BCCLA urges RCMP to 'get out of the editorial and media policy business'

BC



The B.C. Civil Liberties Association is calling on the RCMP to “get out of the editorial and media policy business” after recent media-related actions by a northern B.C. detachment.The B.C. Civil Liberties Association is calling on the RCMP to “get out of the editorial and media policy business” after recent media-related actions by a northern B.C. detachment.



“The RCMP has a job to police impartially and to share public safety information with media outlets impartially, even if those outlets may be critical of some aspects of their work,” said Lindsay Lyster, President of the BCCLA, in a release.



The Terrace RCMP allegedly advised the editor of Terrace Daily – a local news and blogging website – that an article “which lampooned the local mayor and RCMP Inspector had offended the force,” according to the release. The editor also alleged that the RCMP in Terrace told him “that TerraceDaily.ca would not receive news releases until they changed their editorial policies to give satirical stories that criticized the RCMP and local politicians lower prominence.”



The Terrace RCMP confirmed that they had stopped sending news releases, said Const. Angela Rabut, because “at this point, the Terrace Daily online is not a credible news source.”



The editor is “running more of a blog-site, where there’s a lot of opinion and fictional stories mixed in with credible news stories,” she said.



The detachment is also under fire by the BCCLA for a letter written by Insp. Dana Hart to the CRTC in support of a merger between Astral Media – a local TV station – and Bell Canada.



“The RCMP may well prefer the coverage of one media outlet to the other,” said BCCLA’s Lyster, “but retaliation for negative coverage by withholding public information is not acceptable, nor is using an impartial public platform to advocate for the private interests of media outlets that provide favourable coverage.”



Hart has since asked for the letter to be withdrawn, said Rabut, adding “it was not his intent to choose sides in this at all, it’s just to show support for a local [TV] station.”



“We have one TV station in town, and we work very closely with them,” she said, “and so we’ve always supported them [as] they support us.”







Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/entertainment/BCCLA+urges+RCMP+editorial+media+policy+business/7168655/story.html#ixzz25XcP183ECLA urges RCMP to 'get out of the editorial and media policy business'