Journalism School Chief Condemns City Media blacklist | Unpublished
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Joe Banks
Ottawa, Ontario
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My career as an Ontario rural and suburban community newspaper reporter, photographer, editor, publisher, general manager and journalism instructor began in May 1978. After graduating from journalism school with an Honours Diploma, I was hired as a reporter/photographer at the Haliburton (Ont.) County Echo. I worked since then for Ontario small town and suburban community newspapers in Fort Erie (reporter/photographer), Peterborough (reporter/photographer), Arnprior (reporter/photographer), Almonte (managing editor), Glengarry County (publisher) and up until August 2000, as publisher/managing editor of a group of community newspapers in rural and suburban south Ottawa.

Between 1989 and 1995, I was a member of the Ontario Community Newspapers Association (OCNA) Board of Directors and served as the organization’s Second Vice President in 1993 and 1994. I was a director on the Alexandria and District Chamber of Commerce from 1991 to 1994, then served as the organization's president from 1995 to 1997. My work as a community journalist has been recognized with several awards, including as a three-time winner of the Bell Canada Award for column writing, the Ontario Ministry of Environment Environmental Writing Award for a major report of river pollution in Ontario's Mississippi River, and the Ontario Hydro Feature Writing Award. In addition, the newspapers I managed won record numbers of awards in their class for journalism, design, photography and commentary. In March 2000, my career in the community newspaper industry was recognized when I was named by OCNA as one of 50 industry individuals who has made a major contribution to Ontario’s community newspaper industry since OCNA’s founding in 1950.

Today, I am employed as a full-time Journalism professor/coordinator at Algonquin College.

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Journalism School Chief Condemns City Media blacklist

October 9, 2013

I understand that the blog Bulldog Ottawa, managed by former Ottawa Citizen editor Ken Gray, has been cut off from the timely dissemination of press releases and other communications from the media office at the City of Ottawa. That’s wrong on too many levels.

Bulldog Ottawa is owned and operated by a Citizen newspaper veteran, Ken Gray, who is doing nothing more than trying to operate a media business. Yes, he routinely criticizes the mayor, council and bureaucrats, but so what? That’s the job of critics in the media and in opposition, and yes, other councillors.

I for one is glad he is among the few working hard to keep our local government honest and efficient. His ability to do this is being obstructed by an arbitrary, seemingly vengeful, decision by somebody at the city. I’d sure like to know who that somebody is, because he or she has grossly overstepped their mandate.

Even if the city deems Bulldog Ottawa a blog, what does that matter? As a taxpayer, I don’t like seeing my city government in the business of cherry-picking who is, and who is not a media company (especially now, with new models entering the media marketplace regularly). That’s not its job, and besides, it’s contrary to the Charter’s freedom of the press provisions, and speaks to a step, however slight, toward mean-spirited, police-state control.

Given his history as an editor and commentator in this city, Mr. Gray deserves every courtesy extended to other media, traditional or otherwise, whatever bureaucrats or politicians may think of him or Bulldog Ottawa.

Joe Banks
Coordinator/Professor, Journalism
Algonquin College

 

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