“Low-level journalist”: behind the scenes of MSSS communications

Thanks to the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies, independent journalist Hal Newman discovered what press relations officials from the Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services (MSSS) were saying about him behind his back. ). What he read “depressed” and “disheartened” him. Questioned on this subject by -, the head of communications at the ministry apologized.

In the emails that Mr. Newman sent to us, the press relations department describes him as low-level journalist, completely crazy.

We also discovered that officials from this service contacted the office of the Minister of Health, Christian Dubé, to find out whether his questions should be answered.

Do you know if there is an instruction to respond to him? What are your directions? To my knowledge, there had already been an instruction to no longer process requests to media relations.

The facts date back to July 2023, but Hal Newman had to wait until October 2024 to succeed in forcing the ministry to hand over these emails to him under a procedure at the Commission d’access à l’information du Québec.

Basically, Hal Newman’s request was completely normal. On July 14, 2023, he asked six questions to the ministry regarding, in particular, the response time of ambulances.

Six days later, on July 20, 2023, he became impatient at having received no response even though he had explained that he was going to need this information before July 19.

He wrote this: Does the MSSS selects the journalists he answers when questions are asked about the emergency pre-hospital care system? Public relations people did not appreciate it.

We have a nice fit of bacon from this low-level “journalist”. Can you tell me if the proposed answer suits you? (He’s completely crazy.)

It was really depressing, discouraging, to see the description they gave of mesays Hal Newman with emotion. That’s the people who work in communications in our health system.

To be or not to be a journalist

In the emails, employees of the department’s press relations department say they believe that Hal Newman self-proclaimed journalist and that he does not meet ethical standards in this area.

As proof, they want publications on social networks in which he gives his opinion and criticizes the government.

The press relations policy of the MSSS However, considers as media columnists who present their opinions in public and who are sometimes critical.

No one is going to tell Isabelle Hachey, Aaron Derfel or Christopher Curtis […] that they are not real journalists because they express personal opinions.

According to Mr. Newman, it is because he is an independent journalist, from a small media outlet, that he has been little considered, whereasyou don’t need to be a journalist for the big platforms [médiatiques] to ask questions of our government.

The FPJQ reacts

The Professional Federation of Journalists of Quebec (FPJQ), whose annual congress begins Friday, believes that it is not up to elected officials or public relations officers in a ministry to determine to whom they will respond.

The president of the FPJQÉric-Pierre Champagne, to whom we forwarded the emails, judges that Hal Newman’s questions on ambulance services were relevant et legitimate : I’m not sure we would have acted in the same way if it had been columnists from better-known major media.

As for the involvement of politics in the construction of responses and their validation, Mr. Champagne sees something of worryingbecause it lackswaterproofing.

Is the politician involved in all issues? If they do it for that, we can guess they do it for everything else.

The FPJQ recalls that if the ministry judges that a journalist has ethical problems, there are mechanisms that exist, in particular the Press Council.

An apology from the head of communications at the MSSS

The response to -’s questions addressed to the ministry came, very exceptionally, from the director of the communications department, Jérôme Thibaudeau.

From the outset, we would like to clarify that the ministry does not endorse the choice of words used in the emails exchanged.he writes.

Although not intended for the general public, these emails contained unfortunate language about Mr. Newman and we apologize for this.

The public affairs and media relations department processes more than 2,000 requests from journalists per year and fully recognizes the importance of the journalistic profession.

Mr. Thibaudeau recognizes that columnists, editorialists and other actors in the journalistic sphere have the right to express opinions and that these enrich the debate and support the exercise of healthy democracy.

All journalists are treated equally.

Mr. Thibaudeau explains that the doubt about his services came from the ethics guide of the FPJQwhich specifies that journalists must carefully separate personal opinion from analysis and factual information so as not to cause confusion among the public.

The communications director recalls that his services ended up answering Hal Newman’s questions.

He claims thatthere is no instruction to the ministry not to process requests from journalists.

Regarding communications with the political cabinet, Mr. Thibaudeau explains that the minister’s office is informed issues and messages wishing to be conveyed by the administration.

Moreover, questions relating to political orientations, for their part, are systematically referred to the cabinets.

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The difficulty of being independent

If Hal Newman could not count on his wife’s income, he would have to change careers, because his work as a freelance journalist does not bring him enough money.

Since the beginning of November, he has accepted a second job as a communications and strategic development advisor for the Canadian Paramedics Memorial Foundation, which plans to build a national monument dedicated to paramedics in Ottawa.

As a result of this new job in communications and public relations, Mr. Newman may lose the opportunity to be a member of theAJIQ and the FPJQ.