involved in getting this independent publication out to the people. I am one of the many who have made this happen. Labelling the paper “anti vax” is also unfair, unbalanced and inaccurate.’
Despite requests, Ms Green said she was unavailable for further comment.
The JEP understands that those behind the publication are planning to give out more copies to Islanders in St Helier this week. The Rock claims that the British public are ‘not being informed’ and includes articles about the ‘nazification’ of the NHS as well as reporting on the recent Jersey Freedom Rally. It also contains a photograph of Ms Green, along with fellow Housewives stars Kate Taylor and Margaret Thompson, with the caption: ‘Jersey housewives support freedom.’
It is not clear whether Ms Taylor and Ms Thompson support the publication.
Another article, penned by Dr Vernon Coleman, who is described online as a conspiracy theorist and an anti-vaccination activist, states that readers would ‘have to be mentally deficient in some way – perhaps through wearing a mask for too long and suffering the inevitable dementia – to believe that we are in the middle of a pandemic’.
One of the articles listed on the front cover was written by Advocate Hiren Mistry who was also present at the recent Jersey Freedom Rally.
However, Advocate Mistry said he did not give permission for his piece to be featured in the paper and said he had ‘nothing to do’ with its publication.
Deputy Chief Minister Lyndon Farnham said the leaflet was ‘concerning’ and encouraged Islanders to obtain information about the Covid-19 vaccine ‘from reliable places’.
David McGrath, group marketing director for Jersey Post, said that although the company had suspended delivery of the publication, other sources may still be distributing it.
He also denied that copies of The Rock had been inserted into customers’ Jersey Evening Posts when they were delivered.
‘Once we became aware of [The Rock’s] content, we suspended the delivery of it immediately,’ he said. ‘Our process was to deliver them over five days, Monday to Friday. This was stopped early on Monday so we will have stopped a significant amount from getting delivered.
‘Jersey Post delivers several publications direct to Island homes and businesses every day. This is a valuable service that supports a wide variety of organisations and is part of our universal service obligation. Any content or views expressed are those of the publisher, not Jersey Post, who are solely the delivery agent.
‘On 16 August we began distributing a publication entitled The Rock, which we are aware, following complaints we have received, has offended some Islanders. As soon as we were notified of the issue, we immediately suspended delivery while we conduct an investigation. We recognise some of our customers may not wish to receive certain publications in their mail and this can be managed by contacting our customer care team,’ he added.
Meanwhile, Senator Sam Mézec has said that Jersey Post’s decision to distribute the paper was a misjudgment.
In a social media post, he wrote: ‘Our publicly owned postal service @jsypost is one to be proud of, and our postal workers have served us so well throughout the pandemic.
‘However, their decision to accept a job distributing a nasty Covid conspiracy paper was a misjudgment. I am sure they will learn from this.’
