Letters to the Editor in light of upcoming Municipal elections

Editors love to have a healthy Letters to the Editor section as it can be a good measure of how involved your community is in the local democratic process and how your readers react to the news your report.

In lieu of the upcoming Municipal elections, OCNA is asking members to revisit their policies concerning Letters to the Editor. In addition to the general rules already in place, newspapers should consider incorporating the following guidelines for letter submissions during election time. Here are some examples used by other newspapers. Please consider your individual market needs when determining your policies.

• Set a deadline of two weeks prior to elections for letters in support of candidates or addressing election issues. In order to prevent factual inaccuracies without a fair chance for correction, letters attacking candidates should not be published in the last issue before an election.
• Do not accept letters from candidates seeking office or thank you letters from the candidate’s immediate family or campaign staff. (Consider treating letters of that nature as press releases instead.)
• Reserve the right to limit the amount of letters in support of any candidate or criticisms of their opponents in a single issue.

These guidelines should encourage fair representation of both sides while still allowing the public to provide comment on the candidates and their election agendas.

Newspapers should also have clear policies set out at the beginning of the campaign about coverage of election issues and candidates as well as the use of columns from candidates. Some newspapers publish regular columns from current elected officials and will have to determine if they will continue to publish them through the campaign period or set clear guidelines about what can be covered in the columns.