Censorship of Councillors?

The Crewe TV blog are getting terribly excited about censorship of Councillors. Reading their posts and Twitter updates (http://twitter.com/crewetv) you'd be forgiven for thinking that Cheshire East is a small pocket of totalitarian authoritism in the free world.

The story is that a report went through cabinet yesterday that would see:

elected councillors forced to consult with the CE media team before any comments are given to the local press.

I must admit, it caught me on the hop. I'd read the report and it didn't raise any alarm bells, and regular readers will know that this is just the kind of issue that would get my blood boiling. I actually thought the report made sense, as communication should be controlled to ensure consistency and quality. As you will know, I've got a big thing about openess and transparency, and paradoxically "managing" the news stories can actually improve this as long as there is a desire to get the important information out there in the public domain.

So...I went back to check and I guess it's this statement that's concerning them:

It is therefore imperative where the view of or a statement from CEC is being sought, no Member or employee engages with the media without contacting the Media Relations Team first.

I can see CTV's point, but it comes down to an issue of semantics and I'd read it a different way. The words "from CEC" meant to me that you were giving the official viewpoint of the Council (therefore the executive) - and this didn't effect the ability for an individual member to make statements about their personal view, a particular political group view, or even a particular political association's view.

As a member for Macclesfield, a charter trustee for Macclesfield, the previous Chairman of the Macclesfield Conservative association and the current Deputy Chairman (with Political responsibility) of the association - I often seek to define policy for this Town.

But I would never dream of doing so on behalf of the whole Council.