(Photograph by DARSHAN STEVENS, Darshan Photography)
Sean Holman is the Wayne Crookes Professor in Environmental and Climate Journalism at the University of Victoria, freedom of information researcher and the founding editor of the pioneering online investigative political news service Public Eye. A former syndicated columnist, he also worked as a legislative reporter for 24 hours Vancouver and the Vancouver Sun.
In 2004, Holman won the Jack Webster Award for leading a five month investigation into what became known as the Doug Walls affair. The investigation resulted in the resignation of the minister of children and family development and the firing of his deputy.
He was also recognized in 2012 with a special mention in J-Source’s Canadian Newsperson of the Year competition for “using new and emerging media technologies to expand the number of journalistic voices in this country and to redefine the relationship between journalists and citizens.”
In addition to his online and print work, Holman hosted and produced Public Eye Radio, a Sunday morning political talk show on Victoria radio station CFAX 1070 that ran for seven years. A former British Columbia government communications advisor, his coverage and commentary have also appeared in the Huffington Post, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, the Tyee, the Times Colonist and Dow Jones News Service.
In 2013, he produced and directed the groundbreaking documentary Whipped: the secret world of party discipline, which aired on the Cable Public Affairs Channel. Holman is also a former vice-president and Alberta/Northwest Territories regional director for the Canadian Association of Journalists. He is presently a doctoral student at the University of Birmingham where he is writing a dissertation on the history of the federal government’s Access to Information Act.
If you’d like to contact him please use the following form.
http://thetyee.ca/Mediacheck/2012/10/26/Blacklocks-Reporter/
Sean,
As a journalism prof you might find this item encouraging.
“A half dozen seasoned Ottawa Press Gallery reporters have banded together to launch Blacklock’s Reporter, a newspaper of the sort more familiar to readers a century ago than today’s content consumers.
The online daily is aimed at a narrow audience that wants genuine news about the doings of the federal government rather than Storifys highlighting the Twitter-gaffes of our dimmer politicians. It launched Oct. 23 and costs subscribers $148 a year.”
The time is now. The need for honest journalism – not suck-up stenography for “access” and kick-backs – has never been greater. There needs to be a Western Canada beacon, like the proposed Blacklock’s Reporter.
Given BC’s hapless content vacuum, between PostMedia’s idiocy and Alfred E Neuman’s “What Me Worry?” Black Press there should be more than sufficient demand.
Yes? No?
Sean;
It’s Josef “Growler Joe” A. Kunzler here. How are you? How is life?
You’re still quite the inspiration, you should visit http://GrowlerNoise.com – a hundredth of the beauty, the firepower, the magic that was PublicEyeOnline – but still the heroes of NAS Whidbey Island need their own PublicEyeOnline shield & sword. I hope things are going well for you.
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