Our Government Continues to Restrict Media Access
February 1st, 2008, 4 Comments »
We’re in an era of media amalgamation. This is generally considered a bad thing for freedom of the press and unbiased reporting.
Unfortunately, we’ve also got a Conservative government in power that seeks to curtail those freedoms further. Let’s see what our Prime Minister’s done in the past eighteen months on this front:
- He attempted to prevent the media from documenting the return of dead soldiers from Afghanistan.
- He wanted to choose which questions were asked as his press conferences.
- He’s prevented reporters from speaking with MPs after cabinet meetings.
What’s Prime Minister Harper’s latest restriction? Quietly muzzling Environment Canada:
The new policy, which went into force in recent weeks and sent a chill through the department research divisions, is designed to control the department’s media message and ensure there are no “surprises” for Environment Minister John Baird and senior management when they open the newspaper or turn on the television, according to documents obtained by Canwest News Service.
You know, aside from their head-in-the-sand environmental policy, I can’t complain much about the Harper government (of course, I’ve been out of the country for the past year).
But these tactics aren’t in the service of the Canadian people. They only serve self-interests. They serve to conceal, to obfuscate and, I assume, to deceive. They show a marked disrespect for the electorate.
Does anybody think these policies are a good idea? I’d love to hear a rational defense from a Conservative supporter (Stephen, maybe?), for example.