How does your council address dissatisfaction with press reporting on its activities?

Question

It has come to full council’s attention that the staffing subcommittee have been complaining to a local on line newspaper, insisting on more positive coverage and threatening further action regarding its reporting of council activities. When the person they were complaining to became aware that they were acting without the knowledge of full council he began copying all councillors into his replies.
The staffing sub committee believe that they are acting within their remit. They have some role with ‘staff welfare’. In the course of complaining they have misquoted stories, failed to acknowledge other facts related to stories reported on and a recent one to one interaction could be considered to have risked bringing the council into disrepute.

Answer 1

Are you saying the council is dissatisfied with what the media is reporting or what the staffing committee (or part(s) thereof) are passing to the media?

Is the online media one of the {location}live online news outlets which are part of Reach PLC?
If so, anyone that engages with that group gets everything they deserve whether they are authorised to speak directly to the media or not.  The {location}live outlets are about the laziest, bungling, non-journo incompetents you could likely imagine and anyone that reads them has the IQ of a banana!

Does any part of the staffing committee have a delegation to speak to the media on behalf of the council or are they making it clear it is personal opinion rather than council policy?

Comments

The news outlet is reporting on the various decisions and information coming out of the council meetings. The staffing subcommittee thinks that the stories are too negative and inaccurate. They are, in fact, pretty factual, but embarrassing because of that. The SSC have written to the management. They have no delegation to speak to the press or represent the council in making a complaint. They believe that they have. It’s possibly a bit like the councillor in your council using the SSC to complain to the press about a negative story about his treehouse…

Answer 2

"complaining to a local online newspaper, insisting on more positive coverage, and threatening further action" is, in my humble opinion, the perfect recipe for continuing to get negative press.

From what you have said (and that's all we have to go on) the council needs to put its own house in order.  It can then point out the positives and hope that the press adjusts its reporting stance.

Answer 3

I'd suggest you need a communications policy for the council which addresses who has authority to speak on behalf of the council in the first instance and an agreed policy for communication methods and agreed content to inform your electorate.  We have a newsletter which is available in paper format and online, facebook page, twitter etc. to highlight good news in particular and the content is controlled by a small working group.  Frankly the press can report whatever they like.