Police need to respect the role of the media

As a retired journalist and photojournalist with nearly five decades’ experience in radio, television and print, I must respond to quotes from RNC Chief Bill Janes in a recent Telegram story by Ashley Fitzpatrick, headlined “Adding RNC communications up to government.”

Janes’ remarks about possibly hiring a civilian director with experience in communications offered a moment of hope that the often confrontational, relationship between media and police in this province might be improved. Part of my media experience was an ongoing attempt to pry information from clenched police hands. But reading just a few sentences further, my hope for change was dashed.

While admitting that many Canadian police forces now employ specialists with experience in communications and media, the chief went on to say he has a chartered accountant and a person with “a master’s in human resource management” already on staff and would like to have “that kind of (communications) expertise … to do the best job possible in sharing information with the public as we go forward.”

What leads Janes to equate accounting and human resource skills with expertise in media and communications? His statements hint at an entrenched belief, common to many police officers, and the bane of many reporters, that the media is not to be trusted.

How absurd. Given the opportunity, any reasonable journalist I ever knew would, within the boundaries of professionalism and ethics, aid police in solving serious crimes while protecting confidential information. Journalists around the world, at least in countries where there is true press freedom, have been doing this sort of reporting for decades and, indeed, accuracy and discretion are essential parts of any professional media outlet’s ethics.

Unfortunately, in my 46 years of experience, the RNC and the RCMP in this province seem to believe the only way to “work” a case is to release to reporters, i.e. the public, a bare minimum of information. But let the police need help finding a missing person or alleged criminal suspect and they expect radio, TV and newspaper reporters to give them blanket publicity. I have no personal beef with Janes, but he and his colleagues need to realize that reporters, like police officers, are professionals and deserve respect when it has been earned. Viewing the media as a bunch of ghouls whose only concern is to titillate the public with sensational details is as outdated a view as that of police officers as coffeeswilling, doughnut-eating rednecks more concerned with filling their “quota” of tickets than serving the public in a professional manner.

The RNC has been in the media glare lately — the Dunphy inquiry being just the latest — and this can be traced back, at least in part, to the force’s lack of trust and respect for the media. I witnessed countless times the near-paranoia of police officials refusing to say anything for fear it might leave them with egg on their faces.

That ship has sailed. How about this? After the Dunphy inquiry report has been released, why not convene a panel of media professionals and senior police officers to explore ways the two sides can help each other without compromising the integrity of either. A look at how this has worked in other jurisdictions would be a huge help.

Some years ago, I and the late Bill Kelly of CBC were engaged by the RCMP in St. John’s to give officers “media training.” We subjected officers to hard-nosed questioning about fictional incidents, to illustrate that while respecting the integrity of a police investigation, the public still has the absolute right — through the media — to as much information as is reasonable. Positive results were not observed.

I make no claim that the media is blameless. There are as many journalists distrustful of police as there are police distrustful of reporters. It is long past time that the mutual suspicion and distrust be replaced by an honest effort to employ reason and respect when approaching the reporting of crime and, most importantly, the public’s absolute right to factual information.

To paraphrase Marshall Mcluhan: The media is the message — not the enemy.

Gary Hebbard St. John’s

I witnessed countless times the near-paranoia of police officials refusing to say anything for fear it might leave them with egg on their faces.