After trumpeting the virtues of a free press at a rubber chicken dinner in Markham on Saturday night, Prime Minister Stephen Harper did not deign* to take any questions from the wretches of the fourth estate.
* I fixed my original intro. See the copy-editing comment below.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper urged journalists to “shine light into dark corners” of government affairs during a speech late Saturday, but wouldn't take questions from reporters covering the event.
Mr. Harper, who is known for his sometimes prickly relationship with parliamentary reporters, made the comments during an ethnic media awards dinner in Markham, north of Toronto.
Freedom for Canadians goes hand-in-hand with journalistic freedom, he told the dinner guests gathered at Seneca College in Markham, home to thriving Asian communities.
Members of the ethnic press and their readers understand what it's like in countries where “truth is only what the state says it is” and journalists are co-opted as government mouthpieces or threatened with their lives, Mr. Harper said.
Things couldn't be more different here in Canada, he added.
“Our government does not tell journalists what to say, or attempt to intimidate those with whom it disagrees,” he said.
“Instead we believe strongly that Canadians' freedom is enhanced when journalists are free to pursue the truth, to shine light into dark corners, and to assist the process of holding governments accountable.”
But shortly after making the speech and handing out awards, Mr. Harper was whisked through the black curtains behind the stage without taking questions from reporters.
The Prime Minister's staff said before the event, which was open to the media, that Mr. Harper would not be taking questions from reporters covering the event, which was organized by the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada.
He has yet to comment on explosive allegations that top government officials knew about the torture of Afghans taken prisoner by Canadian soldiers and handed off to Afghan forces.
The story went on to note the following:
- cabinet meeting schedules are "shrouded in mystery"
- requests for routine information are delayed, if not ignored
- FOI requests are taking much longer
- The PMO won a battle to determine who in the press gallery gets to ask the great man a question; a practice more familiar to the White House
The tale of two communications strategies, one working, one not, is in the newest issue of the Hill Times, (access obtained via National Newswatch.)
Journalists may not like the way Prime Minister Stephen Harper slips in and out the back door of the Commons, avoids scrums and news conferences and the like, but it's working, says the Hill Times. More discouraging, for fans of openness and transparency, is Tim Naumetz's observation that the media has been collectively worn down.
Gallery President Helene Buzzetti says the struggle came to be too draining, a distraction from work, and there has only been one tentative exchange with Harper's new communications director, John Williamson. Nothing has come of it so far. Outside Ottawa, Harper most often arranges his news conferences at venues packed with party members, who usually applaud his remarks and occasionally express disapproval at reporters' questions. Favourable PMO photos of Harper now arrive at media inboxes across the country on almost a daily basis. Gallery veterans are convinced Soudas has a black list, journalists who won't be recognized for questions.
The PMO photos -- How could I forget?
From the Nov. 14 Globe and Mail:
Minutes after Stephen Harper finished his now-famous rendition of With a Little Help from My Friends , the Prime Minister's Office e-mailed Canadian media an arresting close-up shot of what it described as the gala piano performance.
Only it wasn't.
The picture, which featured Mr. Harper framed by dazzling theatre lights, was actually snapped by a PMO photographer at a private rehearsal hours before the Oct. 3 evening concert.
The shot – used by media outlets including The Globe and Mail's website – is
cited by photojournalists who cover Mr. Harper when they discuss what they see
as recent PMO efforts to exert more influence over images of the Conservative
Prime Minister.
Since the spring, the PMO has effectively set up its own picture service, e-mailing photos to Canadian media almost daily in an effort to find a market for publicity shots of Mr. Harper's activities. It's a service that ultimately competes with the work of photojournalists, but one, they argue, that should not be relied upon as a record of events.
The mislabelled Harper picture is evidence of that, photojournalists say.
“That's why you rely on independent journalists to gather news,” said Graeme Roy, The Canadian Press's director of news photography.
Contacted about the photo, the Prime Minister's Office acknowledged that it
erred in distributing a rehearsal picture that was captioned as the gala
performance and said it should have sent out a correction. “We strive to make no
errors on stuff that we put out. Unfortunately, sometimes, we're human and we do
make a mistake,” PMO spokesman Andrew MacDougall said.
Please read the whole story, as there's lots of great stuff in it, plus the actual pictures in question. However, a few more take-aways.
Remember Harper's Arctic trip? Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean went before him and ate seal meat before the cameras. Harper had some on his trip -- so we're told:
... (Harper's) personal photographer was the only one to record the snack, even though close to two dozen journalists had travelled north with his entourage. The resulting PMO “handout” picture, distributed to media and widely published, showed the Prime Minister and colleagues reaching for pieces of seal as proof they ate the meat.
“There were no journalists present to verify that this in fact took place,”
Mr. Roy noted.
The PMO said many of the journos were heading off to another event, so it wouldn't have been fair to offer the photo opp to some and not all.
As they wish. But it did end up having the effect of giving the PMO control over the visuals.
A senior Conservative strategist, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the PMO's photo distribution represents a natural evolution of political communication. “The world has changed since the days of Jean Chrétien and Brian Mulroney,” the strategist said. “People in 2009 want video and images. Look at the evolution of media websites. Images and video spark interest and drive website visits,” the Tory said.
“Text – be it through traditional speeches [or] news releases – is not enough
in 2009.”