Regardless of increased twitter activity over the weekend, the New Brunswick Beacon, the online publication of St. Thomas University’s journalism department, is no longer being updated with new stories. The twitter activity can be attributed to a glitch that allowed others to post under the Beacons name.
Since mid-December when the site is accessed, readers are met with a statement reading the site is taking a break and that journalism students will be working on a new project. Incidently the jouranalism department’s couses are being reviewed.
Head of the journalism department Philip Lee said there is nothing sinister about the site not being used this semester.
The publication was home to fourth-year journalism student’s class assignments. Lee is teaching the class this semester. Jan Wong has taught the fourth-year class since joining the department in 2011 but is on sabbatical this term.
“I thought this semester we’d try something new,” Lee said. “The world of digital publishing’s changing really fast, and it’s important that we stay current and not necessarily stick with the same platform we’ve been using for a number of years.”
Recently, legal issues have surfaced with stories published on the Beacon.
In the winter of 2015, the university administration visited the the fourth-year journalism class to express concerns over a project journalism students were compiling on campus sexual assault titled “The Fog of Rape.” Those stories were vetted by a lawyer, and eventually published in April.
In December a story revolving around a non-campus sexual assault was removed from the Beacon after publication.
Lee said the Beacon’s hiatus has nothing to do with the content of any story posted to the Beacon.
“I’ve been thinking about making plans to take over the fourth-year class for a number of months, and it had nothing to do with any specific content of any specific story,” said Lee.
Lee said the story was removed for legal reasons.
“I made the decision to take the story down based on legal advice,” said Lee.
Lee also said he received direction from Barry Craig, vice-president academic at STU, as well.
Kate Oulton, the author of the piece taken down in December, said she was told by Lee there was a concern about possible defamation.
“[Lee] told me that just as a journalist we have to be careful about what we write,” said Oulton. “More so he just wanted to make sure he was protecting me as a student.”
While the person accused of sexual assault was never named in Oulton’s story, Canadian law dictates that a person only be identifiable and an explicit name isn’t the only way someone may be identifiable.
While Lee did seek legal advice about Oulton’s story, the instructor of the class for which it was written, Jan Wong, said she was never consulted.
“I found out after it was taken down,” said Wong. “The same day I guess, but after the fact.”
Lee would not comment on whether Wong was consulted.
Oulton said the whole experience has left her with mixed feelings.
“This experience hasn’t soured my view in journalism or the program, but it has led to some disappointed feelings,” said Oulton. “I believe that my story was taken down for good intentions…but at the same time I have talked to others who would argue and say that they do not believe it would have caused any legal actions to take place. One person in particular who is a family friend and close person to me teaches law to college students and she doesn’t see [why it’s defamation.]”
