Councillors gagged if proposal gets green light

My mind flashed back to the mid 1980's when I read today's Independent editorial that councillors were being asked to consider the introduction of a proposed 11 step process before media representatives could obtain councillor or senior staff comments.

Back then it was the old Noosa Shire Council. The council had just employed a Media and Communications Officer who announced to the attending media at a general council meeting that in future there would be no need for them to attend council meetings as media releases would be issued by him in time to meet deadlines. He was quick to assure the stunned journalists that they were not banned from attending, just that there would be no point. That the tradition of having free access to councillors and senior staff at morning tea on council meeting days, or after the meeting, would cease and all media inquiries would be directed through the officer.

In a rare show of solidarity, the media collectively advised the Noosa Shire Council that should this directive not be overturned, there would be no reporting of council matters whatsoever. Needless to say, the directive was overturned almost immediately as councillors realised the implications of such a media blackout. Councillors need the media for political survival, in much the same way as the rest of us need oxygen for survival.

Council is grass roots government and the media, if it is doing its job, plays an important role in getting information out to residents and ratepayers. When a council is beset by secrecy and unbalanced dissemination of information, as the Noosa Shire Council attempted, then democracy and the public's right to know, is compromised. The success or failure of the first Fraser Coast Regional Council will depend heavily on an informed public.

The council's interim CEO Andrew Brien may believe that the symbiotic relationship between the fourth estate and a government body like the council makes for an unholy alliance, and unfortunately in the case of our local daily newspaper, that is sometimes true. However for good or bad, it is important that the council is not only accountable but is seen to be accountable by the public it serves. It achieves that by being open to media requests for comment and not filtering information through a process that hampers the public's right to know and gives only a sanitised version of council news.