A group of investigative journos is going to hold an event on Toronto tonight (Tuesday, Jan. 18) at 7:30 p.m. It's about what reporters should do when the state comes demanding something.

Here's the whole e-flyer:

Feeding the Hand that Bites You


What should Investigative Reporters do

when the State comes calling - with a stick in its hand?

Four Case Studies

Tuesday, January 18, 2005

7:30 p.m.

Jorgenson Hall - L-72

Ryerson University, Toronto

350 Victoria St. (at Gould)

Featuring:      Author Stevie Cameron, Juliet O'Neill

(Ottawa Citizen), Andrew McIntosh (National Post), and

Ken Peters (Hamilton Spectator)

Moderator:      Peter Desbarats, former Maclean Hunter

Chair of Media Ethics, Ryerson Polytechnic University

Presented by Poking the State With a Stick Enterprises., in association with the Canadian Journalists for Free Expression and the Ryerson School of Journalism.

There are no rule books and few reliable guides to assist investigative journalists who set out to probe the State - only to find it hitting back via the police, the courts and even CSIS, our homegrown spooks.

So what do you do when the State comes calling with a stick in its hand?

  • The RCMP turned up at the offices of the  National Post's Andrew McIntosh demanding his copy of an allegedly forged document that was a key twist in the murky Shawinigate scandal. His paper fought the search warrant and won a lower court ruling that says freedom of the press can sometimes trump police investigative demands.
  • The RCMP tailed the Ottawa Citizen's Juliet O'Neill, tapped into her e-mail, pawed through her garbage - and then raided her office, her home and her underwear drawer, all in an effort to learn the identity of a source they say may have broken national security laws by leaking her a document outlining their case against Maher Arar.
  • Hamilton Spectator reporter Ken Peters used confidential city documents to write an expose of a troubled nursing home. Ten years later he faced a possible jail term after a Superior court judge in a civil suit found him in contempt for refusing to reveal his sources. In the end Peters was ordered to pay $31,600 in court costs.
  • Author and investigative reporter Stevie Cameron initially agreed to meet RCMP officers who were playing catch-up to her investigations of allegedly corrupt Canadian government officials. Nine years later the RCMP claimed in court that she was a confidential informant and it landed on the front pages of a national newspaper. The claim eclipsed the real story about government corruption and came close to destroying her reputation.

In a forum moderated by veteran journalist Peter Desbarats, this quartet of  battle-hardened investigative reporters will quiz each other on the following questions:

1) Should an investigative reporter ever turn over evidence of a crime he/she uncovers? What principles govern that decision?

2)  What should/must reporters know in order to best deal with the state when it comes calling?

3) Do journalists in Canada need a general shield law that protects them from having to reveal confidential sources?

4) In a free and open society, what kind of police/investigative journalist relationship serves the public interest best?


For more information or to arrange interviews with any of the panelists, please call Bill Dunphy - 905.526-3262 or e-mail at bill.dunphy@gmail.com

Poking the State With a Stick Enterprises is a joint effort of  Bill Dunphy, Kimberley Noble and Jan Wong, and has nothing to do with their respective employers.

Addendum:

This is the text of an e-mail from session organizer Bill Dunphy to CAJ-L:

Because a few people have been asking how our Investigative Journalism and the State forum went last night...

You probably should ask non-organizers how it went, but from our end we were quite happy. One reporter estimated the crowd at about 200 - from the stage the 338 seat theatre looked filled, with an even sprinkling of empty seats, so 2/3rds seems a safe, if conservative bet.

Thanks to Peter Desbaratt's moderating we finished ON TIME which has to be viewed as a victory.

And more importantly the speakers - Andrew McIntosh, Juliet O'Neil, Ken Peters and Stevie Cameron - were by turns charming, engaging and alarming - and only very rarely succumbed to the temptation to delve into the minutae of their own cases.

Personally I think we didn't have enough diversity of opinion and if I were to do it again I'd get an investigative reporter (or two) up there who HASN'T been tromped on by the State to see how different their take is on these issues.

But never mind me, the audience appeared very engaged, lined up at the mike five deep with the questions, and gave a prolonged round of applause for the panel at the end.

And dozens hung around the stage afterwards, arguing the issue and swapping stories.

I'm working on getting a copy of the audio recording and a transcript, which I'll post. at our Poking the State With a Stick web log -- http://ptswas.blogspot.com/ -- when it's done.

Bill Dunphy