THIS is far from the deeply existential question that might be asked around a campfire in the middle of nowhere gazing up at the stars, but once again in the context of the local paper, it is worth a look.
It feels like only yesterday the January 26 debate saw freedom of speech and opinion and a newspaper’s role in that feature in the editorial section – and here we are again.
Following last week’s front-page story, ‘Council cash conundrum’, detailing the rising forecasted budget deficit for Town of Gawler, comments were made by a longstanding member of council around the reporting of The Bunyip.
While questions around the validity of the story are often unavoidable when dealing with contentious situations, questions around the function of the paper have fairly straightforward answers.
Comments made at a recent, publicly available meeting of council could be perceived to imply that, because Town of Gawler makes significant financial contributions to this masthead, The Bunyip should refrain from producing stories that may negatively impact the perception of council.
It is very much understood that the views put forward by this councillor in particular do not reflect the views of council itself, but it is worthy of printing a timely reminder – our function is not to pick and choose.
If council receives millions in grant funding off the back of hard work, we will be there to inform the community.
If council makes a blunder, we will be there to inform the community.
In any case, it is the paper’s duty to report what is going on in our local area, regardless of advertising agreements, financial contributions, relationships or anything else.
The facts come first.
