Canada

The police maintain two media lists. One for “local” media, and another for “national.” Last month, as the city faced a staggering tragedy with five dead bodies discovered in quick succession, those on the local list received invitations to briefings, events with the families, relevant information essential to adequately cover the ongoing search and identification efforts.

At the exact same time as these critical emails were being sent, those on the “national” media list received an invitation to a flag-raising ceremony and other self-congratulatory bafflegab. The national list, in other words, only receives updates about stories the police want journalists to cover.

Jon is not alone. We know that local, Indigenous journalists with a national newspaper and a national broadcaster have also been segregated onto what can only be described as a decoy media list. Jon is not Indigenous, but his beat is covering Northern Ontario Indigenous issues. The affected reporters that we know of represent the majority of the journalists in the region who a) cover Indigenous stories and b) have the capacity and editorial latitude to do deep investigative work that does not rely on police press releases.