Journalists are not spies

But more politicians and public officials attack the media’s integrity

If it wasn’t such a serious business, it would be funny.

Late Thursday night at Niagara Region headquarters, a reporter for the St. Catharines Standard was ordered to leave the building, police were called, and his computer and notes seized.

Reporter Bill Sawchuk had been covering council when the meeting went into closed session for legal reasons. That means the media must exit until the discussion is over.

Sawchuk left the room without a fuss, as any reporter would, but his laptop computer and notes remained on the media table.

The next thing Sawchuk knew, he had been accused of secretly recording the closed meeting. This is both funny and alarming. The alarming aspect is that public officials believe the mainstream media would go to such lengths for information. Anything gathered in that meeting would not be privileged, and therefore unusable in an article. Second, gathering information that way is illegal, and we don’t break the law.

Newspapers such as the St. Catharines Standard, like The Hamilton Spectator, have spent more than a century earning the trust of our readers.

We don’t treat that lightly, nor do we do things surreptitiously unless we believe there is a strong public interest in doing so. It is a rare occurrence indeed. Unlike citizen journalists, we have ethics guidelines, and we are members of the National Newsmedia Council, a watchdog organization to which we answer.

The funny aspect is that public officials believe we have the ability, technologically or otherwise, to actually pull off such an operation. These people have been watching too much TV.

As the reporter pointed out, “I explained my computer is old and could not record the meeting. I said ‘You know you cannot do this, right?’”

That is the most alarming aspect of all: that public officials believe they can strong-arm a reporter, seize material, and call police to have them escorted off the premises, How has it come to this? If public officials believe they can do this, how do they treat regular taxpayers who are looking for public information, asking innocuous questions, or seeking help from the people to whom they pay a salary?

It was, indeed, “an unwarranted attack on the free press and the public it serves,” as Standard editor-in-chief Angus Scott said in an article Friday.

(The St. Catharines Standard, the Niagara Falls Review and the Welland Tribune were recently acquired by the same company that owns The Hamilton Spectator.)

It is another ominous sign of the deteriorating relationship between public officials and the media.

Despite centuries of evidence that a free press is imperative in a democracy and key to social justice, more politicians feel they can attack the media’s integrity because of the actions of a few, or because it suits their political goals.

And more public officials believe they can operate beyond the scrutiny of the media.

Most journalists in real life are not those portrayed by politicians or movies, just as politicians and police bear little resemblance to their fictional counterparts.

We would all do well to act a little more reasonably.