In my review of The Current’s 2019 contribution to local news coverage, two events stand out as being especially revealing. I refer to the bland response by members of council to one of their own swearing at and threatening me during a Madawaska Valley council meeting, followed by the manufactured and malicious attack on me and The Current’s editor during the August 27th council meeting. These events served to confirm that, as was the case in 2018, The Current continued to ruffle feathers as a result of its reporting.
It is perhaps ironic that The Current had started off 2019 by reporting on a local panel discussion entitled “Newspapers – our community link.” Among the speakers was Gerald Tracey, publisher of the Eganville Leader, who disclosed that the Leader’s first editorial in 1902 stated that its aim was to be “bold enough to be honest and honest enough to be bold.” In modern parlance that objective is commonly described as “speaking truth to power.”
Later in the year came the announcement of a new federal government program entitled “Local Journalism Initiative.” It was conceived in recognition of the fact that community newspapers, especially in smaller communities, were becoming a diminishing commodity as so many of them had fallen on hard times and had folded. This meant that residents of those communities were being “underserved” through being deprived of the “watchdog” function that community newspapers are expected to provide. The Initiative, which applies to both print and digital media, was therefore felt necessary so as to maintain “public awareness, transparency, knowledge so that citizens can hold their government and institutions accountable.”
In March the National Post published an article entitled “As newspapers close, role of government watchdog disappears” and said the following: “Newspapers typically have played the lead role in their communities in holding local officials accountable. That includes filing requests to get public records or even filing law suits to promote transparency.”
At the time of the arrival of The Current in January 2018, the Valley did not benefit from having a journalistic “watchdog” holding “their government accountable.” Residents were able to read reports of what elected officials said and did at public meetings, but nobody was “looking under the hood” and holding them to account for their actions when appropriate. The Current’s owners were motivated to fill this void after learning of a number of instances where obligations of transparency, accountability and integrity seemed to have been flouted with no consequences, let alone public disclosure.
The Current continued performing its watchdog role last year adding more information to justifiable concerns about, for example, the financial burden placed on taxpayers through unduly long and correspondingly expensive Integrity Commissioner investigations followed by some head-scratching decisions. We also reported on the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements that hide from taxpayers what they are spending in secret out-of-court settlements. This sort of conduct raises fundamental issues of transparency and should be of concern especially when there is no disclosure in cases where maladministration and abuse of power is alleged.
These articles and others this past year predictably rattled some cages resulting in the aforementioned consequences. However, these unfortunately obscured the fact that The Current also published many other less controversial reports about the Valley’s municipal governance so as to ensure that our readers were kept fully informed of township business as well as other newsworthy events – one of the most widely read of our stories was the report on the sale of the ski hill. It is also worth noting that we have never received a single letter of complaint about any of the stories we have published. This is probably explained by the fact that, despite allegations from some sources to the contrary, we scrupulously avoid publishing “fake news” or opinions that might offend without first seeking both sides of the story.
Turning now to more pleasant subjects, I am pleased at the continued growth during 2019 of our readership numbers for both the online and print editions. This is in large part due to our design and production team who are responsible for the much-appreciated, clean, uncluttered look of both print and online versions of The Current. A shout-out as well to our talented contributors, both regular and occasional, whose work has attracted the many compliments we receive about the quality of our writing. Also, I acknowledge the important role that our distribution partners throughout the Valley play to ensure that readers without internet in all three communities (and beyond) can still receive news of their community – free of charge. Thanks also to the local businesses and organizations who support us with advertising so that we can continue to provide a free source of community news.
Finally, readers also tell us they appreciate the advantage of having 24/7 digital reporting through our website without having to pay for a subscription and many say they have bookmarked madvalleycurrent.com so they can check the latest stories and upcoming events along with local Valley weather each morning.
Our goal is to continue to build on The Current’s achievements during the past two years through the first year of this new decade and, recognizing that there is always room for improvement, we always welcome any suggestions from readers as to how that might be achieved. In the meantime rest assured that this watchdog will do its best to remain on guard.
All the best for 2020.
Roger Paul, Publisher
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Couldn’t agree with you more Patricia!! They are definitely doing a fantastic job !!!
Your initiative in creating and regularly publishing the Mad Valley Current in formats easily available for all is much appreciated by me. Keeping an eye on our local Municipal Councils is vitally important, both to report the great work they do and the issues that may have been questionable over the last year or so. Do keep up the great work.