Thanet District Council’s response to its war on Thanet blogs

With some of the accredited media somewhat discredited at the moment - The News of the World has gone. The Sun, The Times and The Sunday Times follow?? – there is an added irony to this post.

Some of you will remember that about a month ago TDC decided to stop sending press releases to me and other non accredited news sources, see http://thanetonline.blogspot.com/2011/06/thanet-district-councils-new-war-on.html

My take on this is, as several thousand local people read this blog and read my press release blog – where I published the TDC press releases and other TDC information before the council stopped cooperating with me – then information supplied by the council to me and the very few other prominent local bloggers for publication, should be treated differently to information requested by a member of the public, for their personal use.

Now if I want to ask the council a question I have to use their freedom of information department and as the foi legislation says the council don’t have to reply to me for a month, they don't.

In fact I used this system to try and find out about their new rules for unaccredited press and a month later I have just now received the replies.

This request relates to the way the council provides information to accredited and non accredited media.

For the purposes of this request I am assuming that a council accredited media source is a media source that receives press releases or can ask the councils press department questions.

Thank you for your communication received on 14/06/2011 entitled Freedom of Information Request 1 where you requested various information regarding the Council's press releases, websites, publications, and accredited media.

The information you requested is as follows. I have numbered my responses according to your original request.

I have tried to make  this easy to follow by putting my questions in blur and the council’s answers in red.

1. Please provide any additional information about the council’s relationship with the media that I haven’t asked for but is held by the council and appears pertinent.

 Please confirm any additional information that you require.

2. Does the council have any accredited media source that is exclusively internet?

 The Council does not have an accredited media source that is exclusively internet.

3. Does the council have any accredited media source where the local media publication is exclusively internet but the same business has paper publications? Your Thanet would be an example of this.

The council does have an accredited media source where the local publication is exclusively internet but the same source has paper publications.

4. Please provide a list of exactly who and which organisations receive council press releases or can ask the council press department questions? Please include in-house and government funded publications?

 The organisations that can currently receive Council press releases and put enquiries through the Council Press Office are as follows:

Academy FM
BBC South East Today
BBC Radio Kent
Heart FM
ITV Meridian
KM-FM
KM Thanet Extra
Thanet Gazette and Thanet Times
Your Thanet/Kent on Sunday
Local Government Association

5. Please provide a list of which publications the council pays to advertise in and an approximate figure for the councils spending on advertising in accredited media?

 The Council has paid to advertise in the following publications:

Heart FM
KMFM
KM Thanet Extra
Thanet Gazette & Thanet Times
Your Thanet/Kent on Sunday

6. Please provide the approximate cost of public information publications funded by the council, including the cost of the council’s various public information websites?

 As you have not specified a period over which you would like the Council’s spend on advertising in accredited media, I have supplied information for 2010/11.

The total that the entire Council spent on advertising for 2010/11 was £105,256.10

As you have not specified which publications or over which period I have provided the information below. The production of these publications is currently under review for future years.

The approximate cost of public information publications funded by the Council for 2010/11 are as follows:

Thanet Matters – 3 editions - Total Cost  = £12,433.00

Youth Matters
Easter edition  = £4,761.00
Summer edition  (combined with Sports Matters) = £6,109.00

The approximate cost of the Council’s various public information websites for 2010/11 is £22,337.78

7. Are there any accredited publications that the council do not contribute to financially in some way?

 The council does not contribute financially to the following accredited publications:

BBC Radio Kent
BBC South East Today
ITV Meridian
Academy FM

8. Does the council have a policy for withdrawing funding including advertising revenue from accredited publications and for what reasons would the council withdraw funding? Would the council for instance withdraw advertising or threaten to withdraw advertising from an accredited news source that criticised the council?

 The council does not have a policy for withdrawing funding, including advertising revenue from accredited publications and would not withdraw advertising from accredited media that criticised the council.

9. Does the council incur any extra costs for adding non accredited news sources to their press release mailing list?

The council does not incur extra cost for adding non accredited media to their press release mailing list but does incur additional resource strain as a result of managing this list and the resulting enquiries.

10. Have any of the council’s accredited news sources requested that the council does not supply press releases to non accredited news sources?

None of the council’s accredited media sources have requested that the council does not supply press releases to non accredited media. Press releases are supplied to everyone via the council’s website and RSS News Feed.

11. Have any of the news sources supplied with press releases up to this point abused them, not adhered to embargos and so on?

 News sources supplied with press releases have not abused them.

12. Have the council’s press department been supplying press releases to and answering questions for individuals or organisations that have no news outlet or obvious public readership?

 The Council Press Office has previously supplied press releases to and answered enquiries from individuals/organisations that have no news outlet or obvious public readership however this practice has now ceased.

13. Up until the present ban on non accredited news sources, my understanding is they were the only point of publication for high definition reproduction of the council’s accompanying press release photographs. What will happen to these photographs now and will the council publish them in high definition online?

 The Council provides high resolution imagery to accredited media sources for their publication. The Council will not be publishing these images in high resolution on its website as we supply them directly to accredited media.

Where appropriate, the Council publishes low resolution images on its website to illustrate new stories. See the following for an example:

http://www.thanet.gov.uk/environment__planning/planning/ldf_and_local_plan/dreamland/dreamland_cinema_building.aspx

14. Does the council have a policy of delaying publication of their press releases to coincide with the publication of the same releases in accredited news sources?

The council does not have a policy of delaying press releases to coincide with the publication of the same releases in accredited media. Releases may, on occasion, be embargoed until a particular date, meaning that the information will then appear in different media at the same time.

15. Has any political pressure or pressure from elected members been put on the council to stop sending press releases to or providing information to non accredited news sources?

Political pressure from elected members has not been put on the council to stop sending press releases to non accredited media. Information and press releases are available to all through our RSS News Feed, web site, customer services, customer feedback and FOI.

16. Does a news sources readership have any effect on its accreditation and if it does what level of readership would be required to gain accreditation?

 Readership does not determine whether or not an individual can access the Council’s Press Office.

17. What criterion does the council use to select accredited news sources?

 In order to qualify as accredited media with the Council it is necessary to be a journalist working for, or on behalf of, a media organisation which is governed by an impartial code of conduct such as the Press Complaints Commission, BBC Trust or OFCOM.