Opinion by Malcolm King

Councillor Mark Croxford wants the Kiama Council to ask the Australian Press Council (APC) to investigate The Bugle’s ownership and reporting practices.

According to his Notice of Motion: ‘The Bugle’s adherence to journalistic standards,’ which was passed by council on 21 May, Croxford suggested the owner of The Bugle may be directly involved in slanting the news in favour of property developers.

“Specific articles published by The Bugle have raised concerns about biased reporting, lobbying for certain development applications, and actions at odds with the journalist code of ethics,” Croxford states.

“While The Bugle are (sic) not acting in an unlawful manner in protecting ownership information … much of The Bugle content is anti-Council.”

Sounds like a witch hunt? You bet.

The owner of The Bugle is a woman in her 40s with a passion for the media. She is an entrepreneur with a strong business brain and there should be more like her in boardrooms across Australia. She is not a property developer.

Why doesn’t she answer Croxford’s ownership question? For the same reason you won’t tell me how much money you have in the bank or your address and PIN.

It’s private.

Croxford is exhuming his guru John Howard. When you’ve run out of ideas to get elected, create a fear campaign about migrants, refugees and terrorists – all living under the bed. Now we have the property developer nightmare.

Croxford has never worked for a news organisation, never written a news story, so here are the facts:

Reporters at The Bugle find and write their own stories. They are not told what to write. There is no pressure from the owner or the General Manager.

The genesis of his beat-up lies in two news stories that I wrote some months ago: ‘Minns may pull trigger on housing and NIMBYs’ and ‘Action needed for Council to meet Minns’ housing target’.

I used quotes from property developer Brett Robinson, CEO of Traders in Purple and Michelle Adair, CEO of the Housing Trust. The context of the two stories was a proposed development in West Kiama (Springside Hill). The need for housing is still on the national agenda.

Reporters always try to get both sides of the story.

The Bugle has held a mirror up to the council over the last 12 months and the council did not like what it saw. The reporting has been tough because the community wanted answers and the council could not always provide them.

One cannot vouch that all the reporting was accurate, because accuracy was elusive but after a Herculean effort by the CEO Jane Stroud and her team, there is reason for optimism.

The animosity by some autocratic councillors, who have acted like little Napoleons, has throttled consensus.

On the 14 September council elections, vote for people with ideas.