The Parliamentary Press Gallery executive has chosen “an easy out” by dropping an investigation into whether Chinese news agency Xinhua on the Hill is improperly using its gallery membership, says a veteran Hill freelance journalist who brought the issue to the gallery’s attention.
“They’ve chosen what they thought was an easy out and I think it’s going to come back to haunt them,” said journalist and press gallery member Mark Bourrie, who had a contract with Xinhua, but quit because he said he was concerned the agency was taking advantage of his Parliamentary press pass to gain access to events and spy on Chinese dissidents in Canada. He made his experience public in an article in a September edition of Ottawa Magazine.
“My concern with Xinhua is that they are part of a mechanism that the Chinese government uses to monitor dissidents here. I don’t believe that they are involved in espionage against the Canadian government, per se,” said Mr. Bourrie in an interview with The Hill Times last week.
Mr. Bourrie raised the issue with the gallery in April but asked them to wait for his article to be published in Ottawa Magazine. When it was, the gallery asked both Xinhua and Mr. Bourrie to discuss the issue with them. Both declined to speak to the gallery to explain their positions. As a result, the Parliamentary Press Gallery executive voted last week to drop its efforts to explore Mr. Bourrie’s claim against Xinhua. Mr. Bourrie said he was “shocked” and “disgusted, quite frankly,” about the gallery’s decision, and noted that he “absolutely” stands by his article.
Although it was a “lucrative” contract, Mr. Bourrie wrote in Ottawa Magazine, he said a number of red flags went up that caused him to question Xinhua. This ranged from Xinhua’s Ottawa bureau chief Dacheng Zhang asking him to find out who protesters were when Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Parliament in June 2010, to being asked to write a story about how the Canadian government “restrains evil religions” or cults, Mr. Bourrie wrote.
But Mr. Bourrie said the final straw for him was the Dalai Lama’s April 2012 visit to Ottawa, as the featured speaker at the Sixth World Parliamentarians’ Convention on Tibet. He said Mr. Zhang asked him to cover the press conference after the public event, and subsequently asked him for a transcript of it. Mr. Bourrie also said Mr. Zhang asked him to talk to his contacts to find out what was said at the Dalai Lama’s private meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) earlier that day.
When he asked Mr. Zhang if his material would be published as a story, Mr. Bourrie said Mr. Zhang told him that the agency didn’t report on “separatists.”
“That day I felt that we were spies. It was time to draw the line. I put down my pen and notepad, listened to the Dalai Lama, shook his hand when he left, went home, and sent Xinhua an email telling them I quit,” Mr. Bourrie wrote in Ottawa Magazine.
Mr. Zhang has dismissed Mr. Bourrie’s statements as “Cold War” ideology. In an interview with The Canadian Press in August, Mr. Zhang said his bureau’s job is covering public Canadian news events and subsequently filing stories to Xinhua. He said decisions over what to publish are up to the news agency.
At the Nov. 29 meeting, Parliamentary Press Gallery president Chris Rands, who is also a CBC TV producer, said Mr. Zhang’s lawyer—Scott McLean of Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP, who was hired by Xinhua following publication of Mr. Bourrie’s article—has said he will not bring his client forward unless Mr. Bourrie made a sworn legal statement of his remarks.
Mr. Bourrie told The Hill Times that he has offered multiple times, via email, to provide the gallery with a sworn statement—he said he was not willing to send written statements to Xinhua’s lawyers—but said he never heard back.
Mr. Bourrie said he declined to appear at a gallery executive meeting to discuss his experience because he said he didn’t trust that the gallery executive would protect him on the issue. Mr. Bourrie is a freelance journalist. “And I also didn’t think that there was anything really to add to what I’d said,” he said, referring to his article in Ottawa Magazine.
“Mr. Bourrie offered to deliver an affidavit to the gallery, however, he has yet to do so. The gallery executive expected both members to present themselves to discuss the matter with us as a first step, again, both have refused to do so,” said Mr. Rands in an email to The Hill Times. “The invitation to speak to the gallery executive remains open.”
All but one member of the gallery executive said while they felt the issue, which Mr. Rands described as an employee dispute, was important, the majority said without both sides agreeing to come forward and discuss the situation, there weren’t sufficient grounds upon which to make a decision.
However, Paul McLeod, Ottawa bureau chief for the Halifax Chronicle Herald, said he felt it would set a “very dangerous precedent” to drop the issue because they refused to speak to the gallery executive, and said the fact that Xinhua has retained a lawyer is “unsettling” and suggests a “legal chill.” Mr. McLeod said there seems to be a “credible case” supporting Mr. Bourrie’s concerns.
As members of the press gallery are meant to be “gatekeepers” to Parliament, he said, he’s not comfortable with the idea of defending Xinhua’s membership in the gallery, “considering that they won’t even come in and answer questions. I just can’t get behind that.”
Mr. Bourrie said he didn’t understand why the members of the board felt they didn’t have enough information, pointing to his article and emails between Xinhua and himself that he said he provided to the gallery.
Mr. Bourrie said the press gallery executive has made no effort to investigate how Xinhua used the information he and Mr. Zhang gathered from the Dalai Lama’s April 2012 visit to Ottawa.
The Hill Times asked Mr. Rands whether the gallery had done anything to investigate if Xinhua produced news material from the information gathered, but Mr. Rands responded that both Xinhua and Mr. Bourrie were invited to discuss the matter.
The Hill Times called Xinhua’s Ottawa bureau but was told by a male employee, who declined to give his name, that the news agency had “no comment on this.”
Mr. Zhang’s lawyer, Mr. McLean, also declined to comment when reached by The Hill Times.
Meanwhile, media reported last month that Xinhua was barred from an Oct. 18 press conference National Defence Minister Peter MacKay (Central Nova, N.S.) held to introduce Canada’s new, $66-million Sapphire satellite. But, as explained in the media advisory, all non-Canadian citizens were barred from the conference, and journalists who were allowed to attend were required to arrive 40 minutes in advance.
Samir Goulamaly, a media relations officer with the Canadian Space Agency, the department with site control over the David Florida Laboratory in Ottawa where the press conference was held, said the required, in-house security screening (which focuses on verifying respective identities, and requires passports to be submitted) is government-wide standard procedure.
Mr. Goulamaly said every time the government holds a public event, non-Canadians have to register 10 days in advance in order to complete the verification, and in this “exceptional” case, he said, DND put out a media advisory on too short of notice.
Mr. Goulamaly said Xinhua reporters have been permitted access previously, for example, to a July 25 press conference with Industry Minister Christian Paradis (Mégantic-L’Érable, Que.) that required the same security screening and was held at the same building.
As set out in the Parliamentary Press Gallery’s constitution, “any member may be expelled from membership by a majority vote … in the event that such member uses his membership or the facilities of the gallery to obtain benefit other than by journalism, including activities such as the representation of interests of political parties, governments, extra-Parliamentary groups.”
The Xinhua News Agency is a state-run agency overseen by the government’s Publicity department (previously known as the propaganda department).
Mr. McLeod suggested that Xinhua be instead given a temporary gallery membership, which would allow the gallery to set “certain terms” of use while still allowing Xinhua reporters to do their jobs, as he said they don’t seem to be on the Hill every day.
No one seconded Mr. McLeod’s suggestion, and instead the gallery executive chose to drop the issue and voted to instruct the board to be “mindful of discussions” the next time they review memberships.
The other members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery executive are: Marie Vastel (Le Devoir); Elizabeth Thompson (iPolitics); Jim Bronskill (The Canadian Press); Mark Kennedy (Postmedia News Service); Daniel Leblanc (The Globe and Mail); Laura Payton (CBC News Network); and Daniel Thibeault (Radio-Canada TV).
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: LAURA RYCKEWAERT
“They’ve chosen what they thought was an easy out and I think it’s going to come back to haunt them,” said journalist and press gallery member Mark Bourrie, who had a contract with Xinhua, but quit because he said he was concerned the agency was taking advantage of his Parliamentary press pass to gain access to events and spy on Chinese dissidents in Canada. He made his experience public in an article in a September edition of Ottawa Magazine.
“My concern with Xinhua is that they are part of a mechanism that the Chinese government uses to monitor dissidents here. I don’t believe that they are involved in espionage against the Canadian government, per se,” said Mr. Bourrie in an interview with The Hill Times last week.
Mr. Bourrie raised the issue with the gallery in April but asked them to wait for his article to be published in Ottawa Magazine. When it was, the gallery asked both Xinhua and Mr. Bourrie to discuss the issue with them. Both declined to speak to the gallery to explain their positions. As a result, the Parliamentary Press Gallery executive voted last week to drop its efforts to explore Mr. Bourrie’s claim against Xinhua. Mr. Bourrie said he was “shocked” and “disgusted, quite frankly,” about the gallery’s decision, and noted that he “absolutely” stands by his article.
Although it was a “lucrative” contract, Mr. Bourrie wrote in Ottawa Magazine, he said a number of red flags went up that caused him to question Xinhua. This ranged from Xinhua’s Ottawa bureau chief Dacheng Zhang asking him to find out who protesters were when Chinese President Hu Jintao visited Parliament in June 2010, to being asked to write a story about how the Canadian government “restrains evil religions” or cults, Mr. Bourrie wrote.
But Mr. Bourrie said the final straw for him was the Dalai Lama’s April 2012 visit to Ottawa, as the featured speaker at the Sixth World Parliamentarians’ Convention on Tibet. He said Mr. Zhang asked him to cover the press conference after the public event, and subsequently asked him for a transcript of it. Mr. Bourrie also said Mr. Zhang asked him to talk to his contacts to find out what was said at the Dalai Lama’s private meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper (Calgary Southwest, Alta.) earlier that day.
When he asked Mr. Zhang if his material would be published as a story, Mr. Bourrie said Mr. Zhang told him that the agency didn’t report on “separatists.”
“That day I felt that we were spies. It was time to draw the line. I put down my pen and notepad, listened to the Dalai Lama, shook his hand when he left, went home, and sent Xinhua an email telling them I quit,” Mr. Bourrie wrote in Ottawa Magazine.
Mr. Zhang has dismissed Mr. Bourrie’s statements as “Cold War” ideology. In an interview with The Canadian Press in August, Mr. Zhang said his bureau’s job is covering public Canadian news events and subsequently filing stories to Xinhua. He said decisions over what to publish are up to the news agency.
At the Nov. 29 meeting, Parliamentary Press Gallery president Chris Rands, who is also a CBC TV producer, said Mr. Zhang’s lawyer—Scott McLean of Fraser Milner Casgrain LLP, who was hired by Xinhua following publication of Mr. Bourrie’s article—has said he will not bring his client forward unless Mr. Bourrie made a sworn legal statement of his remarks.
Mr. Bourrie told The Hill Times that he has offered multiple times, via email, to provide the gallery with a sworn statement—he said he was not willing to send written statements to Xinhua’s lawyers—but said he never heard back.
Mr. Bourrie said he declined to appear at a gallery executive meeting to discuss his experience because he said he didn’t trust that the gallery executive would protect him on the issue. Mr. Bourrie is a freelance journalist. “And I also didn’t think that there was anything really to add to what I’d said,” he said, referring to his article in Ottawa Magazine.
“Mr. Bourrie offered to deliver an affidavit to the gallery, however, he has yet to do so. The gallery executive expected both members to present themselves to discuss the matter with us as a first step, again, both have refused to do so,” said Mr. Rands in an email to The Hill Times. “The invitation to speak to the gallery executive remains open.”
All but one member of the gallery executive said while they felt the issue, which Mr. Rands described as an employee dispute, was important, the majority said without both sides agreeing to come forward and discuss the situation, there weren’t sufficient grounds upon which to make a decision.
However, Paul McLeod, Ottawa bureau chief for the Halifax Chronicle Herald, said he felt it would set a “very dangerous precedent” to drop the issue because they refused to speak to the gallery executive, and said the fact that Xinhua has retained a lawyer is “unsettling” and suggests a “legal chill.” Mr. McLeod said there seems to be a “credible case” supporting Mr. Bourrie’s concerns.
As members of the press gallery are meant to be “gatekeepers” to Parliament, he said, he’s not comfortable with the idea of defending Xinhua’s membership in the gallery, “considering that they won’t even come in and answer questions. I just can’t get behind that.”
Mr. Bourrie said he didn’t understand why the members of the board felt they didn’t have enough information, pointing to his article and emails between Xinhua and himself that he said he provided to the gallery.
Mr. Bourrie said the press gallery executive has made no effort to investigate how Xinhua used the information he and Mr. Zhang gathered from the Dalai Lama’s April 2012 visit to Ottawa.
The Hill Times asked Mr. Rands whether the gallery had done anything to investigate if Xinhua produced news material from the information gathered, but Mr. Rands responded that both Xinhua and Mr. Bourrie were invited to discuss the matter.
The Hill Times called Xinhua’s Ottawa bureau but was told by a male employee, who declined to give his name, that the news agency had “no comment on this.”
Mr. Zhang’s lawyer, Mr. McLean, also declined to comment when reached by The Hill Times.
Meanwhile, media reported last month that Xinhua was barred from an Oct. 18 press conference National Defence Minister Peter MacKay (Central Nova, N.S.) held to introduce Canada’s new, $66-million Sapphire satellite. But, as explained in the media advisory, all non-Canadian citizens were barred from the conference, and journalists who were allowed to attend were required to arrive 40 minutes in advance.
Samir Goulamaly, a media relations officer with the Canadian Space Agency, the department with site control over the David Florida Laboratory in Ottawa where the press conference was held, said the required, in-house security screening (which focuses on verifying respective identities, and requires passports to be submitted) is government-wide standard procedure.
Mr. Goulamaly said every time the government holds a public event, non-Canadians have to register 10 days in advance in order to complete the verification, and in this “exceptional” case, he said, DND put out a media advisory on too short of notice.
Mr. Goulamaly said Xinhua reporters have been permitted access previously, for example, to a July 25 press conference with Industry Minister Christian Paradis (Mégantic-L’Érable, Que.) that required the same security screening and was held at the same building.
As set out in the Parliamentary Press Gallery’s constitution, “any member may be expelled from membership by a majority vote … in the event that such member uses his membership or the facilities of the gallery to obtain benefit other than by journalism, including activities such as the representation of interests of political parties, governments, extra-Parliamentary groups.”
The Xinhua News Agency is a state-run agency overseen by the government’s Publicity department (previously known as the propaganda department).
Mr. McLeod suggested that Xinhua be instead given a temporary gallery membership, which would allow the gallery to set “certain terms” of use while still allowing Xinhua reporters to do their jobs, as he said they don’t seem to be on the Hill every day.
No one seconded Mr. McLeod’s suggestion, and instead the gallery executive chose to drop the issue and voted to instruct the board to be “mindful of discussions” the next time they review memberships.
The other members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery executive are: Marie Vastel (Le Devoir); Elizabeth Thompson (iPolitics); Jim Bronskill (The Canadian Press); Mark Kennedy (Postmedia News Service); Daniel Leblanc (The Globe and Mail); Laura Payton (CBC News Network); and Daniel Thibeault (Radio-Canada TV).
Original Article
Source: hill times
Author: LAURA RYCKEWAERT
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