The mayor of Bristol denied that he had banned local democracy reporters (LDRs), from attending his official mayoral briefings.
It is a clip taken from a recent press conference. Alex Seabrook asked Marvin Rees, a reporter, if he “saw the irony” of flying to Vancouver to give a talk about climate change.
His office refused to invite LDRs for further briefings and this sparked a wider boycott by Bristol’s journalists.
Mr Rees stated, “There is no ban but they are not invited.”
According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service he was asked by the council on Tuesday if he would lift the ban on LDRs from his fortnightly press conferences.
He denied ever having been a ban.
“The entire fortnightly press conference was set up by myself. “There had never been a council practice of holding press conferences on a regular basis in order to allow the city’s journalists easy accessibility,” stated Mr Rees.
“Nobody has been banned. Although I didn’t invite you to my birthday celebration, I didn’t ban you.
It’s up to you. It’s not mandatory, I’m not obliged to do it. We do it to allow journalists easy access to me, to ask any questions they may have, and invite anyone we wish.”
BBC funds the LDRS to provide public service reporting about local authorities. Local newspapers are used as a base for the reporters.
LDRs were excluded from the fortnightly briefings, which led to boycotts by local media including BristolLive, BristolWorld and BBC.
During the meeting, Mr Rees continued to criticize Reach, which owns Bristol Post and Bristol Live and employs the two LDRs.
“Public funding is available for local democracy reporters. He stated that a private company doesn’t have enough employees and therefore subsidises its staff by publicly-funded journalists. This is why the National Union of Journalists was opposed to it in first instance.”
“We don’t believe that’s right. Each news organization in the city should be able to properly staff its employees at their own expense, and not from the public purse.
“Nobody is banned, but they are not invited.” “I can invite any person I wish to interview me, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I have to invite everyone.”
Following the meeting, Pete Gavan, editor of Bristol Live, stated that the LDRS had been a “huge failure” since its inception in 2017.
Mr Gavan stated, “It helps our partners shine a spotlight on what’s going across the city.”
“Covering Mayor is completely within our remit. We hope to find a solution that makes the LDRs feel welcome again.”
The NUJ supports the boycott by local media of any future briefings.
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