Archive
10 Sep

The Unknowable Country: Why journalists need more access to BC’s mining data

<p><strong>By Sean Holman</strong></p><p>British Columbia is one of the country's biggest mineral producers. But compared to Americans, British Columbians have very little information about the safety and regulation of that activity.</p><p>And that means journalists, activists and citizens have very little power to stop mining problems before they become mining disasters.</p>

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27 May

The Unknowable Country: Why journalists and governments no longer know what Canadians value

<p><strong>By Sean Holman</strong></p><p>As a result of a lack of federal government funding, Canada wasn't included in the most recent <a href="http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/wvs.jsp" target="_blank" rel="noopener">World Values Survey</a>—one of the few means we have of knowing what our values are, how we differ from people in other countries and whether those values have changed over time.</p>

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19 Feb

The Unknowable Country: What does Reporters Without Borders’ press freedom index actually mean?

<p><strong>By Sean Holman</strong></p><p>Last year, the country's freedom of information commissioners <a href="http://seanholman.com/2013/10/28/the-unknowable-country/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called</a> for a modernization of the antiquated laws that are supposed to allow, but in many cases, now frustrate journalists' access to public records.</p><p>Indeed, <a href="http://www.law-democracy.org/live/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Nov-2013-Chart2.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to the Centre for Law and Democracy, 55 other nations have stronger information rights laws than we do.</p>

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10 Feb

The Unknowable Country: What Postmedia’s torching of its parliamentary bureau means for the future of investigative reporting on the Hill

<p><img align="left" alt="" class="imagecache-medium inline-image" hspace="10" src="http://j-source.ca/sites/www.j-source.ca/files/imagecache/medium/images/Postmedia newspapers_3.JPG" title="" /></p><p><strong>By Sean Holman</strong></p><p><a href="http://www.postmedia.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Postmedia Network Inc.</a>'s decision to <a href="http://j-source.ca/article/postmedia-eliminates-parliamentary-bureau">torch</a> its parliamentary bureau last week will inevitably compromise the newspaper chain's ability to produce investigative public affairs reporting.</p>

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29 Jan

The Unknowable Country: Why aren’t more Canadians reading about politics?

<p><strong>By Sean Holman</strong></p><p>By most measures, you'd think the readers of the <em>Victoria Times Colonist</em>—my hometown's newspaper—would have at least a passing interest in politics.</p>

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27 Nov

The Unknowable Country: Why aren’t journalists pushing governments for more transparency?

<p><strong>By Sean Holman</strong></p><p>Award-winning CBC News producer <a href="http://www.ukings.ca/david-mckie" target="_blank" rel="noopener">David McKie</a> rang the fight bell in a <a href="http://j-source.ca/article/opinion-canada%E2%80%99s-access-information-system-going-downhill-and-fast">column</a> published earlier this month on J-Source, saying journalists must “take the gloves off by pushing governments to be more transparent.”</p>

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28 Oct

The Unknowable Country

<p><strong>By Sean Holman</strong></p><p>"Freedom of information is the expression of Canadians' core values. It is fundamental to the functioning of democracy."</p>

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