A free, independent news media is vital to ensure government is held to account at every level – local as well as national. Unfortunately, that freedom is under threat by a group of city councillors in Brampton who seem out to bully the media for simply reporting what they’re up to.

The Brampton Guardian newspaper recently published an article criticizing the lack of work by certain members of city council on key transit files. In response, Regional Councillor Gael Miles put forward a motion that would effectively put independent reporting under official scrutiny.

The motion, to be voted on June 14, would require all media inquiries received by the mayor, members of council and staff to be posted on the city’s website, “along with their responses provided.” It would also require council’s agendas to include time to respond to any recent media coverage of council issues and decisions.

The councillors supporting the motion say they’re putting the media on notice for supposedly biased and inaccurate reporting. In fact, they are simply pushing back against truthful but unflattering coverage of what’s been going on at Brampton city hall by a newspaper that takes local coverage seriously.

This clumsy attempt to hinder the free flow of public information is unacceptable and undemocratic.

At the core of a journalist’s job is holding public officials accountable for their actions. The news media doesn’t need to ask permission from politicians to do this. Freedom of “the press and other media of communication” is spelled out in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The media ultimately answers to the public, not politicians, for what they do.

Brampton council has been called out over the past few years by the Guardian, which is part of the Metroland Media Group owned by Torstar Corp. (which also owns the Toronto Star). The paper has questioned council’s handling of issues ranging from a downtown development project that landed the city in legal trouble to the restructuring of its civil service.

This is the kind of vigilant local reporting that a fast-growing city like Brampton, now approaching 600,000 residents, both needs and deserves.

Some councillors are clearly feeling the pressure. But attacking the messenger is not the way to handle this.

They would be more effective if they acknowledged the problems exposed by the Guardian’s reporting and worked to fix them. Most importantly, the public would also be better served.

Admittedly, the news media is far from perfect. Mistakes happen. But there are established ways to deal with its shortcomings – from Canada’s strict libel laws to the National NewsMedia Council, a self-regulatory body that promotes ethical practices and deals with complaints against its members (including the Guardian).

Rather than turning to any of the established remedies, though, the Brampton councillors are trying to intimidate the local media.

They should abandon this futile and undemocratic effort and instead focus on holding themselves accountable to those they actually serve — the public.

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