The Kiama Council has voted to refer The Bugle newspaper to the Australian Press Council (APC) to investigate its reporting practices and to try to circumvent the Privacy Act.

“We’ve got a council that is NOT financially supporting the local paper with any advertising, supposedly due to a conflict with developers they are in court with, who they erroneously believe own the paper” said The Bugle General Manager, Belinda Woodfield. 

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

Three councillors have been censured but Clr. Karen Renkema-Lang called the council’s bluff and had the censure motion overturned in the Supreme Court at a cost to the council of more than $400k, bringing the council’s total legal outlays to just under $5m.

Three councillors have been referred to ICAC but none were notified beforehand and read about the referral in the media.

“The council has always been in correspondence with the owner of The Bugle,” said Woodfield. “It is bullying tactics by Croxford who desperately needs publicity in the run up to the 14 September Council elections. His social media trolling against The Bugle has been constant and upset many.”

The reasoning behind Croxford’s personal antagonism against The Bugle is unclear and he has peppered many insulting comments through social media. Croxford has no reporting experience and has never worked for the media. He has no journalism qualifications. He worked as a minor media functionary in the Howard Government for a few years.

“Mr Croxford has no reporting experience. He has never worked for the media. He has no journalism qualifications. He worked as a minor media functionary in the Howard Government for a few years.”

The council said it was concerned the local newspaper was in the pocket of “property developers or construction companies in the Kiama Local Government Area.”

“The reporters are not told what to write,” Woodfield said. “They research and write their own stories. They always have and always will, and their varied life experience lends personality to the newspaper. Council reporting - good or bad - is only a small part of the many other articles penned by our journalists.”

“Mark 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,"

The APC has no power to impose a fine or other financial sanctions. It operates under a code.

Brendon Foye, a former journalist at The Bugle, was not allowed to address council on Monday night public access meeting, about verbal abuse he received from Clr Croxford earlier in the year. Cooincidentally at the same time the council web streaming service posted it had ‘technical issues’.

“On Friday 12 July 2024, I registered my interest to speak at Kiama Municipal Council’s public forum against Motion 20.3 (p.188),” Brendon Foye said.

“With two hours until the meeting began, I was informed by CEO Jane Stroud that I had been refused my right to speak based on the potential for myself and Kiama Councillors to damage the ongoing complaints handling process into their conduct.

“This motion, as well as Motion 19.3 from the 21 May 2024 meeting which brought us here, have nothing to do with transparency or accountability from local media.

“While both motions are disguised as genuine questions regarding the potential for bias, Kiama Council failed to provide any context as to its conduct and the complaints it has received from The Bugle since its change of ownership in April 2023 when they were introduced to the new owner."

“How does referring The Bugle to the Australian Press Council over these frivolous concerns translate into a constructive relationship and help the community?”