Inside a BC NDP Grappling with Protests, Police and Public Relations (The Tyee)

Last summer, when The Tyee learned about BC’s secretive plan to tighten its response to protests in the province, we had questions. Nearly six months later — and only after filing and receiving a freedom of information request — we finally received an answer.

Dozens of internal emails The Tyee received in response to its FOI request provide a behind-the-scenes look at how a reporter’s questions quickly reached top officials and triggered a carefully strategized response from a communications team, only to be withheld from the public.

Sean Holman, the Wayne Crookes professor in environmental and climate journalism at the University of Victoria, said the province’s refusal to respond to media questions — which are asked on behalf of the public — smacks of creeping authoritarianism ...

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