How much or how little should newspaper edit Letters to the Editor? Or should newspapers refuse to publish letters because they don’t agree with the opinion of its writer?
Those are the questions that newspapers across the world ask themselves on a regular basis and we are asking ourselves at the Barrhead Leader after receiving a letter from Mr. Roger Manuel.
In his letter, as you will see on page 17A, he says we were wrong in publishing Mr. Henry Stel’s letter in our June 5 issue for two reasons, the first being that it contravenes Alberta’s Human Rights Act.
We do not believe it does or we wouldn’t have published it.
The second being that Mr. Stel’s letter is contradictory to the stance the newspaper itself, has expressed through numerous opinion pieces, both editorials, and columns.
Which is true.
Our stance, as a newspaper, which is expressed through our editorials, is that we support both Bill 10, which requires schools to create a Gay-Straight-Alliance (GSA), if so requested by a student and Bill 24, which prohibits school officials from telling parents if their children are a part of a GSA except in special circumstances.
I have especially been vocal in my support of this legislation.
So why then, did we publish Mr. Stel’s letter and others, which express his viewpoint, including a number of our Faith columnists?
The answer is that we received them.
It is our policy that we make every effort to publish all letters that we receive from local writers as long as they meet certain criteria, most notably that they are not slanderous, constitute hate speech, et cetera, include the name of the author and are close to our 500-word limit.
Yes, Mr. Stel’s letter was substantially over our word limit, which I waived, for the express purpose of demonstrating that we invite our readers to submit letters on a wide variety of topics, regardless of whether they agree with the newspaper’s or columnist’s view.
Over time, I have been accused of censoring letters we receive and only printing the ones I agree with. I assure you this is not the case.
I believe one of the purposes of a newspaper is to give a voice to the community and readers that it serves through the Letters to the Editor which is why we will continue to publish all letters we receive, as timely a possible, as long it matches the criteria listed above.
