Carleton Free Press

The "Carleton Free Press" is a Canadian weekly newspaper published in Woodstock, New Brunswick.

Covering Carleton County and the upper Saint John River valley, the "Carleton Free Press" is owned by local entrepreneur Dwight Fraser and its publisher is Ken Langdon, former publisher of the "Bugle-Observer".

The first weekly edition was released on October 31, 2007.

The paper was available free of charge until December 31, 2007. Its current price is $1.25 per issue.

Controversy

Langdon's departure from his position at the "Bugle-Observer" has been the focus of a controversial court action by his former employer Brunswick News which has accused him of holding information that might unfairly benefit the "Carleton Free Press".

The battle over the Carleton Free Press started on Sep. 27, 2007, when a team of four forensic accountants hired by CanadaEast News Inc., a media holding company owned by the Irving family, barged into Langdon's home in Woodstock, New Brunswick, a small town of about 5,300 people.

Under a little known criminal code provision related to industrial espionage, the private agents scoured Langdon's residence. "They even rooted through my wife's lingerie drawer," Langdon said.

Days before the search, citing a poor relationship with his immediate supervisor, Langdon had resigned his post as publisher of the Bugle-Observer, a paper owned by the Irvings, where he had worked for four years. In his resignation letter, Langdon expressed his intent to start a new paper.

"During my last weeks in the employ of the Irvings, I consulted with a lawyer who advised me that I had grounds for a constructive dismissal suit," wrote Langdon in the Carleton Free Press' first editorial. "Subsequently I sent to my home files that I could use as part of that suit."

The Irvings allege those files contained confidential commercial information. They were able to secure a court injunction to search Langdon's home while attempting to block the publication of the Carleton Free Press.

Langdon was exonerated by a New Brunswick court on all charges. On Nov. 2, 2007, Justice Peter Glennie of the province's top court blocked the Irvings' request to halt the publication the Carleton Free Press, while prohibiting Langdon from using confidential Brunswick News information. "In this province, the Irvings are connected to their monopoly in the forestry sector," Jeannot Volpe, leader of New Brunswick's Conservative Party, the official opposition, told IPS.

"I've been to events concerning this sector with hundreds of people which no one from the Irving papers covered. People are starting to get frustrated: how is our voice going to be heard if the media won't report the message?" said Volpe, whose party normally takes the side of big business.

While media rights activists are hopeful about the Carleton Free Press, Irving still dominates the province's public sphere. The company has big plans in the works, including a seven-billion-billion dollar oil refinery and a new liquefied natural gas facility and pipeline in the city of Saint John.

These mega-projects have raised the ire of environmentalists who say the province should be decreasing rather than increasing its production of greenhouse gases. "There is no credible reporting by anyone who understands the science behind these proposals," said Inka Milewski, science advisor to the Conservation Council of New Brunswick.

"There is no credible capacity of any Irving media outlets to cover these stories," Milewski told IPS.

"Media concentration is worse in Canada than in other industrialised countries -- and in New Brunswick, way worse," Robert Picard, a U.S. media economics expert, told a 2003 conference in Moncton, New Brunswick.

imilar tactics used by Brunswick News

HERE Magazine, a tabloid style weekly, was New Brunswick's sole independent English language publication up until 2004, when the Irvings opened a competing "alternative" weekly called the Metro Marquee. While HERE had been publishing successfully for four years, the independent publication couldn't compete with the ad rates of the new Irving competitor and HERE's owners were forced to sell out to the monopoly rather than face financial ruin.

The Irvings closed down the Marquee upon purchasing HERE and changed the paper from a staff-driven organisation to a freelance model, with most writers receiving 25 dollars per article.

On Oct. 18, HERE Magazine, an Irving owned weekly which bills itself as "New Brunswick's Urban Voice", ran a cover story titled "Why not choose natural gas?" HERE normally requires its cover stories to be at least 1,000 words; the natural gas cover clocked in at 302. The article, which reads like a press release from a natural gas company, ran without listing its author, which also violates the magazine's normal guidelines.

References

* [http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotian/975068.html http://thechronicleherald.ca/NovaScotian/975068.html] "Irving papers take aim at local upstart" By Kim Kierans, The Sunday Herald, October 28, 2007
* [http://www.cbc.ca/cp/media/071029/X102923AU.html http://www.cbc.ca/cp/media/071029/X102923AU.html] "Court battle with Irving chain resumes as new weekly emerges in western N.B." By Chris Morris, CP, October 29, 2007

External links

* [http://www.justfred.ca/cmine/thumbnails.php?album=535 Image Gallery of the launch]