Moncton resident Lise Auffray says she has become a bit of an activist since retiring from her job as a school teacher. She’s often found at demonstrations organized by the anti-poverty group NB ACORN, climate justice protests, or pro-Palestinian events calling for justice and peace in the Middle East.
This experience has given her an appreciation for the NB Media Co-op’s reporting. “I have to say that I am really impressed with the excellent reporting you do, with any and all of these events,” Auffray said in a letter to the NB Media Co-op. “The effort, dedication, detail, integrity and overall commitment you bring to the task is admirable.”
Social justice activists often state that journalists from mainstream or legacy media fail to accurately convey the issues that matter to them. In particular, local manifestations of the global movement in solidarity with Gaza have been met with almost complete silence from the major media outlets in New Brunswick.
Earlier this year, when climate justice activists held a demonstration outside an RBC branch in Moncton, calling on the bank to divest from fossil fuels and other projects violating Indigenous rights, a reporter from a major private-sector Canadian broadcaster covered the event. After seeing their coverage, local activist Leslie Chandler sent a letter of complaint to the TV news outlet, saying the reporter’s work had apparently been “gutted,” omitting key information. “Watch the NB Media Co-op coverage — you might learn how it is really done,” Chandler wrote. (You can check out our report here.)
Auffray echoed those sentiments in her letter to the NB Media Co-op.
“Given the biased and shady reporting of much of N.B.’s general media coverage, we are lucky to have an independent media such as NB Media Co-op,” she said, adding that our sole full-time reporter David Gordon Koch is a “huge asset” to the Co-op.
Peter Jongeneelen, co-chair of NB ACORN, noted that the NB Media Co-op’s video reportage posted on YouTube — which often include uncut segments documenting speeches and interviews in full — are an invaluable resource because they can be shared on platforms such as Facebook, “something groups like ours appreciate because it helps convey our message to a wider public through social media platforms.”
This kind of feedback shows that even with modest resources — we only have one paid full-time journalist and a part-time manager — the NB Media Co-op can make a difference, serving as a voice for members of the community who find that their messages too often fall on deaf ears.
But our funding remains uncertain. Please become a member of the Co-op with a one-time or monthly donation, to help us survive and thrive as we produce journalism that reflects our communities.
