(CJFE/IFEX) – The following is a 21 June 2002 CJFE media release: RCMP Deciding Who is a Journalist? JUNE 21 – Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) believes the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is traveling down a dangerous road by denying access to some journalists wishing to cover the G8 Summit in Alberta. “It […]
(CJFE/IFEX) – The following is a 21 June 2002 CJFE media release:
RCMP Deciding Who is a Journalist?
JUNE 21 – Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) believes the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is traveling down a dangerous road by denying access to some journalists wishing to cover the G8 Summit in Alberta.
“It is not up to the RCMP – or, indeed, any other government agency – to determine who is, and who isn’t, a legitimate journalist,” CJFE Executive Director Joel Ruimy said.
“We view this development with alarm, all the more so because the RCMP isn’t making public the grounds for its decisions.”
The RCMP has turned down several requests for access to the media centre in Calgary, about an hour’s drive from the meeting in Kananaskis, Alberta.
One of those requests was from Dan Rubinstein of Edmonton-based Vue Weekly, a publication with a circulation of 30,000. CJFE believes those readers are just as entitled as other Canadians to follow coverage of the summit in their publication of choice.
The RCMP is refusing to tell applicants why they were turned down, inviting them instead to apply under Access to Information. That invitation constitutes a cynical abuse of process, coming at a time when the federal government is working to make Access to Information harder to use.
Access requests can take weeks or months to process and they offer no formal possibility to reverse the RCMP decision; the summit, meanwhile, opens Wednesday.
The force’s actions make it impossible to determine if it is acting out of legitimate safety concerns or targeting a point of view it doesn’t like.
CJFE is an association of journalists and others working to promote and defend free expression and media rights in Canada and around the world.
