How can media best be fair?

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Fair media coverage - is that a realistic objective, or merely a desirable but unattainable ideal.

That issue was addressed at a recent press conference called by the Edmonton Cultural Caucus of Visible Minorities in response to results of a survey indicating prairie residents have Canada's highest levels of intolerance of racial minorities.

Clifford Freeman, vice president for Treaty 8, Indian Association of Alberta (IAA) said he believed the results of the survey indicated that Canadians are ready and willing to stop the spread of racism and that it is now time for school boards, media and the governments to take notice.

His concern with media coverage was echoed by Jasbeer Singh (East Indian) and Gordon Hum, caucus chairman.

They felt news media have to become more sensitive and begin developing policies in personnel and program development that would insure increased content regarding multiculturalism and visible minorities, and an end to "stereotyping."

Questioning the lack of ethics displayed by media which sensationalized negative stories about minorities, without concern or the damage that does, Hum said he would like to see journalism "become more professionalized in terms of a code of ethics" and propositional guidelines where "if you break the code of ethics, you're expelled."

The concerns expressed by the caucus members are shared by all of us in the media who strive to be fair-minded and professional. Our frustration is in the day-to-day realities of trying to achieve that goal.

For the benefit of those who receive coverage in "Windspeaker" let me review how we strive for fairness and balance in our coverage.

First, we are a Native newspaper, and our primary objective is to serve the communications needs of Native people.

In practical terms, that means that our coverage is devoted to Native people, and subjects of interest and concern to them. Implicit in that mandate is a pro-Native stance.

As professional journalists, however, we must strive to adhere to professional journalistic ethics, to ensure that our coverage is as fair and balanced as possible.

Where we do draw conclusions or take a stand on issues and concerns reflective

of our pro-Native stance, that material must be clearly labelled "editorial" or "opinion" or "commentary" or "news analysis," and bear the name of the writer.

To ensure that opinion is fair and balanced, we provide space for dissenting letters and opinions.

Two of the major barriers to fair and balanced coverage are time and co-operation.

The time factor comes into play when a story breaks close to our deadline and there is little time to research a story. Usually, one side of the story is available first. Extra effort is required to obtain opposing views or reaction.

The co-operation factor can be even more difficult. While we make every effort to cover all sides of every story, we often encounter difficulty in finding people who can provide an alternative viewpoint - and too often, even if we can identify such people, we can't always get them to agree to be quoted.

Without the time to pursue all sides of a story (even if we do publish the other side in a later edition), and without the co-operation we require, we are left with what may appear to be a one-sided story. It's an unsolvable dilemma that all of us in the news media face.

Another factor that can have considerable impact on our news coverage is the limited resources (people, money for travel, space in the newspaper), that we have available to cover an incredible variety of events, activities, issues and concerns occurring over the large area of the country.

We are a far cry from having the resources we would like to have to be able to do the job we would like to do. Each week we are faced with a difficult juggling act.

We can say that we are never satisfied with the job we have done because we know we could have done better with more time, more people, more money and more space. And we always trive to do better.

While we make every effort to stay in touch with our readers, we can never get enough feedback, so we continually urge you to send in your letters. It is your comments that let us know how we are doing.