Candidate Launches Petition over Newspaper Letter Ban

http://www.themud.co.nz/#!petition-over-dp-letters/cn1j

A Rotorua woman is raising a petition against a ban the local newspaper has on candidates writing letters to the editor during the local body elections.

Helen Hindmarsh says the petition urging the Rotorua Daily Post to reverse its policy raised about 100 signatures during the brief time it has been available.

She wrote a letter to the editor announcing her candidacy for the mayoralty two-and-a-half weeks ago – well before nominations opened – and it had not been published. In the meantime, a prominent businessman – and dog park owner - has had his bid for the mayoralty and council as front page lead in the newspaper in the past week.

Helen Hindmarsh raised a question about the Rotorua Daily Post’s policy against publishing candidates’ letters at an information event for council candidates this week [Monday 22 July 2013] evening.

The Mud was actually at the meeting and asked Helen after the meeting why she was going to the lengths of taking a petition against the local newspaper.

“Well, it’s freedom of speech. There are people at home without computers who only get the newspaper and rely on the old fashioned ways of communication to receive and process the information that we as candidates have.”

She had made a commitment to keep her spending down to show she could be frugal and careful with money without having to take money off people struggling to feed their families.

“So it’s a matter of freedom of speech and a person without resources trying to reach people.”

The petition reads: “We the undersigned do hereby petition the Daily Post, Rotorua, in opposition of its announcement of closure of the public forum Letters to the Editor to candidates standing for local body elections 2013. We the public deserve and expect the right to fully hear and consider the values, attitudes, policies, vision and aspiration each candidate has in the Rotorua district irrespective of their wealth, current community standing or notoriety. As Voltaire said: ‘I do not agree with what you have to say but I will defend to the death your right to say it’.

Rotorua Daily Post editor Kim Gillespie issued the following statement:

“The Rotorua Daily Post has received no such letter from Helen Hindmarsh, and other than Mike Smith not one of the 100 people to have signed the petition has contacted the editor or APN’s Group Editor to say APN should not have the policy.

“The letters page is a readers’ forum, not a space for candidates’ electioneering.

“Common sense dictates that any letter from a candidate which may directly or indirectly encourage people to vote for them could be seen as campaigning.

“All candidates receive a letter from the Rotorua Daily Post informing them they will have the opportunity to have their say, free of charge, in editorial space in the newspaper.

“In addition, we will be offering wide-ranging coverage of the 2013 elections within our news pages."

ENDS

© Scoop Media