THE Bendigo Weekly was this week embroiled in a state government investigation into the City of Greater Bendigo council.
Investigators from the Department of Local Government interviewed all of the nine councillors on Monday and Tuesday over an alleged breach of the Local Government Act.
Inspectors travelled to Bendigo for the investigation and also interviewed senior journalist Anthony Radford.
The investigation surrounded the printing of an April 27 article by Radford, concerning the controversial plans for a supermarket on the Midland Highway at Epsom.
The article quoted a recommendation that was to be presented to an ordinary council meeting the next week, outlining the council’s plan to
reject the project.
The council and the investigators alleged the document was leaked and that if that was the case, the person who leaked it had breached the Act.
The investigators claimed the late council chief executive officer John McLean personally classed the document as confidential for 50 days under a little-known section of the Act that
allowed that to be done without any public justification.
The story was one of a series of leaks at the time surrounding council’s performance.
 Under the Act, Radford was expected to
reveal his source, or face contempt of court charges and possible jail, something Weekly managing director Daryl McClure described as threatening.
“Here we have a journalist doing his job, and he could be the only one to go to jail,” he said.
“If all the other people interviewed said it wasn’t them, and Anthony
refused to answer, he could be the one punished.
“That smacks of trying to silence the media and, in this day and age, it is unacceptable.”
Mr McClure said Radford should not have been interviewed.
“The fact that this sort of pressure was put on him at all is an example of trying to shoot the messenger,” he said.
“Perhaps the council needs to look at its message.
“Anthony, who won a Walkley Award last year, is an experienced journalist who understands local issues and has a wide network of contacts.
“The state government says it wants to increase protection for journalists to allow them to do their jobs, yet they allow things like this, which is little more than a witch hunt, to continue.”
The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance has vowed to fight the
investigation if it goes any further, and will lobby Local Government Minister Richard Wynne over the process.