CIVIC NEWSPAPER

Council cabinet members in Derby are fending off "regular" attempts by senior officers to launch a civic newspaper, over fears it would be used as a propaganda tool. The city council has been secretly discussing plans to launch a quarterly tabloid newspaper at a cost of more than £20,000 an edition, eventually becoming a once-monthly publication, with an annual cost of around £250,000.

In a report by consultancy firm DTW, the council is advised that a civic newspaper delivered "free" to the city's 100,000 homes could be the most important "weapon" in its armoury. "It is a managed form of communication, entirely controlled by the council," the report states. "It is, therefore, not subject to change, interpretation or omission by journalists."

The report was produced in 2002 but the Evening Telegraph has discovered that council officers have been regularly placing the matter before the authority's non-public cabinet meetings and each time it has been deferred. A source inside the cabinet told the Telegraph, "Some of our officers are very keen on the idea and every few months they ask if we will approve it. But we as a cabinet are very cautious."

Council leader Maurice Burgess confirmed he and his cabinet colleagues feared the potential of a civic newspaper being used, or envisaged by the public as, a "propaganda tool". He said, "It is a real concern. Whether we could overcome these concerns is a different matter. We consider it fairly regularly but at the moment I don't think it will happen."

Mr Burgess said councillors were "still hung-up" by Derbyshire County Council's newspaper, Insight, which had been perceived by some as a propaganda tool, prior to Derby becoming a unitary authority in 1997. Insight has been distributed since 1983. It is currently delivered to around 280,000 households six times a year, at a total cost of around £210,000.

The idea of a civic newspaper in Derby also sits uneasily with some members of the public. Pat Woolley, of Maple Avenue, Littleover, who has had a long-running battle with the council over its redevelopment plans for Derby's bus station, said, "The council is very manipulative in the way it presents things. This could be very dangerous."

Sue Glitheroe, the council's director of policy, said Derby was now in a minority among local authorities by not having a civic newspaper. She said, "If elected members choose to reject it, they choose to reject it. If we were ever to succeed it would have to be completely self-financing."

What a curious phrase chosen by consultancy firm DTW in its recommendation that Derby City Council should launch a civic newspaper. Such a tabloid publication, delivered free to 100,000 homes, it argues, would be a most important "weapon". Why does the authority need a weapon? With whom is it at war? Has it had a 45-minute warning about city pressure groups or campaigners with weapons of mass destruction?

The one sure thing is that it will be at war, verbally at least, with thousands of council tax payers if it is persuaded to lash out £250,000 a year on a publication which would progress from being published quarterly to monthly. You might say "well, the Telegraph would say that, wouldn't it? It doesn't want the competition". It would not be competition.

The brief of this newspaper, and other branches of the local media, is to report on the affairs of the authority, to reflect public concerns, and to question and put the spotlight on areas of the multi-million-pound organisation which deserve to be put under scrutiny. At best, a council newspaper can do only the first of those functions.

There is no need for it, and fortunately it seems that councillors have so far had the good sense to resist pressure from officers who are keen on having their own voicepiece. DTW suggests that coverage of council policies has been subject to omission by journalists in the past. That can be attributed to the same furtive management style which saw this civic newspaper proposal regularly considered at meetings from which the public has been excluded. (Source: Derby Evening Telegraph)