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CBC Ombudsman: The “f” word — A threshold for its use in news

By Esther Enkin, CBC Ombudsman The complainant, Curtis Hopkins, thought swearing on an online video of an eyewitness recording of a bus billowing smoke was in violation of policy. The video was…
Globe and Mail Public Editor: Does an idiom have a ‘best before’ date?

By Sylvia Stead for the Globe and Mail Our language doesn’t stay still. It adapts to a changing world, gains new terms, drops old ones and changes course when a term or…
Globe and Mail Public Editor: Overuse of term ‘populism’ can be misleading

By Sylvia Stead, Globe and Mail Public Editor Here’s a word that has surged in popularity in the last year. It has been used to describe Donald Trump’s ascendancy, the majority vote…
Toronto Star Public Editor: Reader trust and responsible reporting with anonymous sources

By Kathy English, Toronto Star Public Editor An important reader question about trust in the Star: “I am curious what steps a journalist might take to verify what they are told by a confidential…
CBC Ombudsman: Beware of generalizations

By Esther Enkin, CBC Ombudsman The complainant, Mr. Marco Mura, objected to the characterization of the government of Turkey as “fundamentalist.” I agree that the term is too broad to be accurate…
Why freedom of the press should apply in Indigenous communities

By Wawmeesh Hamilton Freedom of the press enables citizens to know about the things that public bodies do that impact them. It’s what enabled me to report on civic affairs for a…
CBC Ombudsman: What do reporters need to reveal upfront -The case of Marketplace’s Weddings Inc.

By Esther Enkin, CBC Ombudsman The complainant, Catherine Lash, said she would never have let a Marketplace crew into her wedding show if she had known who they were. The crew should…
Toronto Star Public Editor: Public Editor cannot be one-person panacea to reader trust problem

By Kathy English for the Toronto Star Ten years ago this month, I signed on to what would turn out to be the most challenging job of my life in journalism. I knew that…
Toronto Star Public Editor: Respect, dignity and fairness conveyed in capital letters

A step forward: The Toronto Star, rightly, will now capitalize Indigenous and Black.
CBC Ombudsman: Define your terms

The complainant noted that a reporter labelled demonstrators against an anti-Islamophobia resolution as “far-right” but supplied no characterization of those who supported it.