It’s a little ironic that the keynote speaker for the 2009 Southern Interior Local Government Association conference, which was hosted right here in Osoyoos from April 29 to May 1, was to discuss media relations.
When a reporter from the Osoyoos Times tried to cover the meatier parts of the conference, including the annual general meeting component where delegates were to discuss resolutions of importance to this region, she was asked to leave.
Even though members of the public were seen at such meetings, organizers told the Times the meeting, and several other parts of the conference, were closed to the media.
There was no mention on the association’s website that the conference would be closed to the media and despite look-ahead coverage prior to the convention, the Times was never told it could not cover the event.
By press time, no one involved with the association could provide the Times with an answer as to why the reporter was asked to leave the convention.
The people who took part in this gathering are the leaders of our communities and are accountable to the public.
Shutting the media out means shutting the public out.
Unless there is a good reason, such as security concerns or the disclosure of sensitive information that could ultimately harm the public, there is no reason why such a convention should be closed to reporters.
In the end, the Times had to rely on second-hand information about what was discussed during the general meeting and, therefore, our readers are getting second-hand information that may be censored or incomplete.
Having a newspaper reporter removed from a government gathering without good reason is undemocratic and should be of concern to the public.
