A proposed communications policy for the municipality deals with more than just media relations, but that area has received the most focus during the past two city council meetings.
Council briefly talked about the policy during its July 8 regular meeting, after reporter/blogger Mickey Djuric brought it up during her presentation. Djuric commended council for its actions during the previous meeting to remove a clause that would have prevented certain media outlets from receiving information, if their work was deemed too slanted or biased.
After council reviewed the policy last time and made suggested changes, the next step was for the public to provide feedback on it, said Coun. Chris Warren after the presentation. He wondered what would happen from there.
Any comments received from the public will be written up and presented to council, along with the plan, possibly as early as August, said communications manager Craig Hemingway. This plan is considered a living document, so it will be reviewed again in six months, if necessary.
“I may have misunderstood getting the timelines in place for approval. But I can hold off and we can hold off until such time (as appropriate),” he said, adding the policy would have gone into effect that evening if council had approved it.
Residents are encouraged to watch the city’s webpage for when they can give feedback about the proposed communications policy.
Based on the discussions council has had about this policy — such as excluding people from the media list — along with the concerns raised by Djuric during her presentation, it doesn’t seem as if the issues have been cleared up, said Coun. Crystal Froese.
Excluding the names of bloggers from the proposed policy does not change the relationship with media in the community whatsoever, said Hemingway. His goal was to simply indicate there are independent media in Moose Jaw and traditional media outlets. All media requests are treated equally; there was never any intention to limit information to media, only access to officials, particularly if a news outlet continues to produce slanted or biased news..
Council identified which media outlets in town are legitimate, since they have property and pay taxes, said Mayor Fraser Tolmie. While bloggers do exist, he pointed out they don’t have policies to keep them accountable. Conversely, traditional media outlets have editors to keep reporters accountable.
“If there were something that was drastically wrong, we have a responsibility as a community to make sure the information is corrected. If somebody is misinterpreted, how we do go back to that person (for a correction)?” he said, adding council is held accountable by its policies, a code of ethics, and the community.
Later in the evening, council voted 5-2 in favour of a tabling motion to let administration seek public feedback on the proposed communications policy. Councillors Heather Eby and Dawn Luhning were opposed.
The next regular meeting is July 22.
