Independent journalist Coleman takes on Hamilton city hall

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A local independent journalist claims the city of Hamilton is deliberately blocking him from doing his job. Joey Coleman claims it’s the fallout from a high profile shoving incident involving a city councillor more than a year ago.

Coleman has been a fixture at Hamilton city hall for five years, webcasting council and committee meetings on a website called The Public Record. But last summer, he declared he’d had enough. He claims changes to web access and media policies at city hall were preventing him from doing his job.

“I’m not allowed to use the internet at City Hall… it’s a new rule, no one is allowed to use the internet at city hall.”

But the city’s Mike Kirkopoulos says that’s not the case. “The access to the internet has not changed within media row. I’m not comfortable saying that as it relates to the entire building, but within council chambers that access hasn’t changed.”

Coleman claims he is being personally targetted.

He says the city has implemented rules that prevent him from using the media room. “They now have instituted new media policies that forbid the recording of podcasts.”

But the new rules don’t mention podcasts. What they state is for media to “refrain from loud conversations that could impact other users.”

Coleman also says his media credentials have been revoked. But again the city says – not true. “We don’t have media credentials like Queen’s Park does, like the city of Toronto does.”

Coleman has gone public with his allegations, in an interview on the popular podcast Canadaland, and on Twitter, including an exchange with Hamilton mayor Fred Eisenberger.

He wants the mayor to release a surveillance video that captured a shoving incident involving Coleman and councillor Lloyd Ferguson. CHCH News has also been attempting to access that same video since the spring, but staff say that is not possible since the matter is in the hands of the Information and Privacy Commissioner.

In the meantime, city officials say they will be meeting later this week to ensure that all media are being treated equitably and are given unfettered access to public meetings and information.