PEI media bans reporter with disability

I was banned from reporting on the PEI Public Accounts Committee hearing last week. The PEI media don’t want the truth revealed on NJN Network.

On October 26th, 2010 I attended the public hearing in the Coles Building to report on the Auditor General’s report on PEI’s 2009 finances and the PNP scandal.

I received permission to plug my audio recorder into the wired system. When the meeting was over the Clerk told me that a complaint had been received and the wire connection was off limits.

Was the complaint from the media? She smiled wanly and said “no comment.”

The Provincial Nominee Program is a $540 million scandal, worth about 1/3rd of PEI’s annual budget. The story has rocked PEI and the government since it was revealed in 2008.

We’ve been reporting it including the involvement of many of PEI’s media press gallery. The reporter in the picture got PNP money, which would be against journalistic ethics. See PNP Thumbnail

Last year the Press Gallery took their revenge by conspiring with the Speaker of the Legislature to have me banned from the Press Gallery.
 

PEI Legislative Speaker bars disabled journalist from press gallery.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy0GT2afhsY
There is an Easter egg in the video.

That shouldn’t happen in a democracy with Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantees of a free press, free expression, freedom from discrimination against people with disabilities. We even have Supreme Court judgments that state the internet press has equivalent rights to the newspapers, radio and television stations as news outlets.

Only on PEI you say. Exactly.

Did CBC complain last week about my presence? They arrived late to the meeting and when they saw I was reporting, Jeffery sent the camera man out of the room several times. One could conclude he spoke to someone in authority because after the session ended, the Clerk informed me about the complaint.

The CBC chose not to tell the story of the Liberal Government shutting down the PAC’s further investigation last into the PNP scandal. The Charlottetown Guardian reported it weakly the next day. We reported PEI Public Accounts Committee stonewalled on PNP that afternoon. It was the news you know.

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network