Editorial

Press on! / Ça presse!

OpinionsThe Link — Published January 21, 2013

Starting tomorrow, McGill students will be asked to vote to keep The McGill Daily and its French counterpart Le Délit alive.

The referendum on the press comes every five years as per the contract between the Daily Publication Society and the McGill administration.

While most students probably rarely—if ever—question paying automatically into their student union, every five years the entire student body is asked to support their press.

If student government is recognized as an essential service, why question its watchdog?

But from Jan. 23 to Jan. 31, the DPS needs a majority “yes” vote to renegotiate their contract with the university—where they’ll determine things like the collection of their fee levy, their office space and the distribution of their papers on campus.

At a collective three issues a week and with 28,000 papers in circulation, The Daily and Le Délit are the most widely distributed student papers on campus.

The Daily boasts a proud history of “valued and principled” journalism since 1911—a tradition that supports the need for transparency and fair governance of both the university as a whole and the Students’ Society of McGill University.

SSMU, The Daily reports, is at risk of running a $200,000 deficit over the $3,000,000 of student money that it controls.

And while the union is big, McGill itself is bigger.

With $5.2 billion worth of revenue, the university boasts 25,000 undergraduate students and over 5,000 employees—it’s an internationally recognized symbol of Montreal.

But limited mainstream media resources mean that McGill doesn’t get the attention that a partially publicly funded institution of its size requires.

The Daily and Le Délit are there to question things like why McGill blocks its professors’ attempts to unionize, or the administration’s current attempt to deny Access to Information requests filed about topics they deem to be “serious impediments to [the university’s] activities.”

There’s more to a newspaper than just investigative journalism, though. While The Daily is probably best known for rabblerousing, their other sections also offer McGill students a place to shine.

Culture spots, sports profiles or even their stellar science and tech section put a spotlight on parts of the McGill community that could really benefit from a piece of newsprint sharing their work.

And behind the scenes—writing the words, creating the art, laying out the pages and debating everything from cover copy to a photo caption—are McGill students.

It’s an opportunity to learn how to run a business, to study the fundamentals of design, to learn how to write, edit, and ask the kinds of questions that serve to expose the dark underbelly of the university and city.

Especially for a school without a journalism department, there’s nothing to replace that kind of practical experience.

So, McGill students, vote “yes” to the continued existence of The McGill Daily and Le Délit from Jan. 23-31. Concordia students, encourage your McGill friends—we all have a few—to do the same.

You can head over to savethedaily.ca to read more about the referendum and to get a snazzy new Daily-friendly profile picture.

La survie de deux journaux étudiants à McGill est remise en cause.

Tous les cinq ans, Le Délit et le McGill Daily sont obligés de demander par référendum aux étudiants s’ils souhaitent continuer à les supporter financièrement.

Ces deux journaux ont besoin de votre vote; cette semaine dites à vos amis McGillois de voter.

Le Délit, aussi appelé Le Délit Français, est le seul journal francophone de l’université McGill.

Le Délit c’est d’abord une opportunité unique pour les étudiants de McGill d’écrire en français. Que ce soit pour des francophones qui veulent s’exprimer dans leur langue maternelle, ou des anglophones qui veulent améliorer leur français, Le Délit est irremplaçable.

Le Délit, comme The Daily, est aussi une école de journalisme. Tous les journalistes vous le diront —ils ont commencé leur carrière dans un journal étudiant.

Reportage, photographie, mise en page… un journal étudiant enseigne de nombreuses compétences cruciales pour les futurs journalistes et leur offre l’opportunité d’avoir une expérience réelle dans le domaine. L’apprentissage du journalisme passe par la pratique—donc, Le Délit.

À chaque semaine les rédacteurs et reporteurs du Délit produisent du contenu de qualité. Ils couvrent l’actualité étudiante, l’art et la culture montréalaise—bref, tout ce que les grands médias ne couvrent pas.

Voter « oui » pour Le Délit c’est aussi garantir l’indépendance du journalisme. La plupart des journaux, radios et télévisions font partie d’empires commerciaux, ce qui remet en cause leur liberté éditoriale.

À McGill, chaque étudiant paye quelques dollars par semestre, ce qui, avec la publicité, finance une publication hebdomadaire et non biaisée du Délit.

Le Délit­­ a besoin de vous!

Pour plus d’informations, rendez-vous sur sauvonsledelit.ca .