Globe and Mail public editor: Vulgar? Inoffensive? It depends on how some words are used
Adding a little colour and flair to stories may come at the expense of offending readers.
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Globe Public Editor: A parliamentary committee to save the news? Good luck with that
By Sylvia Stead, for the Globe and Mail This week in Ottawa, Parliament’s Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage began to study how Canadians “are informed about local and regional experiences” by the media, whether broadcasting, digital or print. It’s a noble mission, fuelled by a concern over protecting Canadian content while local newspapers are…
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Toronto Star public editor: Cartoonists and the freedom to offend
By Kathy English, for the Toronto Star Just as opinion columnists have wide latitude to express views that some readers may find offensive, so too do editorial cartoonists have considerable freedom to offend. Freedom of expression can be a messy business and that important principle that as someone who believes passionately in freedom of expression,…
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CBC Ombudsman: The wrong place at the wrong time: Reporting on crime
By Esther Enkin, for the CBC The complainant, Suzanne Maloney, thought this was an inappropriate turn of phrase to use when referring to the stabbing of a woman on the streets of Montreal. She thought it implied that the victim was to blame. I disagreed, because both in common usage and in the context of…
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Globe public editor: Ghomeshi coverage was warranted, necessary
By Sylvia Stead for the Globe and Mail The Jian Ghomeshi trial on charges of sexual assault and choking has concluded and we won’t know the verdict until March 24 when Justice William B. Horkins rules in front of what no doubt will be a throng of journalists and others ready to tweet, report and…
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Toronto Star public editor: When it’s more than a ‘typo’
By Kathy English for the Toronto Star Sometimes a typo published in the Star is just that, a regrettable slip of the finger that makes little difference to readers’ understanding of the news at hand. Vigilant Star readers report dozens of typos every day, most of them minor slip-ups — usually resulting in garbled and…
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Journalists should not be neutral, says Centre for Free Expression director
By Robert Liwanag Neutrality in journalism limits the civil liberties of reporters and should be abandoned, said the director of Ryerson University’s Centre for Free Expression during a recent panel discussion. Citing CNN’s two-week suspension of global affairs correspondent Elise Labott over a tweet last November, James Turk said neutrality fails to distinguish an institution’s…
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Brunswick News ombudswoman: Permit me to parade my pet peeves
By Patricia Graham, Brunswick News ombudswoman Now that the new year is well underway, I’ll share with you some of my personal journalistic vexations—things I hope not to see, or to see less of, in 2016. Errors in names, dates, phone numbers, venues, etc. I cringe every time I see a correction for the date…
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Globe public editor: Caution should be exercised in coverage of Zika virus
By Sylvia Stead for the Globe and Mail The Zika virus and the health fears have grabbed the attention of the public and the media. While the interest is there, there have also been calls to use caution in the coverage of the virus and its link to serious birth defects such as microcephaly (babies…
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CBC Ombudsman: Did it cross a threshold of good practice when CBC reporters went into the home of the San Bernardino shooters?
By Esther Enkin, for the CBC The complainant, Nicholas Doyle, said he was disgusted by the lack of journalistic integrity when reporters went into the home of the perpetrators of the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California. He said it added little insight and was an invasion of privacy. I found that CBC reporters were…