Will the papers take the high road?

 Prime Minister Julia Gillard has called a federal election for Saturday 21 August, 2010.

The Whitsundays Federal seat of Dawson, will be one of the most closely watched electorates this election, and we, the local media, have a duty to ensure (wherever we can) that the election process progresses fairly and truthfully, from now to after August 21.

Channel Whitsunday (owners of Whitsunday News, us) will not be accepting paid advertising from any of the political parties and/or candidates. Any political advertising that does appear will have been placed through Google, and not directly with us.

Whitsunday News believes that every story has a place in the news, whether it be good or bad. Unlike one of the papers in our region, we will not run a story just because that person, company or association paid for an ad somewhere else in the publication. These 'articles' are called advertorials, or 'cash for comment'. We will not exclude a story because of our commercial or social ties.

Whitsundays News believes all parties or candidates should have equal or fair access to the media regardless of the state of their campaign finances.

We challenge the Whitsunday Times to 'turn over a new leaf', and to 'take the high road' too. This is the perfect time for the Whitsunday Times to redeem & reinvent itself by showing again that our local newspaper can be a neutral observer of a story, and not just a declining voice for mates and money.

J Davison
Editor
Whitsundays News