Vol. 12 | November 2006
New Brunswick's amateur journalist
Charles LeBlanc fights for bloggers to share press privileges -- and rights
By: Vanessa Green
Date: Nov. 24, 2006
"I consider myself a journalist," says LeBlanc. "But a journalist with an opinion." (Courtesy oldmaison.blogspot.com)
"I consider myself a journalist," says LeBlanc. "But a journalist with an opinion." (Courtesy oldmaison.blogspot.com)
When two police officers arrested Charles LeBlanc at the Reaching Atlantica business conference in June, he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed. LeBlanc then yelled, "I am a blogger, I am a blogger. I was just taking pictures!"
The 47-year-old Fredericton man was charged with obstructing a peace officer at the conference in Saint John, Brunswick. At the preliminary hearing, Harold Doherty stated his client was not part of the protest but was covering the event for his blog and that he was arrested "arbitrarily and without justification".
LeBlanc's camera was confiscated by the police and his pictures of the event were deleted. LeBlanc believes he was treated unfairly and had the right to cover the event as a reporter.
"I consider myself a journalist," says LeBlanc. "But a journalist with an opinion."
LeBlanc's blog, oldmaison.blogspot.com, features his personal opinions about a variety of political and social issues taking place in New Brunswick. His blog, which has been up and running since December 2004, receives 500 hits a day, according to LeBlanc.
The self-proclaimed "independent amateur journalist" and his opinions are well-known at the New Brunswick Legislature and at political events around the province. A week after his arrest at Saint John, LeBlanc was labeled a security risk by the Legislative Administration Committee (LAC) of the New Brunswick Legislature and was given a barring notice by the Sergeant-at-Arms which permanently banned him from entering any buildings or stepping foot on any property at the legislature.
"The reason he was expelled from the legislative grounds was harassment of staff of the legislative assembly including the security detail," says Loredana Catalli-Sonier, the Clerk of the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick.
Catalli-Sonier would not explain what type of harassment or whom LeBlanc had harassed but she did state his barring had "nothing, absolutely nothing" to do with the fact that he was a blogger and that LeBlanc had been warned several times about harassing the legislative staff. "All employees have a right to a healthy and secure work environment," says Catalli-Sonier.
Not everyone at the legislature feels LeBlanc's barring was justified. "To bar somebody from the legislature such as Charlie LeBlanc is ridiculous," says Abel LeBlanc, a Liberal MLA from Saint John Lancaster, New Brunswick. (Abel LeBlanc is not related to Charles LeBlanc.) "He is no harm to anybody. He expresses his opinion."
Abel LeBlanc also says that banning anyone from the legislature is a serious issue and that the problem was not dealt with in a reasonable manner. "If everyone should have a fair trial then all the evidence should come out and we should weigh it," says Abel LeBlanc
Charles LeBlanc says that he was never warned that he was bothering anyone. He believes the real issue for the ban is that legislative staff does not like him covering issues in the house.
"You have at the legislature reporters reporting the news. Next thing you know you got a blogger that is starting to see things, and starting to blog things," says the Memmramcook native. "And they don't want that."
LeBlanc says he started blogging because he disliked the control of media ownership in New Brunswick. J.D. Irving is a large New Brunswick-based company that deals in forestry, petroleum and food processing. The conglomerate also owns the publishing company Brunswick News Inc. And Brunswick News owns nearly all the English language newspapers in the province including the three largest papers, the Moncton Times and Transcript, the Moncton Telegraph Journal and Fredericton's The Daily Gleaner.
"I used to be able to write [letters] against the Irvings or for the Irvings. But then the Irvings decided enough is enough and they cut me off," says LeBlanc, who asserts he's written 500 letters to newspapers in the last 15 years.
After being restricted from writing letters to the editor, LeBlanc began blogging with help from some friends who donated a computer and a camera to his cause. LeBlanc says he has complete editorial control of what gets put in his blog; he even takes his own pictures. "If you get a column in a paper, you've got to go to the editor, to the publisher to the owner. At my blog, I am the editor, the publisher and the owner" says LeBlanc.
Although LeBlanc has no university or college education or journalistic training, the political activist says that before he was banned, he spent 30 to 45 minutes a day covering the legislature in New Brunswick.
"Reporters investigate a story for about 24, maybe 48 hours, and that's it. They move onto the next one. A reporter would investigate an issue, ask the questions to the Premier, and maybe ask again in a year," says LeBlanc. "A blogger could ask maybe once a month. A blogger is a pain in the butt."
LeBlanc reaches a large audience and is aware of the influence his blog has in the community. "If I confront a bureaucrat or a politician and I ask them a question and they say that is none of your business, I say no problem, you will be blogged in 15 minutes, talk to you later. [Then they say], 'Hold it one minute. Oh you want to talk now? Let's talk.'"
Are bloggers "journalists?"
Prior to his barring in June, LeBlanc fought to become a legitimate member of the Press Gallery at the New Brunswick legislature. His request was denied.
According to Dan McHardie, the President of the New Brunswick Press Gallery, bloggers are allowed to cover the legislature as long as they are representing a credible news organization. "I told Charles LeBlanc that as an unaffiliated blogger, he doesn't qualify to sit in the gallery under our constitution's guidelines," says McHardie.
In the constitution of the New Brunswick Legislature, 'media' include daily newspapers, news services, weekly papers, periodicals, accredited electronic media and television. McHardie says the Press Gallery's constitution allows journalists from all types of media into the Press Gallery but on the condition that those members of the press are affiliated with a recognized news source.
McHardie believes LeBlanc's situation is not about whether bloggers are journalists, but about the liability of the Legislative Gallery.
"There was a concern about anyone who is a blogger who all of a sudden has access to MLAs and cabinet ministers without having superiors," says McHardie, who's been a political reporter for the past six years. "When I have concerns with reporters here, if I get a complaint from the Premier's office, or opposition office, I can phone their news director and say, 'Listen, there is a protocol for the gallery members.' There is no structure like that for the blogosphere."
But LeBlanc isn't the only blogger who considers himself a journalist. On July 19, 2006, the Pew Internet & American Life Project published a study that stated that 57 million Americans read blogs. The study also says there are 12 million bloggers in America and 34 per cent of those considered themselves journalists. That's about four million self-proclaimed journalists in cyberspace at this very moment.
As a blogger, LeBlanc is denied media access to the legislature because he is not representing a recognized news organization. But like many other self-proclaimed journalists, being an independent and unaffiliated news source was exactly why LeBlanc started blogging in the first place. So the question arises, "Should unaffiliated bloggers be granted the same access and privileges as accredited journalists?"
"Bloggers have the potential to be valid journalists," says Lisa Taylor, a former journalist currently working as a lawyer in Halifax "The titles are absolutely meaningless. Journalism isn't who you work for or where your material gets its public airing. It's about the principles you rely on in your day to day work."
Like McHardie, Taylor admits that the issue of how to monitor bloggers' ethical standards is a tricky one.
"No one is telling you what to write. That is the double-edged sword," says Taylor. "It is by far the greatest thing about blogging and the most dangerous and scary thing about it. There is no set of checks and balances. It is really dangerous that someone can just put things out there with out any sober second thought or without a clear-headed second set of eyes."
Taylor also says that being able to become a professional journalist without any formal education in journalism can be challenging.
"This is always the problem with our profession. There is no official sanctioning. Wouldn't it be easier if everyone had to have this degree and write this test and then suddenly, presto, you could put journalist after your name," says Taylor. "But anybody can do it."
Taylor, who worked at the CBC for more than 10 years, believes that despite all the controversy surrounding regulating blogs, they have the potential to alter the practice of journalism.
"If you listen to journalists who represent established media organizations they will paint with a broad brush who bloggers are -- they are always kooks, the fringe element with an ax to grind, and that might be true," says Taylor. "But there might also be people with really good ideas about communication and the tools and the skill and the ability to put it out there."
The idea that blogging will truly challenge journalism in the future is debatable. Catherine McKercher, an author, journalist and associate professor at the Carleton University School of Journalism, believes blogging, as we know it today, may only be a blip on the radar of mass media.
"I think we need to be careful not to have extravagant expectations about any new medium," says McKercher "You've probably had people say, 'Oh, blogging is radical, this is new, and this is going to change everything.'"
As of the current state of blogging, McKercher believes there are still a lot of issues to be sorted out.
"I am just not convinced that citizen journalism is going to replace journalism. I think most citizens really aren't trained at how to see things," says McKercher. "I don't think they know how to observe, how to interview, how to put together a narrative. I don't mean to dismiss them as playing no role, but I think they are best seen as supplementary to reporting."
If there is one thing that Taylor, McKercher and McHardie can agree on is that blogs are still in a state of change and what they hold for the future is unknown.
"I think that blogging is an interesting social phenomenon. In the early days of the medium or of any communication form things are fluid, things change and things evolve," says McKercher. "So I don't think what we see now as blogging will be considered blogging in the future."
But until then, Charles LeBlanc will continue being a journalist "with an opinion" in the blogosphere. "The only thing we have left in New Brunswick is blogging," says LeBlanc. "And I am doing a job that I love to do."
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