All posts in the topic Council leader reprimanded for blog (Short link)
Summary
- There are 4 posts — by 4 authors — in this topic.
- Latest post made by Pete Thomson at Sep 12 15:21 UTC
A news snippet just out. There's been some mutterings about how political councillors' blogs can be (particularly one hosted on council websites). This is the first time I've heard of one actually being reported to a local government watchdog. http://is.gd/2wDM "The leader of Hounslow Council has had his knuckles rapped for linking his council blog to a political site. "Councillor Peter Thompson has been officially reprimanded by the national Standards' Committee for the content of his blog on May 19, which it considered a breach of the members' code of conduct as the website was used in a way that could be interpreted as political" <snip> "Colin Ellar, himself a former leader of the council, complained to the committee that the website was being used for party political purposes because of the link to the Conservative Party." The offending blog is here: http://www.hounslow.gov.uk/index/news_and_events/leaders_blog.htm Ian Cuddy Chief Editor Public Sector Forums
all the more reason to take them off 'the council website', use a free host and just give generic advice on what to do. saves a lot of trouble. p. 2008/9/12 Ian Cuddy <Ian.Cuddy@publicsectorforums.co.uk> <http://is.gd/2wDM>
Bizarre! We have a set of standards for our Members that cover blog usage that
were adapted from when we used councillor.info and I'm sure we permitted them
to link to a party site - in fact on our web site it displays their party logo!
What's the difference?
The great thing about councillor.info was that it brought a site down if
someone complained.
Any council-paid-for service is for their use in representative democracy, not
party-political purposes, but what's the harm in a link?
Mick
PS I'm in Leicester working on my Italy presentation, so can't check the
Acceptable Use Policy from here, although I believe its on our web site on the
appropriate page!
On Sep 12 2008, Paul Canning wrote:
all the more reason to take them off 'the council website', use a free host
and just give generic advice on what to do.
saves a lot of trouble.
p.
2008/9/12 Ian Cuddy
Yes, this does seem a pretty surprising ruling. We have links to party
political sites from our council site, albeit with a heavy disclaimer process
(gateway page). So do lots of other local authorities.
Exactly how partisan councillors are allowed to be on council funded pages has
long been a grey area, with different views taken in different places, but this
example seems fairly mild to me. Perhaps the issue is that it doesn't
explicitly say the link is to a political site, although since it is clear that
it's to a speech by a shadow minister that shouldn't really surprise anyone.
It's not quite clear to me where the ruling has come from. The report refers to
"the national Standards Committee", which might mean the Standards Board,
although I couldn't find any mention of the case on their website. If so it
would be setting an important precedent, and council webmasters will want to
understand exactly what they mustn't allow. But I would have thought an issue
like this would normally be considered first by the council's own Standards
Committee.