Media outlets of different stripes exist in Moose Jaw, but in city council’s opinion, those outlets shouldn’t exist in the proposed municipal communications policy.
The policy includes guidelines to address media relations, public engagement strategies, construction announcements, social media usage and city council. But once again, the news media dominated council’s discussion about the proposed policy during its Sept. 9 executive committee meeting.
This time, some on council suggested requiring media to have accreditation sit in the gallery. City administration also said it plans to bring forward a report about accreditation in the next three months.
Council voted 6-1 in favour of a recommendation to adopt the policy during the meeting. Coun. Brian Swanson was opposed.
The recommendation has to be approved at a future regular council meeting to be official.
Council also voted 5-2 against a recommendation to remove from the policy a line that stated, “The city will monitor media coverage of city hall-related news items and with discretion may seek corrections if content is found to be factually incorrect or a significant misrepresentation of facts.”
Swanson and Coun. Chris Warren were in favour.
Also, council voted unanimously in favour of a recommendation to remove the name of every media outlet listed in the policy, including in the section related to emergencies.
Background
Six responses were received from the public about the proposed communications policy, explained communications manager Craig Hemingway. Three responses expressed concern with the media section and suggested the municipality did not have the right to determine who is a legitimate media outlet.
This particular wording was not in the original policy, but came from the executive committee discussion in the spring, he continued. The wording of the media section was tightened up to be clearer based on the feedback.
Council discussion
The inclusion or exclusion of names of media outlets is not a major stumbling block to this policy, Hemingway told Warren. The communications policy will be reviewed every six months to ensure it is current. His office thought including the names of every outlet in Moose Jaw would be helpful.
Other media outlets from Regina are not named in the policy even though they sometimes attend council meetings, Warren said. Taking out the names does not preclude council from talking to the media. Furthermore, city hall can monitor media’s coverage of council without the need to include that directive in the policy.
“A lot of the feedback I received over this was any reference to the media and correcting facts — it feeds into that narrative of fake news … ,” Warren added.
The municipality has the right to monitor any coverage being published about city council and its discussions, said Coun. Dawn Luhning. She works hard to have all the possible information when making a decision, so the media should also publish the correct information.
There is a fine line between getting personal and not reporting the facts properly, she continued. That has happened during the last few years.
“If we believe a story is not (providing) the full story to residents, we should go to that business or organization and say, ‘Please report the facts … ,’” Luhning remarked. “I really believe that line is necessary now … and will be necessary in the future.”
Credentials important
The strength of this policy is it seeks to build relationships with anyone who wants to promote Moose Jaw, said Coun. Crystal Froese. She thought it was the communications manager’s job to monitor media coverage and that city hall should ask media to retract stories only if a news release is misquoted or copied incorrectly.
“I don’t see this (line about monitoring media) as stifling the opinion or any debate out there. I think this is solely to correct the facts,” she said. “When a reporter chooses to go out and ask for opinions and gets opposing (viewpoints) … we have no business asking for retractions when people oppose us in that fashion.”
The important question is who is qualified to sit in the media gallery, which is why credentials become important, said Mayor Fraser Tolmie. He pointed out the media who sit in the Saskatchewan legislature likely need accreditation to be there.
City hall wants to ensure it is providing as much information to media as possible, even if it takes up employees’ time, said city manager Jim Puffalt. This is why city administration will produce a report soon about the need for media accreditation.
It’s unlikely any municipality in Saskatchewan requires accreditation to speak to city council or its administration, Warren pointed out. By serving in this role, council is required to provide information to residents when they bring forward issues that need support.
The next executive committee meeting is Sept. 23.
