14 — Wednesday, March 3, 1999 — North Shore News NDP’s press boss complaint dismissed THE British Columbia Press Council has dis- inissed a complaint lodged by the govern- ment of B.C. against publisher David Black. The case arose from a directive given by Black to his editors that they were not to run editorials in favour of the proposed Nisga’a Treaty. The government — had complained that Black's directive was contrary to both the spirit and the letter of the B.C. Press Councils consti- tution and Paragraph 4 of the council’s Code of Practice and was a breach of the duty to act in the public interest. The council! found that nothing in the directive breached cither its constitu- tion or its Code of Practice. Paragraph 4 of the code reads: “Newspaper. should defend their hard-: en right to exercise the widest possible laticude in expressing opin- ions, no matter how contro: versial or unpopular the opin- ions may be, and to give columnists, editorial cartoon- ists and others the same lati- tude in expressing personal opinions.” The council found that Mr. Black, through the edito- tial pages of his newspapers, had exercised, the “hard-won right to express opinions,” controversial as they were to some and unpopular as they were with the government of B.C. and thar he did give columnists and others the same latitude. His directive did not result in the exclusion of a range of diverse opinions being, expressed in columns and other areas of his newspa- pers. The directive, as finally clarified in evidence present- ed at the hearings, was that: @ the editorial position of the David Black newspapers was to oppose the proposed Nisga’a Treaty; @ a series of cight columns on the subject by Mel Smith would be run by all David Black newspapers; @ existing columnists were free to disagree with the owner’s position within their columns; @ letters to the editor and news reporting were not to be affected; B editors who disagreed with their owner's policy were not obliged to write against their conscience but would be expected to run material pro- vided to them; @ editors who disagreed with the owner's policy were free to express their own thoughts on the letter page. The council further found that the David Black newspa- pers did carry a diversity of opinion on the Nisga’a Treaty, including those of Premier Glen Clark, Liberal leader Gordon Campbell and Reform party president Bill Vander Zalm as well as those of ordinary British Columbians. Wich respect to the gov- ernment’s complaint that the directive was a breach of the duty of the David Black newspapers to act in the pub- lic interest, the council held thar by leading comment, widening the debate and pre- senting a range of diverse opinions on matters of public Significance, Dewspapers demonstrate their social responsibility and. at the same time, perforny a valuable public service. The press council strongly attirmed the widely accepted view of the vital role of news: papers ina free and democra- tic society as cublic watch- dogs of government. and other institutions and found that Mr. Black’s actions were fully consistent with the traditions in democratic Selected Adidas Kids Shoes Excludes new arrivals, Values to $80 All Streetwear By Ripzone, Columbia, __.. Oneill, Sims, Helly “S@y Hansen, Airwalk. All Performance Snowboard Boots By Airwalk, Sims, Visions & Northwave. Values to $300 129? 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